Hi, I've just purchased a used 2004 XT 660 R and I love it. I have already taken it off road, and I've noticed that there is little ground clearance, because of the exhaust manifolds running under the frame. I'm going to buy a skid plate soon, but I'd love to gain a little more ground clearance. 2in1 exhaust is out of question, as far as I know there aren't street legal 2in1 systems that could be used here in Italy on road. I was thinking about raising the bike with linkage bones from OTR (+35 mm) and fork spacers. It is a cost effective solution that should give me at least +30 mm of ground clearance. Higher seat height is not an issue, I'm 6 ft tall and I can get my feet to the ground easily, my only concern is that the front fork with spacers could become too harsh for riding off road, as I'm not so heavy (77 kg naked). What's your advice? Do you have alternatives? Thank you

I had the same issue, wanting a higher bike because I'm 6'5" and felt like a circus bear riding the XTR. I made up a new set of shorter dog-bones links and that sorted the back. Then I got new fork end-caps machined up. They screw on the end of my forks and basically extend them by about 30 mm from memory. I could then drop the forks down further in the head set clamps. At the same time I updated the fork springs and installed emulators to give better performance and stop that front end dive under brakes. This all happened about 6 yrs ago so I'd have to go back thru the records for specifics but end result is my bike is about 80mm higher off the ground and awesome!

Im 6'2" and used the dogbones/suspension links off a X to raise the rear end of my R.
I also put some of KEV'S fork spacer mods in the front forks to firm the front end up. It might of raised it too..