I'm 5'5" and I just lean. At first it was a little weird but its second nature to me now. I would definitely advise against lowereing the bike. Honda pays people loads of money to set the geometry of these bikes up, why would you want to mess with that?
Plus, leaning is free!

 

I think if the same person were to sit on both bikes they may have an easier time trying to flat foot a RR because the seat is a bit narrower and allows you to keep your legs more perpendicular to the ground, while on the F4i with the fatter seat it's kind of hard to get your legs down straighter.

Or all of the above could be BS, because I don't know the seat heights in comparison to each other lol. Although I do know sitting on a gixxer feels like wearing a thong.

And yeah, moving my bike in and out of a parking spot usually means moving my bike with me off it, which is no big deal. I don't have any motivation wanting to be able to back my bike out sitting on it lol.

 

Any of you guys ever heard of or tried seat shaving? I know one of my buddies who found a website just for vertically challenged sport bike riders who did all sorts of **** to get it the right height. The smallest of small were like 4'8" and the tallest were only 5'5" i believe.

 

Wearing boots gives a bit of height lol

 

I can get the ***** of my feet down or my heels down but not both heh... I lean at stops but I just get off if I have to back up any significant distance.. (5'10" 32" inseam).

Overall I like the height of the bike. It makes it easy to stretch out a bit without scraping boots when you're cruising on the highway.

 

i use the one foot method. with both feet i can only get the palms of my feet (if that makes any sense) to touch the floor. but i still find it easier just to put one foot (left foot) on the floor while the other is on the rear brake at stops. i have always been told that the bike is meant to be at that height and that's the way they built it. so i'll just adjust my riding rather than adjusting the bike. plus it makes me a little bit more familiar w/ the bike knowing how it performs... but i guess if you're really that short then, maybe lowering links are the way to go. who knows? it's anyone's preference right?

 

Both, right on. I'm 5'5"-5'6" and if both feet are down, I can pretty much only put my toes down, but once I have a car stopped behind me I put it in N and put my left foot down and keep the right on the brake, and sit up straight. Gotta lean the bike just a bit, but I can flat foot it; one foot only though. Only time this really becomes an issue is when I wear my Teknic boots, the soul does not bend, so you have to stand flat footed....that takes time to get used to; so I normally only wear them on longer rides with few to no stops.