Might have screwed up

Finally got around to installing new shocks on 2019 f3, having problems had the top bolt in (front) but having problems getting shock compressed to put lower bolt in. Went to reposition the jack so i could raise the bike more and lowered the bike more than i wanted to.. bike dropped quicker than i was comfortable with but i managed to get it raised quickly. My concern is could i have messed something up with respect to the front tire / alignment? Got both front shocks installed, didn't see any signs of damage.. tried to measure "critical dimenstion" like between a arm and rotor, etc but didn't see anything. Rolled bike back and forth in garage and no grinding or binding but still a little concerned. Any thoughts on whether or not i could have screwed something up or not? Things to check?

If it didn't hit the floor you are fine. What I mean by that is if you had the wheel off and the rotor hit the floor it could be warped.

If not you are fine

Now are the shocks adjustable for height?

Yeah tire was on so rotor definitely didnt hit the floor... just didn't happen like i wanted it to :(

Part of my concern is i'm not really sure how the a arms / shocks play together, i know the shocks/springs dampen the ride but is that it? Is it safe (not recommended) to lower the bike if with no shocks installed or would that damage something. Anyone have any references on how the suspension plays together please let me know, I am curious now.

The shocks do not hold the suspension up. The springs do. But since the springs are in the shocks i guess the suspension would drop till it locks. I really doubt you could hurt anything or knock it out of alignment. The suspension has much more stress on it when your riding it and still stays aligned.

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Originally Posted by AzBTO

Finally got around to installing new shocks on 2019 f3, having problems had the top bolt in (front) but having problems getting shock compressed to put lower bolt in. Went to reposition the jack so i could raise the bike more and lowered the bike more than i wanted to.. bike dropped quicker than i was comfortable with but i managed to get it raised quickly. My concern is could i have messed something up with respect to the front tire / alignment? Got both front shocks installed, didn't see any signs of damage.. tried to measure "critical dimenstion" like between a arm and rotor, etc but didn't see anything. Rolled bike back and forth in garage and no grinding or binding but still a little concerned. Any thoughts on whether or not i could have screwed something up or not? Things to check?

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I've worked with " coil-over shocks " in auto applications , and Spyders are relatively the same. The bottom of the shock/spring can only go to a point past where you need to put the bolt thru the bracket.... the only thing that would occur is scratches to the paint the shock and " A " arm structure are fine ..... Mike :thumbup:

You would have to drop it from a long way to upset anything and I mean hard on the floor!!! Your all set, turn and burn!!!

Unless you bent something you are fine.

Thanks everyone for the replies, time to get the rear shock done today..

No idea if you purchased Elka or M2 shocks. I installed M2's at all 3 wheels and love them. But it did take some tweaking over several miles to get them set right for me. BTW with the rear shock I ended up putting 20lbs of air in the rear. Rear was set great for solo but would bottom out with a passenger over bumps. It was just easier to put that little amount of air in the rear than to try to reach up and make anymore adjustments.

I got the M2, no rear air on my bike... but I do need to either remove / drop the lower rear fender "cover"... I hope I don't have to remove as I installed the chopped rear fender and don't really want to be removing / reinstalling that again.

Now I have a RT and did most of my work with the bike just off the floor when needed and removed the side panel to access the upper shock bolt. Not sure how the F3 is setup. I now Marcus had a Video on the F3 removal of the shock.

Yeah video helped out quite a bit, needed to remove a lot of tupperwear...