[ 3/20/2011 MESSAGE RE-POSTED FROM GOOGLE CACHE]
Hi! I have been lurking for months, reading hundreds of valuable postings here as I decide if I am ready to purchase a 2011 Concours 14. I must say, you are a great group of people and appreciate the info and experiences you all share. I am an experienced, 40's rider, who is on his second bike, which is a 2000 ZRX-11. My ZRX is at the end of its life with quite a bit of carb issues that can't seem to be repaired (long story omitted). I like powerful, quiet, smooth, upright-seating, modern, 4 cyl bikes (which throws out "cruisers") so the Concours is at the top of my list.
That aside, this is finally my first posting. I am starting a new "lowering" thread because similar ones are mostly old. Please forgive me if that is not the best practice. Plus, forgive the length of this posting, but I am trying to be thorough
The only major thing holding me back from joining you as a Concours owner is my body. I am not a big person, at 5'7", 155lbs. Even though I am [barely] average male height for my age bracket, I have dis-proportionally short legs. When I sit, I am the height of someone 5'11. But when I stand, that quickly disappears. Unfortunately, bikes of the non-cruiser type are not terribly compatible with short legs.
The body measurement that matters with bike height is "true/actual/anatomical" inseam. This is not the same as a clothing pants inseam, which is notoriously inaccurate. You can determine a true inseam with the "clipboard in the crotch" method (here is an example:
http://www.precisiontandems.com/inseam.htm (you can do it alone, although it is tricky)) and mine is 30". My typical clothing inseam is 26.5".
I sat on a Concours (several times) at the dealer. Wearing tennis shoes, I can just barely touch my tippie toes on both feet to the floor. Wearing my riding boots, I can touch toes more solidly (but not ball of foot at all). The Concours is a much larger bike than the ZRX, so the amount of foot ground contact is very important for control (while stopped, after a foot slip, trying to back up, leverage for recovering a tip, etc).
There appears to be only three ways to address the issue- lowering the suspension, lowering the seat, and/or wearing "platform" boots. My boots are already 1/2" at the ball and 1.75" at mid heel. I would be willing to try and add SOME to that, but a guy wearing platform shoes is a bit... well... embarrassing.
Seat lowering is a no-brainer- it doesn't affect the bike in any negative way. So I am looking at the low-height Sargent seat. But that will only lower the riding position by 1.5" (if you believe the materials). Obviously not low enough for my size.
So I am left with also lowering the actual bike. I am looking at the Muzzy lowering links for the back (supposedly a 1.5" rear lowering) and dropping the fork tubes in the front (by using the Helibars risers for clearance). I know this is controversial, but I don't see that I would have much choice.
Unfortunately, that is, at most, around only 3". Not sure that will be enough. I lowered my old ZRX in a similar way (collapsed rear spring coils by de-tempering/heat, lowered front tubes, and cut the seat down) but it was never quite enough and the Concours is even taller stock height (1" taller!), bigger, and heavier.
So, if you have some similar issues, any questions you can answer would be extremely helpful in assisting me with my decisions (and hopefully other people monitoring the thread now and in the future):
1) Are you leg-length challenged? What is your true/anatomical inseam (see above to compute it)?
2) How did you address your height issues? What are your reasons?
3) Did you use the Muzzy lowering links? What is the exact drop of the rear? Did you use some other links or method?
4) How much have you ever lowered the front? In what way? How far did you ultimately lower? How did it affect your handling with various drops?
5) If you lowered, how did you address the kickstand? Did you do anything with the center stand?
6) Have you had any "bottoming out" problems if you lowered? Have you had any problems with road disturbances (speed bumps, dips, etc)?
7) What suspension settings are you using (dial settings)? Why? What did you learn?
8 ) Have you ever had a low or no-speed drop of the bike that could have been prevented if it was lower?
9) Have you fixed your issues? Are you happy? Are you safe? Any other advice?
I look forward to some good discussion
Thanks