hey guys... new rider here stil... on my second day for the safety course.

my friend's bike is lowered and it seems a lot easier to ride. Also, it's pretty hard for me to push the bike forward and bike with my legs because the ride's so high. i figured having it lowered lets me use my thighs a lot more.

As a new rider, I have a great fear of stopping at a stop sign... trying to put my leg down and losing balance due to the weight and dropping it. Would give me a lot more comfort to be able to catch the bike with it lower.

what's your opinions on lowering my bike?

i know ppl tell me i can't lean as much at high speeds... but i wont be doing that anytime soon.

 

Personanlly, I wouldn't do it, unless it was absolutely necessary. I would try shaving the seat or getting some boots first before lowering, that would be a last resort. It screws up the geometry of the bike too much... wouldn't recommend it. Just my $0.02 though

 

I'm 5"6 and I'm looking at both the F4I and 600 RR. I've already inquired about lowering a bike to a professional shop here in Vegas. They had me sit on a customer's '06 Suzuki GSX-R 600 and my feet were surprisingly flat. I also sat on another customer's 600 RR (sweet!). I was tippytoed and the owner of the shop said that was perfect. He also said that if you watch other riders who are taller than you, you will notice that the majority of them choose to be on their toes and/or the ***** of their feet. This teaches you to get in the habit of only putting your feet down when it is absolutely necessary. For example: you're in a parking lot at 10 mph and some jerk decides to jump out in front of you. If you know that you can put your feet flat on the ground as an inexperienced rider, you will probably come to a complete stop every single time while others will accelerate and swerve out of the way. Also when you get very comfortable with your bike, you will want to lean harder into corners. Guess what? You can't do that with a lowered bike. As a matter of fact, you can throw away all the training you're learning at the MSF course if you lower your bike because it requires a totally different way of riding not to mention horrible handling. Hopefully, others on this site can back me up on that.

 

As mentioned above. Lowering is a last resort. If you can get the ***** of your feet down, that is all you need.

If you can't, then you need to look at a different bike. You don't buy a set of 42/42 jeans if you wear 34/34 do you?

 

actually... i'm really skinny... 5'10 and less than 150lbs... my waist size is small, but I actually wear a 34/34 as my pants cuz i like em baggy. haha. other than that... yeah... thanks for all the info guys... i'm gonna try handle not lowering it. My plans for my bike were to lower it and put exhaust right away, so for now.. I guess exhaust because I need that sound that I've always wanted when bikes pass me on the road.

 

your 5'10? you should have no problem then your probably the perfect height for a F4i. im 5'7 and my bike is lowered 2 inches for the look of it. i can still lean it till my knee is almost on the ground but it took more time to get to that point and it does ride alot different. there also arent many insane twisties in south jersey so its mostly straight line anyway