1983 XC 250 Lowering Ride Height

Restoring my 83 xc250. I am 5'10" and the bike seems a little tall for me, at least when getting on the bike or just sitting on it. It feels ok when riding but I do not have a lot of time on it. I can see it being a little difficult to get a foot down on uneven trails without laying the bike over. I plan on sending the ITC Ohlins to Drew at WER for rebuilding and am considering having him lower the shocks about 1 inch. I realize the forks will also have to be lowered but was wondering if anyone out there in huskyland has lowered their suspension and how does the bike work for you? Thanks.

You can lower the front forks by using WR damping rods. This will lower the front and not affect the performance of the forks

Great info. Thanks!

I've lowered several old Husky's for the altitude-challenged. The WR damper rods... yes! Out back it's super easy during a rebuild. Just a little spacer placed on the shaft to limit full extension to your needs. On some shock length & spring combos you may need shorter springs. If you have a few circlip steps left now, then maybe not.

Thanks for the info Picklito. I will look for a set of WR damper rods. any further mods required on the forks?

need wr swinger too, no? since they are different...if you want to keep the intended geometry

If you can get the WR swingarm great! I do like the shorter wheelbase for woods.

Everyone's comments and advice appreciated. So If I understand correctly, the CR,WR and XC share the same fork legs, fork tubes and springs, but the WR uses a shorter damper rod? It would stand to reason then that no spacers or other mods would be necessary to lower the front end? Thanks to the members of this site that are very willing to share their knowledge/experience with newer Husky owners like myself. I am really starting to get into this resto!

Sell the XC and buy a WR? Not trying to be a smart-alec, but I feel the same way as you: Height challenged. I've started collecting and restoring WR and Historic class bikes because they are not as tall. Love the CR look and suspension, but I'm not fast enough to need the extra travel anyway.

Actually, that would probably be the best thing in the long run. Even if I just used a WR frame I think everything else should work?? Although barely broken in, I do like the the powerband the XC/CR cylinder provides. Since the goal is to have this project finished to ride by April, I doubt a WR frame could be found quick enough to make that happen. Postponed by a year aleady because the left side case was cracked when I bought the bike. It took several months attempting to fix and finding replacement cases. If the XC doesn't work out, then maybe a frame swap would be in order.

Most of us aren't. I'm not. And I love my "little" WR 430.

HVA Factory sells different size shock eyelets. Price is right for a special component
http://hva-factory.com/frame-fixing...pace-alloy-rod-ends-6-different-lengths-pairs

A frame swap between a XC and a WR would be pointless as there is no geometry difference between them. Unless maybe the XC has a bobbed rear loop. The XC engine is the same as the early 1984 250WR. You can get a set of WR damping rods and put a spacer in the ITCs to limit the travel in the rear.

Not much, honestly, but they are a bit ol'skool in their suspension theory. Mainly, soft springs with a lot of preload. When you install the WR damping rods you will find that the springs are now too long. If you cut off a few coils, and refinish the ends so that they install with about 3-5mm preload, you will be well on your way to a better performing fork. I like 10-15wt fork oil 6" from the top.

I'm 5'8" and have a knack for finding stumps, rocks and logs to hop on and off... just ride it man.

a cool trick is to slip a small valve spring into the cr dampers as a top out spring and throw away those poxy washers, this brings the travel back to wr level then just put the wr spacers into the ITCs and your good to go

Thanks everyone for the tips. Just got the ITCs back from WER. Definitely appear to be a little less extension now. Found a set of WR rods to install. Once I disassembled the forks, noticed some pitting in the travel area. I will probably send these to United Surface Finishing in Canton, Ohio for hard chroming. They did a set of fork tubes for me a couple of years ago and the finished product was excellent.

Received quote from Chris at United Surface finishing: $300 to hard chrome 2 fork tubes. Last set of forks (31 mm Showas) hard chromed cost about $250 so not too bad for 40mm tubes.

Chroming is getting hard to find. And fastener plating. They're all in the EPA gunsight.