Bandit Alley
GENERAL MOTORCYCLE FORUMS => GENERAL MOTORCYCLE => Topic started by: bridge on May 24, 2005, 09:21:01 PM
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Well, I am the proud owner of an '02 black 600 with @3700 miles; Dealer just delivered it. Until last summer, when my sister asked me to park a Yamaha 250 in my garage to keep her son off from it, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a Kid-I'll be 40 in July. That little bike got me hooked and luckily I have ended up with this 600.
This certainly seems to live up to everything you all have said about it. Plenty of power for me and a good looking bike too. After only thirty miles,I believe it will be just fine for me.
I am vertically challeneged however and wouldn't mind if it was an inch or two lower. I believe this would also sit me up even staighter. I noticed my palms were getting a little sore from riding on my hands a little, but I could have been holding on to tight. I will try to find the least expensive way to drop the seat an inch, that should do the trick.
I appreciate everyones advice. This site was instrumental in my choosing this particular bike. I don't think I will be disappointed.
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You can lower the bike a bit by the use of 'lowering links'. There should be a couple of threads about the process and parts needed somewhere on the board.
You'd also want to shave a little off of your sidestand, or the bike would sit too vertical when using it.
If you're capable of doing the lowering work yourself, (not real difficult, with normal tools, and a bike lift, or a couple of jack stands.) you'd also want to adjust the front forks in the clamps a bit.
(lower the front a hair, also....)
shortening the sidestand is kind of a trial and error thing.
The easiest way to do it is cut a section out of the middle, and have it re-welded back together.
Check the suspension forum, and you'll find some messages about lowering links, and shortening the sidestand.
:welcome:
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Thanks for the quick reply. I know you guys get tired of the seat question. I think I'll try a different seat. I'm on the balls of my feet with both down now; any lower wiould be fine. 1" would do wonders.
I'm always cautious about messing with the suspension. Seems like it always has some unwanted trade off.
Maybe a factory gel seat would give me the inch?
Anyway, These seem to be great bikes and I'm looking forward to riding tomorrow-Like a kid with a new toy.
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:congrats: on the new ride.
You might be able to have an upholstery place shave some foam and rework you seat for you. For the wrists, work on your body position. When I started riding I had the same problem but realized I was resting all my weight on my hands. I concentrated on holding up my body with my torso and the problem soon went away.
Ride safe!
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You are probably right about the hands. Gonna be fun learning about this bike. Everything I have ridden has been a crusier.I think I will adjust.
I think I will try Sergants on the seat; they seem to have some experience in the area. Checking on pricing now. Only thing, don't have another seat until that one gets back.
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After riding and talking to Sargents(they said the could get about an 1"), I have ordered the lowering links from Diamond. I also ordered a Suzuki gel seat.
If I got a shop to change the links and adjust the stands, what would be a fair price?
You mentiond lowering the front "a bit". in the clamps. If I'm dropping 2" in back, what would be good for(and how to do this) the front?
After checking prices tomorrow, I may have to do this myself. Bear with the ignorance, I'll get around the learning curve eventually
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I don't think you can get much more than 1" drop up front or the fender will hit the lower triple clamp on full compression. Because of this, I wouldn't lower the rear suspension by more than 1" so the bike will still retain close to stock handling characteristics. Another 1" out of the seat is fine, no need to adjust suspension for that.
I don't know if a bike shop will shorten the stands for you or not, you may have to go to a welding shop for that.
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I was inder the impression the Diamond lowering links lowered two or four inches. Is it a range ?
Gel seat was no longer in stock?
I would send it to Sergants, but not riding for a month(at least) would kinda suck.
Anybody got a stock they will loan. I might be good for a nights lodging sometime. I live in Maryville, Tn-gateway to the Dragon
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You may want to give this guy a shot for installing the lowering links, and doing the adjustments to your bike.
http://www.mountainhomepage.com/wheelers/
He's not too far from you, and has always treated everybody fairly.
He may be even willing to shorten the kickstand.
I'm guessing a normal shop would charge an hours labor to install the dogbones, alone.
I'd trust wheeler to do it right, and not screw you.
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bridge, you should try ebay or a salvage yard. you could pick one up cheap and keep it for a spare.
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Thanks Pete, I would love to have an excuse to have ride over there during the week.
12sdrag-I'm looking, but haven't had any luck yet.
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Pete
Thanks for the referral. Wheeler says he will do the dogbones($35) and cut and weld the centerstand($40) for a total of $75
He's about sixty miles away, if I ride the Dragon. He included lowering the front, which he brought up. (A local mechanic said it wasn't necessary.)
Believe I may take the trip and let him put on the genmar risers too.
Thanks.
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Cool, he's a good guy. Have fun!
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Lowering the front may not be necessary from a seat height standpoint, but it is if you want to keep the handling pretty much the way Suzuki intended it vs. handling more like a chopper.
(Well, it wouldn't be THAT bad, but it would be in that direction.)
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Red,
I think I will have him lower the front as much as the fender will allow.
This things really got me leaning on the bars now, or it did. Today I got down in my seat a little more, and its like a new bike once I got that weight off the grips.
Not having ridden since I was kid, except for some cruisers last summer, this is a little different. Have to use my knees more to keep my weight off the bars for one thing.
More than happy with this bike though. When I get the reach issues straight, I hope to be able to learn a lot and smile the whole time. Schools never been so fun.
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If you're having someone do some work for you, really consider the jet kit. While the jet kit does help top end power, it eliminates cold bloodedness (before my jet kit, warm up was a long process) and gives you more off idle power and some much needed torque under 4K rpm. Its a much more user friendly bike.
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Tacoman
That will probably be something I do later-This things breaking me now, and the bike already has more power than I can ride.
