Have a short friend looking for a bike. There are good deals on GS500's. Problem is: 27" inseam. My bikes, even Junior with the thinner, lower seat, are too high.
With lowering links, can a GS be lowered enough for a 27" inseam? Her toes touch - not good for a new rider. You need to be pretty flat footed for safety.
She's light, so I doubt she would ever bottom out the rear end even if it could be lowered 3 or 4 inches. There's lots of space between the tire and the fender.

Opinions?

(And in case you're wondering - no, not my GF. Still single and looking )

I have seen 3 inch lowering links on eBay. Not sure if you can go any lower.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Suzuki-GS500-Adjustable-Lowering-Links-Link-Kit-GS-500-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem27b85f44efQQitemZ170596975855QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I was gonna say I've seen 2", but 3 sounds better. shave some foam off the top and sides of the seat and you should be fine. Heather fit on the GS and she was only 5'4, and that was with the stock seat and suspension. I'm 5'8 and have 30" inseam, so I'm guessing a 27" would put her somewhere around 5'2? I think you'll be ok. If not tell her to look for a ninja 250. They're small and about 50lbs less than the GS.

Fabbing up some custom lowering links would be pretty easy.  Then just slide the fork tubes down to keep things level.

Quote from: tt_four on February 25, 2011, 09:56:01 PM
If not tell her to look for a ninja 250. They're small and about 50lbs less than the GS.

Blasphemy!!!

Might be best for her to browse around for a smaller bike. Somewhere between a pocket bike and a GS500. Has to be used. She can't afford a new bike.
Maybe a sale of surplus clown props? 

I don't know how handy you/ her/ whatever may be, but my old cl175 was so low and narrow my feet were probably 2' apart when standing over the bike. That thing was TINY. Even a cb350 with shorter shocks, custom seat, and lowered forks are easy to straddle.

Mine went pretty low on Friday afternoon. Was on a weekend run out to Bathurst from Sydney. Near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains I did a stylish halt on the GS at a set of traffic lights. Pity I didn't see the diesel on the road. Came to a gentle stop but at 0Kph over she went and there was bugger all I could do to stop the slow-motion sideways tumble. Two lovely people lept out of their cars and helped me and the bike to our "feet".  People are so nice, I was actually feeling a bit shocked by it all. Mechanical damage minor, limited to a bent clutch lever and a small scratch on the left hand case. Major damage was to my pride!
Apart from that,  a nice 600k trip over 2 days with lovely weather. Off to Action Suzuki Monaday for a new lever 'cos I reckon the bent one will just snap if I try to bend it back from its new pig-tail shape.

Everyone doesn't have the same proportions, I was 6-2 most of my adult life and always had a 30" inseam same as tt above who is only 5-8 tall.    Now I'm down to 5-11 so far with a 29" inseam.

I have some Pingel ZX6 links on my 02 GS that lowered it about 1 1/4" but with my larger rear tire it's only about 1/2" lower and my knees are still bent quite a bit with my heels on the ground.  I have some Burkhart links on hand to lower about 2" but haven't tried them yet and may not.  They are only about $18 so you could get a pair of 3" ones and put them on Junior and let her try it?  I changed links with the bike on the centerstand without even removing the rear wheel so it's easy enough to do.

http://burkhartcycle.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_18&products_id=87

If you do lower a GS 2-3" in the rear you can only lower the front about 1" max before the wiper seal hits the lower tripple so the steering will be slowed down a bit with the increased rake.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=40074.msg450638#msg450638

On my girlfriend's GS500 we lowered 2" front & rear with no problems other than having to cut the kickstand.

Actually I managed to fit a shock back about 10 years ago in a similar situation, that made it more than 3 inches lower. I dont remember exactly what shock it was ... but look @ ex250's and VTR250's for starters.
The advantage of the shock swap over the dogbone swap is that lowering with dogbones ends up changing the angle of the linkage, that means you are gonna have to shave the linkage to clear ... Of course that linkage is 3000% over built, you can drill a dozen dime sized holes in it and still be fine. A shock swap doesn't do that change of angle in the linkage. So you could get away with running it as is.
Anyway a longer dogbone set lowers the bike, and its closer to a 3-4:1 ratio, you want it 3 inches lower, your dogbones should be no more than 1 inch longer. Just make your own, Tack a pair of steel flat bar pieces together, and cut and drill em, then grind off the tacks.

Cool.
Buddha.
Cool.
Buddha.

The amount lowered to link length change ratio is about 5:1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/LinkDims.jpg

Penny, a former neighbor of mine, has a 250 Virago.  That bike is short enough for a 10-year-old to ride.

Bill beat me to it...I was going to suggest an S40 (Savage)...they have a really low seat height, and are pretty cheap to purchase...my 12yo daughter had no problem with the bike (sat on it at the bike show), and she is about 4'11...not sure of her inseam...

Good Luck!!

Later.

Buell Blast is another bike that can be made to have an unbelievably low seat from the factory. I'd suggest looking at those. Once she gets to be more experienced, she can move to a taller bike. I'm 5'10" rode a DR 450 just fine - a bike I needed to tip toe just to get one foot down. I've seen plenty of short girls riding GSXRs and other 600cc bikes.

One other suggestion... Taller boots. Daytona makes some girl boots that should give her 2 inches of lift on each side. I know a few girls who swear by em.

We dropped our 2007 GS500F 1.5" through longer dogbones, and got maybe another 1/2" out of the seat by removing pretty much all the seat foam. Rear shock preload is set on 1 so the bike squats as much as possible. There's not much room to slide the front forks up with the handlebars where they are, so I put some washers between the two top triples. I think I eventually got about a 3/4" raise out of them.

Two-up the bike will occassionally just graze the centrestand, but I have ridden it solo in the mountains at a good clip and it felt fine. I don't think we have ever touched down the footpegs even with it lowered. The seat is still comfy enough to ride all day, too. Except for me the seat to footpeg distance is now kinda cramped. We didn't have to alter the length of the kickstand, but 1.5" is probably as low as you can go without shortening the kickstand or buying an adjustable-length one.

Definitely more difficult to put on the centrestand, since lowering the bike changes the relation of the stand's pivot point to the ground. If you lowered it 3" I don't think you could even lever the thing up on the centerstand without assistance, and it would definitely be in the way in terms of cornering clearance so you might want to remove it if you go that low.

One other thing we noticed was that the GS500's rider pegs were directly where a shorter person wants to put their foot down on the ground. Not cheap, but a set of MFW Vario Footpegs would allow you to re-position the riders peg back a little bit so they were out of the way.

FYI ~ I've ridden the Buell Blast and the 650 Savage, and the GS500 is ten times better than either of them.

The kick stand on mine has always seemed too long for the bike...I never thought it might be lowered...I will check that when I remove the wheel to get new rubber installed...

How long is the standard dog bone?

Later.

7 1/16"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/LinkDims.jpg