Lower Your Dual Sport

To drop the ride height without losing any travel.
For normal everyday use, or for your Super Moto.

These lowering kits will do you two favors.

1. They will make your Dual Sports handling greatly improve, without causing any 'off road' clearance problems. They also do not limit wheel travel as the shock type lowering kits do.

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2. They allow people who want to purchase a certain Dual Sport but are just a little to 'lacking of height' to be comfortable, to go ahead and purchase the bike then lower it and get that confidence they want.

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They lower the rear of the bike from 1.5 inch to 1.75 inch, depending on how you set your preload. You then simply move the forks up in the triple tree to lower the front, according to the type of riding you do.  The links are CNC machined from high quality aircraft aluminum, and coated for a first class long lasting appearance. The link is very 'over-built' and will take whatever you dish out to them under any riding circumstance. Included are complete easy to follow instructions. You do not need to remove the needle bearings from the old link and use, or buy new. They are all set up, and ready to install. The set-up in these will out last OEM needle bearings easily, even under harsh conditions and use!   

  See the bottom for more Tech info on solid bushings/bearings verses Needle Bearings. 

Newly added info.!! 

We've only had a few people ask about it over the last 12 years & several thousand of the Honda links we've been manufacturing & selling, but even for a few, we decided to put the info here for you, just in case you are curious. 

 When we manufacture the solid type bearing, the clearances are made about the same as for a wrist pin in a piston. Therefore, if you assemble properly, with a little grease (that we now include) & then you put a grease gun on the fitting & grease right thereafter, you will not be able to easily put any more in. That's the way it's supposed to be!! You have less than .001 clearance around the collar to the bushing/bearing. Once that cavity is full, its full. Also, we use high quality snug seals, mainly to keep water & debris out. This also keeps grease from easily squeezing out if its just been properly assembled.  Yes, you can still squeeze it thru, very slowly if the grease & parts are warm. You will not need to re-grease for many many miles of use. The solid bearings & ID finish in them, are designed to "break in" just like the wrist pins in pistons do after we, or any engine facility fits them properly. We are so confident in our design, quality & fitment, we will replace any of our own solid bearings for the life of the bike, to the original Lowering link purchaser, as long as its properly assembled.  Even if you very rarely ever grease it once the clearance opens slightly, ( a few tenths of a thousandths) after "break-in", we will still replace the bearing/bushings. You probably won't find too many companies standing behind their design & components like that!!! 

We now also even install neat little grease caps that fit over & protect the grease fittings!!!

With our lowering kits, there are no other parts to purchase for the link, they are ready to install !!!

  87- 2007  KLR 650 Lowers the rear approx.1 & 5/8" 

  08 & up  KLR 650  Lowers the rear  1 & 1/2 "s

XR XRL 600 & 650   Lowers the rear  approx. 1&1/2"

  XR 250 & 400 Includes four new dust/grease seals pre-installed  Lowers the rear approx. 1 1/4" 

XR 650 R 99  to Current   Lowers the rear approx. 1 5/8"   

READ   MORE BELOW

 2000 & Up    DRZ 400 /E/S/SM Lowers the rear 1"

See kit pricing below

General Lowering kit info.

THE TRI-LINK

Introducing our solution for properly lowering the XR650R.

   There are some issues with properly lowering this bike to make it handle better for the pavement or off-road. We ran into issues when we first went to make a lowering kit, (in this case the two links are integral on one end with each other). Simply changing the link length & making them stronger etc etc, wasn�t going to work properly. The reason is that the geometry on this bike is totally different than the other ones. It incorporates what Honda refers to as a Cushion Arm, or "Shock Arm". This is more or less a three pivot-point "rocker assembly" that connects the swing arm to the Sub-Rod assembly (the dual link component) & the Shock bottom. If you simply design a different length dual link component you will actually put the shock out of its proper alignment, & change the rotational pressure properties that the "rocker assembly" puts on the swing arm. This would not always be bad enough to cause problems, but, for racers who demand perfect handling with perfect geometry it we designed it another way. So, with many other bikes, changing the link length simply changes the swing arm location, thus the ride height which is fine in most cases. With this type set-up, doing so can open a whole new "can of worms". We wanted the racers adjustments to still have the proper effect on how the bike will handle. From spring pressure, spring rate, & ride ht., to compression & rebound dampening. Even though it is a lot more work manufacturing, doing it the way we did meets all possible requirements of having the geometry correct, even after lowering the bike. We won�t get into the technical issues of ea. area of importance here, but now you can understand at least, why we chose to do it this way instead of simply making a different length link assembly set-up.

 Another issue is the grease or lube issue. Putting 3 grease fittings in would be an issue for more, reasons than one! After a lot of R&D, we came up with a way to place a fitting where it could be    accessed, where we could also place passages to get grease to all 4 bearings at once, (there is two in the widest section). This makes it very convenient. The OEM link doesn�t even have any grease fittings. 

   The last main issue was the OEM sleeve set-up where the bolt goes thru to mount the shock. The OEM set-up actually has 3 separate parts that go into the bearing inside that pivot point, which the bolt passes thru. We noticed the oem units we inspected showed premature wear, really for no good reason. The problem is there is not enough "bearing load area" to ensure the bearing lasts, (read the bearing info section). Its just not a strong, stable or long lasting set-up, if the bike is going to get used hard. Its actually surprisingly quite lacking in design. We addressed this issue by manufacturing a better component to slide nicely into the bearing, to guarantee better stability & a long lasting durable set-up. Without making the unit any wide at this area on the Tri-Link we were able to provide a full 20% more bearing load area. With the OEM setup, the actual needles are only 10mm long within the 15mm wide bearing. with our much more durable set-up they are 12mm long, within the bearing housing.  We heat treat our central collar/spacer component to the ideal "hardness" on the "RC" scale to ensure it works smoothly & lasts!

