Summary: If you want a fully adjustable lowering link for drag racing, think twice about buying it from Schnitz. Look for the Speedlink instead. For more detail see below.
I purchased lowering straps and a fully adjustable lowering link (for drag racing) from Schnitz Racing for my Bird. I thought “fully adjustable” would give me the ability to adjust the bike both above and below stock height without removing either mounting bolt. When I asked (pre-purchase) the people at Schnitz, they implied that was the case. Although they were very helpful, even the technical people seemed to be reading the information from somewhere.
When I got the link, adjusted it to its shortest length, and matched it up with the stock link, it was a little longer than the stock link. It was only about 5mm longer, but as we all know, 5mm can be a big difference… Now the way the link works is, as you make it longer than the stock link, the bike gets lower than stock. So in effect, not only would I not be able to adjust it above stock height, I can’t even match stock height.
The tech guy I spoke to said because of the ratio, the 5mm difference would equal close to an inch of reduced ride height. In addition, because everything is threaded, the lower mounting bolt must be removed to lower the bike. Not a huge deal, but I was hoping to be able to just ride to the track and drop the bike in a minute or 2…
They were very friendly, and offered me a full refund. They suggested that because the link is made for multiple bikes, it might not be a perfect fit for the Bird. They could not comment on whether this was one bad link, or representative of the whole model. They said their machining was done buy “a guy” and he’s “hard to get a hold of”, so I couldn’t get as many details as I wanted.
I looked for the Speedlink before, but chose the one from Schitz because it looked sturdier.
As I said, the people at Schnitz were very friendly and tried to be as helpful as possible. I have no complaints about the straps and will be keeping them. They said they would update their web site right away. That was about 2 weeks ago… After reading more about the Speedlink at http://www.mpsracing.com/products/Naarden/FAQ.asp, I may have to give it a closer look. I believe other members have also had good results with that link.
