Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board shock shortening 1967 A65 L

Howdy, I would like to lower the rear Shocks an inch. I was wondering if anyone has done this by disassembling rear shock and cutting an inch out of the spring? Ride sits a little tall for me. I did this on an old Honda years ago. Thanks for any input and advise.

Haven't done it. You would likely have to also turn the tension collar to a stiffer setting to avoid the shock from bottoming out. Lowering the rear may also affect the carb float setting.

And handling!

Shortening a spring makes it stiffer, a bit counter intuitive but a spring is a long bar rolled around a shaft. Shorten a bar and it becomes stiffer also a spring.

There is precious little travel on the rear Shocks to start with, reduce that by an inch and the shock will be bottomed out most of the time

A possible solution would be to buy a pair of shorter Shocks to retain the travel.

Gordo

You’d be better buying some 12.9” Shocks if your dead set on lowering the back end. The standard is 13.4”, it doesn’t seem like a lot but it will make one heck of a difference. I think you’ll find a full inch quite harmful to the bikes geometry (and watery to the eyes too )

If your lowing the back then you’ll want to lower the front by a similar amount (although any adjustment will change the bikes handling even if you do both)

Lower profile tyres will change things also.

The question back at you is why do you want to lower it?

How about getting the seat re-modeled?

You have all answered my question. I think I will leave well enough alone and If I do anything I will redo the seat someday and take a little foam out of the seat as opposed tampering with the suspension and geometry of the bike. Or dig out the old platform shoes from the 70'S.up in the attic. Thank, WayneO

Many aftermarket seats are much thicker than the factory originals, even the leightons one (I stopped using mine as I felt more perched on the bike than part of it)

My clubmans seat sits quite low, but I also altered the front bracket so it sits as tight to the frame as possible. You could also scallop the sides of the seat which will allow your legs to drop down more rather than sitting like John wayne. (Original OIF seats are like that)