Thanks very much for the warm welcome, and for the advice. I HAD heard that shorter shocks might adversly effect the handling, so I will go check out Big Norm's  thread about shaving the seat. Sounds crazy, but although we have two acres here, most of it is slightly downhill. I parked the bike under a willow tree half way up my driveway last year, cuz it was just too awkward trying to turn her around on wet grass, or in the gravel closer to the house. Im thinking shaving the seat, plus extra soles on my  boots may help a lot.