I installed the lowering kit and flatfoot the other night with the help of my son. I love it!

After owning my V for a couple months and putting on 3k miles I still couldn't figure out why the Versys sat so tall- then it came to me! It's to keep it from becoming too much of a "Chick-Bike"! cuz it's way too good for that.
No offense intended to any chicks who have the bike- good choice- but you know what I mean, pretty light, modest power, sensible ergos; it's kinda practical!

And guys don't buy bikes for practical reasons- they want the HP and the CC, and the bling-bling! Or, for those that have been there and done that- a towering mud-crusted Trans-continental Touring Rig.
So the V brings just a bit of that to the table- it doesn't look big, but swing a leg over and geez, this thing's tall! So the short, the meek, and the chicks, keep looking. Which leaves us with a great bike, unsullied by the chick-bike label, we can ride it proudly, looking down on the teeming masses.

Uuh, one-legging the stoplights. Doing the brake-to-shifter hop. Pawing at the sidestand tang with one boot while tiptoeing on the other. Scuffling ineffectually while trying to back the thing out of a parking spot.
See, some of us shorties bought one anyway. Not because it was tall, but in spite of it. Sure, it's tall, but I'll get used to it, we said. And you might, but you don't have to.
I've had a KLR for years and never put a lowering link on it. I understood why it was tall. It was usefully tall, clearing muddy ruts and baby-head boulders. Plus, the thing kinda blows as a street bike anyway, might as well be tall, otherwise you'd just be riding a short, vibey, two-wheeled tractor that sounds like an old air-cooled bug.
But nobody would call it a Chick Bike.

funny post.

when i had the transalp, i adapted to this issue by always backing downhill. whether i'm backing into the spot or backing out is determined by the slope.

"I installed the lowering kit and flatfoot the other night with the help of my son. I love it"

Good for you it worked out fine.
Are ladies called chick in US. I thought chicken was called chicks-Going through cultural shock here.

Great advice. My wife started riding her own last summer. When she finally realized what I meant by "Always back downhill when parking" she has never had me ask to push her again.

I always thought i was short, but after riding a couple thousand miles on my drz i find that the versys isn't so bad.