A couple weeks ago, I bought are real clean 05 883 Sportster for my wife (her first). I'd been looking for a Custom, but this regular 883 had a lot of extras, 5K miles, and was in showroom condition. I got it for real good price, too.

It was surprisingly tall, though, which kind of surprised me. She could comfortably reach on both sides (almost flat footed), when astride it. But she was freaked out when picking it up off the stand for some reason... Whatever, it's all about her being confident, and if a few hundred bucks ups her confidence level, well, I'm OK with that. So, I got shorter shocks that lowered the rear just over 1". And I went back and forth on the forks between just sliding them up or going with a drop in progressive kit. I went with the progressive kit, which really turned out to be a mistake.

As near as I can tell, all that kit does is put in a really short, really stiff main spring, and a shorter weaker top out spring that is designed to completely sack out under the weight of the bike. And when you're done, you have about 1/2 of your original travel, which is nearly unusable because it's so f'ing stiff!

Well, out came the kit, the stockers went back in, and the tubes got moved up 1" in the triple clamps. Best of both worlds... nice action (I changed the fork oil while I was at it), full travel (doesn't come close to anything at full compression) and lower ride. I'm sure feeling stupid for ordering the progressive kit! Sure..I knew the kit would reduce the amount of useable travel, so that wasn't a surprise. But what WAS a surprise was how stiff the remaining travel actually was...it was almost like a totally rigid front end. I weigh 230, and I could barely get it to budge. She weighs 130, and she couldn't get it to move at all. I wouldn't ride to the corner and back on that POS!

I cut the spacer correctly, too (according to the directions, anyway), so it wasn't installed wrong.

Are ALL these drop in kits like this? How can folks stand them? All I can figure is that the slammed look is worth more to some folks than the ride..is that it?

I wanted to avoid sliding the forks up in the clamps just because I thought it looked goofy. And it kinda does. But I'll take function over form every time if the difference is this big!

(don't get me started on the stupid Torx triple clamp bolts that were so tight they sheared off my torx bit)

Sorry...I guess I'm just venting...

Art

 

I hear ya man, you could have tried lesser weight fork oil in the front end just to give it a little easier of play. (Stock is either 10 or 15)

I did the opposite with my sporty. raised the back shocks and put in heavy duty progressive front springs for the fork. also went to 20 weight cuz I'm a big kid (2010 lbs 6'4" tall) and i needed to make it over speedbumps and **** in my crap town without completly bottoming out.

then last summer i put even heavier weight oil in and kept my fork spacers the same. I got hardly no play on it and it was becoming a bitch to ride when you hit bumps so needless to say I switched back to the lighter of the heavier weight fork oils (20)

so maybe you might wanna give that a shot if you ever venture back to dropping the front.

-Brett

 

I think you have it correct ... like rigid frames ... only idiots ride them around town ... no one has ever enjoyed traveling on them for any distance ... with out resorting to a spring seat ... might as well have shocks for that matter ... but they then invented the soft tail gee ... a hard tail with a hidden shock ... like you give me function any day I want to spend my days driving not getting off every chance I can ...

 

I went with 10 weight oil when I changed, to give her a little smoother ride since she's so much lighter. And though I originally put 342cc of oil in the forks, taking the progressive springs back out took out some of the oil with it. I added about 5ccs back into each leg, and then I used my fork oil leveler to even them out at 11 inches from the top of the fork tubes (bike on the lift, springs out). They felt pretty good when I rode it, and the rear shocks don't seem to ride much different than the stockers (the cheapest option was Harley shocks for a Custom, and that's what I got since we don't plan on keeping this bike more than a year).

After it was all done, it sits about 1 inch lower unloaded, and with her on it it's about 1.5 inches lower than it was originally. She's happy, so I think we're good to go now. I guess I can sell the drop in kit on here or ebay. I think I've got some of the exact same PVC, so I can make new uncut spacers to include with it.

 

http://www.onestopmoto.com/Race_Tech...on_s/14012.htm

 

That's pretty harsh. Everyone has their own preference. I'm sure there are plenty of people riding touring bikes who can't believe anyone would ride a sportster for anything but around town. "idiots"...wow.

 

Dude, you're more than a big kid. I mean, at 2010 lbs, you weigh a ton! That Sportster is gonna bottom out a lot, I think.

Just kiddin' ya, I HOPE it was just a typo!

 

this was a completely asinine thing to say and shows your maturity. btw, i'm one of those guys with the strutted, spring seat, chopped fender, vans and flannel wearing guys. oh yeah, i just rode my 883 400 miles yesterday only really stopping for gas or to take a leak.

 

 

The wifes 1200 has the Burly drop springs in the front and it still handles quite well. She is a little one at 5'0 and about 110lbs, but the forks still compress and act as they should. I can't imagine if it acted as you said.