Lowering my Midnight Maxim 650

Any ideas on shorter rear shocks for lowering my Maxim an inch or two?

I want my wife to ride it to see how smooth it is. She has a 650 vstar and knows the Maxim would be a lot smoother, but it's too tall for her.

 

I chopped the frig out of the shocks on my midnight maxim (2 inches) and then added a rare aftermarket lowering kit I found on e-bay. Took off the centre stand because it was scraping. It's almost like a hard tail now. I think you can safely take at least an inch and a half off the shock without running the risk of dragging your butt. There was a post on here that said how to do it without heating up the shock. Doing so is apparently not great for the integrity of the metal. I hadn't read it beforehand, so my shocks will probably continue to lower themselves. Woops.

I'll let you know how it goes once I've put some more miles on it.

 

Thanks.

But I was looking for an answer a bit simpler (call me lazy, scared of alterations involving saws, torches, etc.) like shorter shocks that would fit this application.

Thanks for the comment about the centerstand. I didn't think of that.

 

you could try this i found some std toyota dyna(lite truck if u get them there) that would bolt straight on bout a inch and a half shorter with the same pressure ratings etc you just lose that cool coil spring look my cost here works out to about $18 us cheers

 

Thanks.

Never heard of a dyna, but we do have some small Toyota light trucks here.

Might just work for me.

 

kool yeah no idea what they are there but here they are only 3 tonne normally single cab with duel rear wheels common as muck mainly used for furniture delivery type things

 

Try ebay for a set or harley sportster shocks, you can usually get a pair in perfect shape for about $25. And they bolt right on all you need to do is make new bushings for the bottom bolts. I used a chev cavailer sway bar bushing and just trimmed doen the outside diameter, works perfect.

 

I swapped some Suzuki Savage shocks onto my MaximX. They're about 10.5" eye-to-eye and lowered the seat about three inches. Bike feels great like that too. The lower centre of gravity seems to make it feel really planted. I think Honda Rebel shocks are about the same size...

Anyway, there are a couple of pictures in my gallery with the Savage shocks if you're interested.

 

Oh yeah... I didn't have any problem with my centrestand (except that I can't get the bike onto it anymore...) but I did have to bend the sidestand quite a bit to get the bike to sit at a comfortable angle...

There's a picture of the stand here: http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=11332.html

 

Thanks for the replies.

I have a 2003 Sportster.

I guess I can try to swap those shocks to see if that will owrk for me before I actually purchase some shocks.

I once put some Rebel 250 shocks on my wife's 535 Virago. Had to swap the bushings to make the shocks fit, but they worked well. Lowered it an inch or so.

I wouldn't think the Rebel shocks would work too well for my 210 pound self.

My wife says our Rebel looks like it has two sets of saddlebags when I ride it. Ha! I ride it sometimes anyway.

 

You can also keep an eye on eBay for some Progressive shocks. They come as short as 11" and you can get just about any springrate you want. I managed to pick up some brand new 440's for about $100+shipping.