How or can it be done?

MJC

MJC

Super Moderator
OK so when I sit on my bike, it goes down 2", I am big and understand that. What I am thinking is it would be nice if I could somehow lower my bike to the height it is when I sit on it. If I can per- drop it, it would be ez for me to get on and off it. I do not want to lower the bike to the ground, only that 2" difference of not being on it and being in the seat.

Right now I have the screw nut all the way down on the spring, which gives me a small amount of spring/sock use and is OK except for the real big pot holes. If I move the nut higher then I just bottom out on the smallest pot holes. So what I am thinking is if I could (some how) push the spring down (that 2") and hold it there, that would make the bike lower and still have some spring/sock left for the pot holes.

So, am I right in my thinking? How would I do this? Is there something else I could do to get my seat lower (I can not re-do the seat), Should I get a new spring made shorter but for a heaver load? Maybe I could just cut the spring I have now.

So let me know..........
 
M

Michael Moore

Member
The OEM service manual shows the CTX as having 4.3" of rear wheel travel (which should be vertical travel, not travel along the arc of the axle).

IF your bike is topped out without a rider (zero static sag) then if you get on and it goes down 2" there is 2.3" of travel left. Usually "laden sag" is on the order of 30% of the total travel or about 1.3". Ideally you'd have some static sag so maybe you've got 2" of travel left.

That's 2" left to take care of all the bumps you encounter.

So you could lower the bike that extra 2" and then when you get on have zero travel left, or you could stiffen the suspension enough so that it didn't sag anymore when you got on after the lowering, and have it beat you to a pulp with every bump.

Even people with short legs need some suspension to absorb the bumps!

I'd suggest that you look at a new seat with 2" less height. Of course, seat foam compression is another form of suspension travel, so you might end up with a stiffer ride, but probably not as stiff as making the rear suspension super stiff.

There's a lot of room between the top of the seat and the top of the horizontal frame rails, but you'll probably need to have some fabrication skills (or pay for them) to make a new seat pan that is 2" lower to still give you the suspension inherent in the seat foam. However, if you've got an ABS bike the hard lines coming out of the ABS modulator will be in your way (along with a surprising amount of other components like the battery, fuse box, mount for the seat tank, tilt sensor, etc.)

FWIW, I'm (for whatever odd reasons) looking at making the seat pan flush with the frame tubes on my CTX. This is probably going to involve making a new fuel tank (and possibly moving it to the rear of the bike as on the NC700) and then making a new pan and having a minimal thickness seat built on it. I've got the infrastructure and experience to let me deal with all of this (though it is being a PITA). Do you?

I think you'll be better off with maintaining good rear suspension movement and thinning the seat foam as much as possible vs going to a near-rigid rear suspension with the stock amount of seat foam.

cheers,
Michael
 
Steven

Steven

Member
If it goes down 2 two inches that's too far. It should only go down about an inch. You need to add washers to the shock so you can compress the spring a little more. Keep in mind that how far the shock compresses is different than how far the wheel moves.

Read this: http://www.ctx700forum.com/forum/wheels-tires-suspension/27986-rear-shock-data.html

You can go to page 8 of that link and read Ponydvr post on washers. He used 4 of them.

You can use these washers: http://redirect.viglink.com/?format...ea 2"x3"x3.57 mm (10 ga) steel spacers</font>

These washers are steel so they will rust.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Next you need to lower the suspension. Something like this should work. This one lowers it by about 1.5 inch.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-CTX70...m19f4863169:m:mklX4hRP1UFGfvuNhzr6xBg&vxp=mtr

Or these... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro....H0.TRS0&_nkw=CTX700+Lowering+Links+&_sacat=0

I'm pretty sure there is enough room for the tire to move an extra 2 inches or so, but you should check. The thing is that if you raise your sag to 1 inch, you need to lower your suspension by 3 inches to get the height you want.

If you do this, it will change the rake of the front fork a bit. These means that the CTX will steer a little slower. I doubt that you will hardly notice it. If it's a problem you could raise your front fork tubes a bit.

Lastly, if you lower the bike your cornering angle will be less. I can't say by how much.
 
