Lowered Handling Characteristics

Can anyone who has lowered their X comment on how it has changed their road handling, with stock adjustment, lowering link, or both? I take a lot of high speed turns on windy mountain roads and don't want the geometry to be worse off than where I started. I'm very happy with the stock handling but a bit more ground clearance would be nice (5'9", 145lbs). My friend says I should just leave the bike alone. So far I've seen a lot of good info, just mostly for off-road clearance. Thanks in advance.

I have lowered my x about an 1" using the adjustment on the shock, and lowered it about another 1" with a yamalink. I lowered the forks about 9-11 mm ( don't remember exactly and too lazy to go out and measure, but I can if it's important). I think my bike handles better on the road then it did stock. Go figure!

Well after all the reading, I think I'm going to start out with the stock adjustments. Pretty interested in seeing how a Yamalink would pan out. I think another inch worth of foot on the ground would be plenty though.

UoB: You are not riding it stock now ? ...which you should so you have a baseline.

For road work, lower (a lower center of gravity) with no other compromises in the way of suspension needs, is always better.

Lowering the front forks also makes the bike respond/turn-in quicker. The trade is for some straight-line stability, but that's usually not a problem on a 250 (especially if you are not racing it on a SuMo track).

I'd suggest lowering it without any hesitation whatsoever.

Ushuaia Or Bust wrote:

Well after all the reading, I think I'm going to start out with the stock adjustments. Pretty interested in seeing how a Yamalink would pan out. I think another inch worth of foot on the ground would be plenty though.

Your welcome to try my bike.

I did the shock lowering trick & the Yamalink out of necessity being 5'5". Lowered the forks much as they could go before touching the bars. The bike feels planted & stable on turns using the stock compression & rebound settings. Might be different for bigger riders. I only weigh about 140 so the suspension doesn't compress much when I'm sitting on it.

I had the yamalink on for a while.
I took it off, to me the bike handles way better without it.

had it lowered one time,shock/legs. bike lost its edge,slow to turn. felt like a soft rear tire,i went back home to check.
had taken mesurments before so i put it back to stock,turns in nice again.

mordicai wrote:

Ushuaia Or Bust wrote:

Well after all the reading, I think I'm going to start out with the stock adjustments. Pretty interested in seeing how a Yamalink would pan out. I think another inch worth of foot on the ground would be plenty though.

Your welcome to try my bike.

Really gotta try it on some twisties to get a real feel for it. I'll do the stock lowering and report back with any "butt" impressions that I have.

X-Racer wrote:

UoB: You are not riding it stock now ? ...which you should so you have a baseline.

For road work, lower (a lower center of gravity) with no other compromises in the way of suspension needs, is always better.

Lowering the front forks also makes the bike respond/turn-in quicker. The trade is for some straight-line stability, but that's usually not a problem on a 250 (especially if you are not racing it on a SuMo track).

I'd suggest lowering it without any hesitation whatsoever.

Completely stock suspension-wise as of now.

f3joel wrote:

I had the yamalink on for a while.
I took it off, to me the bike handles way better without it.

Still have your Yamalink??

i'm a lot shorter than anyone on here and mine is stock, other than factory adjustment in back and all my shock and fork adjustments are as hard as they will go for stunting. you dont need to lower anything out of neccesity. i ride mine offroad and its fine in 90% of situations. quit bein a sissy and just ride it.