Hi from Aus

Hi all, new to forum but have been riding for many years. Currenlty on my second ST10, 2016 ES (60th Anniversary). First ST was 2010 G1, lost at 105k km's. Mods include 40mm lift, ECU re-map, slip-on exhaust, protective accessories and LED driving and spots. Also custom built dash for nav and spot tracker). Adv ride as much as family allows. I look forward to contributing to the forum as much as possible.

Welcome LostDonkey. Good to have you on board, mate!

Welcome, from Melbourne, not a lot of Aussies on here, good to see/hear from another.

Welcome

Welcome from Chicago, USA. Beautiful bike with some very thoughtful mods.

a simple hello, LostDonkey.....

Welcome from Idaho. What did you do to lift your bike?

Hi Mak10, thanks for the welcome note.

The lift (or lowering) is achieved by replacing the bottom suspension linkages. The linkages are also known as 'bones' or 'jacks'.

You can get them from Lust Racing. Note that you get different ones depending on whether you have a standard or ES.

On my Z bike, it took me about 10min to do, on the ES I now own, about 45min as you have to loosen the exhaust assembly to be able to remove the forward bolt.

I ride my bike hard, including jumping when the opportunity presents, and far (over 100k on my last bike with these installed) and have never had any issues that some worry about. The extra ground clearance is noticeable.

I still have the 40mm lift links from my old bike (Z model). Let me know if you want them.

Thanks for the tip. The biggest hang up off road I have is the ground clearance. I have somewhat compensated by setting my bike (ES) to two helmets with luggage. This helps with the bottoming but creates rebound issues.

Do you find that with the “lift” bones installed, how it effect on road handling?

I installed lowering bones for my wife on a Klx250s and it had an effect on the way it rode, and made riding two up precarious. It was a simple 10 min job to change them though.

I found that it shifts the weight of the bike slightly forward, which is a good thing, which then makes it turn in slightly faster. But saying that, the change was nowhere as noticeable as when I first changed the tires from road biased to off-road. That took some getting used to, especially when leaning into corners on tarmac and higher speed freeway riding. Did you find the same?

When selecting 2 helmets with luggage, do you then set it to the softest setting (soft -3)? I've not actually tried that, good tip.

I found that if I went with a soft setting I would still get some bottoming with the front forks. Standard not so much and hard not at all.

I guess it's a matter of finding that perfect balance; firmness not to bottom out vs. rebound and hard knocks to the bike. Or we could just slow down.... though that's not really an interesting option.

Welcome from Kansas USA. Wife and I would love to visit your country sometime.

Thanks Flat Lander. Aus is a beautiful country, you'll both love it. I almost made it to Wichita to look at some grain silos last year, but I could not make the trip. From the pre research I completed, Kansas looks great too.