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M

Michael Moore

Member
I'd not want to assume there's another 2" of clearance between the tire and fender. I've collapsed the suspension with an OEM damper sans spring and I'd not want to move things any closer than they already are.

With the OEM damper bottomed the CTX has a lot of stuff (foot pegs, muffler, exhaust pipe, engine (DCT servo motors) that drags at what that looks to me to be an inadequate amount of lean angle. Lowering the bike even more seems to be a bad call to me, but I suppose there are people who never lean more than a few degrees off of vertical who can get away with it.

I wouldn't lower the CTX more than it already is, and I'm planning on moving the foot controls/pegs to a point high enough that the engine is the first thing to drag (probably including elimination of the side stand and an NC700 muffler with an exhaust pipe extension to raise it higher than the CTX muffler).

Anyone who is looking at making significant changes to the chassis has the responsibility to check everything that is affected by those changes as they'll be the ones to suffer any consequences. Please don't accept the assurances of anyone on the Internet. Trust but verify.

It isn't that difficult to remove the spring from the damper and collapse the rear suspension. If it appears the spring is too light for the rider then you should give serious consideration to changing to a spring with a more appropriate rate. One size does NOT fit all, which seems pretty obvious from all of the "add a bunch of washers to increase the preload on the stock spring to allow some semblance of reasonable rear suspension travel" threads.

Be safe.
 
Steven

Steven

Member
Actually I shimmed up my shock and it worked very well. Under normal road conditions with the sag set correctly, the oem is fine, even for heavier folks, but when when there is a sharp bump or a pothole, the weight of a heavier rider is too much for the shock and it acts like a worn out shock would. Again, that is a result of inadequate damping and rebound. I don't think the oem has a high speed circuit to handle that. When I first got my bike I had about 1 inch of travel left (I'm heavy) and it would beat me to death. The first time I hit an expansion joint on the Interstate, the shock bottomed out and the bike, for all intents, was out of control, it was scary. After shimming the shock and getting the sag to 1 inch, I never had that problem again.

The only problem I had was on very hard bumps. It wasn't the spring that was the problem, it was the compression damping and rebound of the oem shock. I replaced my shock with an aftermarket one. At first I went with a heavier spring and that spring worked very well over extremely rough pavement (not fit to walk on), but was too firm for regular roads. I changed that out for a spring with the same specs as the oem and all is well. Where the oem would have problems, even with the shims, the new shock with improved damping, didn't give up on rough pavement like the oem did. Also the new shock has more travel and doesn't bottom out like the oem did. Ideally a new shock would be the best choice, but for those without the money to do that, shimming the oem is a decent compromise. The important thing is to get the sag set correctly.


The thing is that there is no one shock that works for every situation. It's a balance between ride comfort, control, road condition, and riding style. I don't push my bike hard so I can afford to have a softer suspension. If I were racing, or going off road, I would adjust the shock differently.

You are right about not assuming there is enough room for the tire to move in the wheel well, but that could be checked out. When the bike is on the center stand, the shock is fully extended. Measuring the distance of the tire to the wheel well should be a good indicator. A more accurate way would be to remove the spring, reinstall the shock, and push it up until the shock is fully compressed. That would tell you exactly how much room you have. You said you have done this, so I'll take your word on it.

I have floorboards on my bike and I've never dragged them when cornering. I tend to corner a little faster than most riders, so it works for me. If I would drag my parts I would just slow down. At higher speeds it isn't an issue because I don't go that fast. There are riders of the CTX that have dragged parts, but I'm not that brave and I'm thinking it was at lower speeds.

Anyway, many folks have lowered their bikes without problems, but there is a price to pay. Lean angle is affected, speed bumps may be an issue, and the bike might handle differently. There could be an issue with the lowering linkage changing the spring rate compared to tire movement too. Ideally, the front should be lowered too to maintain the steering geometry of the bike. As long as these changes are moderate, it should work well enough.

I'm no expert on this subject, but many have taken this path so I suggest that mjc do some reading and talk to people before making these changes. As for shimming the shock to the correct sag, it's a no brainer, do it. The one thing I wouldn't do is trim the bumper as Gonzo suggested in the link I gave. mjc, keep in mind that raising the rear an inch for sag doesn't mean that the seat also goes up an inch.
 
