weight capacity

[EDT]

I have a 92 shadow 600 vlx and the weight capacity is listed as 350 lbs.  My wife and I total close to 400 ,,, therefore I need to know where I can find the weight capacities on a bigger bike and find it difficult to get that info from sellers.  Is there a site that lists specs on bikes ?

[dt]

Hey Ed.

I checked around and it doesn’t look like dealers (or even manufacturers) list weight capacities in the specs; weird. Obviously you probably already did that. I checked H-D, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda. However, the following link is to an article entitled, Getting Loaded: How Much Weight Can Your Motorcycle Handle? and states:

“There is a simple way to tell the maximum weight that your bike is rated to carry by its manufacturer. Just subtract the wet weight (that is, the bike's weight with the tank full of fuel and the other fluids topped up) from the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The GVWR is the maximum allowable total weight of motorcycle and its load, including riders, luggage and other debris.”

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/streetsurvival/overload/index.html

So, the dealers and manufacturers I checked don’t list GVWR either … lol. However, they list the wet and I easily found the GVWR for a couple bikes that I randomly picked simply by Googling the bike model and "GVWR". Examples I searched:

My XR1200: GVWR 1,000 – wet weight per mfg 580 = load 420 (I weight less than that   )
Kawasaki Connie (I've got to get one of these): GVWR 1,111 – 670 = load 441
Yamaha VStar250: GVWR 675 -324 = load 351
Honda Shadow 750RS: GVWR 957 – 507 = load 450

Seems to me that once you pick the bike, you can follow the article recommendation, but once you land on something, you could check with a dealer just for peace of mind.

Hope that helps!

[Edit: BMW lists the weight capacities for each model they sell.]

[mrbones]

If you overload your bike by 15% what's really going to happen? I'd say nothing. Things to watch for when riding 2-up is more suspension strain and longer brake distances. If your shocks are bottoming out a lot making the bike unpredictable, you can replace them with stiffer ones. Do your shocks have adjustable preload? If so, turn them to the stiffest setting for riding 2-up.

My '98 Sportster was bottoming out with one person on it so I put on rear air shocks from one of HD's larger models. Now it's a little stiff with one person, but perfect with two. Progressive springs in the front forks can help all bikes on the road with reduced nose dive. I highly recommend them. 

[EDT]

Thanks for the great leads and tips. Especially on the suspension, they seem like great ideas for any bike. Although breaking has not been an issue yet, I will also be looking into beefing up the brakes. If i find anything ill post it.

[maureen]

Never really noticed it but I wonder if the VIN tag would list GVWR like autos do. 

And of course, all my bikes are at my shop so I can't even go out and check.