Welcome to www.thelittlebiker.com

Welcome to The Little Biker!

Hi and welcome to my website. I’m a smaller rider and needed some information on making my bike safer to ride as my toes barely scraped the ground. The following information has been gleaned from the web. I hope you find it useful – but please remember I’m no expert.

Is This You?

Ø When you’re out on your bike you feel fine riding it but you have shorter legs and even on the lowest setting the bike is just too high

Ø You think you are too short to feel comfortable and as safe as a taller rider.

Ø When you stop quickly it worries you sometimes that you can’t get your feet down firmly to make you stable.

Ø When manoeuvring the bike backwards you only have the tips of your toes on the ground and can’t paddle it.

Ø When there is the slightest incline or camber you don’t have enough leverage on your toes to move the bike as it is heavy

Ø You ride your bike with your arms outstretched and have to lean on them heavily

Some suggestions for the smaller rider

Boot sole/heel raised/inserts

Get your boots raised at the cobblers, or try a deep insert (helps if your boots are a size bigger). See this item about boots from vtwinmama

Purchase boots with higher heels/soles

Look out for Daytona Ladystar GTX Boots. Men don’t be put off – these boots are called M Star in the larger sizes. There’s a good review on them at www.motorcycle.com . Shop around for the best price. These boots may cost you but they could be worth every penny. Take a look at other makes with higher heels like Harley Davidson at www.shoebuy.com . A very good boot manufacture called Altberg at www.altberg.co.uk based in Richmond, Yorkshire, will also make boots especially for you from a choice of styles on their website. Visit the showroom and get a measure-up. They make boots for the army and police. The boots last for many years – you just take them back to get re-soled now and then. Please remember that boots will alter the way your foot connects with the footpeg lever. Sometimes angles on levers can be changed. You could even go and get the levers changed if you fancied. (www.rainbow.econcept.co.uk)

Seat remolded/sculpted/replaced

Some upholsterers offer bike seat sculpting. If you know what you want, take off your bike seat and take it over for them. If not, take your self along and your bike and discuss what needs to be done. Usually they remove the seat covering and re-sculpt the foam to reduce its thickness at the sides and replace the cover. You may even want a bit more off and get a gel seat fitted. Finding people to do this can be more tricky and you best ask around at the bike shops if you’re stuck. It may even be simpler than that - some bikes may allow you to remove half of the rubber mount cushions under the seat (DL650 V-Strom), it may work on other models, dependant upon seat design (thanks John!).

Try Altering the Pre-Load Yourself

The pre-load is there to have the shock set in the optimum position for the weight of the rider and is nothing to do with your height. Measuring the bike and setting the preload will have the shock in the middle of travel and be set correctly. The idea is to have the shock in the middle of travel depending on your weight. If you are light then the spring will not compress very far and be high and if you are heavy it will be compressed a lot and may be too low. If you set it too low you can bottom out on a very bumpy road. However I was given advice by some experienced bikers to try altering the pre-load before I had the bike professionally lowered using a lowering stiffer shock absorber. I personally found on my CBF500 and my CBF1000 it made a fractional difference. This might be all you need along with higher boot soles/heels. I was encouraged to try it on a more compressed setting (2 clicks from the bottom). I am not very heavy so I didn't feel I lost out on bumpy roads. However this may not be the same for you. It’s so easy to change back with a c-spanner and extension if you find it's not for you. See article on pre-load here

http://www.moto-racing.co.uk/Guides/motorcycleSuspensionSetup.htm

Use Bar Risers

As you lean forward and grab the bars you may be shortening your leg reach to the ground. Adding bar risers angles the bars back towards you so you don’t have to lean over as much. This may give you back the leg reach to the ground. See www.motorcycle-road-and-race.co.uk

Use a Bike Lowering Kit

Bikes can be lowered by up to 2”. This could be all the difference you need. Either changing the shock absorbers or changing the linkage to the swing arm/shock absorbers achieves this.

This should be installed by a registered dealer, unless you have the necessary skills to do this yourself.

Buy a shock lowering kit such as hagon-shocks. They have a range of units specially designed with the shorter rider in mind lowering the seat height by 30mm or more. Custom built to customers requirements for selected roadster, trial and superbikes featuring adjustable damping with automatic rebound compression balance. Also adjustable for spring preload with adjuster ring. Fully rebuilable, red powder coated spring and plated body. Supplied with damping adjuster key”. A member from the forum www.cbf1000.com “fitted a Hagon 30 mm lower rear shock to my CBF by placing packing under the rear wheel to support it and then just removing top and bottom bolts to drop the old shock out from underneath and then reversing the procedure to fit the Hagon”. Sounds simple but personally I wouldn’t attempt this as I'm not sure and would use a garage because of the risk.

Hyperpro (found at motorcycle-road-and-race.co.uk) suspension is also another brand.

These lowering shocks can make a real difference. Check around for the best price again.

Some lowering kit work by changing the linkage between the shock and swingarm. Some shocks bolt directly to the swingarm. This can be a “dog bone” or “L” shaped link. I came across one forum member whose husband made a link for a few pounds and fitted it for her himself.

Please remember. Once you’ve got the lowering kit added there are some extra things you need to fix at the same time. The front forks will normally be dropped a similar amount to compensate the rear AND you need your sidestand shortened. If you don’t you’ll find your bike perched up high and unstable and ready to topple over.

Effects on the bike after the lowering kit

You may notice the reduced ground clearance on footpegs. If you’ve got bigger feet you may notice the tips of your boots scraping the ground on cornerning. At night it might even be more spectacular on high speed curves when the foot rest produces some flares. However if you’re not into getting your knee down you probably won’t even notice.

Effects on you

You'll have bags more confidence knowing that when you stop whatever the slope you should be ok putting your feet down safely. Paddling should be far easier too.

What about resale of the bike?

I’ve come across a few people who bought lowered bikes and altered them back themselves. Some people deliberately buy lowered bikes as it suits them. Alternatively keep the standard parts and put it back yourself, or give the parts to the buyer for him to change.

If suspension is a mystery and you want to know more look www.calsci.com it also gives you info about lowering the bike itself.

Leave the Bike Alone

With a bit of practise and confidence (and maybe a few dropped bikes!), you might be able to manage without any of the above done. Once you have mastered the knack of getting a flat foot down with left leg, bum off the seat and right foot covering the brake, and still managing the clutch and throttle, the fear will get smaller and the confidence will grow. This can still leave you with a heavy bike that is hard to manoeuvre. You just learn to get better at parking and trying not to leave your bike in a place difficult to get out of. Or making sure that if you're out riding have a friend who is quite happy to help you shift your bike if you get stuck. There are more riders out there in this position than you think.

A few other useful sites on advice for shorter riders:-

www.tammymilsom.co.uk

www.bikegirl.co.uk

Thanks to www.cbf1000.com, www.bikegirl.co.uk, www.vtwinmama.com (more info here), and more at www.ducatimonster.org and http://www.shrinkpictures.com/