Factory lowered vs Standard

[knutk]

Thanks for all the usefull advice guys. I'm 6'1" with a 32" inside leg, or at least I was - old age shrinking may be changing that!
I dropped my last GSA, before my current GS loads of times and all over Europe. It was always at a stop or almost at a stop, and always with my wife on the back. She used to bounce quite well but since breaking her back in a fall at home last year she'd rather I stopped falling off.

I've had no problems with my current GS but I'm not getting any younger and the new bike will take me to 72 and her to 71 so I want to make life as easy as I can.

I only occasionally use the bike for casual riding nowadays, it's mostly used for touring 2 up with luggage, and, as a lifelong off-road rider Ido like to explore gravel tracks and "easy" off road. A big advantage of the GS off- road is that it can be riden slowly, which suits me nowadays. I don't think a lowered bike would compromise that to any degree and if it does I can always raise it up with new shocks and stands.

My dealer is having a low triple black in soon, I'll give it a try with a far more open mind than I would have had before all your advice.

A few years back, while TouraTech where still running OffRoad School, they used lots of lowered 1200 GS/GSA's. They claimed the lowered ones had a slightly lower CG, making it easier to handle at slow speed. The lowered bikes did not have any disadvantage worth mentioning when it came to ground clearence either...

 

[Jeremy]

I'm 5'9, and having owned three GSAs, each of which I have dropped, bought a 2021 1250GSA Rallye low suspension. I feel that I sit in the bike rather than on it, and both my feet are flat on the ground. I feel much more comfortable, especially when fully loaded. The only downside is that I need to ensure my feet don't sit too far forward on the pegs when cornering hard. Aside from that, I would have no hesitation in recommending the low-suspension model.

 

[Nick dj]

Go Lower

Owned two standard GSs then my wife started coming with me so I lowered my third.
I am now on my second factory lowered GSs, LC
I am 5'8" and find the low inspires more confidence on the often difficult back roads of the Dales, Forest of Bowland, West Yorks that I love.

I was told they are 20mm lower but have only 12mm less travel.

And the trade-in seems much better as the dealer often have loads of used STD GSs in but none low and knows people waiting for one.

 

[trebor]

For those who've moved to a lowered, or those who have one, what's the down side?

Thanks

I've had 5 GSs in the last 15 years (the first a GS the last 4 were GSAs), all but my most recent were full height.
Similar to you, I've found as I've got older I found the GSA getting to be too high for me and was considering changing to an RT for my next bike. However, very early last year, when mine was in for a service during COVID restrictions, they gave me a lowered R1250GSA, with low seat, to take home for 24 hours. I found it to be a revelation, and promptly ordered a lowered Triple Black R1250GSA but with a normal height seat (a year earlier than I intended to change).

In my experience, I would say there are no downsides. After 11,000 miles riding it, I can say I've hardly noticed any difference in handling, if anything I would say it is slightly better.

I would agree with MIKE R's comments above (I was the friend that he spoke to, swapping notes, and seats to compare the difference ).

 

[ShakeyGS]

Some one posted a matrix of suspension settings / heights based on riding modes in another thread.

Rain mode is soft road is normal, so it always gets set to low when i'm on road mode, you can set it on the fly so there should be an issue

I found it was switching to AUTO which is too high for my wee legs. You can shift the damping on the fly but not the preload.