So last weekend I did a dry run with my bike fully load in prep for my RTW trip. Load comes to 170lbs at the moment, including the weight of all the containers (jesse bags, Bags-Connection tankbag, H&B topbox, Ortlieb medium. Weight also included 5 liters of water and 1.5 gallons of fuel. So not too bad I think... I will probably gain another 10lb by the time I'm finished, a few small things to add.
Anyway, after a couple of beers at a mates place (hold my beer and watch this!), and with said mates to help should I fail, I decided it would be a good time to see if I could pick it up. Laid it down on the grass then tried to lift it the "correct" way, by backing into the seat and lifting with my legs. No go... with the bike on the left side, me facing away from it with my bum on the seat, I had nowhere to get a grip with my left hand. This is with Jesses on - I could easily grip the racks with the bags off, but no way to get a bag off with the bike on its side.
Eventually I just did a brute force thing - facing the bike, squat really low, grip the crash bar with the left hand, right just bracing on the seat cos there's still nowhere to get a good grip, and shoulder into the curve of the tank. This is where I got most of the lift. Then push like buggery using my legs. Came up pretty easy, no back strain either. (it doesn't look right in the pic, but I think this was taken before the actual lift).
Next time I'm going to try attaching a strap to the pillion hanger, and use that to grab onto for the butt-in-seat technique.
Part of the point of this exercise was to have people help me set up sag. I soon realised that trusting myself or anyone else to be accurate with numbers after a few beers was pure folly! However I did get to do a few miles with this setup and it felt fine - plush even... nicer than when unloaded. This was with settings close to stock, and rear preload on the soft side of the middle.
I did some smooth dirt roads, all good there too. Given that I have some room to play with preload, I'm thinking the stock suspension will probably work fine. Will see after 10,000 miles around the US - if I need to upgrade I should know by then!