Options for the vertically challenged

Throughout the years as bikes have changed so have options, which a lot of people don’t realise are out there, so let’s take a look…

You can get your boots built up by a cobbler; they will insert a type of hard wearing rubber in between your boot and sole. Bear in mind not to go too extreme as this will interfere with your ability of changing gear, but normally 10-15mm will suffice. This is down to you as the rider so decide wisely. It is exactly the same process as how hospital boots are built up for patients and the cobbler may even do both.

A motorbike seat can give you more problems than you realise. You will find a lot of bike seats have a lot of padding, as a rider this will make you sit higher and also possibly push your legs out wide. Having a shorter leg means that every millimeter counts when trying to reach the floor, so allowing your legs to fall as straight as possible is beneficial. Having the seat altered can improve this, sometimes not much can be done as you can only go as narrow as the plastic base of the seat.

There are a variety of companies now offering this service. The seat cover will be removed; the foam is then cut down and/or reshaped to suit and then re-covered. Other companies will replace the foam with a gel pad. There are a choice of gel materials called Gelastic and Visco gel. Visco gel is more used by manufacturers when creating their bike seats and is a solid material. Gelastic is in the form of a mesh that absorbs and buffers the vibrations throughout the journey.

Another option is to have a seat made, which may also involve a new seat unit. This technique is mostly used by racers on track bikes, but there is no reason why it can’t spread to the roads.

LOWERING KITS

There are many manufactures that make standard lowering kits and they are available through most bike dealerships that will also fit them. The kits include a new set of linkage or reversing levers, as they are otherwise known, that is fitted to the rear of the bike. How much the bike is lowered varies, but on average it is about 30 - 40mm. Once the new linkage has been attached the set up of the bike must be altered to suit the new height. This includes adjusting the forks, suspension and side stand accordingly.

Again this may not be enough, so a company called DRS (Drop Raise Services) in Hull, www.drshull.co.uk, specialise in lowering bikes to actually fit you. The company is owned by Dave and Lozzie Rose. Dave is qualified within engineering/fabrication and has been working with bikes all his life. Lozzie is under 5ft and rides a Honda CBR954rr Fireblade. The standard seat height for this bike is 825mm, Lozzie’s has been lowered to 740mm. This is a huge difference from the standard and a dream to a lot of people.

To establish the lowering measurement variable height blocks are placed under the rider’s feet whilst sat on the bike to discover a comfortable position. The new linkage will be fabricated to the results and as standard the additional alterations will be carried out to the set up of the bike. The bike will be test ridden and all relevant checks will be performed to complete the job. Each bike is different and has its own lowering limit, DRS will professionally advice regarding this issue.

The first question on anybodies mind is that ‘Doesn’t this alter the handling of the bike?’ Yes it does, but not as drastically as people assume. Simply changing the type of tyres effects the handling of the bike, but the difference is that it sounds less dramatic.

Mr Rose is currently working on his own invention of an adjustable linkage system, which is not yet available. He explains ‘I am looking for backing to put this into production; Lozzi has had this adjustable one fitted to one of her bikes and done 10.000 miles testing. We have also got them fitted to a 2006 Fireblade and 2006 600rr which has been tested on the race circuits’ Sounds like a positive move for the future and yet again another option.