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Heres the story. I'm already done with the msf class. I'm buying my first bike and have it down to 3 bikes. Kawa's Ninja 250 or 500 and Suzuki's gs500. The main thing it comes down to is the seat heighth and how low I can get it. I went to kawasaki dealership and they said they had nothing to lower the 500r in which i'm a little sketchy on because when i'm on it only the balls of my feet touch the ground. They said they could lower the 250r to right around the heighth i need it which is about 27in. Does anyone know if you can lower the gs500? I'm going over there tuesday but figured i would ask over here.

I don't kow the specifics of lowering the gs500, but you can also look to having the seat shaved down a bit. Hopefully in the next few months I'll be getting mind done as well. I too am on the balls of my feet and need a just a bit more contact to be happy.

As for the downside of seat shaving, too much material removed and it becomes less comfortable. Be moderate.

the GS500F does have a simple rear suspension 5 way adjustable preload. i dunno if lowering it to the lowest setting will be enough for you.

but yeah, shaving the seat will help too.

cobaltbluechaser wrote:Heres the story. I'm already done with the msf class. I'm buying my first bike and have it down to 3 bikes. Kawa's Ninja 250 or 500 and Suzuki's gs500. The main thing it comes down to is the seat heighth and how low I can get it. I went to kawasaki dealership and they said they had nothing to lower the 500r in which i'm a little sketchy on because when i'm on it only the balls of my feet touch the ground. They said they could lower the 250r to right around the heighth i need it which is about 27in. Does anyone know if you can lower the gs500? I'm going over there tuesday but figured i would ask over here.

You can lower all of the bikes you name by changing the rear suspension links. Lowering links are available for any of them. Changing the rear suspension preload setting will lower it a bit while sitting on it but unloaded it will be the same. The preload adjustment is for accomodating different loads and is not intended for heigth adjustment.

There are possible side affects to lowering the rear of the bike. Too much lower and the rear tire can hit the inner fender on bumps, it changes the steering geometry making the steering a bit slower, it reduces the cornering clearances making it easier to scrape things like center stands and foot pegs or bodywork, and it generally stiffens the rear suspension a bit. But it is done everyday and works out for most. Anything but a small change can require altering the sidestand so the bike won't fall over when parked.

I recently lowered my GS500 about 1 1/4" by using the Pingel ZX6 links. It was already about 1/2" higher than standard due to oversize tires so the result was small but most effective for me. I'm about 2" shorter than I was a few years ago and increasing arthritis makes it a bit harder to get off and on now.

http://www.pingelonline.com/index.htm

The Ninja 250 with the 29" seat height is already 2" lower than the GS500. Links are available for lowering the EX250 about 2" to about 27".
Might work best for a 1st bike, but you can lower the GS500 about 4" to 27" also but it would be a more drastic change. Don't think I'd lower it more than about 2 1/2" with the Muzzys ZX6 links. Diamond has some GS500 specific links said to lower the bike about 2".

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?to ... 3#msg61113

http://www.muzzys.com/catalog/

http://diamondpowersports.com/

The front of the GS500 can be lowered very little unless you have something like the GenMar risers to move the handlebars out of the way, might be nice for you anyway being a bit on the short side. I have the GenMars on mine.

http://www.zianet.com/GenMar/