Nice site you've got, here loads of useful info.

My other half had a mk2 years ago which I got on well with, I am only a 5 foot 3, 8.5 stone female so off road bikes are all bit high for me.
So after finally submitting to my WR250F really being to high for me I decided to get a newer one so got an AR recently. It is a nice bike, only thing is it is higher than the mk2 we had before.
We thought that must have just been because it was an AR but there is a thread on here saying the mk2,mk3 and AR's are all 885mm. I have had a look back through the receipts and it had been modified probably for a taller heavier person which is just my luck. It has had CR front forks fitted and something done to the back but not sure exactly what
I am going to try pushing the forks up through the yokes a bit as that helped make my CR250 more manageable for me. As for the rear end, my OH has had an idea that we could mod it by moving the mounting holes up abit, I have stolen someone elses picture and put two red dots where we thought we could move it to.

<a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x6/h ... forks1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x6/h ... forks1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I just don't want to have the same problem as this person but because it is to short.

[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x6/h ... forks1.jpg[/IMG]

At present we are refitting the indicators as I tend to use it more on the road than off and feel a bit of a prat sticking my arms out.

I have tried the pictures in two formats but neither seems to work on this forum, any ideas why?

I think the picture will only post when you donate, but not sure. otherwise just post the html link
They are also my pictures!!
The shock there is a CR125 shock and is about 2 inches longer than a standard crm shock.
The easiest way to drop the back end it get some new dog bones (linkage plates) made. They should be about 110mm between centres (Mike is this correct?) this will drop the back down quite a bit.
make sure once you do, you set the suspension up to your riding as you might need to stiffen the preload.
Jon

Welcome to the site.

The standard AR seat height is 895mm according to the info here:
http://www.honda.co.jp/factbook/motor/C ... 7-015.html

So the AR is fractionally taller than the others. The CR forks are longer but I'm not sure by how much. Dropping the forks through the yokes will get a bit less height in the front and slackening off the preload will drop the rear. It depends how much you want to spend to reduce the height but you could get the shock shortened and re-sprung or change the length of the dog bones that attach to the rear linkage. At least that way it would be reversible when you come to sell again. You could try locating some standard AR forks (they are better than the others). Maybe someone with an AR would like some CR forks with the additional adjustments that gives.

Hi there, and welcome to the site, as Jonerow, mentioned, i played around with with, linkage[ Dog bones] plates, i found for my weight, err hmm, 13.5 boulders , 10mm extra on the length, gave about 30mm reduction in seat height.
Now far be it from me to dissuade you from your purchase choice, but, have you considered some of the already lowered machines, some of which are,
CRF230----EXCELLENT little bike
or
GAS GAS 250 PAMPERA,
Yamaha's Serow 225cc, again a great underestimated bike.
Mike

Thanks for all the responses, hope you didn't miond me borrowing your pcitures Jonorow, Mike that 10mm extra, how long did that make the link in total between centres, is it the 110mm that Jonorow suggests?

We have a DRZ for messing about but having been used to full size bikes it is like riding a kids bike, one of the best proportioned bikes for me was my first bike which was a yamaha TDR which was great for pottering around London but at only 125cc and no real off road capabilities it isn't one I would get now (although I sold it to my little brother so it is still languishing in my parents garage if I did fancy it back) I have thought about the TTR but apparently they aren’t that great off road and rather bulky to manuver.

I never had any problems with the mk2 so I guess that little 10mm makes a big difference to me in the fact that it is the difference in getting the ball of one foot down or just the toes of one foot, oh to be a bit taller. I had a CR250 (till some scum stole it) that was ok for off road when I wasn't needing to reach the ground much. My OH isn't much taller but he has been riding since he was a kid and just has a ton better balance than me so it causes him no problems.

We have just finished fitting the back indicators and I am going to fabricate some brackets for the front indicators tonight as it doesn't have an original front light or anything to attach them too so I could ahve a go at knocking something together for the linkages as well. We have a few CR's so if I come across some AR forks we could save them as spares for them. On the reciept it says they have put spacers on the front forks although I will have to a look in the manual for where that might be and if it is making the forks even longer.

Thanks for the advice about the linkages, we are thinking about going down the easier root of getting an extra seat and making it lower profile as it will be easy to swop back when required for starters. At the moment the back suspension has no sag so I'm going to adjust that so it might sink alittle under my weight and have a good at the preload too maybe.

According to OH's dad back in his day they use to stick a Triumph 2000 shock in their off road bikes to lower them, not sure that will work for me though.

OH rides the bike to and I have recently caught him looking at some on ebay so I don’t think it will be long before he can't resist getting his own as he did love his old one.

I would buy a second hand shock for your AR and work from that point rather than messing around with a shock that was not made to fit the bike and will be wrong for a whole heap of reasons - not just that it is too long. Look in the 'FAQ-check here first' to see what can and can't be done.

Rising the forks in the yokes/dropping the yokes on the forks is a good idea.

Hi, yes, the set i had made were 110 mm centres, but, this does lower the whole plot, so, ruts, can become more of a problem, as your toes, may have a tendency to get pulled of the pegs.
Mike

I've had another look at your photos. The shock you have pictured in the linkage shot is from a CR I think. The other shock on your photobucket site (with the yellow spring and the red dots) is from a CRM AR/Mk3

They are definately different .

