Hey Thanks Jade. I got down on the ground today and tried to view the shock spring, could barely see it the darn bike is so low. I wretch around and felt the jam nut and adjusting nut and the shock adjustment is backed all the way out as far as it will go, no preload at all, NONE. There needs to be some serious adjustment done there and I will try to get to that tomorrow afternoon. I assume I need to have the bike lifted and take some pressure off the rear wheel before adjusting, or does it matter? Thanks. J mIne is a 2002 midnight star jade..thanks again.

do you have access to an engine hoist remove the seat and hang it with a couple of straps from the frame under the seat and at from the front end somewhere then you can jack it up as high as you want

Theres also a tec article on making a "bike stand" using 3 - 2x8's and 1' pipe for the handle.

I have one and it works great....very cheap and atable

Yes Jade I have an engine hoist here..using it now changing a motor in a chevy truck..lol. But I did increase the preload to about 1 7/8" since it was set as far back as it would go and I have not dragged the ground since! It only gave me about a 1/4" in height adjustment, but that coupled with a little stiffer suspension must have done the trick! I am so happy with it now and I was able to keep it within specifications too. I bought this bike from ebay and it came out of jacksonville florida. The bike had been sitting under a tarp and had drawn all kinds of moisture and salty air..it ruined half the chrome and rust was everywhere..After polishing for 3 days and replacing about 400.00 bucks in parts..it is looking righteous now! I am gonna post a few pics today. Thanks Jade for everything. I wish you were close to WV, you could ride blueridge parkway with us july 4 through when we get tired..lol. ~ J

ive just added a load of pre-load to mine.......and its easy, no tools/stands required other than the spanner in the tool kit......
you will need a friend to help tho........
get an offcut of 4x2, and place it under the left foot-board bracket.....lean the bike over untill its sitting on it, [i gave it a bit of a shake to check the strength of the bracket] and asked my buddy to stand left-side holding bars and leaning bike against his leg [just incase]
then i adjusted the shock, and put it back on its stand
some points worth noting tho......
1/ my bike is lowered in the rear so the 4x2 was perfect for me [amount of lean-versus-weight-on-bracket]
with a stock ride-height i would recoment some 3x3 [so as its not leaning too far]