It looks to me like your rear suspension sags an inordinate amount when you get on the bike... It might be time to get that shock serviced or replaced, or at the very least increase the preload. I replaced my stock spring and shock 1300 at 25,000 miles, and it made a huge difference.
Garry
I never serviced it. I bought it less then a year ago and did almost 10K (it was 49K when I bought it).
1. what size rear tire? (lower profile than stock will make bike ride lower)
2. measure distance from top of lower fork tube to bottom of lower triple clamp (suspension adjustments can also lower ride height)
3. if you can see the top of the fork tubes, are they flush with the top triple clamp, or do they rise above it? (another variation on #2)
4. non-stock rear shock and/or spring could also lower the ride height (measure distance between the upper/lower mounting bolts)
1. I don’t have the size in my head but I ordered both tires through the local bike shop and used the numbers from the manual that comes with the bike, and from Clymer Manual (same sizes)
2., 3 and 4. have to check when home.
Yup...all of the above, and that suspension is compressing WAY too much for just sitting on bike.
I hope my 240 lbs don’t have anything with it?
If you are not running factory sizes and you are running low profile tires such as a 160/60/17 rear compared to the factory recommendation 160/70/17 you will have just a hair over 1 1/4" height difference. The 160/70/17 being taller.
This will cause much grief when parking the ST1100, especially where there is a slight angle in the parking surface. If you changed the profile of the front as well that will impact this issue too.
Nope, didn’t change anything. I don’t remember previous owner mentioned anything like that. But the tires, I know that one for sure, are original, standard sizes.
Yes it is. All the potential causes have been named. (Except for gremlins sneaking in at night and swapping out your kickstand for a longer one!) I'm curious though. Did this just happen recently? Did it always do this? Did you notice the stand scraping the ground when you used it? Is there a recent pasta problem?
When I bought it it was my second bike, no experience. I assumed everything’s as it supposed to be. First time I had hard time when I tried to park on the side of the road, of course, but I was thinking it supposed to be that way and I’m clumsy.
And I’m paranoid: “… bike’s not gonna fall down, it’s ok… stop paranoia... “.
I was parking usually on the flat surface so didn’t make a big deal.
On the last weekend trip, it really pissed me off because I missed several nice spots to make a stop and “explore” because I couldn’t figure out how to put the bike on the side stand without a chance to fall on the right…