Lowering the Front Suspension: Installing a Harley Lowering Kit

One of the factors that characterizes Custom models in general and Harley-Davidson motorcycles in particular is their low ground clearance.
However, many owners of these vehicles would like to emphasize this feature even more, and for this purpose, accessory manufacturers have kits suitable for each year and model.
By reducing the distance from the chassis to the ground, we obtain, apart from the aesthetic change, three other significant innovations:
With the bike lowered, all elements that are likely to rub against the ground when leaning over (footpegs, platforms, exhausts, etc.) will rub more easily, so you need to consider your riding style before adjusting the height.
Another important change is that we'll have a lower center of gravity. This means the bike will be easier to balance, more stable, especially at high speeds, and easier to handle.
The third factor to keep in mind is that a lower bike, with less suspension travel, is generally also a bit stiffer, so the comfort factor will be slightly reduced. However, the look will be impressive...

Materials
Since we're going to replace some suspension components, we'll take the opportunity to upgrade them. The original front springs leave a lot to be desired when we demand performance from them. Their behavior is very linear and they sag very easily. We can replace them with progressive springs, which are soft at the beginning of their action, increasing comfort, and progressively stiffen, adapting their pressure to the compression conditions at any given time.
One thing to keep in mind is that if we want to maintain the dynamic qualities of the chassis design (i.e., the bike “ride” as well as it did before), we will need to install the same amount of lowering both front and rear.
In this practical example we are going to proceed to lower the ground clearance of a Softail model, installing a lowered front suspension kit from Progressive Suspension .

The fork kit features a new feature: it is a "Drop-In" type, so it is not necessary to completely disassemble the fork legs to install it, making assembly quick and easy.

We begin the assembly
We start by lifting the front of the bike with a stand or similar to decompress the fork and be able to remove the wheel and fender.

Next, we need to remove the top caps from the fork legs. Depending on the model, it may also be necessary to remove the handlebars to access them.

To loosen these plugs we can use the special tool shown in the photograph or a socket wrench of the appropriate size.
We loosen the bolts on the seatposts that hold the bars in place

and we slide them off the motorcycle to hold them with a suitable tool in a vice,

where we'll remove the threaded cap (be careful, it has some pressure and can pop out) and then the original spring. We remove the spring slowly, trying not to spill any oil outside the fork leg.

Now we can install the new (long) spring from the kit inside the fork, with the tightest coils facing down, followed by the short spring. One of the functions of this short spring is to make it easier to insert the threaded fork cap, as it compresses very easily.

The next step is to cut the PVC pipe to the length specified in the instructions (depending on the year and model of the motorcycle). With this pipe, we initially tension the spring, adjusting what is technically known as "preload."

The tube is inserted after the short spring, and after placing the washer supplied in the kit at the top, we can close the fork and assemble it on the motorcycle following the reverse order of disassembly and, very importantly, the procedures and tightening torques in the workshop manual.

After reinstalling the wheel and fender, we now have our “low” front end.
We can now hit the road for a test drive, keeping in mind that the footrests will now rub more quickly if we lean too far back...

Frank Burguera

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