I have a 2012 Road King that I am considering changing out the front suspension to the progressive monotube system. I have changed out the rear air shocks for progressive 944's which lowered the rear of the bike 1 inch. I would like to lower the front an inch too. My question is, has anyone had problems with the handling characteristics or clearance issues.

 

Some people tried to do it the cheap way and loosen the triple tree clamps and shove the forks up, but that is not the way. You will damage your fender on the first hard bump. I used an HD "low" single cartridge kit which lowered the shocks 1 inch. I got a deal on ebay where a guy bought one and never installed it, sold the bike.


I noticed a slight difference in stopping as far as plunging down reduced, but not so much handling and liked the drop being only 5'7 and a half.

 

Don’t do it. Lose too much suspension travel and some lean angle. It isn’t better to look good at the sacrifice of comfort and safety,imho.

 

BKLYNBOB may have had trouble with his lowered front end but my installation of an Axeo lowered front end on my '10 RK turned out exactly the way I wanted. Just for info I changed from a Progressive lowered as the ride was too harsh . The Axeo turned out o be the better of both. I'm not an aggressive rider and have only scraped a few times in hard turns.

 

I ran the the -1" monotubes for over 30,000 miles on my 2011 RGU. Had Ohlin 3-3s on the back. Never had a problem.
That said you may need to get a -1" jiffy stand or bike will stand up to straight...

 

You should have no issues with lowering both front and rear. The jiffy stand thing mentioned might be annoying, especially on uneven ground. You might have to lean the bike to the left a bit to get the jiffy stand back up. Oh, and don't go over tall speed bumps.