Why spendy lowering?

So this came up in the comments for my last entry, but I thought it was worth breaking it out into its own entry.

The question was, why go for the amazingly spendy professional lowering instead of using lowering links and raising the forks in the triple tree?

The short answer is that it was completely personal preference.

The long answer:

Lowering links change the angle of the shock, thus changing the compression rate. I’ve heard from many People On The Internet that it can cause a much stiffer/harsher ride. If this were just my daily commuter, that wouldn’t be a problem, given my low weight. I tour, though, and since I’m still doomed to the stock seat, I didn’t want to add more stiffness.

Next, there’s a very limited amount of space for raising the forks in the tree. There’s really only about 1.5 centimeters of room there, and I’d be a little nervous to do the whole 1.5 cm. The mental image of causing the tire/front fender to bottom out under emergency braking….no thanks.

So, for me, all that was worth blowing my entire February budget. Again, I really think that it’s a personal preference thing.