My forks seem low...

[Blues]

Anyone have experience with the forks on this bike? Mine seem to be low with me off and even lower with me on (200 lb guy). When I'm on, it looks like there's about 3" of fork inner showing. It just seems a little low to me. The oil seals look perfect and there's no indication that there's ever been a drop of oil leaking out. Could it be that my springs are worn? I got this bike a little used and have put many miles on it. It's up to about 10,500 now. I actually just noticed this "lowness" a couple months ago. I'm not sure if it's always been that way or not. Perhaps the previous owner had it lowered? In any event, I'd like to raise the forks about another 3" or so. I think the ride would be more comfortable, it would look better and stand less of a chance of bottoming out on a hard bump. I don't usually experience it bottoming out though.

Now, a good many of the bikes I've looked at on here also look rather "low" in the front end. Maybe this is just how the bike is. I can't find exactly what I need to know from the Suzuki maintenance book. Any ideas? I'd be much obliged for any!

Aloha and Mahalo,
Aaron

[Easy Rider]

Anyone have experience with the forks on this bike? Mine seem to be low with me off and even lower with me on (200 lb guy).

Post up some actual measurements and we can compare.

[jonathan180iq]

ditto

[Blues]

OK guys, I guess I should have put up the measurements. Duh! These measurements are from the underside of the lower triple tree cover to the top of the fork tube (where the base of the dust seal meets the top of the metal of the tube).

Bike on sidestand, unloaded ......................6.23" (6 1/4)

Bike sitting upright, unloaded.....................5.080" (5)

Bike with me on it......................................4.556" (4 1/2)

[Sarris]

I measured mine unloaded from the bottom of the lower triple tree measures right at 5 3/4" on the side stand. Loaded dimension will vary with the weight of the ass in the seat.

I really think you are OK as long as you don't have any stiffness or uncontrolled bouncing when is in use.

:tup:

[Blues]

Thx Sarris..no I don't have any control issues with it. Acually, my big concern is comfort. I feel like if the forks were a tad longer, it would slide me a bit further back in the saddle and might be a bit more comfortable. Besides, it'd just look cooler with a bit longer fork length. Almost "choppered", if you will. I wonder if I couldn't manufacture a longer spring spacer for the inside of the fork and get the same ride but a couple inches more resting fork length.

Just gotta tinker with something today
thx,
Aaron

[Sarris]

Spacers won't give you more length, just higher spring compression and be real hard w/ very little rebound. For more length, you would need to install longer fork tubes. +3" or +4"would look really good. Then you add a 3" (or 4") spacer (1" diameter x X" long section of pcv pipe) internally above (?) the spring.

Contact Franke's Engineering (aka Forking by Franke) here http://www.frankmain.qpg.com/ and they can make tubes at any length (over or under) that you want. I'm pretty sure that the tubes on the GZ are 37mm, but you should measure before ordering.

I love choppers so I think you should go for it!! My avatar shows my last chopper.

:rawk:

[Blues]

Frankie's eh? I'll at least look 'em up. It may be one of those circumstances where the cost outweighs any benefit. I think about a 3" extension would look really good and not change the geometery of my bike so much as to make it hard to ride. Anyone with more experience please correct me if I'm full of S&$% on that!

[Easy Rider]

it would slide me a bit further back in the saddle and might be a bit more comfortable.

I've been tinkering with my seat for several months now with exactly that theory but it now appears that exactly the opposite might be true. That is, raising the front of the seat may actually make matters worse. Film at 10. :)

[Water Warrior 2]

3 inch extensions might look cool but I am pretty sure the handling would suffer. At low speed the bike would probably want to fall into corners and would not respond as well to curves at higher speeds. That is a lot of front end geometry change for a smaller bike frame. I lowered the rear of my Vstrom 1 1/8 inches( basically the same as raising the front 1 1/8) and the handling was quite different. At posted highway speeds the curves were a challenge on ocassion and I had to lean way more than I felt comfy with. Went back to stock suspension heights for the original handling as I considered it a safety factor. The GZ may or may not react well to the change but you can always change back if you don't like it.