Hey everyone! Just thought I'd say a quick hello and tell you guys a lil about myself. Just bought a 03 CBR600 F4i and so far I love it! It's my second season riding and just upgraded from a Ninja 250! So needless to say the F4i is much better, in so many ways lol
I've been luring on the site here and checking out some of the posts and there are plenty of helpful posts around here! So since I'm a newb to the F4i I of course got some questions for you guys and gurls, and sorry if there was already a post made for this I haven't gone through ALL helpful posts hahaha

So here is my question:
I am a wee bit too short for the F4i... more or less my legs are too short, so I know you can buy lowering links and all that jazz but has anyone shaved the seat down?? How much does that lower the seat height?? I really would like to avoid lowering the bike since there are some cons to it. So if I can get around that issue without actually lowering it that would be much much better!

Thanks everyone!!!!

 

hey, and welcome to the forums!! :-)

I am sure someone can help you out ...

Jules

 

Welcome...where ya from?

 

ya more chicks! wohoo! welcome
haha

 

Welcome. I helped a friend of mine shave an inch off of her seat.The seat got a little hard, so we opened it up again and put a gel pad in before recovering it. It's a pretty easy DIY operation, or you can go to a local upholstery shop and have them do it for you. Not sure what the cost would be though.

To cut your seat, first take the seat off the bike. Turn it upside down and pry put the staples holding the vinyl on. If you're going to reuse the vinylbe careful not to rip it. Once off we used a electric carvingknife to shave the foam down to the right height. Put the seat on a few times to check the height and fit. Oncewe got that right, restretched the vinyl over it and stapled it back in place. When we put thegel pad in it, took the cover off again, and cut arecess into the foam so the gel pad would fit w/o bringing the height back up. Then recovered it again.It cameout looking pretty good, and she was happy with the slightly lower seat height.

 

Thanks for the welcome's everyone... I'm from British Columbia Canada, the warm part of Canada that is lol... We've got some pretty nicetwisties around here

@ kamikaze- I actually shaved the seat down. They took quitea bit of foam out... Although it was pretty useless since it didn't do anything as far as seat height goes, damn I'm really vertically challanged I guess haha, I've been just doing the one foot down thing and so far so good... I'm actually surprised that the seat isn't hurting my **** too much... haven't gone out on too long of a ride yet, so time will tell, and if that's the case I might just try the gel pad.. thanks . Too bad riding season is over for me... I miss it already!

 

Speak to Gill from the Hurricane section, he's from your part of the world - rides a proper bike, too.....he he
I have a friend who's only 5'6 and he rides a Busa - has added thick soles to his boots, and dropped the seat an inch .
Works fine - should for you too !
Welcome !

 

nothing wrong with installing "lowering links" (longer dogbones) and dropping the fork in the triple clamps an inch to give yourself more ability to hold the bike up at stoplights. If both ends are lowered the same amount it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't drop it so low that you grind on speed-bumps or the kickstand pushes the bike onto the other side. it's possible you may need to chop the kickstand down, but not likely.

welcome aboard.

 

hahaha my part of the world that made me lol...

I was thinking about buying different boots... the Icon hooker boots I like to call them... But they look like they'd be ankle breakers lol. Next season I'll be looking into getting different boots with a bit of a heel, and ya if all else fails "dogbones" may be the way to go. YAM I have read up on the lowering links and they don't sound too bad after all... I don't go that hard to be scraping anything, not yet anyways. Thanks for the advice I will keep that in mind

 

i swear by the "excess weight" method....has worked for me Extra weight = bike sitting slightly lower