Steven

Steven

Member
Oh... The best advice I can give anyone is to never listen to people on a forum, especially myself. Use that as a starting point and then research the subject from people that know what they're talking about. :)
 
M

Michael Moore

Member
Here are a couple of photos with the suspension (front and rear) collapsed and a 45 degree angle lean gauge, it looks like I didn't take a photo that shows how the tire is fitting inside the fender:

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/CTXLeftDrag_0804.jpg

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/CTXRightDrag_0856.jpg

It is difficult to see on the left side but the bottom corner of the shift motor is at risk, and the side stand and foot peg/peg mount are sticking out a lot too. On the right side the bottom of the frame (swing arm support area) and exhaust pipe, peg mount/peg and muffler (not shown here) don't clear. I've seen NC exhaust pipes on eBay with big flats hammered by the ground on the exhaust pipe there where it turns under the frame, and the NC will normally ride a bit higher than the CTX.

45 degrees is a 1G corner which is moving along pretty good but not outside what might be reached on the street. The scenarios in these photos might be most likely with something like a turn in the middle of going up a curb cut into a driveway where the suspension is bottoming or coming close to it.

I hope those show why I find people putting on "lowering links" to drop the bike another 1-2" to be a concern, especially when a lot of that seems to be done with a "someone on the Web did this and they wouldn't sell these parts if it wasn't OK, so I won't bother checking for clearance" attitude. FYI those lengths of square tubing are 1" so those hard bits on the bottom of the bike (not the sides) aren't very far off the ground with the suspension compressed.

I'm ditching the side stand on my bike; the center stand is tucked in much better and I've always tended to use only a center stand on my few street bikes. The rear brake lever is being moved to the left end of the handlebar and the feet will be raised high enough that they won't drag before the frame/engine/exhaust do.

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/MyCTX_0760.jpg

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/MyCTX_0773.jpg


That's a low Corbin seat on my bike. You can see that the seat surface is quite a ways above the frame rails, so if someone needs a lower seat height I'd recommend they look into a lower seat (which may mean a custom seat pan) and not go slamming the bike to the ground like a low rider. Of course, a person might manage to drive a long time and never touch down on a lowered bike because they are never hitting bumps wrong and/or leaning over much. But if hard points bottom out in the middle of an emergency action and lever the wheels off the ground a close call might instead end up being a crash.

cheers,
Michael
 
R

rickster

Member
mjc said:
OK so when I sit on my bike, it goes down 2", I am big and understand that. What I am thinking is it would be nice if I could somehow lower my bike to the height it is when I sit on it. If I can per- drop it, it would be ez for me to get on and off it. I do not want to lower the bike to the ground, only that 2" difference of not being on it and being in the seat.


So, as I understand it, your problem is getting on and off of the bike comfortably? I'm pushing 70 and am limber like the oak tree on the other side of my window. When I put the top box on my bike, getting on and off became even worse. Then, I found this video. I don't know if this will help you, but if it does, there's no bike mod needed, no cutting, no screws, no new shocks... But, it does come with a price. When I pull up in front of my favorite restaurant up in our mountains that is frequented by a lot of other bikers, there is usually laughter when I open the door. When the service writer at my shop saw me do this, he ran outside to watch with amusement. Little do any of these people know that at 70 years old, this guy, if not most guys have outgrown any concern about form in favor of function! This really does work well...especially if you have a sense of humor...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARcbo_dr02Y

Edit: I've modified this a bit by first placing my right knee on the seat and then pulling my leg over...
Click to expand...
 
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Steven

Steven

Member
Naw! That's too practical, makes it too easy! :p

What are we going to talk about now that that's been solved?
 
MJC

MJC

Super Moderator
Ok I watched the video, but Let me tell you how I get on my bike. 1st I have a drivers backrest that does not fold and a top case. Plus I have a custom made seat.

So to get on my bike I place my right foot on the drivers seat, then I take my right pant leg and with my right hand I put/lift up my right leg and push it over the seat. In my left hand is my cane. Some how I end up seating on the bike. The bike drops down from my weight. I then have to stand up, on both feet to get the bike off the side stand. If you where watching me (and some have) you would be like "What just happened". Some have came over to me and asked if I was all right, others usually laugh and say something like, "getting old sucks or you think you should still be riding". I then fold up my cane and ride on.

