Re: Short arses unite!
In researching this topic myself, I have found that it is safe to lower the suspension front forks and/or the rear ride height by 10mm/1cm ....(you also could go to a lower profile 120 x 60 x 17" front tire too)....
Beyond the 10mm/1cm lowering....you may have clearance issues with the front and/or rear huggers/fenders and the bike....plus you may have issuses with clearance in cornering/lean angle where you may scratch/scrape parts of the bike...this may vary depending on your riding style too of course...
There is also the issue of needing to modify the angle or length of the side stand, so when parked the bike is not to vertical as to be in danger of tipping over....
myself...I plan to lower both front and rear by 10mm/1cm and use a 120 x 60 x 17" front tire...I then plan to buy a second side stand which I will shorten and use on the bike when it is in this lowered condition (I then can use the std side stand when the bike is in a higher height adjustment setting)...
hope this helps....
P.S...If you want to get even lower that the 10mm/1cm in front and/or rear you could do so ...for example...you could use a 120 x 60 x 17" front tire and then lower the front forks by lowering the front hugger/fender closer to the front tire of lower profile (by removing the front fork springs you could put the front wheel assy into maximum compression to make sure every thing clears...you may be able to gain a few more mm(s) this way....on the rear; you could eliminate the rear hugger and also remove the rear shock spring to put the rear end in maximum compression, again to check for clearances...again you may gain some more mm(s)....
this would allow you to lower the bike to its max without drastic changes to the geometry....
the big problems in lowering the bike: side stand needs to be modified to allow bike to be safely parked...and loosing lean angle clearances so the body work and/or bike parts dont touch down when riding/cornering, leading to damage of the bike and/or crashing and getting a big boo-boo....
8o