Personally I would be cautious about fitting a lowering kit, purely because having experienced the benefits of jack-up kits (25mm & 50mm) in terms of more responsive handling and firmer feeling rear suspension I can only imagine that the lowering kit would have the opposite affect of slower steering and softer feeling suspension.Regarding dropping the yokes down the fork legs (pedantic I know but you don't actually drop the forks) having experimented with this quite substantially I can say that this does help quicken the steering but 25mm is probably a little too much, I would suggest starting off at ~12mm. I would definitely recommend all Gen1 owners try this especially if you've fitted a lowering kit as it should help recover some of the responsiveness of the handling. The only exception would be if you have a 50mm jack-up kit as the additional weight on the front with the yokes dropped seems to adversely affect the steering through bends.thanks PieEater For those short of leg I would recommend dropping the yokes and maybe having a look at getting the seat re-profiled.
Hi Topgun,Thanks for your response. As for the dropping the forks 25mm, that's the million dollar question! Have a search through previous threads on here. You will no doubt find as I did, that there's several different schools of thought.I personally think, that for the geometry of the bike, it can only make it a little better, if you've already lowered the rear by 25mm.That said, it will create other issues. Not least of these will be getting the bike onto its centre stand, ground clearance and how upright the bike will be on the side stand, unless you modify it.Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Some on here will advise against lowering the front via the yokes too much but interestingly I've never seen any evidence that any of them have actually done it and had a negative effect. I on the other hand have lowered mine at one time by 30mm with no problems and have now settled for 26mm.
Thanks for your responses guys.I hear you Ogri about a VFR. Too much risk involved buying one of them though, I might want it myself! I'm trying to avoid him having the potential expense of changing his bike really. I'm hoping that he'll see the Fazer, feel comfortable with the seat / ride height and borrow it. God knows it could do with a decent run out.I'm hoping to take it over to the IOM for a long weekend myself this year.
There is a custom seat company in Sussex that do a ride In ride out seat lowering service, they can also do a memory foam insert which is supposed to be better than a gel insert. Thinking of popping there to check them out. An inch could make all the difference.Ooh er missus.