Getting off is harder, I have to stand up and place the bike on the side stand, then after getting my cane, reach out with my left hand as far as I can, bend my left leg and push out from the seat. My right leg just comes up and over the seat, most of the time I am there, cane in left hand, left foot on ground, right foot resting on the seat. Now I just pick my right pant leg off the seat with my right hand.

So you can see (go ahead and re-read the above and put some laughter in your life, I have a sense of humor, and do not care) that I can do it, get on and off the bike. Thinking about me on the bike and how it drops down, I think if the bike was already down this would help me. Is this drop called sag? I do not understand the wording of what you are saying. So I will try again. I do not want to lower my bike, just what to take out the height from where it sits before I get on it to where it sits when I am on it. Once I am on the bike I have room in the spring/sock for bumps and the ride is fine. I think, only guessing that if my spring was shorter but made for more (of my) weight, then The seat would sit lower then it does now and when I got on the bike it would not (maybe a little) go lower. Am I thinking this right, or is it just more to it?

I just went and read over what everyone said. So if I got it right, when I sit on the bike I have compressed the suspension. I have some left (not much) and that part of the suspension is the part I do not went to change.

So what if I got a used spring/sock and just cut off one ring of the spring, (looks to be 3 of then (rings) are close together) tighten up the nuts all the way down (like I have now)? What would happen?

Also, My understanding is if I just used lowering links (legs) then the bike would sit lower (without me on it) but when I sit on it, it would then go even lower. Is that right? If so this is not what I want.

All this talk is just me thinking out loud, and trying to get more info on what I can do. I know I can just take the bike to a custom sock/spring place and have them do what I want done, but I do not have the cash for that or do I want to spend money on something that is working fine but could be a little better for me.

On my seat, I have worked on it, made a new pan, lowest it could go without getting into re-making the frame or other parts. I added some suspension to it, custom fit it to my butt and parts of me that hit the seat, installed padding that removes or kills all or any vibration, also made it wider added a backrest etc. My seat is like a comb of a Daylong, Corbin and Mustang. I can ride for hours and have no pain. In fact the only time I am not in pain is when I am riding. It is level front to back, which did add maybe 1 1/2" to the front and about a 1/2" to the back over the stock seat, it is not has high has a Daylong, but wider (about 4" wider then stock), Higher then a Corbin Low but not has high as a reg Corbin, It is also not as soft as a Mustang, but does have the bucket that Mustang seats have. It did cost me about $200 in metals and about 50 hours of my time, plus I had to learn how to sew to make the cover. I think I have and still put it out there that if anyone needs seat info or wants help making a seat, just ask. I can also make the stock seat better fit you (using the sock cover) or make a new pen (using your stock seat) and custom fit it to you and how you ride, which then you would need a new seat cover, which I can do but my sewing is not that great, but would pass if you are not that picky and do not care about form in favor of function.

Thanks for everyone's input so far.
 
M

Michael Moore

Member
A coil spring is a helical torsion bar. The shorter a torsion bar is, the higher the spring rate. If you cut coils off of the spring you shorten it and make the rate higher and for every inch or mm of movement you'll need more force than before.

As you suspect the "lowering links" basically reposition the rear wheel in relation to the damper. There will be some change in the suspension curve which, depending on the design of the rear suspension, may be minimal -- or not. But with those links you will be decreasing ground clearance at "full bump" when the suspension is bottomed out.

Generally, the right spring rate for an application (rider and bike weight, speed, bumps to be traversed, amount of suspension travel, amount of comfort desired, amount of rising rate (or not) in the suspension, the ratio between sprung and unsprung weight, weight of the unsprung components) is the right rate, you don't just change it willy-nilly. And you'll probably find that the spring rate ought to be changed with every 30-40 pounds of change in load.

You can lower the seat height by increasing the sag, but then you are trading off lower seat height for less available suspension travel in compression. You want some sag so there is suspension travel available to let the wheel extend downwards into dips/hollows so the wheel doesn't skip from tip to tip across the bumps.

