I have built a motorized Road bike. Yes, skinny tires and all.
I love it, but want to lower my center of gravity. Other than welding, I was trying to come up with other ideas.
I happened upon an extra fork I had laying around that was exactly, by accident the same size as my current one but with more of a forward rake.
After I put that on, the front of the bike sat almost an inch lower. Then I figured a way to lower the neck on my handle bars about 2 inches by modifying the neck mounted road bike shifter so that it would mount on the handle bars. This allowed me to move the fuel tank forward a little, which is good because the bike is VERY tail heavy. Then I cut on the seat tube part of the frame that was almost 2 inches taller than the top tube of the frame. I was able to lower the seat at leas another inch. This actually involved breaking a weld. The factory had welded the seat post clamp to the bike. (PITA!)
I rode it around a little, and it seems to have helped.
Next I am going to lower the Ammo Can panniers about 3 inches down from their current mounting position.
I would like to modify the frame, but have to take it to a welder to do that.
I added a heavy duty intertube to the front wheel. No more flats for me. (Already had on in the rear.)
I also took the head of the engine and shaved it down a little to increase the compression. It actually seamed to start a little easier? Thought that was odd.
It looked like the head gasket might have had a slight leak. That may have made it harder to start I guess.
I bought a new fuel tank off ebay today. It is off of a 1973 Yamaha AT1 125 Enduro.
I finally can get rid of the peanut tank! Well, after I clean the new one up and paint it. It has a 1.8gallon capacity instead of the current .5 gallon. Looking forward to that.
I should be able to ride to work and back all week on 1 tank of fuel.
THAT IS AWESOME!
In the pictures, the front wheel is off now because I am taking it in for new bearings tomorrow. I can feel some grinding in there, and I don't want a wheel to lock up at high speeds.