loweering 4th gen 1996 Honda VFR

Greetings. I am considering lower my 1996 Honda VFR 750 due to my 29-inch inseam leg length. Other than toying with the seat there seems to be 2 options. The dog bone type. Has anyone used the Ebay sold Pro-tek Honda Interceptor 750 Lowering Link Kit? It only has 1 adjustable dog bone (I asked the seller to comfirme) piece instead of 2 like other lowering bones I have seen for other bikes making me question its strength. There does not seem to be much information on a Pro-tek brand but the name is similar to Pro-Tec which is a well established motorcycle aftermarket parts seller with a US address and phone # to call for info. These are affordable but that may be for a reason that I DO NOT WANT TO FIGURE OUT THE HARD WAY. Option #2 are the triangle rear shock link plates type with boltholes closer together. The only 1 I can find for 4th gen Honda is Lust Racing. They are a bit more than I want to spend for a experiment that may not work out. Are there pros and cons for either type of lowering kit? Any help from someone that has done this mod would be much appreciated.

 

There is only a single dogbone on the VFR linkage, along with the two triangular side plates. I know that on the 800, you can reposition the side plates (rotate them) and lower the bike quite a bit as my own bike had been lowered before I bought it. There's a bit of mucking around but you could check that out before committing to the links. You can also lower the front simply by slipping the fork tubes up through the triple clamps but don't go too far or you could smack the mudguard when the forks are compressed fully.

 

I see that the eBay lowering kit swaps an adjustable double rod-end for the OEM dogbone, and is used with the OEM triangular side plates. It looks plenty strong from the pictures, but if it is badly manufactured, the most likely place it would fail would be at the joint where the threads begin on the rod-ends. So long as the rod-ends are good quality, though, it should be fine.

The safest solution would be to swap in slightly longer side plates and use the OEM dogbone, but the plates would not be adjustable, so you'd be taking a gamble about the resulting height.

If it were my bike I would probably make some new side plates with the bottom holes 5mm further apart than OEM and see how much it lowered the bike. That would be the cheapest option, too, but you'd have to be able to do some basic fabrication.

Ciao,

JZH

 

Thanks for the replys. Terry. The EOM ROD ASSY, SHOCK CONNECTOR or single dog bones substantial thickness is why I was questioning the integrity of the aftermarket Pro-tek replacement. The Pro-tek looks unrealistically wimpy in comparison to the stock part. Not sure what forces it needs to absorb. Probably will not fiddle with forks unless I lower the rear end. I tried flipping the 2 triangular side plates 1 1/2 years ago and surprisingly the bolthole distance is the same no matter the direction on my 4th gen VFR 750 unlike a Youtuber who did this on his 5th gen 800 VFR were you can clearly see a difference in bolthole spacing. JZH I was actually thinking of buying a set of EOM triangular side plates cheap on eBay and attempt to drill 1 bolthole farther out slightly on both and fill the original hole tightly with a bolt piece for strength and secure the bold piece with here it comes JB wild. Although I have seemed to collect several tools over the years basic fabrication of metal plates would probably require a torch amongst other things. If I had a garage to work in that would change everything but reside in a apt and have a property/ backyard about 30 miles away to work out of and use generators for power /wheelbarrow air compressor etc. Used it to paint a couple of cars and motorcycles/ parts in a inflatable paint booth modified with fans to suck air out through filters making it dust/dirt free enough to only have to spot cut and buff clear coat. So far the neighbors nor my tenants have complained to me anyway. I have bought many cheap online parts for various things some worked out amazing including a extra backup voltage reg\rectifier for the VFR under $30. Had to widen/depin the hole were the mounting bolt/screw goes otherwise it works perfect including the wire harness as did the original which I keep under the seat along with tools/ mini ratchet set and can switch out at any time just in case 1 of them fails as they are known to do. Some cheapie online stuff have not worked out at all on various projects over the years. That is OK as long as it is easy to access and will not cause damage or get you hurt in my opinion. The bike runs perfect after working on it replacing, rebuilding, too much to mention here, valve job not a valve check as many do leaving valves out of spec not wanting to remove cams. You can't blame them it can be scarry for me at least if you drop something in the wrong place or screw up it can be fatal. The bike will be clean after assembling 4 a 30-year-old bike after painting parts and plastics with mostly professional auto body paints/clearcoat I mention this because I SAY A GUY PAINT HIS 4TH GEN vfr PLASTICS WITH RATTLE CAN SPRAY PAINT not the 2K type RATTLECANS. Ouch! A complete clean decent quality painted plastic set for the 4th gen is worth more than the bike especially the nose piece if the ears have not snapped off. Was hoping to lower the bike before assembly to decrease the chances of me having a mishap. There does not seem to be any info of anybody actually using the Pro-tek lowering kit therefor I am probably going to consider it along with other options and just get the bike rideable for now. Thanks for all the input.

 

Not having a garage at all would be a problem. I'm definitely not a big fan of "JB welding", either...

However, according to the unimpeachable source of wisdom which is Youtube, you US guys also have great resources like SendCutSend, which can do all the cutting and machining work for you. All you'd need to do would be to accurately measure your OEM side plates, draw out a slightly different version in a CAD program, and send it to SCS for production.

Just for kicks, I tried getting their AI design tool to do all the design work for me, and here's what the prompt "vfr loweing side plates" got on the first try:



That's obviously not gonna work, but I didn't give it any dimensions at all, so I was quite surprised how close it got to the general idea!

If I had the 4th-gen OEM plates (or accurate dimensions) to start with, I could whip up an appropriate CAD drawing in a few minutes, but if you have to learn CAD before you start, it would take you a bit longer to do it yourself. But then all you'd need to do is upload the drawing to SCS and specify the material and thickness. I'm not sure what the OEM plates are made from, but that's probably what I'd choose for the material--why take chances?

Of course, as I mentioned before, unless you copied a proven design, you'd still have to guess at the new dimensions, and you might have to try a couple of different designs before you found the right one. Good luck!

Ciao,

JZH

 

If you got some (one) stock plates off ebay to trace so your bike wasn't apart, you could make some prototypes out of ABS sheet the same thickness as the plates to dial in the ride height. They can be cut with a dremel cutting wheel and easily hand drilled.

Obviously not for a test ride, but they would hold up for height measurement and probably even sitting on.

I use this method when creating rearset footpeg adapters. With the bike on a stand I can then put some weight on both feet in position and check ergos, clearance and brake and shift action before moving to aluminum.