Use the AR shock with some extended 'dog bones'.


You should post like - http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x6/h ... forks1.jpg Or become a supporter to be able to post photo into text.

Thanks Mike for the info, I only have little feet (kids boots so no VAT for me) so probably less of a problem.

Those pictures are not mine I just borrowed them to illustrate what I was talking about KnackeredMK1 but thanks for the advice.

It seems like the AR has the standard rear and on closer inspection it also looks like someone took of the CR forks that were fitted and put the standard ones back on at some point.

We have pushed the forks up through the yokes going by what it says in the CR manual (front end looks similar) but they say to only push them up a max of 10mm showing above the top yoke? There is a lip on the forks but not till about another 10mm down but we will see if what we have done is enough before lowering it any more, at least the bike looks more level now.

It is taking an age to do the sag as we need to add alot of turns. We have got it to the right setup for OH but it still needs to go another 50mm to be right for me but I think we'll maybe split the difference, I did get OH to push back end down to the right height with me sat on it and I can get the balls of both feet firmly on the ground at the same time which is luxury. Looks like I might get away without needing the longer linkages if the sag adjustment doesn't make it to soft for OH.

Thanks again for the help will keep you posted on progress, waiting for new brake discs as others are giving next to no stopping power as so worn so another job to add to the list.

OH is looking on sites for his own CRM as I type so I may get to just set it up for me soon LOL

Seeing as the AR is the tallest and firmest suspended of the CRMs - How about swapping your AR to your OH and buying a Mk1 for yourself. You get 15mm less ride height and softer suspension into the bargain .

Funny you mention that, we were watching a mk2 on ebay that wasn't that far away with that in mind but it got taken off on the last day.

We are presently doing battle with the indicators. The back ones are fine and all connected they flash at the correct speed. It is just that the front ones are both on solid when the indictors aren't on. It seems from posts on here this is a frequent problem so I guess that is the way they come. Found an old post on here about connecting the front indicators to the back ones instead which we are going to try but just wondering if that will get them flashing at the wrong speed again (we don't have internal witing drawing for relay so not sure how it is connected up inside), time for a bit of trial and error I think.

hpm wrote:Funny you mention that, we were watching a mk2 on ebay that wasn't that far away with that in mind but it got taken off on the last day.

We are presently doing battle with the indicators. The back ones are fine and all connected they flash at the correct speed. It is just that the front ones are both on solid when the indictors aren't on. It seems from posts on here this is a frequent problem so I guess that is the way they come. Found an old post on here about connecting the front indicators to the back ones instead which we are going to try but just wondering if that will get them flashing at the wrong speed again (we don't have internal witing drawing for relay so not sure how it is connected up inside), time for a bit of trial and error I think.

Others may be wiser, but, is this not used as " running lights " system, i have the same on my MK3, and it's no problem, everything all works fine, and it didn't upset the MOT guy, so it may prove useful to leave as is, anything that makes you stand out to the Numpty, car drivers has to be a good thing.
Mike

Well that went as expected, they flash double time when you connect the front to the back ones. We tried other watt lamps but no change.
We tried disconnecting a whole load of different connections in to the relay, one at a time, to see if we could find the 12v input that keeps the front ones on but it must be some internal connection as it either worked the same way or didn't work at all.

We have done a fair amount of metering out and incase it is of any use to anyone else we got the following from the outputs.
The blue/black wire does the display on the penel to show the indicators are on
The light blue/black is the front right indicator
The light blue/white is the rear right indicator
The orange/black is the front left indicator
The orange/white is the rear left indicator
I would take a guess the black wire is the 12 volt supply for the relay
And I am not sure about the grey?


Wire colours….…..no indication……Left indicator on………..Right indicator off

blue/black………...…..0 volts……….fluctuating voltage…………fluctuating voltage
light blue/black …...12 volts…………….12 volts………….....…….fluctuating voltage
light blue/white.......0 volts………………0 volts…………….....….flucuating voltage
grey……………….......12 volts….….fluctuating voltage……..……fluctuating voltage
black………….....…….12 volts……………..12 volts……………….....……12 volts
orange/black……..….12 volts……….fluctuating voltage………………12 volts
orange/white….……..0 volts………..fluctuating voltage……………….0 volts

Should I have posted this in the technical bit??

Back to the drawing board

[quote="knackeredMk1"]Seeing as the AR is the tallest and firmest suspended of the CRMs - How about swapping your AR to your OH and buying a Mk1 for yourself. You get 15mm less ride height and softer suspension into the bargain :?: .[/quote]

Had a very productive chrimbo and came back from 5 days at my folks place in Surrey with Boredus's CRM MK2 which feels massively different to the height of the AR which my OH was more than happy to take over.

Just have to sort out a slight wiring glitch before having a spin around the lanes, was going to have a go around our field but it has road tyres and had no grip at all. The rear brake light only works when you don't have the lights on. With the lights on when you brake the speedo light flickers but nothing on the rear unit. Hoping to have time to look at it tonight before OH's family descend for a few days as it seems likely someone has managed to put both the brake light wires and rear light wires into the same connector and it is feeding back to the speedo light which should be easiy enough to sort.