How to ride a tall motorbike when you are short

Tigit Sam gives a useful "how to lesson" on how short riders can ride big bikes.

Tips and tricks to learn to ride motorbikes that are too big. ADV bikes or Dirt motorbikes. Also useful for road bikes!

[absfinal]

Problem is when there's a pothole on the left side

[ScramblingLife]

You lower both front and rear suspension with lowering kits and it doesn’t turn cruiser 😊

[Callili-]

I just started riding dirt bikes, im a 5'2 guy and riding small dirt bikes planning to ride taller bikes. trying to build up my skills to ride taller bikes after getting comfortable with riding the smaller dirt bikes. I really really want to get the drz400sm for my first street legal bike.

[tracyskorka]

Thanks for the tips, I need to work on these skills!

[perro]

I've riding my G650GS for about 6 months and luckily for me, it has a centre stand when/where i can do a cowboy mount as from there to push forward onto the wheels is super easy. To get off, side stand down, stan up on the pegs, and get off to the right. Also have it in first gear BEFORE stopping and putting the left toe down and right foot on the brake.

[NKG]

i'm on lowering kit. now that i'm confidence i'll put the original link. thanks for the encouragement

[gregreed]

You didn't mention getting on with the kickstand down, putting left leg on the peg, and using that as like a step .... I think this can work really well, especially if you have a bag strapped on the back to clear. Maybe works better on the Honda's, with a stronger kickstand?

[gregreed]

Star performer Sam🎉, nice video. Tigit employee, or guest?

[davids]

I’m around 5 foot 8 with an XR650, it’s very tall stock but I shaved a couple inches off the seat and put a new cover on it so it kind of looks like a trials bike now but it’s fine with me still plenty of seat pad and actually feels better while riding seated, and now I can put both balls of feet down when stopped. Not flat but yep I’ve been learning to shift over to put a foot down stopped at a sign or wherever.

[quantametric]

I would say that the idea that when you're standing you're at the same advantage as any other rider is not quite accurate.

You're slightly less disadvantaged, but the counterbalance of your weight vs the weight of the bike is still at play to a fair degree. This is what causes that unwieldy feeling where the bike feels like it's trying to buck you off when it starts to lose balance. A bigger person withmore counterweight neutralises this to some degree.

[Mark-opzt]

Unfortunately when we get older we get less flexible. I would have all kinds of pulled muscles attempting this. I buy bikes with the lowest seat height I can and then order a Seat Concepts low seat. I agree with not using lowering kits. Beta can lower the suspension without messing with the geometry, but it sacrifices suspension travel.

[paulkenyon]

Hi Tigit. Wonderful video. I've needed this information. And, guess what, even a short (169 cm tall) 75 year old (me) can learn to ride a tall off-road m/c. I started riding on a WR250R that was lowered for me b/c I was a beginner. Initially I agreed and have ridden since with the bike this way. Lowered like this I could touch, barely, the toes of my boots touching both sides of the bike at the same time. That's not enough to allow me to dab when the going got rough so I have had to learn to stay on the pegs. When I'm finally thrown off the bike, usually in the rocks, I'm thrown off the foot pegs. Also, so far, the loss of clearance has NOT made a difference so far in what I've been able to ride. That may be because I'm not yet riding aggressively enough to max out the suspension. What has happened, though, is that I've broken two idler rollers, the top one that controls the drive chain when the rear wheel is up in the wheel well, off the bike. Apparently the geometry of the WR (a very popular bike in Australia as well as here in the US) is such that too much upward force is put on the idler roller too often when riding more aggressively over rough terrain.
Question: I disagree with the lowered bike being turned into something like a cruiser and your gesture of the handlebars being high as you are sitting on the seat. The distance between the seat and the foot pegs doesn't change as a result of the bike being lowered. You can take the wheels off the bike, put it on the ground and the distance between the foot pegs and the seat will remain the same.... At least this is the case for my WR250R (I know nothing about KTMs in this regard) which has a stock seat height of 36". I have just raised my bike back to stock height b/c of the idler roller damage problem and need, now, to learn how to ride my bike when it's taller. I will check back here for your reply but if you would please reply to paulkenyonatgmavtdotnet replacing the "at" with @ and "dot" with the period.

[tuzludusunceler]

If I could have found a trainer like you, I would have been able to ride the motorcycle better with my short stature :)

[powerseostrategy]

I'm 6 ft and my YZ450 seat height is 37". I'm on my tippy toes when stopped and centered on the seat.

[scottporter]

All great idea's to practice. Getting a pair of boots with a taller sole on the bottom really helps as well. Grab another 1" 😊

[usernamemykel]

You may be short, but you easily swung your left leg over the bike, clearling the rear of the seat - how about those who are a lot less flexible?

[holymackerel]

Not true lowering will give you confidence and make riding easier and more fun

[SherGryll]

I went to test ride a off-road bike and it was too tall. It took me 10 minutes to decide not the buy the bike I've been dreaming of since 2 months 😂. I ride a lot on the hills, and by experience I know that in hills you can't risk not being able to put both feet down.

[johnhelems]

You need to lower the suspension front and rear, not with a lowering link.

[hardlydavidson]

Nice tips. I'm new to dirt bikes. I bought the Honda 300L Rally and started playing with it. It's quite tall at 893mm seat height and taller than its dirt bike siblings. It's a bit tall for me as I'm only 5' 10". There are instances that I'm having trouble with muds, single tracks. Regarding the geometry, you mean to say that if I order the BMW 900 GS eduro or anything on the GS line, which they offer varying seat height adjustments, will they ruin the geometry? Edit: at 07:32, it made me smile xD