This bike just feels really low to me. I'm wondering if it had been lowered before. Does anyone know of any measurements I could take to verify that? It's about 31 inches from the ground to the top of the seat foam when the bike is standing straight up without a rider on it.

 

Maybe post up a pic.

 

There's a snap ring at the top of the forks. The upper triple tree should be stopped against that ring. That's the factory fork setting. I've seen a few that weren't set that way and the owner didn't know. Even seen them misaligned.

The bike should sit at a level attitude when upright. If it does then you should have the factory swingarm link installed. The book will give the factory preload settings on front and rear suspension.

If there's aftermarket suspension on the bike, then all bets are off. You can ballpark it based on the sidestand coming down and eyeballing the angle at park.

 

Yeah my forks are all the way down with the circlip against the top of the clipons.

"The bike should sit at level altitude when upright."
Not sure what you are saying should be level. The rear seat is approximately level with the gas tank. Is that what you mean?

I've set the front preload to what the manual specified. I haven't done the back yet because I'm probably going to have to get a friend to hold down the front while I try to jack up the rear to get the load off the swingarm and shock.
What kind of sag should I be aiming for in the front and rear? With my dirt bikes I would shoot for about 100mm in the rear but that would be crazy with the short suspension on sport bikes.

One of the reasons I was asking about all this is because of the nasty welds on the end of the kickstand. It looked like it might have been chopped and re-welded, which I figured would be because the bike might be shorter than stock.

Posting pic of the bike, shock linkage, and kickstand welds.

 

Looks stock height to me....

And a factory weld on the kickstand foot as well.

 

Looks stock height to me also. I'll take a look at the kickstand on the F4i and report back when I get a chance.

 

My kickstand pad went missing a few years ago.....so yeah crappy welds are probably normal seeing as mine failed