Tell me about lowering GS500 seat height.

cafournier · April 29, 2006, 04:30:58 AM

Hi all,

My first post on this site. My wife wan't to get a faster machine, she currently drive an honda shadow 125cc.

So today we have been visiting a few dealers (ducati, honda, kawasaki, yamaha, suzuki).

We have reduced the choice to two bikes : Honda CBF 500, Suzuki GS 500, Suzuki GSR 600

So far my wife love the feeling on the GS 500 and feel comfortable handling it. For information my wife is 5''5'' (1.65m) tall for 45kg.

Now the concern is that the standard seat height on the GS 500 is 790mm (2.6 feets). and that's a tad too much for her. The bike she tested was a bike the dealer rent for people to pass licence, and he has made it lower. Now he propose to do the same for free if we take a new bike, but I am concerned about this, will this kind of modification change the way the bike handle ? He said that it is not a problem (he is an official dealer so I hope he know what he talk about).

Anyone here has experience (good or bad) with this kind of modifications ?

Thanks in advance.

CAF

My Name Is Dave · April 29, 2006, 06:02:02 AM

Quote from: cafournier on April 29, 2006, 04:30:58 AM
Hi all,

My first post on this site. My wife wan't to get a faster machine, she currently drive an honda shadow 125cc.

So today we have been visiting a few dealers (ducati, honda, kawasaki, yamaha, suzuki).

We have reduced the choice to two bikes : Honda CBF 500, Suzuki GS 500, Suzuki GSR 600

So far my wife love the feeling on the GS 500 and feel comfortable handling it. For information my wife is 5''5'' (1.65m) tall for 45kg.

Now the concern is that the standard seat height on the GS 500 is 790mm (2.6 feets). and that's a tad too much for her. The bike she tested was a bike the dealer rent for people to pass licence, and he has made it lower. Now he propose to do the same for free if we take a new bike, but I am concerned about this, will this kind of modification change the way the bike handle ? He said that it is not a problem (he is an official dealer so I hope he know what he talk about).

Anyone here has experience (good or bad) with this kind of modifications ?

Thanks in advance.

CAF

I have no experience about this, but I know that you can get your seat shaved to give her a better fit on the GS. Look around and do a search and you'll find more info than I have (which is minimal...)

Take the GS. She'll love it!

Dave

PS- OK, I searched "shave seat" and here's a decent thread about it..

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=7389.0

st8racin · April 29, 2006, 06:17:11 AM

I'm 5'4" and with the suspension as low as it will go I can pretty mcuh flat foot. But I am pretty new to the GS world, so if you're looking at a F model it may be different, I'm not sure my GS is a 2000. Hope this helps some. Good luck finding a bike.

scratch · April 29, 2006, 09:27:49 AM

cafournier · April 29, 2006, 10:05:35 AM

Dang, I did not see there was soo many post about that, I did not search for the right word then...

Thanks for the reply and the effort. I feel stupid... could have done it myself....

CAF

scratch · April 29, 2006, 10:14:57 AM

And, that's only searching "lowering" (instead of 'lower'), and I still got 6 pages of links.

I still haven't searched, "dogbones"! Or, seat height.

But, basically you get the idea, slide the forks through the tripleclamps, get dogbones if ya need them, shave the seat if you want, reduce the preload on the rear shock, are all ways of lowering the bike. You have to decide what is safe, practicle or feels good to you. One thing about suspension is to do little steps at a time, that way if something doesn't feel good you can go back a little. See also: www.peterverdonedesigns.com/introduction.htm

scratch · May 10, 2006, 12:53:34 PM

News:

Tell me about lowering GS500 seat height.

cafournier

My Name Is Dave

st8racin

scratch

cafournier

scratch

scratch