Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2007
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Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
So I bought a progressive front lowering kit for my 05 custom and am in the process of installing it. I run a 21" front wheel so am trying to level it back out. Question is do I go 1 or 2". I think the look of two will be good but dont want to bottom out. Also the kit comes with some pvc spacers. I assume these are not used on the custom. Any quick help would be appreciated. Would like to get it back together tonite if possible. Thanks
Cruiser
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 190
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From: California
RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
Question is did you lower the back? If not it seems to me that the 21" raise the front about a 1/2". If you ride your bike all the time don't go to low because you'll have problems going around corners. I'm leaving the back alone because our bikes are the lowest in our class. So lower the front what ever the 21" raise it. Just my opinion!
Rico
Rico
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2007
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RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
According to my math the 21 raises it anywhere form 1.5-2". I have not lowered the rear but plan on progressive 440 on the rear about 1/2" shorter. My main concern is clearence and the pvc spacers that come with the kit.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,616
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From: anacoco, la
RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
ORIGINAL: tna1000
According to my math the 21 raises it anywhere form 1.5-2". I have not lowered the rear but plan on progressive 440 on the rear about 1/2" shorter. My main concern is clearence and the pvc spacers that come with the kit.
According to my math the 21 raises it anywhere form 1.5-2". I have not lowered the rear but plan on progressive 440 on the rear about 1/2" shorter. My main concern is clearence and the pvc spacers that come with the kit.
Tire Size Comparison
Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
130/90-16 4.6in 12.6in 25.2in 79.2in 800 0.0%
90/90-21 3.2in 13.7in 27.4in 86.0in 737 8.6%
so going with the 21 gives you a 1.1 inch larger radius, and almost a 10% difference on your speedo. i guess if you want it to be the same height as before, then you should go with a 1 inch spacer..... (disclaimer: i am not an expert,
nor did i stay at a holiday inn express last night)
btw, i have done the progressive 440 11-1/2 inch on the rear on my road king custom. no change to
the front. you will lose some ground clearance with those shocks. i did not notice any adverse
handling characteristics, but i was able to flat foot better...
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,616
Likes: 4,440
From: anacoco, la
RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
to be honest, i didn't notice that the actual ride was that much different. but then again, our roads here suck so to have a truly good ride, you need 37 inch shocks lol.... i started off with the preload light, firmed it up some, then firmed it up a lot. i find the ride to be pretty smooth, but will bottom out on some of these bumps. the air shocks were basically the same way. if i had enough pressure to keep from bottoming out, it was like riding a hardtail.
overall, i like the shocks, but i don't know that i would have spent 500 bucks for them. i had them leftover from my sporty (figure that one out, they recommend the same shock for the sporty and the road king, weird huh?) so gave them a try. maybe if i ever win the lottery, i would get a set of works shocks custom built for me.....
overall, i like the shocks, but i don't know that i would have spent 500 bucks for them. i had them leftover from my sporty (figure that one out, they recommend the same shock for the sporty and the road king, weird huh?) so gave them a try. maybe if i ever win the lottery, i would get a set of works shocks custom built for me.....
Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 237
Likes: 3
From: Liberty Lake, WA
RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
I'm going to do the same thing this winter. I'm guessing your running a 120/70 21 which works out to be about 27.61" tall. The 130/90 16 is about 25.21" tall. The difference is about 2.4". So when you take half of the 2.4" you end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.2" higher. I've read elsewhere in this forum that lowering the front more than 1" can create the bottoming out problem you mentioned. I'm going to do the 1" drop on mine so I don't run into problems bottoming out. I lowered the back of my bike 1" with a bracket kit retaining the stock shocks. Let me know how the install goes. Here are a couple of good links if you've never taken the front forks apart before.
http://groups.msn.com/toddsharleypix...eforkswap.msnw
http://hotrodsbikeworks.com/tech/040...ork_component/
http://groups.msn.com/toddsharleypix...eforkswap.msnw
http://hotrodsbikeworks.com/tech/040...ork_component/
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2007
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RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
I just finished the install. I went with the 2". Before putting the main spring in I mocked the whole thing up and compressed the forks to check for clearence. I have plenty of room everywhere. I called Progressive and they said to cut the supplied pvc spacer to 1/2" and install that for preload. Once I had the first fork off and apart, everything went pretty smooth from there. With alittle help from the wife I was able to compress the spring enough to get the cap on. No special tools were needed. Just took it for a short ride to see how it performed and I was happy. Not as "mushy" in the front. I noticed that when getting on it and quick shifting that the frontend stayed on the ground better. Felt more stable too (lower center of gravity I suppose). All in all, a fairly simple install and I like the results. Maybe this thread will help some others looking at the same install. Nest are the 440's. I am tempted to try 11". Anyone done that on a RK custom. Thanks
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 237
Likes: 3
From: Liberty Lake, WA
RE: Road King Custom Front lowering ? HELP
I got around to lowering my front end yesterday. I followed in your footsteps and lowered it 2". After looking at the way the shocks were set up it I decided that the 2" drop would work fine. A couple of special tools that I used were a 16" piece of 2" x 4" with a 1" whole in the middle and a 2' piece of 1 1/2" ABS pipe spilt down the lenghth. We used the 2" x 4" to compress the shock after putting in the new progressive springs. We inverted the shock in a bench vise. I got up on the bench slipped the 2x4 onto the bottom putting the damper piece through the 1" whole in the board. Then I compressed the shock while my buddy turned/threaded the shock tube onto the top nut. Used the 1 1/2" ABS to set the seals. I saw other people talking about using a piece of 2", but I had the 1 1/2" already laying around the shop. Used the cordless circular saw to spilt it up the side so it would fit around the fork tube. Pretty easy project for any one thinking about doing it. If you've taken the front end apart before its about a 2 hour job. The end result is that it brought the front end back down to where it was stock before I put the 21" front wheel on. I only had a chance to spend about 10 minutes riding it, but it definately stiffened up the front. Have to see how it rides at freeway speeds.