It would make a lot of sense if the manufacturers would design the bikes from the start for shorter riders, because it is much easier to take a bike designed that way and make it fit a taller rider. But don't forget that there are also a lot of styling/fashion goals that get considered before a design is finalized and if that "fits everyone" bike doesn't pass the "will people buy it because it looks too different?" test, it won't get made.

As a friend of mine says at the start of his chassis design seminars, "the only thing you can't change is just one thing".

If your seat height is too high, you should, beyond minor suspension adjustments that probably won't pick up a lot of change but may help, be looking at, oddly enough, changing the height of the seat -- not the suspension. Take your eraser and remove all of the chassis parts above the suspension/wheels at bump/frame tubes and then draw in your new seat at the height you want it (if there's room above the frame/wheels). That may mean that you will build a new seat, a new fuel tank, and probably get to change handlebars and foot rests too.

It is much easier to raise the seat if you are tall -- just add more layers of padding to it. If you are short, the more padding you take out is that much less suspension (because the seat gives you some of that) available to keep your bum from bottoming out on the seat pan. So then you start looking at lowering the level of the seat pan or frame components unless you are fine with little to no padding on the seat.

cheers,
Michael
 
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Steven

Steven

Member
Just FYI... Sag is how far the spring compresses when you sit on the bike. 30% is the recommended amount for a street bike. So for the CTX, that's about 1.2 inches. That would give you about 3 inches of travel on the rear wheel.
 
Steven

Steven

Member
Michael Moore said:
Here are a couple of photos with the suspension (front and rear) collapsed and a 45 degree angle lean gauge, it looks like I didn't take a photo that shows how the tire is fitting inside the fender:

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/CTXLeftDrag_0804.jpg

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/CTXRightDrag_0856.jpg

It is difficult to see on the left side but the bottom corner of the shift motor is at risk, and the side stand and foot peg/peg mount are sticking out a lot too. On the right side the bottom of the frame (swing arm support area) and exhaust pipe, peg mount/peg and muffler (not shown here) don't clear. I've seen NC exhaust pipes on eBay with big flats hammered by the ground on the exhaust pipe there where it turns under the frame, and the NC will normally ride a bit higher than the CTX.

45 degrees is a 1G corner which is moving along pretty good but not outside what might be reached on the street. The scenarios in these photos might be most likely with something like a turn in the middle of going up a curb cut into a driveway where the suspension is bottoming or coming close to it.

I hope those show why I find people putting on "lowering links" to drop the bike another 1-2" to be a concern, especially when a lot of that seems to be done with a "someone on the Web did this and they wouldn't sell these parts if it wasn't OK, so I won't bother checking for clearance" attitude. FYI those lengths of square tubing are 1" so those hard bits on the bottom of the bike (not the sides) aren't very far off the ground with the suspension compressed.

I'm ditching the side stand on my bike; the center stand is tucked in much better and I've always tended to use only a center stand on my few street bikes. The rear brake lever is being moved to the left end of the handlebar and the feet will be raised high enough that they won't drag before the frame/engine/exhaust do.

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/MyCTX_0760.jpg

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Honda CTX700/MyCTX_0773.jpg


That's a low Corbin seat on my bike. You can see that the seat surface is quite a ways above the frame rails, so if someone needs a lower seat height I'd recommend they look into a lower seat (which may mean a custom seat pan) and not go slamming the bike to the ground like a low rider. Of course, a person might manage to drive a long time and never touch down on a lowered bike because they are never hitting bumps wrong and/or leaning over much. But if hard points bottom out in the middle of an emergency action and lever the wheels off the ground a close call might instead end up being a crash.

cheers,
Michael
Click to expand...

It looks like you really did your homework. I will point out one thing though, people that do lower their bikes need to understand how the limitations change on their bikes. Things like lean angle, bottom clearance, and all the rest will dictate how they ride and what different road conditions are less safe. I've watched video's of Harley riders trying to ride their bike like a sports bike and from time to time, they end up sliding down the road because they don't have the lean angle to do what they're trying to do.

