Seat adjustment?

[cobaltbluechaser]

Hey all, chase here again. I'm still planning on taking my msf in october. Anyways i'm looking at the ninja 500 or 250 like many other starters on this forum. My brother has a 2005 ninja 500r and I like to sit on it sometimes to get a feel. The only problem I see is that my feet can't sit flat on the ground. Is there a way to adjust the seat or buy a new lower seat. Or is this a situation that I have to buy a smaller bike like a 250. Thats the only problem I see....i'm going to get have to get used to the weight...in which the msf class will help out. Also I can't practice on my brothers bike because he's the one i'm going to surprise when I get my first bike...thanx for the advice
chase

[Gadjet]

You have two options:

1. Pull the rear shock and back off the preload (the Kawi repair manual shows you how to do this) - this will make the bike 'sink' more when you sit on it

2. Shave down the seat foam (can be done yourself, but for a good looking seat afterwards, best to get it done by a pro)

[cobaltbluechaser]

On my other forums people have suggested shaving the foam down...Is this expensive to have a pro do it?

[sharpmagna]

You could really do it yourself and just save the money. I just reupholstered my passenger seat and it was a piece of cake. Hardest thing was stretching the vinyl properly and stapling. I had a POS electric staple gun that wasn't worth the curses I threw at it. It wasn't strong enough to staple properly.

Once I went out and bought a new one for $20, I was done in 10 minutes.

[bok]

depending on how big your brother is compared to you, that rear end might be set up to support his weight so when you sit on it, the back end doesn't drop much.

i know a lot of people worry about flat footing their bike, but i find the only time i need both feet is if i have to walk the bike backwards or something of that nature. most times as long as you can flat foot your left foot while the bike is leaned over that's okay.

there are some people that just aren't built for some bikes though. had a woman in the course this week who could barely tip toe the bike when she was on an eliminator 125. this made it tough for her to push the bike when she needed to, but so far she's been a trooper.

[Muse]

I have a Ninja 500, and I don't even come CLOSE to flatfooting it! Now that I'm used to it (this is my second year of riding) it doesn't really matter that I can't flatfoot. It just means that if I want to walk the bike forward or backward, I get off and walk it from the side. Sometimes when I come to a stop, the road slopes away quite a bit, and I might just be able to get my left toe down, but so far it's been okay.

For completeness, I'll also mention that my bike has been lowered 1" in the suspension via the addition of longer dogbones in the back, but I've recently been told that the work done was poor to say the least, so I'll be getting that fixed soon. Basically, the back was lowered but the front was not, and this can throw off the bike geometry. I'm not sure what that really means, but I'm sure I'll learn about it soon I also shaved the seat about 2" or so, but I didn't do the best job in the world, so it looks a bit lumpy. I'm planning to get a Corbin seat in the future. More comfortable, lowers the overall seat height, and looks nice too.

I've also heard that boots with a thicker sole will help you get a bit more foot down.

I hope that helps.

[cobaltbluechaser]

how tall are you? or what is your inseam?

[Muse]

how tall are you? or what is your inseam?

I am 4'11" tall and my inseam is about 26", maybe a little less.