I lowered my KLX300SM front and rear so I my feet can reach the ground without needing to be on tiptoe.

The rear was lowered by removing almost all of the preload and adding Koubalinks. The stock bars prevented lowering the front forks so I removed them, dropped the forks 2 inches, and attached lightweight alloy sportbike clip on bars onto the tops of the fork tubes.

(it was dark when I finished. I'll take better pics tomorrow.)



The unsprung seat height is now just 30 inches.

The short alloy bars dropped another pound off the bike, so combined with a variety of other weight saving mods my bike weighs 295 pounds which is not too bad for a street legal 300.

 

You could do better with the rear by taking the shock apart and put in a travel limiting spacer, that is what flat trackers do for the 450 singles. They do the same with the forks, a spacer to limit travel. Both are done to lower the bike for better handling on the flat track. Of course they also change up damping, but that suits the kind of racing done. If you or someone you know can do the work it isn't as hard as it sounds. I did a rebuild on a CR 250 shock, just taking it apart to clean a bit and put in fresh fluid. Not a lot of moving parts. Same with common forks. You'd have to figure out the shock travel per inch at the axle to decide how big a spacer is used on the shock. The forks would be close to the few inches you want. The beauty of doing this is that you can set the drop wherever you want, since it will still be bottoming out at the same point - no hitting the underside of the fenders.

Slick idea on the bars. Never seen that before. Kind of cool for the street.

 

I just use my KLX for daily utility transportation so it works fine. I weigh 140 so I don't compress the suspension much.




The rear shock remains in the same state of compression while the longer Koubalinks lower the position of the swingarm itself. Then I simply spun the lockrings up on the shock to lower the bike some more.



The alloy clip on bars allowed the front forks to be lowered 2 inches. The bars feel really comfortable lowered and tucked in. The bike is nice and narrow for easy lanesplitting in traffic.

 

I like the look. The clip ons were a spot of genius for the street.

My suggestions would be for future use if you find the rear tire bottoms against the fender on hard hits. That's one draw back to links, they can allow the rear tire to hit the inner fender. Plus if you like the bike well enough to want to make it work at its best. I've started doing suspension because I wanted better performance and ride. Did Ohlins shocks and have a Matris kit for the forks on the XSR and will eventually do the shock and forks on the KLX. Figured I plan to keep both bikes for the long run and have the money to do the work.

 

This is actually the third bike I installed clip ons. So far I've never seen anyone else do it. I'm an amateur inventor just as a hobby, so I have fun coming up with ideas and then I try them out just to see how they'll work. This one actually works pretty well.

I'm only 5'5" so low narrow bars are a good fit for my size because I'm still riding completely upright with them. I'm sure they'd be way too low for anyone taller unless they like the sportbike riding position, which few do.

Honda Grom...



Suzuki DRZ400SM...



The parts are cheap, only $40 a set.

 

I'm a bit of an inventor too. I designed and make the manual cam chain tensioners for the KLX, among others, should you ever get the notorious clatter around 4000-6000 rpm indicating the tensioner is failing to hold position. They look good visibly, but are trashed.

 

Hey, that's a neato idea.

I'd like to buy one so let me know your price.
My email is:

greggabi@verizon.net

Regards,
Greg

 

I cut the rear frame shorter and tucked the taillight under the shortened fender for a cleaner more simple look.

 

The fender looks great. Perfect for the SM.

 

Thanks.
It really cleaned up the back as well as saving weight. Personalizing a bike is a lot of fun.