Ride height .....
 

Someone said that this was best done with the tie bar off the bike. How does one go about taking load off it so that this can be achieved .....?

You don't really need to unload the rear to adjust the ride height.
The hard part is undoing the locknuts.
One is a left handed thread, identified with a line around the nut flats.
the other is a conventional thread.

Its usually done OK on the bike but if the top/bottom lock nuts are really tight , it would be better to take it out rather than wrecking them !
I hung my bike from the rafters(garage) at the point where the rear subframe meets the main frame using two wratchet tie downs
Abba stands or similar work but that means spending money !:D

I have an abba stand .....

When I first got the bike I tried to alter the ride height, and even though I turned the lock nut the correct way, it chose to melt and round off on the easy to access faces. Hence the problem.

Unweighting it on the abba stand didn't seem to loosed the "feel" of the adjuster. I don't want to take it off and realise I can't put it back on!!!

I removed my rear shock using an Abba stand with no probs , the only thing i did notice was that when i was removing/replacing the bolts that hold the shock & ride height rod i neeeded a mate to slightly lift the rear of the bike (using the subframe) so i could line up the holes for the bolts to go out/in easier !
Hope this makes sense !!