The better half is so short I usually call her my better 1/3 and the small group we ride with on a regular basis remind her (all in good fun of course and she gives it right back) of it often enough that she'll never forget. She's been on a softail for several years, including 2 trips to Sturgis of 7,000+ miles and she rides every drop of it. She's the only female rider in our main group and will go as far and fast as any of the guys and loves the twisties as much as anyone. She's wanted a touring bike for the creature comforts for awhile but at 5'0" with a 28" inseam it's tough and we wanted to do it safely. I decided to order a new CVO at the end of the year so we got serious about finding a way to get her on my 16 RG and traded in the fat boy s.

After a lot of homework we went with the FBI drop seat kit and had our local dealer install it. The big draw of the FBI kit was the ability to drop the seat height and keep the stock suspension. The change in seat height helped a lot, but she was still on her toes too much. She could ride like that fine under good road conditions, but parking lots, bad road conditions, etc were just asking for a dropped bike. We dropped the front end 1" with a progressive lowering kit and knew we had to drop the rear end about 3/4" from stock too to make her comfortable on any road condition.

We went with the JNR air ride with their ride height repeater and fast up tank with switches on the dash. The RHR fit the bill perfectly. It uses limit switches so you can pick an upper and lower limit for the shock. The tank allows the system to go up or down almost instantly, no waiting at all. With the limit switches set she simply jogs the up button and the shock stops rising at the upper limit (about 3/4" below stock). We played around and tested enough to figure out that even if the shock overshoots a little bit (which it will do if you just mash on the switch instead of jogging it) she could still touch safely. Once the limit switch kicks in you can push the up button as much as you want, the shock won't go up any more. We set the lower switch just to make sure that if she ever hit the wrong button the shock won't go below about a 10" ride height. The limit switches ensure that as long as she's in between them the bike is at a safe ride height for any road condition.

Once in a parking lot or if we need to raise the bike back to stock or higher for me to ride, there is an override switch. Kicking in the override lets her slam the bike down to a point where she is flat footed and can maneuver on parking lot grades bumps bad surfaces etc. When ready to go the switch goes back to normal and she airs up to normal ride height. If someone wanted to they could adjust the system on the fly, but we wanted to avoid having to do that for safety reasons. She can ride around all day knowing she has control under any conditions and the flexibility to change things after being safely stopped.

I'll also say that the folks at FBI and JNR were both great to work with. JNR designed a special compressor and dump valve mount for our application and both vendors talked to each other to ensure that all the components were going to play well together and mount correctly with the reconfigured battery compartment. FBI also went out of their way helping us with a custom seat and backrest. I had them paint their side covers and they came out perfect, cosmic blue pearl isn't an easy match.

The biggest problem now is her RG has a 120 and I've only got a 117 Stage 3, gonna have to work on that.

 

Fantastic

 

 

As soon as the sun comes out. So tired of snow.

 

Still not the best day outside, but here's a few pics. Seat is still being done, should have it back next week. First pic is shock, RHR, and compressor. Air tank is under left bag. Other 3 are max height, slammed, and normal ride height set for her by the limit switches.

 

I hope it dont put her to low where she cant see over the fairing. I bet you will have to change bars too. It looks awesome.

 

The running joke with the tech at the dealer who installed it was that she would have to have the GPS on to go down the road, but she can see over.

I figured the bars would have to go as well and was planning on putting the stock bars from the CVO on, but they actually fit her well. They are 14" wild ones and are pulled back just a touch past even with the forks. Will keep the stock ones just in case until she gets a few hundred miles on it.

 

I'd have to agree on FBI going the extra mile. I happened into their place 2 years ago while on a ride through southern Iowa. The manager took me on a full tour of their place. I didn't even go in to buy anything. They have quite the operation. They manufacture all their own plastics and fiberglass products in house. They also have a full metal shop with CNC and lathes. Their paint department is state of the art as well. It's a pretty neat place, although pricey.

 

What are they doing differently to the seat...compared to the seat that comes with the kit?

 

Lets see her on the bike! Watched the 4 part youtube video the install looks pretty extensive.