You know a motorcycle's ground clearance is a very important measure that every motorcycle manufacturer tries to specify clearly in their specification table for a motorcycle. The measurement shows the clearance length between the ground level and the lowest middle part, therefore, the engine sump of the motorcycle. Hence a lower ground clearance is an absolute demerit of a motorcycle for which a motorcycle rider often struggles and here I am Saleh describing how to increase ground clearances of a motorcycle that may help you out.

How To Increase Ground Clearances Of A Motorcycle

Low ground clearance actually is a very important and ineligible issue that is quite common in street-focused motorcycles, especially in modern sportbikes and a few other custom-choppers and even in sport-focused naked street motorcycles. Accordingly, modern heavy-weighted adventure motorcycles which require thicker skid plates also may struggle with low ground clearance issues.

Whatsoever, the ground clearance measure actually describes how easily a fully loaded motorcycle can pass over the obstacles, and nothing hits or prevents from below the motorcycle on the sensitive part like the engine sump, exhaust system, or cooling setups, etc. that’s why it’s so important. Thus not even street motorcycles especially off-road oriented motorcycles need higher and maximum possible ground clearances.

Therefore, whatever the manufacturing and structural reason that’s not our today's focus but it’s especially optimizing the center of gravity of a motorcycle that is the significant cause of lower ground clearances.   Hence if you are struggling with low-ground clearance issues in your motorcycle then you have some solutions which perhaps compromise the absolute center of gravity but within a safe margin, you may have a little more ground clearances and here are globally accepted solutions.

Lifting down the front suspension 

Lifting down the front suspension to the last length is a viable technique to increase a motorcycle's ground clearance. Most commonly the motorcycle manufacturer keeps the front shock absorber position a few millimeters to a centimeter upper than the YOKE level. Accordingly, by lifting down the shock absorber to the YOKE level a user can avail a few millimeters to a centimeter more ground clearance to his/her motorcycle.

Increasing the front suspension length 

Increasing the front suspension length using an aftermarket suspension length increasing kit is also a popular aftermarket solution to increase the ground clearance of a motorcycle. Here length increasing kit can be fixed on the top of the front fork and by lifting the fork down to YOKE level a user can avail desired ground clearance in his/her motorcycle.

Using a rear suspension lifting kit

In some cases, a rear suspension lifting kit can be used to increase the rear suspension length especially when the front suspension length has increased and needs a tweak at the rear. Here linking the lifting kit to the rear suspension a user can very easily increase the rear suspension length and can adjust the ground clearance easily together tweaking the front suspension length.

Stiffening the rear suspension

Stiffening the rear suspension also impacts ground clearance hence it’s a technique to increase the ground clearance of a motorcycle that tweaks and increases the length for a few millimeters. It’s an eligible technique for heavy-weighted riders but not a good option for the light weighted riders.

Using larger tires

Using larger diameter tires likewise with increased sidewall ratio is another low-cost and very easy technique to increase the ground clearance for a few millimeters to a centimeter. Perhaps your motorcycle stock tire measure is 120/60-17” and you can switch to the 120/70-17” or 120/80-17” and can get around a centimeter of increased wheel height. Thus you can avail of that amount of ground clearance on your motorcycle. But you have to compromise a certain range of torque, power delivery, and also fuel economy.

Reshaping the exhaust assembly

Some modern motorcycle comes with a heavier exhaust system that may feature a heavy and bigger catalytic converter underneath the engine sump. That surely decreases a motorcycle's ground clearance. Hence slicing out for spaces and reshaping the assembly with aftermarket exhaust assembly can be a nice solution to increase the ground clearance in such a motorcycle.

Reshaping skid plate design

Some adventure motorcycles these days come with bulky stock skidplates that take lots of space under the engine which is just absolutely good for nothing. Replacing with reinforced and reshaped solid skid plates a user can easily increase the ground clearance by around a centimeter or more.

So guys here were the most common techniques I described above on how to increase ground clearances of a motorcycle. Perhaps one or more steps may require for a motorcycle to increase the ground clearance and get the motorcycle in a perfectly balanced position. Whatsoever, no motorcycle is 100% perfect for everyone and needs a few adjustments to find possibly the lowest compromise. Thus do personalize your motorcycle according to your needs and have fun, thanks.