Unfortunatly, we do not have any factory adjustability to raise the seat anymore than it already is set for,..............however, I've come up with a solid way to gain approx. 1/2" of additional height to the seat!
the hardest part of this is finding the material to work with as a blocking device, under the mount points of the seat.
start out by removing the front carrier holding the two rubber round cushions that support the front of the seat( two bolts) and replace it using a stack of stainless fender washers of an apropriate size ( I used 4 on each side) as a spacer between the carrier and the frame. This is gains close to 3/8" of height to the front and prevents the seat from leaning forward from the rest of the mod.
next, go to a harware store and find some solid rubber floor mat type of material. The kind i found was cut off a bulk roll, and is about 1/8" thick and has some grooving in it. It doesn't matter what it looks like, but it should be dense, rubber that doesn't compress too much. You'll only need about 1 sq foot of the material to be cut up.
next, locate ( with the drivers seat upsidedown in your hands) the center edge ,two rubber bumpers that support the seat in the middle ( black, about the size of dime). Now look where these bumpers contact the bike. They rest on a flat area on either side of the fuse box, and can be identified by the marks that they leave.
what you then do, is to take the rubber material and cut 8 strips, approx. 1" x 4" and stack them into two pairs of four, making two- 1/2" thick blocks of rubber. Now you can fit each stack in the channel where the bumpers contact the bike, neatly covering the entire area ( covering a recessed bolt head as well) with a pad that will not slide around with or without any adhisive ( I used a small dab of silicone to hold the strips together and also to attach the "blocks" to the bike.
next you will need another set of "blocks" to place under the stems at the rear of the drivers seat. I found that 2 strips is the most that would work, allowing the passenger seat to still snap into place ( more on that later). make these block the same size as the recess where the rubber pads that are on the stems, drop in to.
since most of the pressure and seat hight is determined in the center of the seat, The actual raising of the seat seems to be most affected by the thicker center blocks of rubber. The seat body has enough "give" in it to still fit firmly in place, at all six contact points ( eight, if you count the front tabs on the tank)
In order to allow the pillion seat to ride level with the newly raised driver seat, you must take off the two nuts holding the bar that has the two latch posts on it. Again, all you have to do is stack several washers under the bracket an attach the nuts back on. You will be limited in the number of washers you can use, because the bolt length is quickly used up. however, it is enough to raise the seat to be nearly level with the front seat.
I found that latching the pillion seat was tough untill I slightly "warped" the bracket in a convex fashion allowing the rubber stems of the front seat to rest a little deeper on the "pads" of the bracket with the latch posts. I don't have any pics to show you, but If you look at it it should make sense.
The nice thing is that nothing is permanently modified, and is completely reversable.
It's amazing how much this makes a difference in comfort, even though it's just 1/2"!!
I hope this gives some help to anyone feeling cramped on their "R".
Just kidding. At 6'2" with a 34" inseam, I've found the GS to be the perfect fit for my frame. Feet flat on the ground and knees slightly bent. It would be nice if I could come close to this on my Rockster.
