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Picked up a nice like 2012 a few weeks ago. Owner didn’t advertise it as lowered, but I noticed that the fork was dropped about 1.25”, with spacers in handlebar clamp so they clear the top of the forks. The rear shock dogbones are about 130mm eye to eye. I think the stock one is 119.5? No brand or anything stamped on em.
Im figuring the rear is dropped about 1.5”, does that sound right? And if so, is the fork adjusted right to keep the geo good? Ultimately not mad that it’s lowered, I’m a shorter rider anyway. Just wanna understand what I have and if I need to tweak anything.
As long as nothing bottoms out, you should be good to go. The way to tell on the front is to put a zip tie on one fork leg tube. It will slide down the fork tube when the front end sinks. If it gets down to the bottom the forks are bottoming out and need to have the tubes slid down in the clamps. I think a fair number of riders have lowered the front end up around 2" sliding the tubes up in the clamps. 1-1/4" shouldn't be too bad. For the rear you can feel it usually when the back tire hits the inner fender and you can look to see if mud is scuffed off, an indication of bottoming. Not sure how long the bones can go before bottoming.
It may be that the previous rider could be relatively light, so be aware if you need to dial in a bit more preload. You should look on this site or other places how to measure the sag and about heavier rear shock springs if you are a heavier rider. The KLXs were pretty lightly sprung. But don't run out and do changes before you ride the bike and get a feel for it. No sense in changing anything you don't really need. I see the previous owner put in a couple risers on the handlebars. Seems a lot of riders do that without really spending the time riding the bike to get a feel for it. My KLX had an expensive set of Rox risers that jacked the bars up a couple inches. I rode the bike about a half mile, turned around, went home and pulled the risers. Felt like I was riding a bike with ape hangers. I'd ridden enough to know I didn't need risers, in fact I had fairly low rise MX bars. I also haven't had to touch the suspension, it works quite well for me at 200 lb, the previous previous owner must have been a bit heavy too. Saved me buying any suspension stuff.
How much is this lowered?
