Lowering F700GS

My F700GS is a little tall for my liking. I have replaced the seat with a lower one. What are the best options for lowering the suspension. I don’t plan to ride on difficult trails where reduced ground clearance would be a problem.

If you scroll through the F-Twin section, along with the "Index" you will see a fair amount of information on the lowering.

Here is one of them- https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?101499-F700-GS-Opinion-on-lowering-options-please

Good Luck.

OM

Rear Spring

Omega Man,

I see from the previous thread that you lowered your F800 yourself. I just received the 30 mm Hyperpro lowering spring, and an getting ready to install it. Do you recall any problems or surprises in making the swap? I assume that the rear shock arrangement in the two bikes is very similar.

Thanks,

Jim

I think it was fairly straight forward Jim. It's been a while and I seem to recall the usual trouble associated with the spring change on the rear. I "think" I has to use a spring compressor.
The other surprise I do remember is that the caps on the top of the front forks need the fork clamps to be loosened before the top caps could be unscrewed. I haven't look at what info I had in my thread in a while.
I think I bought them from Touratech which at the time wasn't much help with any technical questions. I later found that Klaus sold them as well-EPM? I called him but he resisted helping me as I didn't purchase the kit from them.

Good Luck.

OM

Omega Man,

Thanks! I think I ready to attack it now. I have arranged for my local service station to change the spring on the shock rather than building a spring compressor myself.

Jim

JimStone said:

Omega Man,

Thanks! I think I ready to attack it now. I have arranged for my local service station to change the spring on the shock rather than building a spring compressor myself.

Jim

Click to expand...

Great!
I happen to have a couple of ways to do the spring work. The service station may have a McPherson strut wall mounted rig that may help.

Post up how you made out.

OM

Don't forget about center and side stand clearances after lowering.

jnrugg said:

Don't forget about center and side stand clearances after lowering.

Click to expand...

Yeah

That will be obvious

I shortened both of mine.

OM

Stuck again

I’m trying to get to the top shock mounting bolt. The Haynes manual says to remove the center and side panels, then undo the two screws that hold down the seat bridge. Then ease the seat bridge up to access the shock bolt. Ease it up? It doesn’t want to move at all. Help!

Jim

Sorry but I don’t remember that aspect. Keep looking, you will figure it out.

OM

Got it

OM,

You were right. I figured it out. After I clipped a cable tie, I was abe to move the seat bridge. But it doesn’t lift up, it needs to pull back. That allows access to the shock bolt. And it wasn’t necessary to remove the panels, just a couple a screws at the rear of the side panels.

Jim

Great!
If you decide to shorten the center or side stand, I can tell you what I did.
OM

OM,

Yes, my centerstand was hard to use before i lowered the bike. I presume this involved a welder or a welding shop.

Jim

Seat bridge

The seat bridge is only held in place by a couple of screws. However, there are also a bunch of tie-wraps in the bridge that hold several cables in place. Once those tie-wraps are cut, there is one plug which also needs to be released. Then the seat bridge can easily be lifted out, giving you complete access to the top shock mount area.

I found a local shop that specializes in motorcycle suspensions. I’m getting the shock spring swapped out today. Then everything just goes back together...with any luck.

Great.
I still have the “slugs” removed from the center stand and a will post a picture for reference along with the why/how of it…….when I can get a minute.
I can’t find the “slug” removed for the side stand.

OM

Spring Swap on Rear Shock

The local BMW dealer doesn’t know how to swap the shock spring. Does anyone have any advice? This is an ESA shock, by the way.

Thanks!

Update on spting swap

After getting the shock off the bike, I had planned to have my local service station use their Macpherson strut compressor to do the spring swap. However it didn’t fit their machine. I tried a local motorcycle dealer, then a cycle suspension specialist, then a BMW dealer. Nobody seemed interested or capable of doing the swap.

So, bought a tool online.




However, the cast is lugs on this tool were too big to fit between the coils of the spring. No good.

Then I bought another spring online.



Again, no good. This one was designed to smaller, dual shock bikes.

So i got one specifically for monoshock motorcycles:



This one actually worked. This process of trying different tools took almost a month, by the way.

So, then i needed to find out how to get the spring off the shock.
It’s not obvious. Most shocks seem to have some type of release mechanism at the bottom of the shock. Not so on this bike. It has a preload adjuster at the top of the shock. The preload adjuster needs to be pushed downward, exposing a wire clip in a groove and that retains the adjuster and the spring below it. After removing the wire from the groove, the adjuster can be lifted off the shock. Then the compression tool can be loosened, releasing the spring. Be sure to take note of the various rings and spacers on the shock, so that you can put them back the same way.

The retaining groove is actually in a chrome ring which can slide down the shock body when you reassemble everything. I found that it helps to wrap some tape around the shock body to keep the chrome ring in place. Otherwise you won’t be able to get the retaining wire in place.


For what it’s worth, Ted Porter (Ted Porter’s Beemer Shop) will do the spring swap for $30 plus shipping. Believe me, that is much easier than trying to do it yourself.

The bike is now back together, and seems to work just fine. I just need to figure out what to do with those left over screws.

Thanks for your help Omega Man and Ted Porter.

Great job.
I hope the results are what you needed.
Thanks for posting the results.

BTW, I did find the “slugs” I cut out to shorten the center stand if it would help you.

OM

Shortening Side Stand

Omega Man,

On my bike, I didn’t need to do anything with the side stand. With this Hyperpro spring, the bike sits at a “normal” height when unloaded. The soft part of the spring compresses when you sit on the bike. It seems to work pretty well.

Oops - center stand

Omega Man,

I haven’t tried the center stand yet since installing the new spring. I expect it to be about the same as before, which was a bit too high anyway.