The end result is a set-up that you won't have clearance issues when jumping etc, & it will handle much better under basically any circumstance. When you need to power-slide it while Racing Super Motard Style it will be immensely more controllable. You will also be able to apply much more throttle without unloading the front tire near as much. All you racers know how important that is for quick lap times!! Since we have a long history of building monster HP Singles, along with all the other type Race Engines, we know what its like trying to use a lot of power on one of these bikes. Believe me, our Tri-Tech Link will make it seem like a whole new bike!! Our goal was to still provide a top of the line, properly engineered component that was easy to install, but for a price well under what it is actually worth, & that's exactly what we did!

Needle Bearings Verses Solid bearings/bushings. 

As long as suspension parts (the pivot points) are kept clean,  needle bearings will last quite well as long as they are quality Needle Bearings. There are a few folks out there though, (but they are definitely not Engineers, Engine Builders, Technicians, etc.) who think the needle bearings will take more punishment than solid bearings. They couldn't be any more wrong. They think that bushings are used to save cost as well, they couldn't be more uninformed!! 

In suspension applications the bearing nor any other part of the component, completely spins or rotates. In a constant rotation application, a needle bearing is more equally matched with a quality bushing type bearing. But, even so, RPM, load, lubrication type, environment, preciseness of the components involved, cost, etc etc. still will need to be considered to make the best choice. 

Bearings are used in many applications for many purposes, because they can be used where the components or parts have not been machined to as good of a tolerance as they could have been. Companies can get away with more "sloppy" clearances with needle bearings, until pressure, load, lubrication issues & so fourth mandate they tighten up the tolerances. Case in point this is extremely easy to illustrate. Take for instance a connecting rod wrist-pin bushing/bearing. I use this for example as the parts only rotate in a slight "back & fourth" motion, no complete rotations. Here is  where load, load timing, heat, harmonics & "shock-load" are at a max, say a supercharged Big Block making several thousand HP. Do  these folks mentioned above, know what would happen if a needle bearing was used instead of a quality bushing, in all but special cases? (even considering if all RC hardness & finishes were correct for the needle bearing?). There would be total destruction of the engine as soon as it was put under load. Some of you "techies" know the needles would shatter the instant they were put under that kind of load, & amount of stress, & heaven forbid if one tiny piece of debris got in there, or they didn't have quite enough lubrication! Yes two strokes use needles, but due to the lack of the type load a big 4 stroke puts out, they can be used in two strokes. Considering we have build Race Engines in almost every application for almost 30 years, we know just a "tad" on the subject anyway! Machining bushings takes more time, the materials are fairly costly, & tolerances must be held very close, but as long as the extra cost is justified it sure makes for a durable product. 

A simple straight forward test;

We took one of our test Hondas years ago, & a OEM link, & one of ours & ran them both under fairly equal conditions. I say fairly because we are always harder on or own products than to the other ones when testing, so we are always 110% positive what the end result will be no matter who might do the same test!  We removed the dust seals & ran them with no lubrication, in a sandy environment. We made sure it was a dry environment for all tests, so that the bearings wouldn't rust & wear do to that alone. It didn't take but a very short time for the needles to start making their typical "cross ways" wear marks where they touch the hardened steel OEM sleeve. (See the pics above of a collar removed recently from an XR650R). We replaced those parts, but continued to run the other dry. As a matter of fact for about a year, till we finally cleaned, installed the seals, & greased it. This is typical though as you must remember you always want as large a "load-bearing" area as possible, within in a limited over all area, to distribute load over a larger area, resulting in less stress & wear on any one area. With a solid bearing/bushing there only needs to be a very minute amount of lube in there to make the two parts glide over one another without even making contact. With a needle bearing each tiny contact line is so narrow that even when there is lube there, actual contact is very common. If it is lacking lube, the lube is poor, or there is just slight contamination or dirt introduced, those little wear lines appear very quickly. A place where needle bearings can be used & last even if "tortured" a bit, is where their size or load bearing area is well over what it would be if the engineers were keeping the bearing size to a minimum. If a larger & wider needle bearing than normally put into that type arrangement, by OEM factory, is used they can actually work very well. Also if a typical suspension component bearing is kept lubed with clean grease, & the dirt kept out, they will last a long time,  change any one of those points, & you'll be needing some parts shortly! 

Why doesn't the factory put grease fittings on many parts that its only logical that they should? Well, its one more cost, & would they sell as many replacement parts if they did?.....................Or, would they sell as many replacement parts of they made the fitment precise & used quality solid type bearings?................You're correct! No, and  No!

When we make & install the solid type bearings in the suspension parts we machine/produce, we even go as far as finishing the bearing the same way we finish rods bushings in the factory-race level engines we build, & the same way we finish the rod bushings in the connecting rods we manufacture. We do it with a Sunnen Rod hone, after they are pressed into place & can hold tolerances to within one tenth, of one thousandths, much closer than actually needed!! We put the exact cross-hatch pattern in with the exact grit hone stones needed for perfect break-in (those steel sleeves can vary a bit) & for perfect grease or lube retention. With all of our suspension parts, whether we make the solid super precise bearings/bushings, or we install the needle type where warranted, we don't add the extra cost to the product. We price them as if they were needle bearings, & we just "eat" the extra cost. Why?, we want to stay at the top of our game, but still have very reasonable prices as well, ............period!!