slammer kit question
#21
When you "slam" a bike, you're basically doing two things to it:
1. You reduce suspension travel to near zero (usually an inch or less).
2. You reduce ground clearance significantly.
If you want to do this for "the look," I understand...it looks cool, however there are definitely negatives to this that will affect the way your bike handles, and your personal comfort level.
Reducing suspension travel will negatively affect the quality of your ride. When a shock has such a limited stroke (such as on a Burley), it simply can't absorb all those bumps in the road without bottoming out. When a shock bottoms out, that road imperfection gets transferred directly to your ***, and your spine. Those here that say their 11" shocks don't ever bottom out either ride on perfect roads, aren't being completely honest, or they have their free sag adjusted to near zero. If your shocks are adjusted like this, your ride will feel like you're sitting on a concrete block. You might as well be riding a hardtail.
Reducing ground clearance simply reduces lean angle. Think about it, if your bike is that low to the ground, how far can you lean left or right without scraping a peg, your exhaust, etc? With 11" shocks, the answer is: not very far.
Another issue to consider is how this change will affect the handling at freeway speeds. Think about being in a high speed sweeper...you're traveling along at 80mph leaned over about as far as you can go, and your bike hits a good sized bump. What do you think is going to happen when that shock bottoms out, or your rear tire hits your fender? You're literally going to come out of that seat from the bump, or when your tire hits the fender, it creates a very unstable wobble. If you've never had this happen to you at that speed, it will scare the **** out of you.
Bottom line, you're going to have to decide if this "look" is worth it or not. Personally, I'd put some Ohlins or JRI's on the bike, and go for comfort/handling over looks. Good luck to you.
Last edited by Then Came Bronson; 07-19-2014 at 03:00 PM.
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