The point is that it can be done and depending how far you drop the bike's height and under what conditions a person rides determines how it's ridden. I've never had a lean angle of 45 degrees on the CTX. As your pictures show, that's not possible. A long time ago I read an article stating that the average cornering g force on a bike is about 0.7 G. I have no idea what angle that translates into.

The thing is that even if a bike can be lowered a person can not count on the surprise situation which might take the suspension beyond it's limit. For instance, I went across some railroad tracks and I didn't see that it was a huge dip and bump. I was able to pull myself off the seat, but the bike was airborne for a moment. All was well, but had I lowered the chassis, I could have found myself scraping the bottom of the bike and the outcome might have been different.

You're advice is valid. With that said, I've known people that had lowered their bike substantively and lived to tell the story.
 
M

Michael Moore

Member
Sure, any bike can go to a track day and survive if ridden within its performance envelope. I've read reports of people taking their NC (same bike under the skin as the CTX) on a track day when there normal track bike was down and they had no issues, they just didn't go nearly as fast. Also, a race track is a much safer place to ride than public roads!

If a CTX has a single light rider and the suspension isn't sacked out with a passenger and 80 pounds of gear it will have enough ground clearance on a smooth road for some sporty (in CTX terms) riding. But there's not a lot of margin left to play with as the load increases and the bumps start showing up. Lowering links mean the margin for error is reduced, possibly to zero (or less) if taken to extremes. If someone is willing to adjust their riding style to stay within the smaller safety zone, and is also willing to accept that in an "oops" moment they might be more likely to crash than on an unmodified bike, they may do fine.

I've been designing and building my own road racers for about 40 years and I'm used to considering a lot of factors that probably don't cross many people's minds if they are typical "let's buy a motorcycle and ride around and have a good time" riders. When I see people blithely modifying suspension links and pulling the fork tubes up in the clamps and it looks like they aren't likely to have a good understanding of the ramifications of those changes, it makes me worry a bit for their safety. If they do have an understanding of the change in the performance envelope and go ahead anyway I might still have some concern for them but at least I can hope they'll modify their riding style to allow them to be reasonably safe with those changes.

cheers,
Michael
 
MJC

MJC

Super Moderator
Thanks guys, I think I now have a better understanding of how it works. I am thinking to just leave my bike alone. I have had it on the track and it does handle great (for what it is) so I do not want to mess with that.

I could make a new seat that would be lower but still give me what I need as the backrest bracket forced me to start on top of it. When I bolted the backrest bracket onto the pan, that bracket is about 3/4" thick, and it sits back almost on the rear fender. So if I left out the backrest I could start my padding on top of the pan (saving the brackets 3/4") plus moving it forward off the rear fender saving me having to build up the front of the seat to get it level, maybe other 3/4" so I could have a seat 1 1/2" lower without the backrest.

I would still need a backrest, so I was thinking I could put the backrest on my top case, mount the top case on a sliding rail system, slide it back (where it is now), giving me more room to swing my leg over, once on the bike, slide it forward, lock it in and use that backrest. Then just unlock it and slide it back to get off the bike. That may work.

I think I could do all of that but not right now, time to ride it, working on it is for late fall or maybe those real hot days of summer, just not on good riding days!

Thanks for helping me better understand things!
 
Steven

Steven

Member
Michael Moore said:
If a CTX has a single light rider and the suspension isn't sacked out with a passenger and 80 pounds of gear it will have enough ground clearance on a smooth road for some sporty (in CTX terms) riding. But there's not a lot of margin left to play with as the load increases and the bumps start showing up. Lowering links mean the margin for error is reduced, possibly to zero (or less) if taken to extremes. If someone is willing to adjust their riding style to stay within the smaller safety zone, and is also willing to accept that in an "oops" moment they might be more likely to crash than on an unmodified bike, they may do fine.
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth. :)
 
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MJC

MJC

Super Moderator
Thanks guys, I think I now have a better understanding of how it works. I am thinking to just leave my bike alone. I have had it on the track and it does handle great (for what it is) so I do not want to mess with that.

