Fitting Guide for 2" Lowering bones to C or M800

I fitted some 2" Lowering bones to my Intruder today so I thought I'd do a bit of a write up how it's done and what tools you'll need, I did this on my own so it might not be the quickest or easiest way? It just suited me at the time.

Firstly a bike jack made doing this a doodle really and without it I'd have struggled, You could do it with a home made jack (wooden one) but it would mean a lot of wrenching around.

1. Put the bike on the jack so it just keeps it upright for easy removal of the necessary parts, chock the front wheel and wrap a zip tie round the brake and lever to stop any forward motion when loosening nuts.


2. Then remove the side panel,swing arm cover and rear engine cover on the left hand side of the bike.


which leaves it looking like this (it would do if I' took the photo after I'd pulled the plastic swing arm cover off lol)



3. Remove the fuse housing holder by undoing 2x12mm and 1x8mm bolts before just lowering that down out of the way, this leaves the left side complete and ready to work on.



4. right side of the bike, Remove swing arm cover and rear engine cover to expose the nuts for the lowering bones, It's tight due to the exhaust, but easily doable.



here's the right side uncovered and ready for undoing the nuts on the lowering bones.


5. Undo the nuts fully on top and bottom of the lowering bones on the right side of the bike before jacking the bike up, Then this is where the jack comes in handy, Jack the bike up so the wheel is a few Inches off the ground, Then place a piece of wood under the wheel and lower the jack down slowly till it takes the weight of the wheel and there's no pressure on the shock, the bolts will slide out easily then. Both top and bottom bolts have bushings that will slide out either way, Don't touch the top one, But the bottom one needs sliding outwards partially towards the right of the bike to give clearance for the bolt to be pulled out on an angle because it hits the frame. I undid the bottom of the shock but it still wouldn't come out so I'm not sure if that is necessary?


6. Here's the new lowering bones against the old ones, They're longer obviously, so here's where the jack comes in handy again, Fit the bottom bolt through the bone and into the left side of the suspension, Then lower the bike down on the jack again (very slowly) till the hole at the top lines up perfectly and the bolt will just slide through, Then just slide the right hand bone on and tighten up the nuts before putting the bike back together in reverse order.




It's a pretty straight forward job and probably took me a couple of hours in total, I only used basic tools nothing special needed.


Here's the bike with the jack just supporting it upright before and after a 2" drop.
 

after




Thanks to CelticWoman for showing pics of her lowered M800 which spurned me to get my lazy arse in gear  

That looks so good it's unbelievable.
"Must do" list.

Your bike is looking great Sim, bloody good job done.  

An excellent write-up and very inspirational, could well be on my to do list, which it never was before.  

Nice job.

Great read great instructions and great job  

Nice job well done & presented Sim.       
It's something I would not do as the bike gets lowered 2" when Rosie gets on so it's unnecessary for me, hear slap & me saying ouch at this stage!!!  

Hhahahahaha Peter. Thin ice you're walking on :)

You never know Marcin I might like it, er ok, er well erm.....  

Excellent job and write up Sim,looks well m8.

Cheers guys, I like the look of it lowered    Tomorrow will be the test on whether it still goes round corners? Or if I go barrelling through a hedge    

Looks great that. Something that's on my list as well.

great mod that looks fantastic on both the m800 and the c800 cracking job  

Guys....I'll be getting mine done instead of buying but I need to supply the steel.
The question I got is... hot rolled or cold rolled bars? Do we have anyone into metals that could advise on suitability?

Mine are made from Aluminium, so I'd have thought if your using steel? either would do.

so simbo..I'm a little worried here you were gonna tell us how it rides or if you'd end up in a hedge...are you in a hedge..how is it? how does she handle?..simbo...simbo..simbo....? lol I'm grabbing the hedge trimmer and comin for ya man!

Twisted! Twisted! Put the Hedge Trimmer down!! for fucks sake!!! you've done enough damage already! Have you no mirrors in your house?? That's a face only a mother could love!!    Boards scrape too easy for my liking    No biggie though! especially when I hear the Mrs giggling on the back when the scraping noise occurs   

ps. that's not a self portrait is it?    

