works now, sweet

 

My girlfriend had bought a sportster and it just wasn’t low enough for her to be comfortable on - we knew this getting into it and had a shop pre-arranged to customize it to fit her. After the first season it was obvious it just wasn’t low enough; I started looking at the bike and found problems it had from being poorly lowered (from when she bought it) as well as new problems the shop caused that worked on the bike after she bought it…

Not only had the shop failed to notice basic and potentially dangerous problems (which I’ll go into later) but they managed to cause new ones & damage to the bike with their own work. Although I am quite capable, bikes I had avoided working on for the most part, especially hers, due to the infrequent repairs needed and safety concerns. At this point though I took it upon myself to learn what was needed and figure this out.

In the process of scouring the web for guidance on lowering bikes I found some good advice, and got some on this forum, but also read lots of bad advice and dumb ideas. The stories I read included people shredding up their rear tire on a bolt inside the rear fender, putting snake oil in the front shocks to keep the crash bar from destroying the fender, belts damaged from rubbing on guards, zip ties on shocks as a method for determining shock travel when lowering, putting shocks on a stiffer setting to prevent the tire from hitting the inside of the fender, belt guards smashing into oil tanks, wiring harnesses getting chewed through.. Questions like “will my rear tire rub on the fender if I lower the bike 1 inch?”..