I could make a new seat that would be lower but still give me what I need as the backrest bracket forced me to start on top of it. When I bolted the backrest bracket onto the pan, that bracket is about 3/4" thick, and it sits back almost on the rear fender. So if I left out the backrest I could start my padding on top of the pan (saving the brackets 3/4") plus moving it forward off the rear fender saving me having to build up the front of the seat to get it level, maybe other 3/4" so I could have a seat 1 1/2" lower without the backrest.

I would still need a backrest, so I was thinking I could put the backrest on my top case, mount the top case on a sliding rail system, slide it back (where it is now), giving me more room to swing my leg over, once on the bike, slide it forward, lock it in and use that backrest. Then just unlock it and slide it back to get off the bike. That may work.

I think I could do all of that but not right now, time to ride it, working on it is for late fall or maybe those real hot days of summer, just not on good riding days!

Thanks for helping me better understand things!
 
Steven

Steven

Member
mjc, my new seat has a backrest and mounting the bike normally means having to swing my leg high over the backrest. I can do it, but I'm rather stiff in my older years so it's somewhat uncomfortable to do. The other thing is that once I have the bike geared up for a trip ( i.e. gear on the back seat higher than than the backrest), I would need to find a different way to mount the bike. The seat is also much wider except near the tank, so what I've been doing is standing away from the bike a bit and throwing my leg up near the more narrow section and then leaning into it. It's easy to mount the bike that way. If I miss, the worse thing that happens is that my foot is lying on the seat and then I can lift it with my hand and complete the mount or just lean into it and my leg slides over. Getting off the bike is all together another matter. I can get off the bike but my foot is still on the seat. I then lift my leg with my hand, turning away from the bike at the same time, to complete the maneuver. The more I do it, the less stiff I get and the easier it gets. Of course I can stretch my muscles and eventually it will become easy, but that's up to me. I know your situation is different.

The other thing is my backrest folds down onto the driver's seat so that the passenger can get on easier. It's too tall for me to do that, get on the bike, and then raise it. I've thought about what if the backrest would fold backwards onto the passenger seat, that would solve the problem (when riding alone). It would, except there is a risk that the mechanism that holds the seat in the vertical position would give way at some point for whatever reason. In that event I might find myself lying backwards on the seat. The point is that it would need a locking mechanism that would prevent that.

In the past, I had a backrest that slid forwards and could be used for the passenger or the driver. It was held in place by a friction screw but had to be adjusted before I got on the bike.

I also find that I don't need a high backrest. Anything higher than the small of my back is too much. Other people may feel differently. There's an advantage to having a shorter backrest. If it's too high, bumps can push you forwards from time to time. It it's only on my lower back, my torso can move with the bumps preventing that jarring of the backrest on my upper body.

What I'm trying to say is that perhaps a shorter backrest might do the trick.
 
MJC

MJC

Super Moderator
Yes Steven after reading your post I think we have to adjust to how we get on and off our bikes and it is a well thought out maneuver, lol. I may start filming myself and send it into AFV, who knows I may win or at least give people something to laugh about.

My backrest hits my back on the low to middle part of my back, The seat is made to raise up in the back, so just the seat back is like a very low backrest. The backrest is adjustable, high to low, side to side, front to back and removable altogether. The backrest stops me from falling onto the passenger seat... At high speeds the wind is too much for me and I can not hold onto the handlebars... ..lol.

I have never had any problems with riding before getting hurt. So in the past two years had to adjust myself in dealing with things that I can no longer do the same way. In general trying to change in a short amount of time to what my body can or can not do has been hard for me, still learning and sometimes things change, pain may pop up in new places or go away. Not looking for people to feel sorry for me, just asking for info on what others have done and adjustments they may have made both on their bike and themselves.

People have said to me (not on this forum) to just stop riding. My riding and my bike keep me going, finding out more about myself and my body with each ride. If I was to stop riding and stop adjusting my bike I would have nothing to do but keep adding to the list of things I can not do. So thank you for your in-put, info and ideas.

mj
 
R

rickster

Member
mjc said:
People have said to me (not on this forum) to just stop riding. My riding and my bike keep me going, finding out more about myself and my body with each ride. If I was to stop riding and stop adjusting my bike I would have nothing to do but keep adding to the list of things I can not do. So thank you for your in-put, info and ideas.
mj
Click to expand...
mjc...what a great attitude!!!
 
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