Handling of lowered GSA vs standard height, part 2

I suppose it’s part of BM’s compromise of designing an off-road capability alonside a tarmac touring bike. To be honest with my twin cam I thought they had got the compromise just right. I’ve ridden my daughter’s partners 2017 gsa and it sort of gelled alongside the TC but I’ve not ridden it far to notice much appart from it was heavy. But he does long distance touring through Southern Europe and North Africa so he had lots of heavy stuff in tank bag rear bag so when I tried it it wasn’t a fair comparison with old 2012 TC.
My old 2005gs had Ohlins and it was very well set up when I bought it and I think ( not sure with old comparisons) it handled the best of the latest bm's I’ve tried lately.
Don’t know if this gives a true picture but it’s what I think.

When you get lowered suspension from Wilbers (on some versions) the spring and travel in the shock itself is the same. The length is lost somewhere in the shock body.
That risks the wheel hitting chassis so they must have done their homework.
The more radical lowering has to include reduced shock travel and I assume a shorter spring. However again they provide springs by compression rate so a shorter one has the same dynamics as a longer one.
IMO the 50mm lower GSA looks dumpy and odd. If I could not use it without being lowered that much, I personally would look for a different bike.
Saying that when I eventually get the wedge to have mine Wilbered, I’m going for -30mm in suspension length.

Just for clarity.....of itself I agree reduced wheelbase of 1.5% would likely be undectable to all but elite racers. But....cumulatively with a reduced overturning moment of 5% would be detectable (I think )


In my head, the ease of direction change is more likely down to the "firmer feeling" suspension reducing pitching when the throttle is opened and closed.

The lower cog would be more noticed when you have to do a sharp turn or a side to side flick.

Compared to my previous bike a very basic suspension Yamaha my first two revelations were (1) how the GS will hardly lift itself out of a bend when you power on. You still must consciously counter steer to climb out of the bend.
(2) weighting footrests makes no difference. Again it has to be counter steered. This is especially useful in side winds as the GS rider gets blown about in the seat, but the bike doesn’t do an auto lane change.


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