Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

Hi All

My wife is about to do her das but we are slightly worried about finding a bike she is comfortable on. She is 5ft and 8st.

She sat on a bandit 400 last week and it seemed the right height and not too heavy.

I was hoping for some suggestions/opinions/recommendations

Thank you

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

although the bandit 400s are ok finding a good one is somewhat of a problem, I'd suggest if you want to go that route perhaps either the CB1/CB400 are a better choice, but equally difficult to fine nice ones.

the baby Monster is a low seat as standard (as you sit in the bike) and they can also be lowered (but don't touch anything older than 97 unless you like the hobby aspect of mechanics/electrical ;)).

also most of the twin 500's being narrow allow the legs to be closer together which in turn helps with getting your foot down, but you best bet is to go and let her sit on a few, as confidence is the major factor here.

Cheers Mark.

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

i have a raptor 1000 and its very low. my inside leg is only 27. was tip toe on SV but with raptor my feet are flat and knees slightly bent. they also do a 650 raptor which is about same size. get along to NEC bike show a nd sit on lots of bikes.

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

I'll swap you my sv for her.

Oh, right, that's not what you meant...

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

If you could submit some photos, then that'll help us picture her on the bikes we have in mind....

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

My wife started off on a Baby blade but she said it was still a little too tall and to be fair it is a really heavy bike for its size.
She now has a Ducati Monster 600 Dark. All I have done is shaved about 2-3 inches off the seat for her.
She loves it to bits and I do to. Its such good fun to ride!
BTW she is 5'0 and 9.5st

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

Minimoto :)

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

I was talking to a guy in the dealers last week who was really small, like 4' 10" and he had a Kawasaki ER5.

Seat heights can look very similar on paper but when you actually sit on the bikes they can be way different! She really does have to sit on them and see if they fit, its the only way to be sure.

For a big bloke I only have a 29" inside leg and I get both feet flat on the floor with knees bent on the SV. I've never ridden a bike before that was so low!

What about a japanese import? They must be set up for smaller riders???
Anybody have knowledge on this?

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

Centimetres.

Raptor 650 would be a great choice, not as tough as an SV but the components are all good, mostly better than an SV in fact. And they're cheap, too.

The usual suspects all apply, depends what sort of bike she wants. 400cc race rep (all old though), some sort of cruiser if she likes cruisers...

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

You can never really judge a bike by seat heights. I find the SV lower than an ER5 because it is narrower and I found an FZ6 taller, but lighter!

Have you had a look at something like the ZZR400 - a guy at work had one and he was tiny and towered over it!

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

As others have said you need to sit on them really. If my teenage years taught me anything, it was mostly an indepth anatomical study of the fairer sex. One of the things I learnt was that girlies generally have longer legs (sometimes all the way up to their bottom!) than blokes of a similar height, so height may not be a complete obstacle.

Don't rate them personally but there used to be loads of Virago 535s kicking around, they must be dirt cheap right now and they're very very low (and dead easy to ride I'm told). As Northy says, 400 race reps are a bit old but very accomodating, I personally think the VFR400R was possibly the best (attainable by mortals) bike ever built.

Re: Bike suggestion for my 5ft wife??
 

I've heard it said that the Kawasaki ER6 is good for short people but I've never looked at one myself, don't like the styling. Even the faired model has normal bars so might be easy for a new rider.