2008 Kawasaki Z750 Lowered by 35mm

Hi All,

I have a 2008 Kawasaki Z750 and I am a short rider and lowered it by approximately 35mm (at the rear wheel). This was lowered by replacing the Tie-Rods with more longer ones. At the front I just slided the fork tupes upward by approximately 11mm.

Can anyone tell me if it would affect the rear wheel travel, therefore reducing it or incresing it or does not affect it at all ? The brochure says that there is 125mm wheel travel at the rear.

Also which approximately would be the correct preload and damping settings, softer or harder suspension or in between ?

Have I reduced or increased the sag ?

Does it affect the handling of the bike in a positive or negative way ?

Thanks very much for your help.
Neville  

The fact that you lowered the rear more than the front will most likely cause handling issues. The problem is that you can only lower the front so far before you run into clearance problems with the front tire when the suspension is at full bottom of its travel. The only way to properly ensure you have enough clearance is to remove the fork springs (with the bike supported on a front end stand) and measure how much clearance to not only the bottom triple clamp, but other hard parts like the radiator and exhaust headers.

Using longer linkage tie-rods will not affect wheel travel, but it will affect the linkage progression ratio, and mostly for the worse. It is impossible to tell you what the correct damping settings are without actually riding the bike and knowing your riding style. Lowering the bike using different tie-rods also affects sag, because it changes the linkage ratio and thus how much affect weight will have on the spring. You will have to set it using the instructions provided on the SR website:
http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0402_susp/index3.html