Lowered foot pegs for your XII, more leg room

[JimK]

Sounds interesting. How does it affect shifting? Does lowering 2 1/2 - 3 inches feel odd in the way it shifts?

Shifting is better and more natural than before. Doesn't feel odd at all.

[JimK]

My brake pedal has to be level with my foot peg. I see yours is above the foot peg and probably way to high ?

Where I have it set is to high. I just haven't moved it down yet. I'll probably do that tomorrow. I'll report back when done.

[the2knights]

Just my 2 cents. I have been watching this thread with interest since it started. I know a lot of us, including myself, have made modifications that we not only think are are in improvement in comfort, but in some way alter the bike in a way that some may consider unsafe.
i completely understand the desire for more leg room, but I would have some pretty big concerns with lowering the pegs, especially that far. I know not everybody likes to lean over as far as the bike will allow all the time, but with the pegs that low I could really see getting into trouble pretty quickly. A lot of parking lot entrances have a little 1" raise on entry, and would hate to be turning in and have it grab the end of the peg real hard instead of just folding up. Even a foot getting ripped off a peg while leaning over in a corner could end up with broken bones.
I am interested to see how it works for those who try it, but with that limited amount of ground clearance would hope you take it pretty easy while learning how far you can lean!

[JimK]

That too concerned me when I was doing this but this does not change the fold up functionality of the foot pegs. They still work as designed from the factory. I thought that the pegs hitting the ground at steep lean angles would be problematic but I haven't found that to be true yet. The total drop is approximately 2 1/2". I have made steep turns and u-turns but my acorn nuts on the bottom of my foot pegs are as of now still unblemished. I think in steep turns something other than the foot pegs would be the first to scrape. Maybe someone who has scraped metal in a sharp turn could add exactly what contacts the ground first. I don't know as I haven't been able to scrape anything on my Voyager. You are right that each person doing this mod has to determine if it is right for them. For me I just got tired of having dirt bike positioned foot pegs on a otherwise excellent touring machine. Time will tell and it's always good to get multiple comments to insure all avenues are considered.

[the2knights]

I can tell you the exact order things start to scrape. Left turn, footpeg, then the center stand primary, if you still keep going the end of the exhaust tip turn down will hit. You really can't go any farther to the left as the center stand is pretty solid and the bike starts getting pretty light. Right turn, footpeg, then end of exhaust tip, that is pretty flexible so after that the bottom of the lever to the rear brake pedal. You can still go a little farther after that but footpeg is folded up a little bit by then. I run a car tire in the rear and keep the pressure up pretty high in shocks. The car tire is slightly taller, so you can lean a little farther over, but the order of hard parts hitting the ground is still the same.

[Ditto]

If anyone knows how far a VXII will lean it is Ken Knight. I have seen him ride.

[JimK]

I can tell you the exact order things start to scrape. Left turn, footpeg, then the center stand primary, if you still keep going the end of the exhaust tip turn down will hit. You really can't go any farther to the left as the center stand is pretty solid and the bike starts getting pretty light. Right turn, footpeg, then end of exhaust tip, that is pretty flexible so after that the bottom of the lever to the rear brake pedal. You can still go a little farther after that but footpeg is folded up a little bit by then. I run a car tire in the rear and keep the pressure up pretty high in shocks. The car tire is slightly taller, so you can lean a little farther over, but the order of hard parts hitting the ground is still the same.

Thanks I appreciate the info. That's actually good that the pegs hit first cause they fold up, center stand not so much. It sounds like you have many hours invested in your research. Thanks again

[JimK]

My brake pedal has to be level with my foot peg. I see yours is above the foot peg and probably way to high ?

I have moved it down some. This is about as far down as you can get it I found out. The brake lever is very curved. I had to remove mine and heat it with a torch and take out some of the bend.

This is what I ended up with. It is fine for me but might not be for others. Thanks for looking.

[JimK]

Well Ken you have a good point on ground clearance. Today was the first time riding two up and the combination of lowered pegs and less ground clearance riding two up contributed to me scraping the pegs around two corners. I guess I will have to re-evaluate this project. Thanks for getting my brain thinking.

[kjsett]

Well, depending on whether you ride two-up, or not, the Trunk Extenders will give your passenger extra room (about 3 inches -- REALLY makes a difference!), which will buy the driver an inch, or two, of relief, if the passenger was crowding them. The other neat thing with the Trunk Extenders, is that you gain some open storage space, between the passenger seat, and the trunk -- enough to bungy down two rain suits, in cases, and a full-sized bike cover, or other stuff. That is quite convenient when touring two-up. The Trunk Extenders are worth every penny, easy to install, and they pay for themselves on every single tour... Cheers!

I checked the AVA Tech center for something about the Trunk Extender Installation, what is the basic gist of the installation? I have one that came with my bike and would like to use it.

This peg mod is great also, I, too, noticed that my legs are higher up and that does not communicate well to my lower back. Will have to add this to m to do list.

Finally did it, got my extenders in today (about an hour job) while also pulling the speakers (don't use them, so don't want to break them). Definitely worth the money, i think. Time will tell.
I wouldn't mind lowering the pegs, but don't have time for fabrication. Maybe if a kit was available??
Anyway, thanks for my extenders.
Ken

[keithert]

Would you be able to repost the pictures? They are no longer showing up from photobucket. If you IM me I can send you an e-mail address. For some reason the forum wont' let me look at your profile and IM you.

[JimK]

Since doing more riding with the foot pegs lowered I think that this is not a viable option. Riding two up I found that my pegs would touch from time to time. There just isn’t enough space to lower it where it would do any good. I checked photobucket to see what it would take to allow third party hosting of the pictures I posted. They wanted me to pay $500 a year for that. I don’t think I’ll be doing that. If anyone knows a free option for posting pictures on this site, let me know.

[cranky]

... IIRC.. Shutterfly and I use Google blogs to put stuff in and share pics etc... JM2C

[cranky]

.. just happened to think... I don't do that very much.. GBG

Shutterfly may need a sigh in... if Ya use google blogs methinks folks can see 'um...