Bland, Generic New Guy Questions

[beekdorf]

Hello all. I've made great use of gstwins for the the last couple of weeks after getting a GS, but I've come up with a question that seems to have flown under the radar, at least per my searching.

Facts: '07 gs500, 360 miles, cosmetically sound, though it has been down at least once, as evidenced by damage to the right side fairing, and right side (stator, I believe) cover.  Front suspension was lowered by PO, then raised back by me. 

Questions:
1: I'm trying to ascertain whether or not the rear suspension has been lowered via link replacement.  The dogbones that are on the bike have two different possible mounting holes, and are also etched with 'GS500' - an expense I would think superfluous on this level of bike.  Does anyone have the stock link dimensions available so that I could make a comparison and find out how much drop has taken place, if any?

2: If, as I suspect, I have aftermaket bones, would it be possible to swap in a different rear shock (Katana 600 rear comes to mind) and utilize the aftermarket links to create a stock ride height with improved suspension characteristics?

3: There is an oil leak 'somewhere' on the right side, of the crank case probably, but that is just an educated guess, as it only occurs at fairly decent revs.  Since the bike is so young, it hasn't been broken in completely, or even had its oil changed, ergo, the oil is so clean that it's difficult to pinpoint visually the source of the offense, and I am loathe to take the revs any higher until she's had more time on the road.  I've been leaning towards a potentially clogged breather causing high crankcase pressure - due to the bike having been downed at least once.  Other than that it's a gasket failure caused by impact with mother earth, or just bolts that could be snugged down on initial service.

Really I'm just hoping to find out if I'm completely off base on any of these ideas, and avoiding doing the work because the weather shifted to crap yesterday and I've been doing some visualizations to try and minimize driveway time.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses,
Doug

[Bluehaze]

Question 1. If there are 2 holes on the bottom of the dog bone then that is not stock.

Question 2.  Yes there are a few rear shocks you can swap out from stock.  gs wiki has the list of possible shock replacement. even a how -to.

[tt_four]

If there's 2 holes there's a good chance one of them might be the stock height, so you might just be able to move it back. Otherwise I know the yellow SV650 shock will raise the seat height. There are better suspensions to replace it with than that one, but it's still better than the gs suspension, it looks nice being yellow, and it'll raise the rear end a little.

The leak is most likely from dropping your bike. I'd try going over all the bolts on that side just to make sure they're snug, and if it's still leaking try replacing that gasket. If that's not it you might want to mention it to the dealership since it is such a new bike.

[gsJack]

The stock links are 7 1/16" between hole centers.  Lowering ratio is approx 5:1.  I installed links that were 7 5/16" and it lowered bike 1 1/4".  Running a rear tire that's about 1.5" larger in dia just lowers me about 1/2", not too far from normal.  Lowering the rear with longer links does stiffen the rear a noticeable amount so you want to keep that in mind with a stiffer shock/longer link combo.