Hi,

Back in the spring my girlfriend was shopping for a new bike, was looking at some ricers and a sporster low. She was moving up from a savage 650, which was a very low/small single cylinder. After seeing the issues with height - she is very short, like 5 feet, against everything I like my recommendation was to go for the ricer, forget what it was but basically was a > 1000CC small cruiser that came out-of-the-box nearly low enough and with a little tweaking was going to fit her. Long story short she decided she had to have a harley sporster (is scared of the bigger bikes that are lower out of the box and had to have a harley), except instead of buying the new sportster low or the ricer, she went with a 2005 1200 custom she scored on a great deal (was mint, beautiful, low miles, $3500), it was brought directly to a very reputable custom bike shop so it could be lowered such she could ride it.

The bike came w/ lowering brackets and the front lowered ~ 1 inch by dropping the forks in the triple tree.

After lots of fussing around they basically gave it a tune up, went to a solo seat for short riders, and changed the controls over to mids. She could then ride it after finding some platform boots, however has almost crashed into me at a stop light on at least 1 occasion because she can't quite securely find the ground, and remains scared to take the bike out by herself due to fear of getting stuck (which happens to hear occasionally, can't push the bike around on her own). I'm not convinced anything positive came out of the solo seat, she now feels pushed to far into the pegs - big butt & special push-forward solo seat = pushed too far forward ..

OK so if you read this far thanks! That's the background. I've decided I'm taking matters into my own hands, which was further solidified after finding the bike as-is was fairly unsafe - I am going to find a way to squeeze another 3/4 inch out of this, which should either fix the problem or prove she needs to give up on the sporster and go for a big harley or to the ricer, something that fits her height..

Step #1 - picked up a burly slammer kit #2 put bike in stand, removed bags & shocks #3 disassembled burly 10.5 inch shock (FYI stock is ~11.5+) to check travel to determine definite limits of suspension for clearance - FYI with the burleys the max if you completely flattened out the rubber bumper is 1.25 inches with those, closer to an inch in reality as the bumper is 3/8 of an inch. Stock suspension travel is more like 2.25.. So in theory you could put these in place of the stock suspension and drop the bike a bit, right? Wrong. As the bike was you would jam the tire into the fender if you even got close to bottomed out, and with very minor compressing of the shock the belt starts rubbing on the front pulley cover. WTF. One of the specific things I asked the bike shop to checkout was clearance w/ the lowering kit that was in it and they totally failed.

Anyway - so I'm thinking now, it's a damn good thing I got suspension parts with very limited travel. There is room under the bike to lower it some, of course with consequence, but that's the only way to make it work for her. Will ditch the lowering brackets, put the lower shocks in there, put the front kit in there probably cut a little shorter than they recommend - and attack the rear tire, which is stock I think @ 150/80 16 inch rim - go a little narrower & low profile to get the height down and keep it from hitting fender (rubs due to it's width, not in the top of the fender but on the sides). Then will have limited suspension travel with the bike a little lower, with some of the bad things mitigated and a stiffer ride, but no way around that.

And will take a closer look at the belt & pulley cover issue once I get there - anyone run into that? Only way I see is to change something on the cover, lose the cover, or go down in the size on one or both of the pulleys to gain clearance.

Does this all sound sane? Anyone run into these problems? Any other products out there to help in the quest?

Thanks in advance!

Jon

 

My wife is 5'0" and rides a 2016 1200T Superlow. 1" lowering blocks on the back (stock shocks), reduced reach HD seat and stock bars pulled back. She rides with boots that have a thick sole as well. She has no problems touching the ground with both feet, or one side flat footed. She really has no issues riding the bike the way we have it setup. I would think you could get your Sportster to work if she is the same height.

 

You should have raised it 1 3/4 " with softer springs . It would ride 10 times better and you wouldn't bottom out 20 or 30 times a day like you will from lowering it .

 

Thanks for that! - one of the things on the superlow was it's got that low profile rear tire, which I think is what we really need as it will translate directly to decreased seat height. I wonder if there is a special pulley cover on the superlow to combat the belt rubbing issue I noted. At the harley dealership one of the things that sealed the deal not to buy the superlow was they told us they could not lower it at all, I guess you can.

Jon

 

The low profile tire would probably be a good thing to try. We ride mountain roads all the time, and the lean angle is still pretty good on her bike (much better than my Softails). No problem with the 1" blocks.

Edit: I am not sure about the pulley. I would have to compare it to another Sporty to see if there is a difference.

 

Maybe it's just me but this seems like a confidence issue from moving to a bigger and more powerful motorcycle. If she can get both feet down with the lowering shocks, she may just need to ride and get used to it. If she feels cramped with the pegs put highway pegs on and if she likes them get her forwards.

How long has she been riding on the street? I'm guessing that 650 was her only bike.

 

This is her 4th and has been at it for 20 years .. But yes absolutely - she doesn't spend enough time on the bikes.

There is a legit height issue though - she can't get the ***** of her feet on the ground, nearly impossible for her to back the bike up if she needs to for instance - she may be able to get confident and be able to back it up walking next to it, but physically impossible sitting on the bike with the geometry currently.

3/4 of an inch would make all the difference.

Jon

 

Has she ever looked t the Street 750 by H-D ?? Now that is a short persons bike . We are all made different , she won't like riding until she finds " Her Bike "

 

The street is actually pretty tall - seat height 28 inches. I believe she actually sat on one at the dealership this past spring. Now lowering one of those may be a different story because the bike has loads of clearance to eat up.

What she probably needs is something like my dyna low rider, but at this point feels way too big to her, maybe down the road. Thanks for that.

Jon

 

There are many that ride the quite tall ADV bikes that cannot flat foot with both feet. What they do is keep one foot on the pegs (typically the right) and lean the bike over to the left to plant one foot down. If we're talking about 3/4" then she should, with practice, be able to do this. Some even shift their butt to help facilitate this. Yes, it's an additional skill, however, once learned should become second nature. She'll just have to be careful where she plants her foot.

Although I can flat foot my Sporty, I have raised the rear suspension. I plan on raising it even more to get more suspension travel. I stop-and-go a lot and many times I keep one foot on the peg at a stop.