Ground clearance with Suzuki bellypan?

[Sebulba]

Hello mighty org,

I'm thinking of purchasing a Suzuki bellypan for my K8 (mostly to keep the bottom of the engine cleaner), but I was wondering about how much ground clearance will I lose? Given that the streets in Romania are not known for their smoothness I'm worried about scraping my shiny new bellypan.

Thanks,
Mihai

[Sid Squid]

You won't lose a lot of clearance, the Suzuki bellypan has a cutout in its underside that runs around the front exhaust header meaning it's barely lower than the pipe itself, it does extend forward of the exhaust somewhat, meaning that in some circumstances - climbing a kerb for instance - the bellypan can come very close.
Of course this is true of any fully-faired bike too, so a consideration of the use to which you put your bike might the best approach, but as to your original question rough roads are not ordinarily a problem.

[Sebulba]

Thanks Sid.