Help Me Lower My 95 GS500... San Diego Area

[phoenix121]

I am a complete beginner and I bought a used 95 GS500.  I like it but it needs to be about 1.5 to 2 inches lower for me to be comfortable on it.  I am 5'1 and 105lbs.

I heard about dog bones, and shaving the seat, and all that... but can someone help me with actually doing it?  I don't want to mess up my bike.  It's used and it's old but it's mine and it's a little too high for me.  I got a quote from a bike shop that will lower it for $350.   Is that high?  It is to me.

Can anyone who lives in the San Diego area help me with this... I mean actually show me how to do it, not just tell me to read links.  I  know nothing about motorcycles.  I need diagrams and step by step pictures with instructions.  Telling me to just get dog bones is not going to help... so I get the dog bones then what?  And I have been told that I can also adjust the suspension... any idea how?

I just want to be able to ride my bike.  I'm on my toes and if it's unstable there's no way I can pick up my bike if it starts to fall.  So help please!!!  I 'd really appreciate it.

[GS Jenn]

Hi there,

I can't help you with the more sophisticated ways of lowering a bike, but I did shave a seat for my boyfriend's KLR and it was pretty easy.

Bought a spare seat off eBay so I didn't have to worry about wrecking anything. Took the outside vinyl material off. Took a knife and hacked away a bunch of the foam. Kept sitting on it to see how much foam I could cut away and still stand sitting on the thing. Then I took it to an uphostery shop (picked one out of the phone book) and had them replace the cover. Total cost was about $100 between buying the seat and getting it recovered. It got me another 1.5 inches or so, which made the difference between toes just touching and being on the balls of my feet (flat-footing this bike was never going to happen).

You could also loosen the suspension, but that's going to affect the performance of the bike,  you'll get diving on braking that you won't enjoy.

I would start with the shaved seat, plus the biggest, thickest pair of boots you can find, and see if that's enough before going on.

[hmmmnz]

have you tryed loosening your triple clamps and sliding the fork tubes up a bit, you might get a bit of height like that, you should try that first as if you don't like it then you can always change it back, i wouldn't pay $350 for any one to do any thing to my bike,
i know that there is a shorter shock that will fit to the gs but can't for the life of me remember what its off at the moment(damn mental block)
i would buy a spare seat and go crazy with that, try and do every thing else before you start altering you dog bones, it will have a detremental effect to your handling.
good luck, and ill let you know if i remember where the shorter shock comes from
here are some dog bones for lowering $88 including postage http://www.adjustmenttech.com/

[blue05twin]

Can't help you I live in Ga unless you wanted to buy me a plane ticket 

But you can send you seat to

http://www.sargentcycle.com/prodover.htm

And they will shave it for you and send it back.  Or you could check the local motorcycle shops I'm sure one of them will be able to shave it for you.  Lowering the bike would be a last resort.  I'd shave frist then if it still doesn't feel comfortable then lower the bike.

[pandy]

I'm having my SVS lowered at the end of this month, and it's going to cost me around $180 bucks, including parts and approx 1.5 hours in labor. Get another estimate (or two or three). Lowering should be done only by someone who's very experienced and knows what they're doing.