Low to High

Scottish Clarky · Aug 22, 2021

OK so this is going to sound stoopid!

I've bought a f700gs Low

But I want it High :blast

Why would you? I hear you cry...... It was minted and extremely low miles and fairly cheap

I thought the exercise to change it would be simple and fairly inexpensive

But checking this out, seems it's not going to be as easy (cheap) as I expected

https://www.ascycles.com/bmw/2017/F700GS/Rear%20axle,%20rear-wheel%20drive,%20suspension/Spring%20strut,%20rear.html#PartsTable

My initial thoughts were just changing the front and rear springs and adding a normal height seat

Has anyone on here did this before?

how do I post an image?

een705 · Aug 23, 2021

Can you manage with just a high seat? If not you will need to rent or buy the spring compression tool from motorworks, I have a set of normal height springs if you want to buy them they are in excellent condition front and rear.

Scottish Clarky · Aug 23, 2021

Thanks for the reply and offer

I've already bought Hyperpro progressive front springs and a Hyperpro rear spring suited to my weight

Subsequently after a bit more research! these mods should do the trick

The front fork tubes also require a damper rod fitted

It'll be a nice winter project

Matty589 · Aug 26, 2021

Won’t the stands need changing? The side stand will tip the bike over further and the centre stand (if fitted) won’t be tall enough to lift the rear wheel.

RadioFlyer · Aug 26, 2021

Matty589 said:
Won’t the stands need changing? The side stand will tip the bike over further and the centre stand (if fitted) won’t be tall enough to lift the rear wheel.

Unless an aftermarket one has been fitted the lowered bikes don't come with center stands nor is one available from BMW.

Scottish Clarky · Aug 27, 2021

RadioFlyer said:
Unless an aftermarket one has been fitted the lowered bikes don't come with center stands nor is one available from BMW.

Correct, thats something I can look into once the work has been completed

Got a cracking reply from this American chappy

Having done both forks and shock replacement on this same model bike before (and that's all you are looking at here). It isn't that daunting. The hardest part may be getting that Hyperpro spring onto a used shock, lol! Careful with that. When you remove the rear shock, inspect the top shock bolt - if it is bent at all, you may want to look into one of the after-market shock bolt brackets (I installed this one). The shock bolt design is identical on both the F700/800's, and lots of F800 riders have reported this issue, probably due to more aggressive off road riding and hence stress on that bolt. One theory is that it bends from the strong impulse when the rear suspension bottoms out. The bolt was slightly bent when I removed it from the wife's F700, so I went ahead and did the support upgrade. Just something to watch for when you remove the shock - if bolt is ok then probably save your money and leave as is.

I started a thread on another forum when I rebuilt the front forks on an F800ST, and at that time I really dug into what was different between standard and low suspension options - which comes down to the damping rod, as you know. I also linked to other helpful threads I found on the topic. The F700 is substantially the same in terms of overall process and fork design, so you may find that useful. Thread starts out with request for info - but if you go down to my post #15 you'll find my summary and list of useful links. And note that in this thread, I was adding gold valve emulators and changed out the OEM springs - if you are just pulling it apart to install the new damping rod, it is really straight forward.

https://f800riders.org/forum/showth...arket-fork-springs-for-factory-lowered-F800ST

I did a more or less identical upgrade on the F700GS (Gold Valve Emulators, new springs), but I didn't do a write up on that. But I did summarize it in a post on another tread in this forum:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/13-f7gs-fork-and-shock-springs.1350412/#post-36367268

But don't over-think it; it is really not going to be that big of a deal, both fork damper rod and shock is easy to replace. Except for that spring! If you don't have an appropriate spring compressor, maybe you can get a local shop to do it for you for not to much.

Good luck finding a used shock - you'll be happy you grabbed this deal when you are done. Just a weekend of work once you have all the parts, and you'll be ridding a non-lowered F700GS

knutk · Sep 12, 2021

Any chance for you to find someone with a normal height bike wanting a lowered one, so you simply swap rear shocks and the internals of the front shocks, as well as the sidestand.?

Perhaps they will also gove you a good price on the center stand, as there is no center stand available for the lowered bike.

Low to High

Scottish Clarky

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een705

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Scottish Clarky

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Matty589

Well-known member

RadioFlyer

Registered user

Scottish Clarky

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knutk

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