By Matt from Gardner, MA on 05/20/2008
Pros: The aluminum is beautiful and accents the bike. The links are thick, light and won't rust. This is not so for the thin and rusty steel stock links. Be prepared to customize and adjust your suspension like you were never able to do before. These Vortex lowering links have allowed for the best ride ever on my '99 R6.
Cons: The Vortex links look nothing like the picture of what I ordered from the website. I was expecting a completely different looking single piece of metal to replace a different stock piece to lower my bike, not the two links I received. For my 1999 R6 the stock bolts do not fit through the holes already drilled into the Vortex links. I ended up having to drill holes out to around twice the size. You will need to do this or have specialty bolts made from a machine shop to replace the stock ones. There are ball bearings inside where these bolts slide in though, so I preferred to alter the Vortex links instead of replacing the bolts. After drilling out the exact size holes needed for the stock bolts to fit though, I found another problem. Since the high quality Vortex links are so much thicker (~5mm each link) than the stock links, therein lies a new problem. The nuts barely spin on the end of the bolts. There is no space to introduce a lock washer. Drill recessed holes in next?
1999 R6 can now lean more sharply as I have longed for, with a lower center of gravity. So I am pleased overall. From my experience, the stock rear shock is not strong enough for the bike to be lowered 3 inches. I freaked out at first when my order arrived and I though that I was a victim of a shipping error. I was expecting that piece of metal that looked like the one on the website I ordered from. I quickly rushed to see what my receipt showed for product ordered. It was what I held in my hand. And the product line on my receipt reassured me Vortex links were "compatible with R6 years 1999-2001". I am happy that I did not need to return the Vortex links, and instead was able to modify them to work with my year motorcycle. I thought it was crazy that after spending ~130 dollars I needed to do any modification at all to this after market part that was designed for my motorcycle. It does say on the package to have a certified mechanic install the piece. Perhaps we as consumers (due to inflation of the dollar) are expected to pay the mechanic for time to machine the part in order for it to fit our year motorcycle. I hope you found this review helpful in deciding on your purchase. Keep in mind, especially for shorter people, the end results are well worth the cost of replacing this stock part. Plus KneeDraggers.com has super fast and reliable order fulfillment and shipping. Happy Motorcycling!
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