seat lowering link

[Mike Zarchi]

Hi, does anyone know what size or how long lowering link I should buy to lower my seat 1 to 1.5 inch?

[Mike Zarchi]

21 hours ago, DuncMan said:

Look at either the 30mm or 40mm lowering links for sale and check their lengths in the specs. If you struggle I’ll try to measure mine on the bike for you. 

 

[Mike Zarchi]

Hi again, I ordered one from Amazon with the dimension of 6" center to center of the mounting holes, but could not find how many inches would lower the seat after installation so decided to hold off on that till I find out.

[motonap]

I just installed the Kouba T700-1 lowering link on my T7 and dropped the front by 25mm to match the link. This has given me the overall 1 inch drop in seat height, and it is a fantastic 1 inch drop from tippy toes to a comfortable get my feet on the ground.

[Ray Ride4life]

Topic titel is not correct.
TS does not want a link to an upholsterer to lower the seat but the sizes for the link arms to lower the complete bike.

[Lewie]

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Edited December 23, 2022 by Lewie

[TexasT700]

As a rider who installed a kouba 1 inch lowering links, I found that it was a bad idea for me. It changes the  dynamics of how the factory engineered the suspension and makes it very difficult to set rider sag correctly.  I weigh 225 with gear and a 95 nm shock spring was not strong enough to get 30% sag even with preload maxed out. I replaced the lowering links back to factory and only about 10 clicks of preload gets sag correct. The bike also rides better, more compliant suspension. I also put the Corbin seat back on, making bike feel even taller. I accept that to have a nice ride, the price I pay is balls of feet toch only. As much as I love this bike, am considering trading it for a 2023 ktm 890 S. I had ktm 790 adv briefly b4 the T700.  I was happy with lower links, until I tried get sag right.

YMMV

[TexasT700]

Mike,

I measured kouba t700-2 links at 6 1/8 inch. 1 inch lowering. Ship them to you for 65.00!

[TexasT700]

Unless you are a svelte 150 to 160 pounds, get those 2 cheap pieces of steel out of there and go back to factory links.

You will find the bike a much more comfortable ride, without having to put an gigantic spring on shock!

[Mike Zarchi]

Hi, I appreciate all your feedbacks, but anyone knows that there are some other solutions to keep the seat lower?

[Mike Zarchi]

Ho Duncman, thanks for your offer, but I can't risk the price and time to put in for that purpose. What I like to do as an alternative soften the shocks to see how it'll work, after the weather warms up.

On 12/22/2022 at 3:20 AM, DuncMan said:

Look at either the 30mm or 40mm lowering links for sale and check their lengths in the specs. If you struggle I’ll try to measure mine on the bike for you. 

 

[RichS]

Yamaha offers a 20mm lowering link (which I use) and I´d say that anything more than that is going to adversely affect the suspension action and the bike´s performance.  I noticed a difference with the 20mm lowering link, it definitely softens the initial action.  I swapped to a stiffer shock spring and that made it better.  You need to also adjust the front to keep the bike level, otherwise you will change the front end geometry (rake and trail).  Yamaha notes that the front forks can be raised in the triple clamps up to 18mm more than the stock location.  Any more than that and you´ll be clamping the forks in a location that is not designed to take the clamping forces of the triple trees.

For lowering the bike more than this, you should look into modifying the forks and shock internals (I have a different bike that has shortened shock and forks, but have not looked into it for the T7).  I found that the OEM low seat helped slightly in foot placement, but was not comfortable for me.  Got a Seat Concepts low seat, and like it so far.

 

Or just accept that one foot down is good enough.

[motonap]

On 12/23/2022 at 10:53 PM, motonap said:

I just installed the Kouba T700-1 lowering link on my T7 and dropped the front by 25mm to match the link. This has given me the overall 1 inch drop in seat height, and it is a fantastic 1 inch drop from tippy toes to a comfortable get my feet on the ground.

I did not realize this when I got the links installed, but the suspension setup that I had adjusted with the stock link just does not work anymore. After spending a couple of days out riding gravel and going over rutts and dips, I have noticed that the bike feels all stiff and locked up. 

Yes, geometry has been affected and thereby the overall physics of the bike as well. A good friend did warn me against lowering and recommended upskilling instead to make do with the stock seat height and I had a plethora of reasons as to why I wanted the bike lowered. Now I am contemplating going back to full height!

[Simmons1]

11 minutes ago, motonap said:

I did not realize this when I got the links installed, but the suspension setup that I had adjusted with the stock link just does not work anymore. After spending a couple of days out riding gravel and going over rutts and dips, I have noticed that the bike feels all stiff and locked up. 

Yes, geometry has been affected and thereby the overall physics of the bike as well. A good friend did warn me against lowering and recommended upskilling instead to make do with the stock seat height and I had a plethora of reasons as to why I wanted the bike lowered. Now I am contemplating going back to full height!

Lowering links make the rear softer not more stiff. Unless, it is too soft now and you are bottoming the shock all the time.  I was always told the rule of thumb for lowering links, is  you lower the forks half the amount of the lowering link. So a with 20mm lower link, you lower the forks 10mm and so on.  After you are done, the rear sag and clickers need to be adjusted to compensate for the now softer rear suspension. If the bike is already borderline too soft/ too a low spring rate in the rear the lowering link put you over the edge bottoming more and more stiff.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Simmons1

[Mike Zarchi]

Thanks all for the comments.