Everyone here raves about Howard at Motorcycle Metal. He carries some of the best suspensions around and can customize for you and your ride if you're thinking about suspension. Research first before deciding.

Modified or new seat and boots may correct your foot to ground comfort. Do suspension if all else doesn't work.

 

+mkguitar. Yes, educate yourself first, before spending $$$$.

 

Your swing arm binds on the left side at 8 3/4". This is where you can no longer go any further without the suspension to stop moving abruptly. From there you must have stroke. With a bike lowered that far you are also in danger of stopping abruptly at speed bumps or hitting hard parts while going around corners. There is a movie on one of those rear stabilizers site that shows a rider scraping hard parts with plenty of sparks and the rear wheel lifting off of the ground causing a crash. No stabilizer would have helped him, common sense would have.

When you lower a bike you must do so by reducing the stroke or some type of lowering system such as one of those ones that the sponsor was selling for $3k. You must also have a good shock to work well for comfort. There is a company selling great shocks and a hydraulic lowering system but it is bulky and impractical for motorcycles. It was built for hot rods.

The forks are the same story. With your 2014, your bike already has a reduced stroke of 1 1/4" over the 2013's due to HD's using the new thicker bottom triple tree that does not contain the "pocketed" found on the pre 2014's. The stroke must stop when the front fender crashes into bottom of the bottom triple tree. If the 2014 bike has the same ground clearance as the pre-2014's and the bottom of the tree is at least 1 1/4" further down from the neck bottom bearing than the pre-2014's, the stroke must be reduced from that of the pre-2014's V/S the 2014. Reduce stroke and your ride suffers.

The only way you can make a better ride is by using a much better system and splitting the stroke up (the same way I do on my suspension) to compression & rebound. A longer top out spring will add rebound stroke and you can retain/utilize the compression stroke so the bike will still sit at the same height as OEM. When you go over a compression bump (up) you stall have the same stroke but when you go over a rebound bump (where they go down) the added top out spring allowed for more stroke. This only occurs when the weight of the wheel makes the forks extend.

The OEM top out is a bit over 0.900" long and compresses maximum to 0.625" (5/8") which that very "heavy" spring is is there to prevent hard parts from crashing & causing damage. On real suspension a much longer & less "powerful" top out spring can be used to allow the wheel to travel down into the rebound bumps so the frame does not move and in both cases, a far better ride with no shock transmitted through the handlebars. You can read about my suspension either from tj316 write up or several upcoming reviews for members who are receiving my front fork solution. As always, this is the best front fork solution in the world bar none. In life there are two classes, first class and junk.

 

I've gone with progressive front and rear as recommended by the dealer and information that I've read, the front isn't available until May ..... I will let you know how I get on, bike being delivered next Friday

 

I had the same issue. But here what worked for me. I am 5'8" 30 inch inseam.

1. Boots with a higher heel much like cowboy boots. It is like standing on your tip toes but your feet are flat on the ground.

2. Lowing blocks in the rear. The adjustment was 1 to 3 inches. I only used the 1 inch setting.

3. Stock seat re-sculpted to fit my body. This lowered it another 2 inches plus it reduced the spread so my feet were closer to the bike. You should be able to do the same and keep your heated seats.

I have 16,000 miles on my 2013 Ultra Limited Anniversary with this setup with no issues and very confortable. The biggest advantage is when backing in to park.