Your concern is well justified. If youre dragging parts now with the stock ride height, you could be asking for serious trouble by lowering the CCT. Maybe you could play with the rear shock psi a bit to gain some height when needed? I lived in So Cal for many years and greatly enjoyed riding many canyon roads. Stay safe!

 

just don't lean as far

 

Go with airride so you can air up when you are going to ride aggressive or air down when cruising down the main drag

 

You have to give to get.. you cant ride your bagger like a rice burner and lower it for the look. You have to learn your limits when you slam your bike. So your decision should be ... do you like the look... or do you want to drag a knee LOL. Just sayin...
Mike

 

a sport bike rider once told me he had to change his footpegs periodically when he ground down the nub on the bottom of his foot peg to a certain point. with an air ride set up whats to prevent someone from airing up too high and being able to bypass a predetermined safe lean angle ? just a thought . jqueen, i know what you mean about scraping floor boards with these beasts,,, and for some reason i'm not scared sh!tless like on my previous bikes.

 

I scrape my CCT once and a while in its stock form so I will not mess with its ride height like I did my VTX1300R. I had put Progressive suspension on it and was always dragging my floor boards and pipes on it and if I really pushed it I would drag the floor board brackets. That being said, I still like to ride the mountains around me and do that more than cruise around the main drag and towns, if I stuck around town I'd probably put the air ride on it or just lower it and know I would just have to slow down on the curves.

 

Nature of the beast.
Lower to ground=Less clearance.

Another thing to think about is stability. You are changing the dynamics of a preset range. May or may not be an issue, but something to think about.

 

You have to make a sacrifice for the look my vision is lowered about 1" front and 1 1/2" rear. You just don't push it as hard or choose a different line.

 

Nature of the beast.
Lower to ground=Less clearance.

Another thing to think about is stability. You are changing the dynamics of a preset range. May or may not be an issue, but something to think about.

Actually when you lower the bikes they handle much nicer. The center of gravitiy is lowered...so the handling increases. As for raising the bike to high? Actually the highest setting on the air ride is actually a little below stock. When installing air ride we want the bike to go as low as possible without hitting. This results in a shorter height in order to accomplish this. Its no different if you install a lowering link? you are giving away that extra lift. The air ride is far superior to a stock factory shock. You have more adjustment at your finger tips.

 

+1 on what Mike said. You have to decide whether the trade-off is worth it. My last bike was a 2010 ANSS Vision which was lower thanthe regular Visiondue to the 8-Ball shock theyused that year. 3/4s of the miles I put on were circuitous mountain roads and there seemed to be almost no limit as to how deep you could make it dive. It was one of the things I loved most about that bike.

I now have a 2009 ANSS Vision and it's a good 1/2 to 1 inch lower than the the last. I've definitely had to adapt to the new heightby beingslightly less aggressive in the technical stuff, but the bike still gobbles up the crooked blacktop. On the plus side, I like thelower look and feel of the bike. It's difficult to say for sure, because my last Vision was so agile, but Ibelieve thisone might be ever so slightly more nimble when it comes to ultra-slowmaneuverability.

If you do decide to lower your bike, I would suggest buying a bash plate from HMD or the Doc. It will be well worth the money.

 

Actually when you lower the bikes they handle much nicer. The center of gravitiy is lowered...so the handling increases. As for raising the bike to high? Actually the highest setting on the air ride is actually a little below stock. When installing air ride we want the bike to go as low as possible without hitting. This results in a shorter height in order to accomplish this. Its no different if you install a lowering link? you are giving away that extra lift. The air ride is far superior to a stock factory shock. You have more adjustment at your finger tips.

I guess that would be the difference between a professional lowerering and a novice doing it.
FWIW, it "can" be an issue, and I have yet to ride in or on anything that was lowered and it was "better". I will admit some are better than others, and not sure I have ever been on a Pro-done job.

Still changing rake, geometry, and ride hight has its own dynamics that haveto be considered. Riding style may play a lot of it too.

As always, YMMV and Cheers

 

filler panels have nothing to do with leaning
How ever bag extensions do

 

Thanks for lots of good answers. I don't have a canyon bike because I don't want to drag my knee. That being said the XC handles so good I am going faster than I probably should anyway. Lower looks awesome but if I didn't want to lean it way over I would get a CanAm or something. The lean and linking turns together is what makes riding like flying. For me, the slow crawl through the canyons or anywhere else is just wrong. I love to ride and love the twistys. I guess I should leave well enough alone and when I eat up enough of the floor board, just replace them. lol

 

I think I need to look into getting or making little wear plates for my floor boards and my bag guards as they are some time drug too.

 

Ba guard plates being developed now.

 

Ba guard plates being developed now.

I guess I'll haveto watch out for them. You know your site is dangerous to my health, I see too many things I'd like to have if I ordered them I'd be sleeping in the bike/car trailer instead of the house.

 

Ba guard plates being developed now.

Make them Magnesium. They will spark great at night.

 

Make them Magnesium. They will spark great at night.

Titanium!

 

I will need both for my floor boards and the bag guards, oh and one for my back where my wife likes to hit me when I scare her when I drag in a curve. lol

 

This is what eventually happens when you try to make a bagger do what its not designed to do. Dragging floor boards is not really a smart thing to do on an 800lb bike???? The dumb ass is lucky he did not break his ankle or leg.
Just sayin....

 

This is what eventually happens when you try to make a bagger do what its not designed to do. Dragging floor boards is not really a smart thing to do on an 800lb bike???? The dumb a$$ is lucky he did not break his ankle or leg.
Just sayin....

I ride this corner almost every weekend. This is where my profile picture was taken. Riders go off at this corner all of the time. It is not a hard corner. The camera guy (rockstorephotos.com) is always set up there and has all kinds of pics of crashes. Ride within your limit. Don't try to do more than you or your bike can do. A camera corner is not like some chick you want to impress. You could screw up your ride, others rides or far worse. Oh, one more thing. Watched this video. Dumb ass. lol