soft tail to hard tail????

Question, can you turn a soft tail into a hard tail by replacing the springs with a couple metal bars??????

 

Yes you can replace the shocks with solid bars, but why ruin a good riding bike to do that.

 

To lower it without spending the money on new shocks. then when I wanna take a long ride I can just swap them back again

 

Which bike are you working on and how much do you need to lower? Shocks are on EBAY for a good price. There are other methods to lower a bike like cutting foam from the seat and lowering forks in the tripple trees and springs on the rear shocks. Those could get you a inch or two lower.

 

^Also^, what kind of bike are you doing this to? If it's a shafty you have to watch that you don't get too much deflection on the joint on the shaft. If it's a chain, make sure to check the chain tension.

Post pics of the proccess so that others can see how you did it.

 

It's a 82 750 Maxim. I want to post picks but something with the megapixels it wont let me. I was thinking of taking some 11" strait bars and putting them in place of the shocks but you r right, why kill the smooth ride like that. I would rather lower the springs if I can figure it out

 

There is a spring preload ring on the bottom of the rear shocks. Turning it (depends on where it is now) will stiffer or soften the suspension. If you have a manual look in there it will tell you more. You might get enough lowering efect from that.

 

I got almost 2 out of mine just by turning the adjustment at the bottom of the shock. Stiffens it up a bit, but its free. Haha.

 

Referred to as rear struts and yes, it can be done....and after you do it you won't believe all the teeth cracking bumps that show up on your previously smooth roads! 8O

 

Yes, I turned the adjusters on the bottom of the shocks but it doesnt look like it makes a difference as the bike is standing by itself. just when I sit on it. I decided not to go with bars because my back wouldnt handle it. I just got my pics on to Photo bucket and am trying to figure out how to get them from there to here. I'm tryin folks hope to be able to share soon.

 

<a href="http://s1049.photobucket.com/albums/s383/christianwarrior28/?action=view&amp;current=img1335322451070.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/s383/christianwarrior28/img1335322451070.jpg" border="0" alt="Sprint PictureMail"></a>

 

UGH!!!