Posted by Hal Pollner on March 26, 2002 at 04:29:30:
Hi, Odar!
Regarding your desire to lower your Savage, I'm furnishing instructions, and you can also consult Bryan Felsher's 3-14-02 posting, as he did the same thing a few days before I did. We both lowered our bikes by substituting solid metal links for the stock shocks, with the holes in the links closer than the shocks, which allowed the frame to drop in relation to the swing arm. Bryan used aircraft-grade aluminum, and I used 1.5" X 0.25" steel bar stock, which I bought at a building materials store. Lowering your Savage this way will result in a rough, jolting ride, as the rear suspension will be gone! Stay on smooth streets and roads! Bryan used 8.131" hole spacing in his links, and I used 8.250" spacing. My steel links are 9.75" long. Bryan's bike is slightly lower than mine, but I wanted a little more clearance under the fender to allow for a future 140-90/15 tire.
After drilling the holes, you can bolt the 2 links together and round off the ends with a heavy-duty grinder, or leave them square-cut.
The hole size is 0.548" or 14mm. You can drill them undersize in a drill press and open them up with a rotary file, but make them close-fitting to the shock mounting studs! Since my links are only 0.25" thick, I needed spacers to cover the excess shoulder length of the shock mounting studs. I used 5/8" hex bolts drilled out to clear the studs. They look good!
If you use steel, you can either polish them and have them chrome plated, or paint them gloss black to match the frame of the bike. This will lower the tail end of your Savage about 4", and the seat height will be about 3" lower than stock. Your cylinder will be perfectly vertical, and your forks will have a rake of 37.5 degrees! Have fun...but don't get rid of your shocks!
HAL