Thank you. That's the answer I was looking for all along.

Sometimes I don't feel like I have good control. May all just be in my head.

 

are you sure about the tire on the rear? i have a 200 as well, but it is a hd tire, 200/50-18. which when you use the tire size calculator gives you a .66'' difference, which would equate to raising the rear 1/3''....

 

Raising it a third of an inch and all this?

 

OOPS!

the sidewall number is a PERCENTAGE of the tire width...

so 55% of 200

is taller than 55% of 180


Mike

 

There was a time when we all just got on a bike and rode! We do nowadays have the ready means of lowering bikes, or reducing saddle height to make life easier, but it is rather like riding a pedal cycle. The saddle should be at the correct height for comfort while riding, not when stationary! Good control comes with experience and familiarity and things like sturdy thick-soled riding boots can help. I've never been able to flat-foot my Glide, but I have owned it for over 20 years now!

 

This reminds of a meeting I had with a stranger at Faribault Harley Davidson 3 years ago. I had been in the store talking to the service writer about bumping my 88 to a 95. I went outside and noticed a rather dimunitive fellow with a black and white colored touring bike next to mine. As I looked over his bike I noticed that his seat was basically a piece of metal with a 1/4" of padding and some vinyl. He was fooling around with some progressive shocks on the rear and didn't really look to be in a very good mood. I started a conversation with him about his ride and he told me he had just traded in his 4 year old heritage softail with 126,000 miles on this low mile police bike. He had been modifying it to fit for the last month or so and his $900 shocks weren't doing the job. The service writer must have been tired of dealing with the guy and his attempts at making the bike fit and came across as such. This guy had raved to me about how he rode upwards of 25,000 miles a year on his softail and just loved it. Now he was trying to make a bike fit that in no way would. He had drank the touring kool-aid and was determined to ride a bike that didn't fit.

 

I'll have to check that out when I get home from work.

I had a low speed wreck on the bike at the beginning of last month. That may be what is causing it. Had to get on the brakes real hard and basically just laid it over. I keep thinking if the bike had been lower to the ground I may have been able to hold it up.....maybe.

 

You missed the point, preload is the same no matter the wheel combo

 

That is correct but the small increase in height the OP is talking about should not be noticeable when he's sitting on the bike if equipped with aftermarket shocks. If he's running stock HD air shocks, more then likely their not budging from their eye to eye length and he may feel the difference which if I'm reading the tread correctly, he is.........Plus there's no pre-load adjustment on HD stock air shocks.....Their Junk!!!!

 

If preload is set properly on aftermarket shocks the ride height will go up the same as stock Harley shocks. Having preload is not going to make the raise less.