I have a 90 FXR with a wide glide front end, which was on it when I bought it. I want to lower it and I was wondering if anybody out there has experience with the fork lowering kits. What are the good ones on the market? How big of a job is it?

 

In this case... the cheap ones are the good ones. The only thing you're doing is installing shorter springs to lower them about 1 1/2"

And you can spend big bucks on "progressive" what-the-heck ever, but ALL coiled push-type springs ARE progressive. Shorter you compress them, harder they are to compress - simple as that

 

Beg to differ old chap!

Standard springs are 'single' rate and have uniform coil gaps. As they compress under load their spring rate remains constant. Progressive-rate springs have coil gaps which get progressively tighter. As they compress their spring rate progressively increases, to resist further compression.

When shortening either front or rear suspension the travel is reduced. So progressive-rate springs are a good idea and should give an improved ride and comfort.

The damping on Harley forks is not very good, so as well as using progressive-rate springs, consider using Race Tech emulators, which will improve damping.

Any Harley can be improved by using better quality suspension at both ends. When lowering a bike it is even more important to use quality hardware if you want a comfortable ride! The company called Progressive Suspension Inc can supply progressive-rate springs as well as good quality lower rear shocks, as can Hagon and probably others.

 

From what I have been reading it seams like the job will only take a few hours. Does that sound right to you

 

And to remember. If you ride two up all of the time like I do. Progressive advised me not to lower the front end. But if you ride solo it is damn cool looking I think

 

Thanks for the advise guys. I'm just looking into it for now. I might leave it where it is at. I'm just waiting for my wife to make up her mind if she wants her own bike or not. If she gets her own, then this thing is getting slammed, if not then I'll keep it as it is.
All I have left is the small details like this, the paint and then its done. I'm riding it this year so it will have to wait for December to get painted

 

If you're undecided try the free mod...

Raise the bike up and lower your forks about an inch to an inch and a half in the trees, (what ever your handlebars will allow) and go from there.

 

Cool I'll try that first

 

Just passing along my experience as we just finished installing a new 39mm front end on my 93 FXR during a total rebuild. Prior to that, the bike sat pitched upward in the front. New triple trees were plated at Brown's, new Frank's fork tubes, a Progressive lowering spring kit set at 1", new HD chrome lower legs 20wt Belray fork oil and most importantly, Racetech's Gold Emulator valves. There is a night and day difference with these changes. The bike now sits level, is stable at speed (85mph) and with the Emulators the rebound is much better.

We now have a suspension that works. If you decide to make any of these changes, do your homework first. Frank actually shipped his standard length FXR tubes that were longer than the stock HD tubes. Shipped them back to have them set at 25 3/8" that worked out perfectly. Be careful with purchasing catalog fork tube parts as different brands come in different lengths for the same applications. Good luck with your choices.