Lowering a rstd

[veep1]

I Lowered the rear of my bike using the Baron's kit and it did make a difference on my seat height and at higher speeds the bike handles good, but I noticed at slow speeds, the bike gets swirly. My question is, has anyone lowered the front too and if you did, was slow speed handling better? Also, with the rear lowering kit I have to be careful where I park to make sure the bike does not fall over. I'm sure by lowering the front too I will have to modify the sidestand. Please advise.

[pegscraper]

Lowering the back will in general make the bike handle worse at lower speeds because it rakes the front forks out more. It doesn't take much of a change in degrees to make a difference. You could lower the front the same amount and get back to about what you had before, handling wise. If you get into sidestand trouble, you might try raising the rear back up. If you get the front down far enough, you might be able to get the seat where you want it with the rear at full height. Or maybe you could make some custom links to raise the rear up only halfway. Anything can be done.

[Jerry W]

I read a thread a while back that stated they had lowered the front and back of their RSV and shortened the sidestand by 3/4". I have lowered the front of mine (there are detailed instructions on this site) and ordered the back lowering kit today. I plan to shorten the stand when I install the rear lowering kit. I agree with pegscrapper on the handling problem, if you lower the front it will get the handling back where it was. Hope this helps

[bobbyduck]

I installed the Baron's front lowering kit that includes the GoldValve and spring upgrade. It made a huge improvement in handling, especially low-speed. Also much happier on stutter-bumps etc.

 

My mind says that lowering the front by 1 inch is nearly equivalent to raising the rear by one inch using the levelling links. Anyhow it sure works good...!

[DocO]

I lowered the rear and front of my RSTD a couple of weeks ago. The rear was pretty simple, but the front was a dog. It made a huge difference though. I can finally flat foot, and low speed handing is improved!

 

One other thing.. and I have no way of to prove that lowering the bike had anything to do with it (and it makes no sense why it should), but my gas mileage has increased quite a bit. There's been nothing else I did to the bike to make this happen.. It used to be that I would go about 130 - 135 miles and I would get the count-up indicator. My mileage was about 37 or so. Now I go up to 165.. and am averaging about 45 mpg. Really strange and I have no explanation for it.

[N3FOL]

I Lowered the rear of my bike using the Baron's kit and it did make a difference on my seat height and at higher speeds the bike handles good, but I noticed at slow speeds, the bike gets swirly. My question is, has anyone lowered the front too and if you did, was slow speed handling better? Also, with the rear lowering kit I have to be careful where I park to make sure the bike does not fall over. I'm sure by lowering the front too I will have to modify the sidestand. Please advise.

 

How tall are you that you have to lower the Venture? I am 5'5" and not sure, if I will fit ok without any suspension mods.

[autopilot]

For what it's worth, I also used the Baron's rear lowering kit and I had to send back a shosrty sidestand because it wasn't needed. In fact, in my garage, I put a brick under the stand to stand the bike up a bit for clearance around it. I'd like to lower the front as well but, I'm not quite brave enough yet to mess with the fork height in the triple clamps. Maybe over the winter..

[george_park]

We have quite a few ventures in our group, about half have been lowered. I have an '06 RSTD that I'm in the process of lowering using two kits for front and rear - BA-7530-00 Baron's rear lowering kit and BA-7503RS Baron's performance front lowering kit .

 

Having ridden the lowered RS bikes I like how they ride. With nearly 6" of clearance there is still room to lower them (IMHO) but lowering the rear without lowering the front can make for low speed handling issues like the other folks posting had noted. I almost took mine over at a gas station (the big covers popping up out of the driveway) and we had a person who did. Not that putting a foot down would have helped but having a lower CG could have.

 

You can lower the front tubes, we have some dealers around here who are familiar with that process and the folks that have had it done are very happy with it. When an unmodified/modified RSTD are sitting next to each other it's a noticeable difference.

 

I'm going to revise the front forks with the performance kit above to install springs and GVE (gold valve emulators) in order to gin up the ride a little bit. You can also use spacers in BA-7502-00 and you can add the GVEs while you have the forks apart or choose not to.

 

The guys I know who have lowered front and rear do have to be selective with their parking position and location so a shorty kickstand wouldn't hurt but I won't know personally until after I make the changes.

 

Best of luck, ride safe.

 

Regards,

gp

[Guest kennewick58]

Barons back and just took the front air to 0. Yamaha says 0 to 7 psi is fine. I have even put my rear psi to 0 for one up riding and I really like it. Completely flat footed and the bike looks awesome. I don't have kick stand problems

 

On the Yamaha Rider Forum several have been putting on a narrower front tire for big improvements. I am going to try it my self.

 

Just a note: 40 to 50 psi rear when towing with 30# tounge weight. 3 to 5 fork psi.

20 to 30 # rear psi 2 up ( wife is 110# 0 to 3 fork psi.

Just me I like 0 and 0.

[chachi]

I installed the Baron's front lowering kit that includes the GoldValve and spring upgrade. It made a huge improvement in handling, especially low-speed. Also much happier on stutter-bumps etc.

 

My mind says that lowering the front by 1 inch is nearly equivalent to raising the rear by one inch using the levelling links. Anyhow it sure works good...!

So, you didn't lower the rear at all then?