Just wanted to drop some words of encouragement to those of you on the fence about lowering the front end on the V7III. I dropped mine 12mm as one of my shelter-in-place projects and got to give it a test this morning around a 150 mile loop of interstate & back roads.
Wow, what a difference!
Initial impressions are:
- significantly better front end stability in turns, from long sweepers to tighter bends. The impact is similar to gentle trail-braking on the stock setup.
- better balance overall, the front and rear of the bike feel more connected and in sync now. I actually found myself looking for bumps to admire the improvement, never thought I'd do that with the stock suspension (it still isn't great over undulations, especially sharp ones, not even close, but it is "bump, bump" now rather than "squish-whack, bump".)
- the extra weight transfer to the front has reduced (almost eliminated) the spongy portion at the top of the fork stroke, making regular handling as well as bump response much more composed.
- Braking stability has improved as the fork is more compressed from the start due to above mentioned weight transfer, so fork dive is much less abrupt. Same applies to acceleration our of a corner, the nose feels more planted and lifts up more progressively than before.
- To my surprise, interstate stability didn't diminish (was worried about the now steeper rake), but actually seemed to improve. I think that the above mentioned weight transfer made the front end more planted, so the front tire is less likely to get bumped out of position across expansion joints or over road imperfections when you are going 75mph+.
After I have over 500 miles on this setup and some experience with it 2up, I'll share more impressions and shoot a video, but so far I'm a happy camper and recommend giving it a try. A big "Thank You!" to all of you who posted about how to make the adjustment and their experience with this modification (and Todd for posting the video), glad to have joined the chorus on this subject thanks to y'all blazing that trail.
PS: I'm running lowered & more forward handlebars as well as rearsets, so results with stock V7III ergonomics may not be as dramatic. I'm also 220# in gear, that surely impacts the results as well. But, so far for me, this has been the best $0 and 15min of effort I invested into the bike.