Suspension question: lowering front forks

[kumpy]

Got a 2000 R6 and I keep hearing how twitchy the bike is, but when I ride my it's definitely a more stable ride and I feel like I'm wrestling with the bike to lean over especially in quick left and right flicking turns. I feel like its stable but really sluggish low and high speed turns. I remember talking to the original owner and he was saying purposefully setup the bike to sit tall so it's about 2 inches taller ride height. He didn't tell me why he set it up taller than normal, think it was for ground clearance? So what I did today was lower the front 3/10th of an inch. Took it for a ride around the neighborhood and seems way more manuverable at low speeds. I'm running a reworked front fork from Traxxion Dynamics and Penske Triple in the rear. Bike setup for 185lb rider but I'm only 150lbs. My question is, is lowering the front forks a common adjustment to setup the bike? Would it be considered the first step? Would tire choice be considered the 1st step? Should I have raised the rear tire?

[CBR929RE]

you didn't lower the forks. you lowered the front of the bike (pulling the tubes up through the triples). I seriously doubt he raised the bike 2 inches as I doubt there's that much adjustment even available. raising the rear is typically a better option than lowering the front because you don't loose any ground clearance going that way, you actually gain some. ride it and find out if you like it.

[kumpy]

Sorry for the confusion. I RAISED my front forks, meaning my front tire went up and the triple tree went down. I went to a steeper rake and less trail. I feel like the seat height is about 2 inches taller.

[maxim_X]

Yes that's a very common trick to make steering quicker. If you go too far though the bike will become unstable.

[RocketPunch]

Raising the forks is a common way to "destabalize" the front end, however as in everything in life (or any kind of tuning), you simply don't get something out of nothing. It is always a compromise.

The general rule is as you raise the forks, you lose swingarm angles; and if you have conventional forks, you will also lose forks travel as you raise them. If you have a Penske, you can always raise the shock height (within adjustable limits) to recoup some of the swingarm angles back due to raising the forks.