By Below is a picture of the rear suspension, partially disassembled. Tweek lifted the rear of the bike up off of the shop floor with the Centerstand lift, then used an automobile-type floor jack to take a little pressure off of the swingarm. You can see the floor jack under his hand (blue paint). The rear shock absorber bolt was removed and the shock was allowed to dangle freely. The part Tweek is pointing at is the part he had modified. He removed the trailing link assembly, had the bars cut (one on each side), had them extended by 1/2″, and a reinforcement plate welded over the top of the splice (he’s pointing at the reinforcing plate in the pic).
Below is a drawing of the work that Tweek did to the trailing link (called a ‘tie rod’ by mamma Kaw).
The next picture is of the long bolt that passes through the frame to secure the trailing link Tweek had lengthened. Lengthening that part provided about 3″ of lowering to the rear. This is Tweeks left hand in the photo..his middle finger points to the bolt that secures the trailing link, his index finger points to the little splice that was added to lengthen it.
Finally, Tweek compressed the shock, loosened the lock nut behind the shock clevis, and screwed the clevis all the way down on the rod. This dropped the bike another inch. By the way, we didn’t have to buy that $30 shock compressor, as you’ll note by the use of a couple of $.50 hose clamps used to squeeze the turns of the spring together in the photo…
Below is another method of lowering the 800’s about 1 1/2″. It is similar to installing the replacement lowering kit from cobra, but is free and no special shock compressor is required…
Tweek adjusted my rear shock preload to position #5, and the ride is perfect. The bike ‘floats’ across bumps, and as I say : ‘It drives itself!’. You can learn more about the rear preload adjustments on Tweek’s site by clicking HERE.
The parts originally designed by Tweek have been enhanced considerably since this mod was done to my bike in 1999. Tweek designed a new assembly, that allowed for adjustability from 0″ to 3″, and later refined the snubber position in the shock to minimize the possibility for scrubbing and bottoming out. The entire lowering kit can be purchased online, ready to install and complete with an instruction manual, from Scootworks on their Lowering Kits/Suspension page.