what type of bike for a short (under 5 2) girl?

[Dr. Love]

Eat. Yes, that's right, eat and get fat.  This will increase rider sag and decrease ride height 

or...

Buell XB12Scg, 28.6 inch seat height (pretty narrow too), short reach to the bar...



The craptacular Blast has really low seat height and comes with even lower 25.5 inch...

[Unnamed]

You guys are going about this all wrong. Instead of shortening a fine piece of machinery, you need to extend your friend. Check with a couple doctors, there are ways to break her legs and reset them to make her taller, and that way you don't have to damage the bike. Its a fine alternative in my opinion.

[Dr. Love]

You guys are going about this all wrong. Instead of shortening a fine piece of machinery, you need to extend your friend. Check with a couple doctors, there are ways to break her legs and reset them to make her taller, and that way you don't have to damage the bike. Its a fine alternative in my opinion.

That's a bit extreme... and expensive. Why not just replace her entirely?  Wife can be divorced... GF can certainly be replaced. 

[arcsecond]

You guys are going about this all wrong. Instead of shortening a fine piece of machinery, you need to extend your friend. Check with a couple doctors, there are ways to break her legs and reset them to make her taller, and that way you don't have to damage the bike. Its a fine alternative in my opinion.

That's a bit extreme... and expensive. Why not just replace her entirely?  Wife can be divorced... GF can certainly be replaced. 

Definitely sounds like you're ready to upgrade to a taller friend.

-James

[GeeP]

The first thing I would do is have her take the MSF course and experience riding a bike.  That will give both of you an idea of what her limits are.  She may decide that if she can't sit on it with knees bent she's uncomfortable on it.  In which case, a cruiser might be in the future.

If she want's a "sport bike" I think I would encourage her to try the EX250 if she thinks the GS is too tall.  The EX will do the highway just fine despite what many say.  Don't try to push her into a taller or bigger bike, modded or not.  She has to want it to begin with or you're wasting everybody's time.

Well, there's a lot you can do to an existing bike.  In the order I would try it:

1)  Technique.  There's a technique to riding a bike you can't flatfoot.  Specifically, you never touch both feet.  As you come to a stop you slide off the seat and put your left foot on the ground, leaving your right foot on the rear brake.  You take the weight of the bike on the inside of your left thigh.  Using this method you can ride a bike that is tall enough you can barely touch both toes down.  You have to be capable of smooth stops, smooth starts to prevent a drop. 

2)  Shave the seat.  You can probably take 1.5" out of the GS seat and replace it with a thin gel pad.   I know of one 5' 1" woman who took 3" out of her SV650 seat and replaced it with a gel pad.  She said the seat is more comfortable now than it was, and she was able to nearly flatfoot the bike.

3)  Add sole to your riding boots.  Within limits this is possible.  I have heard of really short people adding .5" to the bottom of their boots.  Small people have small feet, so you can still use all the controls.

4)  Lower the bike.  You can lower most bikes about 1" without changing the steering geometry.  After that, you can lower the rear of a sport bike about another 1.5".  Realize, lowering the back alone will slow the steering response.  How much will depend bike-to-bike.

Good luck, let us know how she progresses.   

[nick_villan]

she could always were highheals 

[pandy]

If there were tough moto boots that were platform, I'd be ALL over them!!! 

[Wrecent_Wryder]

j8

[runsilent]

A reasonable amount of lowering will not affect the handling of the GS enough to make a significant difference to a new rider.  I've run 130/90 tires for many thousands of miles in the past and they raised the rear about 1" and quicken the steering a noticeable amount.  My 97 ended up with a 140/80 sport touring radial rear raising it about 3/4" and a 110/70 supersport front and it felt like it had some loss in sense of direction a slow speeds due to it's greater responsiveness.  Hardly noticeable after riding it awhile.  I think a big change in tire responsiveness will make a more significant change in the GS than a reasonably amount of lowering will.

I really didn't notice any change in the handling with my recent addition of lowering links to the rear of my 02 GS, but it did stiffen the rear a noticeable amount.  I had a well used set of Progressive front springs already and had left the rear preload at mid setting.  The links felt like I'd cranked up the rear preload a couple notches to be more like the front in stiffness and while a bit bumpy in rough corners, I like the results overall.

The ZX6R links will fit the GS500.  The shortest of the three holes on the Muzzys links is about the same as the GS500 links, approx 7 1/16 long.  Next hole is 1/2" longer which would lower the bike about 2 1/2 inches in the rear, it's about a 5:1 ratio.

I was looking for about 1-2" lower so I went with the Pingel #62018 links which have the first hole at about 7 5/16" long.  They lowered the bike about 1 1/4" in the rear.  Other 2 holes are 9/16" apart each so 2nd hole would lower it another 2 3/4 inches approx.  I dropped the front about 1/2" by sliding the fork tubes up in the tripple clamps.  I have the GenMar bar risers which allow sliding the tubes up further than they will go with the bars in the standard position.

I'm running 110/80 and 150/70 Lasertec tires which are about 1/2" taller than OE tires so my net lowering is only about 3/4" rear, but it's still 1 1/4" lower than before I added the links.   Bike sits OK on sidestand, but further lowering would probably require altering the sidestand.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=7304.msg61113#msg61113

http://www.muzzys.com/catalog/

http://www.pingelonline.com/index.htm

Bought the Pingel links from Dennis Kirk, their #588358.

http://www.denniskirk.com/

(partly copied and pasted from previous post I made on subject)

[runsilent]

Somewhat, but lowering is a last resort kind of thing.

Some bike tolerate it well, others it just DESTROYS handling. (Not from personal experience, I'm tall enough for most bikes.)

The only reason to lower it is if you are too short.

I've always been tall enough for a GS and have always had my feet planted solidly on the ground with my knees bent once on it, but still felt the need to lower it.  Since I bought the first GS in early 1999, I've become over 2" shorter in height than I was then.  Ever increasing arthritis in the hips has made it harder and harder to get on it even though I'm tall enough once there.      But I'll still be riding it as long as I can walk to it and climb on.   

[MarkusN]

Ever thought of getting a heist?

[runsilent]

Ever thought of getting a heist?

Might work in the garage but would be difficult to take along.