OK, I am 5'11" 230lbs, I know, I know, I need to drop a few el'bees, but anyway, I think my suspension is bottoming out when I hit certain bumps in the road, and when I am under harder braking, especially down hill.

The GS squats down quite a bit from just sitting on it, what should I do

It is a 2000, with 28,000 miles.

The stock suspension is utter crap. I only realized HOW bad it was after I upgraded to something far superior.

Check out the Wiki article on some suspension changes:
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Upgrades/FrontSprings

I'm running into the same issue as you.  I bumped my preload to the max on the rear shock, it helped a bit, but the front dives as soon as I touch the brakes.  The whole bike bottoms out whenever I hit the frost heave bumps on the highway.  I'm looking into Racetechs for the front and a Katana 600 rear shock for the back.  Hopefully things will be better...

Cool, I wasn't sure about racetechs or progressives.

I know alot about VW/Audi tuning, but very little about motorcycles

Quote from: notAdub on August 09, 2006, 07:20:30 PM
Cool, I wasn't sure about racetechs or progressives.

Yeah, I wasn't sure either, but I think I'm going with the Racetechs.  The progressives are a ton cheaper, but don't come in different spring rates, as they are, well, progressive.  The racetechs allow you to buy the spring rate you need for your situation.  Pretty cool.  The FAQ that Alpha put together is really good resource for front springs...Have you read it yet?  If not, the link is:

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=25706.0

Get some .85 kg/mm constant rate springs like racetechs. 

Just go to racetech, and don't be afraid of the "racing" setup for your weight.

I have it, and I tour on it. (The seat is still the limiter....)

yeah, I really hate my GS seat   Is the '01 and up seat any better? ( i know it won't fit my bike correctly)

My front suspension bottoms out just about everytime i pull out of my drive way.  It just sucks that way.  Going to do the new springs soon.

And no, the 01 seat sucks badly too.

I had the problem too just driving up my curb-top gutter, so I got some 0.85kg/mm Sonic Springs and all is good again

hey..is that your real picture?

YOu mean notadub is bill murray?

    And I created the Zissou Society 

So I think when I have the money, I will go with the Racetechs, but how about the rear?  There are a couple SV650 shocks on ebay now for cheap.

Any thoughts?

Quote from: notAdub on August 12, 2006, 07:38:08 AM
So I think when I have the money, I will go with the Racetechs, but how about the rear?  There are a couple SV650 shocks on ebay now for cheap.

Any thoughts?

Katana rear shock would be a better idea. It won't raise the tail as much. It will, however, push the rear wheel down far enough that BOTH wheels touch the ground when the bike is on the centerstsand.