Sorry I don't have pictures at the moment because it is in the shop, but my question is how could the previous owned of my bike lowered it roughly 1 inch or so? It is in the shop right now and the mechanic was having trouble figuring it out. The dogbones appear to be stock, the forks are not raised, nothing looks out of place to the naked eye. The only thing that he thought it could be was that the possibly the rear shock was cut or something to that extent. With it being such a minor lower, its hard to tell. So what other options could there be to lower the bike by this amount that I haven't thought of? The help is much appreciated.

 

If nothing on the outside was changed, then it must be internal. If you cut a little off the fork springs, the front end will be lower. Same with the rear. Does the rear spring look like it's been cut? Look at the ends of the spring.

 

there are spacers in the front forks so you dont even need to cut the fork springs you can just cut those to different length's or remove them.
as for the rear i've no idea... if you say everything is stock, cutting the spring seems silly considering there would be easier ways to lower the rear.
that would be a horrible idea cutting the rear spring, i hope the preload is all the way out or its compressed somehow which would be obvious.

 

Maybe the rear spring was heated up to lower it.

Stupid, but free....

 

Its in the shop getting new spring specced to my weight so I don't think the front springs were cut.

 

Just got done talking with the shop, said they confirmed the dogbones were stock, rear spring wasn't cut, front wasn't altered. The only option left they said was that something was done internally to the rear shock. For the price to get in there and undo whatever the previous owner did, I'll probably just end up replacing the rear shock for cheaper.

 

i dont understand what they mean. the spring holds the bike up.... thats on the outside.
this spring has a collar at the bottom that spins/threads/whatever you want to call it to increase pre-load.
some shocks offer the option of raising the bike or lowering the bike with threads, it seems random on the f4i's or its 02+ years that have longer threads at the top,
where it bolts to the frame, which allow you to put a few washers in it, effectively shimming the rear up.
there is no internals to the shock other than the gas/oil. the spring holds the bike up. the spring is mounted on the cartridge at set points, check for weld marks i say.
but again, its a stupid amount of work to lower a bike, your spring may be tired and out of spec but i find it hard that the shop can't figure it out, actually i dont.

 

They said that the only real option it could be was that there is spacers installed between the frame and the mount, but with the amount of work required to check, it would be more worthwhile to just replace the shock since you are already in there.

 

Just a random question, how do you know it's lowered? and valving can lower the suspension, it is possible to do it on the OEM chit but pointless and expensive. I have a F4 shock for sale if you want it, its not pretty looking but it worked great when I pulled it off.

 

I had them measure the seat height and compare it to the stock height and it came up about 1" shy, also it doesn't sit flush on the kick stand so whoever lowered it didn't bother to shorten the kickstand. Normally I'd be happy to buy it but I need next day shipping so I'll probably order it online tonight, once they get it solved I'll definitely post what the real issue was. Owner before me looked like a cheapscate so I'm sure it wasn't somethig expensive he did to it.