A lower seat sir? That'll be £101.

Yup - very friendly actually and sounds like they're based most likely
somewhere near the HO in Gatwick if the accent was anything to go by.

 

http://www.eyeonsoaps.com/GH/Few Pics/wonka.jpg

 

the RGS is 84-86 cm tall. It's also a very wide seat, which is a
consideration - on the R30 despite the seat height being a fixed
86.5cm, the thinness of the seat meant effectively I could get both
feet down further.

I could tip-toe the RGS, or flat foot on one side without noticable
lean, so in my opinion that didn't make it "too tall".

I think I am a similar height to you, and I have a 32" inside leg, if
that's any use to you for comparison.

My physical problem with the bike wasn't that it was too tall, more
that it was too (top) heavy, and the reach to the bars was too far for
comfort.

My real problem with the bike is that I "just didn't like it". When
faced with the choice of going out on the RGS or the R30, the BMW was
never my favoured choice.

 

None at all, until you go to put your foot down & the ground's 1.9cm
away.

HTH

 

That's approx the same as me.

Interesting that you found the reach rather than the height the issue.

 

Cos I'm normally lying through my teeth.

 

Lanky git

 

I would have thought the "you swallow the price of a replacement seat and I
will buy a bike off you" approach would produce some level of success.

 

dwb emerged from their own little world to say

If Suzuki started offering lots of factory options then you would have the
same situation as BMW: long lead times and sky high prices. The Japs seem
to prefer to treat motorcycles the same as TVs. Produce a standardised
product and if it does not sell keep reducing the price until they are all
gone.

At least with the V-strom you have the option to purchase a factory made
special seat. With most Jap bikes if you don't fit you have to hope someone
else has developed bars, pegs etc to accommodate you.

 

Does 15mm more than your GSXR's seat height really make that much of a
difference?

 

TBH I don't know.

According to the blurb the 04/04 GSX-R is a cm higher than the 02/03 - yet
it doesn't feel it because the saddle is very narrow.

I've sat on a 82cm version of the VS and could touch the ground fine - just
not sure how much wider the 84cm is!

 

issue.

it's supposed to be an upright position bike; having to lean 10 degrees
forward to comfortably grip the bars means your spine gets painful
pretty quickly, as there's nothing to rest your weight on except your
coccix.

 

Take a thick towel into the dealer with you and lay it over the seat,
then try. Should be fine.

 

darsy emerged from their own little world to say

Odd. I'm not noted for my height or the length of my arms. I find the GS
ergonomically sound[0]. I did not buy the bike new so perhaps the
previous owner altered the bars from the factory position[1]. It may
explain why my tankbag turns the indicators on at full lock which nobody
else I know experiences.

[0] although I agree that the coccyx thing can get tiresome on a long
journey i.e. 300+ miles [1] slacken off a few allen bolts and the bars
can rotate through a few degrees

 

Possibly. I just never felt particularly comfortable with the thing.

I have real ambivalent feelings about the GS. I know theoretically it's
a great all-round bike, but there were just too many things about it
that I didn't get on with.

It's rediculously big and heavy, and though it's not a problem at all
on the move, I found it completely unwieldy around town, which is where
I do a lot of my riding.

In particular though, I got frustrated with how slow the bike was - not
necessarily in terms of top speed, but acceleration is pretty poor,
compared to pretty much any other modern bike I've owned.

It was buying the R30 that marked the early death-knell for my RGS.
Sure, you couldn't tour on it, but it did everything else I wanted from
a quasi-off-road bike so much better than the RGS did.

I also think the fact there's zero luggage capacity on the bike itself
without top box or panniers is completely unacceptible.

But hey, BMW can sell every one they make, so I'm in the minority.

 

I'm short for my height, though.

 

darsy emerged from their own little world to say

Most owners, but certainly not me, throw a large chunk of the Touratech
catalogue at the bike

I rarely ride in town but agree with you. I wouldn't use one for urban
commuting. The 650 loan bikes from my dealer are much better city bikes.

It's fast enough for most of my useage, especially on nadgery mountain
roads in Mid Wales or Alpine passes.

Something they have addressed with the new "how fucking much" 1200

Indeed. The bike is just one huge compromise. A good all-rounder but not
*very* good at anything. I like it very much but on odd occasions wish I
still had my Honda Dominator for hooning or a Blackbird to blast the
autostrada miles from Verona to Cardiff.

 

And do this willingly - I don't get it - you've just paid £8000+ for a
bike - then go and spend a load more on making it into the bike they 'want'.

They are, to me, just WAAAAAAAAAY to expensive.

 

er.. at the risk of being whooshed, how much luggage capacity did the R30
have?

 

the RGS is billed as being an all-rounder; the R30 isn't.