I lowered my slim with the bolts, I am thinking of doing air now. Unless you have no back problems and have no potholes I would not lower it with the bolts. My bike looks great but the ride is not that comfortable not that it has been lowered.

 

Just this week I lowered my Fat Boy with the 15 dollar ebay bolts. It takes time but you can get very similar to stock ride quality as before you lowered it as long as you don't get greedy and go for the MAX drop. With lowering bolts you still have the exact same shocks on the exact same motorcycle. None of that has changed. All the bolts actually do is add 2 inches to the factory shock by replacing the stock 3 inch stud with a threaded 5 inch stud. Nothing more. The ride issues come from the fact that most people turn up the pre-load of the shocks to keep the swing arm off the bump stops, and the second issue being the floorboards are a lot easier to scrape on turns.

I started with a 1 3/4" drop (as measured by a rear fender to ground measurement), and as close to the way the stock pre-load was when I bought it (by counting threads and turns before disassembly)). I was bottoming out on the bump stops and scraping like a banshee in even slow turns with the wife on the back. I raised it up to an inch drop, then back down, and so on till I settled on 1 1/4 inch total drop from the stock height, and two full turns extra on the shock cans for pre-load. Its my understanding that certain models like the Deluxe are an inch lower than other models anyways, so clearly the Softail suspension has some room to play and still maintain good ride-ability. What I have found, as with everything on a Harley, is be reasonable and you won't have issues. Get greedy and you will have scraping, bottoming out, and additional ride quality problems. For me, an inch and a quarter drop with some extra pre-load gave me near stock ride quality, much better looks, and a lowered seat feel. I do not regret dropping it one bit. You have to be willing to work with it and make the adjustments more than just once. If you just slap the kit on, or have a shop do it, drop it to the max and drive away, you probably won't be happy with ANY lowering kit. Dial it in and they are a well spent 15 dollars.

 

Post of the year right there.
Nice well thought out response.

 

I agree with Bikerlaw. The nice thing about the adjustables is that you can put it where ever you want it. Like he said, if you don't like it at 1-3/4" try 1". Or you can put it back to stock height if you want. I have mine around an 1" right now, and that works pretty good for me. I also weigh 175 wet. One thing that really helps on mine is that I have the stock 99 Softail Custom seat on it. That thing takes a lot of the hard bumps out.

 

When I bought I my Night Train it had been lowered. I do not know how the P.O. ever cornered the thing. It had about 10 degrees of lean angle before things started to scrape. I tried to get used to it, but had to go in and get it moved back to stock height. I had scraped all the paint of the frame and dug smoe nice groves in the lower pipes.

 

Damn, that thing must have been slammed, or it was only lowered in the rear. I've got mine 2" lower front and rear and have yet to scrape anything. I ride pretty hard, and all my buddies scrape their stupid boards on their stock height bikes while I'm twisting the throttle and leaning more!

 

Had my local wrench install the lowering bolts and adjust the shocks right after I got the bike back in '06. Sure, I could have done it, but I trust the guy, and I was in and out of the shop in less than an hour for next to chump change.

Do about half my riding 2 up with never a complaint from the ladies.

Bike handles great, have never bottomed out or scraped, and yeah, I ride pretty aggressively in the turns and twisties.

Like some others have said, set it up right, and you shouldn't have any problems. If you're the kind of guy who'll only be happy with a big $$ air ride, then have at it from the get go.

It's like I've always said, bikes and asses aren't created equal.

 

I put Harley's lowering shocks on my '04. Don't know how H-D does theirs, but it lowered it by 3/4 inch which took the fender to just below the top of the tire so you can't see through tween the tire and fender. Just about the right look to me. No lean problems, and don't think I'm bottoming on anything but the biggest holes if I can't avoid em.

 

Lets think about it...

Normal U have about 2'' of rear travel...

With lowering bolts U now have maybe 1/2 of travel before bottoming out.

U Tell US....

WHICH one do U thing will bottom out faster and easier???????

See... answering U own ?? wasn't very hard.....

Looking cool the cheap way ain't always comfortable.

U want-a look COOL and ride good then spend the $$$$$ and go with some Air shocks.. as a lot of others have done and will tell Ya to do If U've read anything in here...




....

 

Hold on now. When lowering bolts are installed, they are installed on the exact same shocks, with the exact same amount of travel they had before. Nothing has changed in that respect. They only change the ride height.