So far, I haven't noticed too much cold bloodeness. About half choke for thirty seconds and then by the time I'm out of my sub division its good to go.
However, as I get get used to it , I'm sure I will be searching for more-more-more.
Is that about an hours labor also?
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A jet kit will run about $200-300 for the install alone. Some of that price would be for dyno runs.
You can ask Wheeler how much he'd do one for. I'm not sure he has a Dyno, which is preferable, but I'm sure he do it right.
No sense doing a jet kit if you're happy with the bike right now.
:motorsmile:
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After riding and talking to Sargents(they said the could get about an 1"), I have ordered the lowering links from Diamond. I also ordered a Suzuki gel seat.
If I got a shop to change the links and adjust the stands, what would be a fair price?
You mentiond lowering the front "a bit". in the clamps. If I'm dropping 2" in back, what would be good for(and how to do this) the front?
After checking prices tomorrow, I may have to do this myself. Bear with the ignorance, I'll get around the learning curve eventually
Hey!, Caught your post about the 600 lowering issue. We bought a 02 600 for my wife about a year ago, had 3200KM's on it, for just under $6000 CDN. mint, blue. nice shape, didnt stay that way long though.
Despite Diamond powersports claims of lowering the bike within 3 positions with their lowering links, 1, being stock, 2, being 2" lower and 3, being 4 inches lower, this was not the case I assure you.
We had them installed on what we thought was the middle hole/setting, should of been 2" lower according to DPS specs, right?.. wrong! it was closer to 3" maybe a little more lower when all said and done.
I know this because my wife also is vertically challenged, 5'2"?. I thought 2" from stock would be great for her little legs...NO!. while it did indeed lower it quite some indeed, it also caused her rear to bottom out under bumps/railroad crossing etc. we had the front lowered a bit, about an inch the same time as this first operation, in the sense that it would level the bike out. well even though it had been lowered an inch in the front, the bike was very unstable in cross winds and the handling dynamics were, shall we say, eeewww!. plus the headlight shone directly in my sideview mirror whilst riding staggered ahead of her on my own B12. Ouch!. it also managed to piss off many an oncoming motorist!
so we lowered the front about 1/2 inch more, solved the headlight problem, made it look like a drag bike mind you, (all I needed was a longer swingarms and "walla" lets go to the track! LOL!
While lowering the front more took care of many of the handling quirkiness we previously had, if it didnt bottom out enough before it did now!. I even maxed out the preload/shock to its stiffest setting!. but now, we in the end decided that A, were gonna have to raise the bike somewhere in between what DPS said was 2" lower and that of the factory position, ( either that or make the bike a rigid! :duh: ) so I took it upon myself to fabricate some links at a local weld shop. $50 later, walla!. However, when getting them installed, the bike shop showed how the difference between the "so called stock setting" on the DPS links and the ones i had made up were only, maybe a MM diff?.. How so I thought, I took all my msnts from the factory links and the middle rung on the DPS links and came up with the mid range setting, Or so I thought. It should of made the bike 1 and 1/2 inches lower, seeing the DPS links on the middle hole mad e it 3".
NO!, the "stock" setting on the DPS links actually made the bike 1" lower than factory setting. A little tall for Barbara, but, maybe if we softened up the preload/shock a little ?.. this helped, plus I managed to get a hold of a factory gel set off e-bay, (paid more than retail though, seeing that it was discontinued recently, and I know it effectively lowered the riding position 1/2 to 1 inch again, since a fellow rider "Bazza" had the same seat, I couldn' afford not to win the auction.
So finally, the bike is good, maybe a little dodgey sometimes (more for me than for her) as I still get a little nervous with her tip toeing round the streets of Edmonton on occasion. however, she is a lot more comfortable on it now that its balanced... 1" lower in the rear, 1' lower in the front. EVEN! it handles great now, fun LITTLE bike!, especialy since we had Dale Walker's jet kit put in. really warmed it up and evened out the midrange, effectively put more torque down low where you really need it.
Now you may be saying, didnt he say earlier that the bike " didnt stay that way long though?". yes i did. During this fine, or rather, ROUGH tuning process, the bike went down several times, mostly at low speeds, (fortunately) and the other, more substancial time was on a clover leaf merge-on where she hit some gravel before the winter clean up. So yes, you see why Im nervous, after all, this is my wife were talking about!. Im the one who urged her to get out of that little "650 Savage 1 lung"and onto a Bandit!. so she could keep up!. .. Guilty?.. Yup!
Shes good now though, Only $2100 CDN to fix mostly cosmetic pieces, grazes and scrapes and cracks in plastic. comprehensive insurance got deleted AFTER this incident!.. wow that was close!.
but fair do. she fairly confident now, and I now need to give her more credit than I currently dish out, as she had to overcome a fairly major hit!, something I havent had to do .. Yet!
Simon
Oh, by the way, Thinking the links would effectively lower the bike 2", I had the side stand shortened 2" also, by a metal fabricator/welder in town here, (the local bike shop won't do the job... legalities!). Now I wish I had only 1-1 & 1/2 inches taken out instead as the biike currently leans a little too much, but rather that than too little!.. Oh the weld job cost me also $50 CDN.
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Good info, Simon.
So it sounds like you'd want to start with the 'stock' position on the Dymond dogbones?
Bridge, did you get them installed, yet?
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Good info, Simon.
So it sounds like you'd want to start with the 'stock' position on the Dymond dogbones?
Bridge, did you get them installed, yet?
yup, starting stock position on the DPS links, which equals 1' lower than stock. However, this is apparantly NOT the case on the B12!.. NO NO!, After calling up DPS and explaining the situation, seeking advice etc. it was further explained to me that the 2" lowered position is effective on the B12 only!. .. apparantly the B6 has had varying results with the same bones... nice to know! :roll: