Hi everyone. New member, love the site and Love my new 500. Hoping someone here can give me some info on Lowering it down a little so I can put both feet flat and feel more comfortable. Thanks.
welcome JEN.
I saw a lowering kit on ebay. it had a buy it now price of $100.
siad it could lower the GS almost 2 inches. Ill see if I can find the link.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=gs500+lowering
here it is. 4days left. its at $25 bucks.
Looking at parts on E-bay. That looks like what I will need. Thanks.
Some folks shave the seat down as a first step before doing anything drastic. This mostly involves taking the cover off, removing some stuffing, and putting the cover back on. You will obviously have less padding if you do this, but when I ride around I scrape the center stand and side fairing all the time, I'd worry about making the frame any lower. Then again, I'm 180lbs with stock suspension, so you may not have this problem.
Jen, I'd HIGHLY recommend you try shaving your seat, and getting some nice thick motorcycle boots before you do anything drastic like longer dogbones. If you do a search for "lowering links" or "longer dogbones", you'll see that altering your suspension in the rear without changing the front changes the rake angle of your bike, which can adversely affect steering. Dogbones are generally recommended only as a last resort.
How tall are you, and what's your inseam? We've had several lady riders who ride just fine without lowering.
Welcome!
Something easy and free to do for now is to slide the forks thru the tripleclamps. You can get 3/8-1/2 and inch. And reduce the preload on the rear shock, that will allow the rear to sag a little more (about 3-6mm).
Check out the double-soled boots in this photo for another alternative to lowering your GS...
http://www.gstwins.com/photogallery/displayimage.php?pos=-658
Don't know if that works for you, but I've seen others do it; as long as the soles grip well on pavement, it could be a viable option for you. A lot will depend on what type of footgear you have; fashion boots are close to worthless, you need something sturdy to protect you.
Lastly, welcome to the looney bin; give us an idea what part of the world you live in, and what type of riding you plan on doing (commuting to work/school, day rides, weekend trips, Formula One), and we should be able to advise you on changes you can make to your GS so it fits you better. First question I have is this; what year is your GS?