short girl - need to lower bike...

[riderrhythms]

Just bought a 2001 sv 650... Its my first bike and I'm a new rider. I'm also very short ( 62 inches and 110 lbs.) and need to lower the bike. It has been suggested to me that I either shave down the seat or get new dogbones to lower the rear.... Any thoughts would be appreciated...

[Red ones]

It has been suggested to me that I shave

Are you sure it was the bike they were talking about getting lower on??

Oh what it is to beat Greg to an innuendo!

[jonacol]

Longer dog bones (standard are 105/106mm) try 108/109mm it makes a bigger difference to seat height due to linkage ratio's. Also try sliding the fork tubes up through the yokes by 10mm (in conjunction with the rear mods). Cutting the seat foam down should be a go er as it seems very thick, use an electric carving knife, the standard cover may be re-used if u have a good stapler.

[Viney]

As an aside, Daytone also make boots with a raised sole, but look like normal boots.

Every little helps.

[Kate]

Indeed they do and those boots are great. I'm kinda short too, almost 5"2 and have had to lower my bike quite a bit. My advice would be to start with the lower seat and get the Daytone boots and then alter the bike if you need to.

Longer links do work, I have no idea how but they do drop the bike a little. Dropping the forks is the next thing and you can also put the suspension on the lowest setting.

This does mean its rather amusing watching people taller than you get on the bike :)

[MitchC]

Hey,

I needed to lower my bike, and I set the suspension alot softer than the stock setting. That brought my closer enough to the ground to be confident sitting on the bike. Gel seats help too I have heard. Thanks,

Mitch

PS: Welcome to the site.

[wheelnut]

There is someone on here who will alter your seat by return post, although it might be uncomfortable for a couple of days sitting on the battery :P

Have you tried letting the tyres down? :D

[diamond]

Check out these dog bones on e-bay they finish today,
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7964286257&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
i'm not sure how much a new set would cost, you'll need to ask some one else that. Just thought i'd point you in there direction.

[riderrhythms]

Thanks everyone... E.D. ... those links are only for UK sale and thats far from home for me. But I found some on another site for sale. I'm going to go ahead with those.. apparently I can lower the bike 4 inches and then figure the geometry on the front end to keep it even. I'm also going to go with the gel seat because I'm planning an 9 thousand mile round trip voyage from Pennsylvania to Alaska in Aug/Sept and am going to need as much cushion as possible! .... anyone have a link to those boots... can't seem to find them online... THANKS AGAIN

[Kate]

Whoops, its Daytona boots, not Daytone. Here's a link (http://www.glfacc.demon.co.uk/daytona/boot%20descriptions/lady_star_gtx.htm) that displays the boots we are on about.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[northwind]

Speak to Clayton at http://www.svraceshop.com/, they make dogbones to custom order, and rather nice they are too... Usually they deal in shorter ones for racing, mind, but I'm sure he'd do you longer ones. (he's kind of an arrogant cuss but he knows the SV like few others)

IIRC Hayabusa dogbones are good for lowering an SV by 20mm or so, but don't quote me on that... I'd definately go for longer dogbones over softer suspension like Mitch has done, that seems like a bit too much of a bodge to me (no offence). Seat first as well.

There's absolutely no way that you can lower the rear by 4 inches and then even it out from the front, you can only drop the front by a few mm (15 on the carbed bike is a good rule, prevents the forks hitting the yokes- the FI ones are probably similiar. It'll be low, true, but it'll mess up your handling no end and could even give you dangerous clearance problems at the rear. If you need to drop it that far, I hate to say it but you need a different bike- Monster 620 or a cruiser of some sort maybe.

Still, you should be able to get a decent drop without causing yourself too much trouble.

[RAGAR]

It wasn't too long ago that I saw a posting on craigslist-DC that was selling a gel seat. Dunno if he ever sold it but perhaps he'll repost soon.

[salty]

a friend of mine had his r1200 gs seat deflated professionally and lost a couple of inches i' ll get the details to ya asap

[Aurora]

Hubby fitted the BanditMania kit on my SV, & you're right, 1/4 inch change in the link length dropped the rear by an inch. He also had to carve away most of the seat padding for me as well,

He also dropped the front down the forks a bit as well, try to keep some sort of normality to the ride geometry.

Think in all we lost 4 inches, enought for me to get my feet firmlyo n the ground. (I'm 5.1 (and a bit), with 29 inside leg)

He's posted these destructions on Fitting lowering kit on another site. Hope they are useful.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fitting lowering kit to SV650S



Ingredients



Lowering kit bought from www.banditmania.com (£35 in Sept ’04) see photo 1 - consists of two new doglinks

Pillow

14 & 17mm sockets/spanners

Soft faced hammer ( or hammer & block of wood)

Normous gert numpty able to take weight of bike pivoted about front wheel for couple of minutes.



Cooking time – about 20 minutes



Destructions



Place numpty at rear of bike to hold it upright. A paddock stand wont do because were going to disconnect (briefly) the rear shock from the frame.

Place the pillow between the rear wheel and the underside of the seat – this is just incase the numpty lets the bike drop when you knock out the doglink bolts.

Look for the doglinks under the bike to the rear of the engine, one end on the shock, one end on the frame. photos 2 & 3

Remove the nuts from both bolts

Warn numpty then knock the doglink bolts through. Wait for grunt from numpty.

Replace bolts using new doglinks. Be carefull to line the bolts up with the bearings. If the bearings start to come through with the bolts, knock them back and go again. Numpty may have to raise/lower rear of bike to get bolts lined up.

Replace nuts and tighten.

Remove pillow, put bike on sidestand, give numpty tea & sympathy – honest, I didn’t know it was that heavy.

AT this point you can try your lower SV, but I would recommend (cos I did it) dropping the front down the forks about 10mm to compensate for the lower rear end.

http://www.bikersoracle.com/suzukisv/forum/showthread.php?t=66

[WicklowSV]

Check out this link (http://www.socalsvriders.org/forums/showthread.php?s=cdedcb629b9338d1a71dd594ce9278ca&threadid=954&perpage=15&highlight=seat&pagenumber=2) for info on how to reduce the width of the seat.

Did this for my girlfriend coz she's inheriting my 650 and it worked a treat :D

[riderrhythms]

Thanks again all... got my lowering links in the mail today so they're going on the bike tonight... going to see how far that lowers it and then take the rest off the seat... I was very glad to hear that you're a tiny bit shorter than me Aurora and could modify the bike to get both feet firmly on the ground... I'm so impatient to get on the thing!

[riderrhythms]

Thanks again all... got my lowering links in the mail today so they're going on the bike tonight... going to see how far that lowers it and then take the rest off the seat... I was very glad to hear that you're a tiny bit shorter than me Aurora and could modify the bike to get both feet firmly on the ground... I'm so impatient to get on the thing! I have a friend who races and is a motorcycle mechanic so he's doing all the dirty work for me... thanks for the "destructions" on lowering it though... Peace