LOL Simbo! your a funny guy! I'm guessing that wasn't a hedge ya fell in after all but is was a large bush of something leafy I'm sure!  

couple a questions Sim so can you give a bit more info about the handling? how much earlier does it hit the pegs than before does it feel like it handles better going round corners (apart from pegs scraping) than before how is it going over speed bumps? or on a bumpy road does it ever bottom out and the wheal scrape the underside of the mudguard........ and most import thing to know where did you get them from please mate (link if possible)

Good questions Morgan, I am also thinking of fitting some this winter.

Hi guys, Other than the bolt at the back of the foot board being half an inch lower and touching down a little earlier, I don't feel it affects the handling in any way, It's never bottomed out or scraped the underside of the fender, I just looks lower at the back. 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUZUKI-VL800-INTRUDER-Volusia-800-2-REAR-LOWERING-KIT-/200704389548?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ebae9f1ac

so I spoze if it's the back ov the foot boards touching down first this might not happen if you had normal pegs or not as quick anyway?so the back ov your boards are half an inch lower probably to late to ask as you did this a while ago but did the front of the floor boards also drop? the fact that it has never bottomed out sounds great as you ride two up a lot of the time sept when Jo's on here scooter  some of the roads are crap where I am, I'm tempted to drop it 3 inches be nice if they did a lowering kit (bit of metal lol) that you could do 2 or 3 inch drop would probably just be the bit of metal with two holes instead of one at one end of it   over to you Dave (the king of tinkering lol) only joking I think 2 inches is enough hhuurmmmm Yeh should be cool looks like £32 rounded up not a bad price this is on my to do list could possibly be my first mod lol.

final question and just thinking out aloud lol should I get a proper bike lift?

Thanks for the feed back and link

With a file, hacksaw & a decent drill & the correct drawing & some sheet steel you can do it yourself Morgan   & as for a decent lift then I did all my wheel swap etc on a cheap wind up style lift with no problems.

cool doesn't have to be expensive lift just at the mo all I have is a big bit of wood with a hole cut out that I place scaffold tube in to and it jacks the bike up front or back but not both at the same time. completely agree all I/other members need is an accurate drawing and yes making one would be easy I do like the idea of a billet ally one though as it wont rust if the paint chips for any reason so I will probably get the one from Sims link as far as mods go it's a cheap one for the difference it makes to the look of the bike

I had considered fitting lowering bones but quickly worked out that I would no longer be able to use my cruiser lift. A similar model, although not the same as the one you are using Simbo. Possibly mine does not go as low as yours?

Ken1964 wrote:

I had considered fitting lowering bones but quickly worked out that I would no longer be able to use my cruiser lift. A similar model, although not the same as the one you are using Simbo. Possibly mine does not go as low as yours?

Mine won't fit under either Ken, I run the back wheel on to a piece of 6x2 to raise the bike to it's original height before rolling the lift under.

Where there's a will there's a way eh Sim!!!!!!!! I use that method with all sorts of car's & bikes, always works for me!

That's what I would do, use my wooden home made jack first then lift with that.

have just ordered mine by the time we go to France my lil bike should be lookin nice and pretty aaaarrrwwwwww

fat intruder wrote:

have just ordered mine by the time we go to France my lil bike should be lookin nice and pretty aaaarrrwwwwww

Should be looking cool morgan 

yeh recon so

I think you have the modding bug Morgan and there is only one way to get rid of that bug, sell the bloody bike.

I've had it ever since I started owning bikes lol not had a bike yet that I haven't added/changed bits hehehe the lowering bones will be an other tick of the list but there's still plenty of bits and bobs I want for it hahahaha

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I figured it was relevant.  I am planning to do this so I was having a quick look under the bike to get an idea of whats what and I spotted a gap between the current suspension arms and the mount.  Is this gap supposed to be here, is there a bush missing or is it supposed to be tight up?

Diggedy wrote:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I figured it was relevant.  I am planning to do this so I was having a quick look under the bike to get an idea of whats what and I spotted a gap between the current suspension arms and the mount.  Is this gap supposed to be here, is there a bush missing or is it supposed to be tight up?

Hi Diggedy, Yes there's bushings that are slightly longer than the mounting points, like this one 

ah right thanks :)  I was a bit worried when I saw it!