When lowering tall bikes – like the Yamaha Tenere – people have a tendency to simply fit the revised suspension linkage and leave it at that, happy with a lower seat height. The problem is that the whole steering geometry of the bike will have changed, and in some cases it will be almost unrideable.
This particular Tenere, owned by an long standing customer of ours, came in to be lowered properly. It’s a new bike, so the springs are still fresh, and we started by measuring the bike’s stature as it stood; we then measured it after fitting the linkages and noted the drop at the rear. We could the work out how much to drop the front end (by lowering the yoke through forks) so that all was square again. Overall the bike sat nearly 40mm lower.
We also added some preload to the rear shock as the new leverage ratio has a softening effect. While the bike was in we fitted some heated grips and handguards as it’s going to be used as a long-distance commuter.
If you fit a lowering kit to a bike like this Yamaha Tenere make sure you drop the front end too…
