Lowering Dog bones

[diego092409]

I did the ZG1400 Rear Shock upgrade on my bike this winter and it is the best money I have spent so far excluding the Baldwin Saddle rebuild.  It soaks up the Pennsylvania backroad potholes with barely, a sensation that there was a bump.  My girlfriend loves it as she bore the brunt of the stock shock bottoming out.

The only issue I have is that it makes the bike taller than what it was before.  I can push the bike up on its centerstand with ease and I don't trust the side stand with how far it leans over now...  I can no longer spin it on its centerstand to turn it around in the garage (my driveway is gravel and sloped and I know it is not safe... )

Has any one made their own lowering dogbones or does anyone know to what length they can be cut?  Can a longer bolt be used in the lower pivot with unthreaded spacers so that straight turnbuckle tie-rods can be used to crank down on the new shock to lower the rear end?  Soupy's Performance has a lowering linkage that makes up the offset in bottom, but I have blown my farkle budget for this year...

[kzz1king]

I don't know if these would work. I had a friend make this these for my mono KZ project.

[diego092409]

Nice,  That is what I am thinking.  The connie's dogbones have an offset to miss the shock.  I am wondering if I can get a longer bolt and put some spacers in so that the offset isn't necessary and I can just use straight linkages like you have there or will it create too much bending stress on the bottom bolt?  Perhaps I can get some hardened rod and thread each end but by then I will have as much money as buying soupy's set-up.

Do you have pictures of your monoshock upper shock mount?  I am getting ready to put a GSXR swinger on my GPZ1100, I am trying to find every solution that anyone has done so that I get as much input as possible. 

[T Cro ®]

Due to the angles in the Dog Bones there is no known successful garage mod; you would be putting a lot of bending stress on some very long spaced out bolts to get past the offset... Only two known way of safely lowering the Connie's rear is a lowering rocker as you found; and to switch to a 17" Mean Streak rear wheel with a 170/60 tire which will get you close to 1/2" lower in the rear....

[diego092409]

This is what I found at Soupy's  They make up for the offset with that machined aluminum part at the bottom.  Makes me wish I had knee mill (although, I may be able to do this on my drill press but time constraints keep me from being able to do so...)

http://soupysperformance.com/kawasaki/concours-1000-zg1000/soupys-kawasaki-concours-1000-zg1000-1986-2006-lowering-links.html

[T Cro ®]

This is what I found at Soupy's  They make up for the offset with that machined aluminum part at the bottom.  Makes me wish I had knee mill (although, I may be able to do this on my drill press but time constraints keep me from being able to do so...)

http://soupysperformance.com/kawasaki/concours-1000-zg1000/soupys-kawasaki-concours-1000-zg1000-1986-2006-lowering-links.html

Those are nice just a bit proud....

[kzz1king]

Check here,  http://www.kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/532476-kzgpz-mono-shock-hack-was-budget-turbo-build
Start at about page 4. I did it and then redid it!. There are alot of ways to skin that cat and many are on that KZR site.
Wayne

Nice,  That is what I am thinking.  The connie's dogbones have an offset to miss the shock.  I am wondering if I can get a longer bolt and put some spacers in so that the offset isn't necessary and I can just use straight linkages like you have there or will it create too much bending stress on the bottom bolt?  Perhaps I can get some hardened rod and thread each end but by then I will have as much money as buying soupy's set-up.

Do you have pictures of your monoshock upper shock mount?  I am getting ready to put a GSXR swinger on my GPZ1100, I am trying to find every solution that anyone has done so that I get as much input as possible.

[dhidaka]

Due to the angles in the Dog Bones there is no known successful garage mod; you would be putting a lot of bending stress on some very long spaced out bolts to get past the offset...

Not exactly so . . .
I bought a pair of used dog bones from Ebay. I built a jig to align the dog bone holes to each other using factory pivot bolts. I then cut the ends of the Ebay dog bones and also my '05 dog bones (one end being exactly 1/2" longer). In other words, the goal was to have a pair of dog bones 1/2" longer than stock. I then welded the ends together in my jig. Ground down the weld, polished. Looks like factory. Not exactly an easy process, but my C10 is 1 1/2 inch lower. Plus, I realize that not everyone has a heli-arc welder in their garage. Dropped the fork tubes 1" to balance front and rear. Total cost:$20

[T Cro ®]

Not exactly an easy process, but my C10 is 1 1/2 inch lower. Plus, I realize that not everyone has a heli-arc welder in their garage.

Your right not everyone has a heli-arc in their garage and personally I don't know if I could ride down the road with any degree of confidence on welded cast   alum...

[mercer]

Know this to be an old post thread. But if I may comment late here in. I had not realized this weld up procedure had been done when I did same.

Of note I did do a weld up project for C10 with C14 shock as discussed in thread above. That using four stock bones made into a longer set.

I used a simple jig and best weld practices. This after researching how such should be done. Had welding done by professional. I did all fabrication and jig build set up. A welder did his part of job in shorter time on each bone than this explanation.

The jig and weld area prep took somewhat longer of course. Not much tough.

That was 6-7k miles ago. Do inspect welds by tapping and listening as well as visually often. No issues as yet.

The whole procedure is more detailed in explanation on other COG site. Hope this might help others in the application.