Freakishly tall XX rider recommended remedies from an expert

[XXitanium]

@Flitemdic  I bought my bird in 2010 after this encouragement.

 

Flitemdic  4

Started conversation: September 28, 2006

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Message Forwarded From Flitemdic

 

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talk to me, legs too long and belly to big, HELP, Todd

Todd: Now first off, I will tell you that most of this stuff won't seem to make a difference reading it, but it makes a world of difference on the body.

 

First thing you want to do, if you don't want to spend any money, is to raise up the bars. I didn't need to do this, as my arms and wrist didn't have any problems, but there are instructions here in the garage on how to do it. Essentially, you're loosening the bars, raising them up a very small amount, and torquing them back down. Some guys aren't comfortable doing this, so your options from that point are two. Right now, there are VFR bars for sale on ebay. Those are the one's you want.

 

Again, there are instructions on how to convert here in the garage section. It doesn't involve any lengthing of the clutch and brake leads, or the electrics leads from what I understand. There is enough play to cover it in the stuff that's already there. The other option is Helibars- but now you're talking some $$. That one gives you a better upright position on the bike.

Next thing to look at is the seat. You can do one of two things, depending on how your body position is on the seat. If your legs are tucked too much, and you're handy, you can add a little padding under the seat by taking the covering off, adding a little foam- available at any Micheal's or Hobby lobby, glue it down to the original padding, and recover. There is just enough extra material on the stock seat to accomplish this. That's the cheapest way to go. Next, or instead of the above, another quick and cheap fix is butt beads. $25 at Walmart.

 

The handlebar thing is a position issue, the seat gets you up about 1/2 an inch. Like I said before, it doesn't seem like much, but it's a world of difference. If you add the two together- foam and beads, you'll get about an inch out of the deal. The spendiest way to go is a Corbin seat- about $675 new or usually around $300 second hand. So now, one way or another, you've got anywhere from 1/2 to 1 inch of upward adjustment, and it's amazing the difference it makes.

 

Then you get to the pegs. There are a couple of ways to go here too. First off, simply removing the rubber on the pegs gives you about 1/2 an inch. Cheap, not permanent if you have to sell and quick to do. Or, there are a couple of other options. First, you can buy the aftermarket steel pegs- a guy on ebay has every color under the rainbow for less than $30 right now, they'll give you about 3/4 of an inch. Second, if you're handy, you can do the Buell peg switch out. Cost's about $100, and takes a little finagling, but if you look in the "important threads" section, there's instructions on how to do it. Last, if you can wait a little while longer, Dave01xx, (I think that's his handle), is getting together a group buy on peg lowering brackets. This is the ultimate fix, apparently, these will have multiple positions.

Personally, I've done the rubber off, and the butt beads, and I can ride about 1000 miles a day without any pain whatsoever. I'm 6'5" and about 280.

 

The other thing that you probably want to look at is shimming the rear shock, there's instructions on that in the garage section, too. You want to go about 3mm for your size. This does two things- gives you better control, and makes the bike sit up a little more. If you have an aftermarket shock already on, it may have an adjustable preload that will also give you some height.

All these things seem like "this won't matter" type of little things, but they make a huge difference, and few of them are permanent or costly, if you want to sell the bike after all.

 

Good luck. Search on this board is your friend. All of the how to's for all this stuff is on the board somewhere.

Duane

 

This is the "tutorial" I sent to tapsport. Maybe it would help?

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by XXitanium

[TFT]

I have the VFR bars, corbin seat and lowering pegs. 

On long distance trips I have the sheepskin seat cover for comfort and it raises me up a bit.

It also helps to have a GIVI windscreen. 

Fortunately I don't have to deal with the big belly, just long legs.

[blackhawkxx]

All good stuff Bill, now add the stuff for short people and it would be a complete package.  I did the rubber off the pegs to help my knees but inlayed diamond plate aluminum so it didn't look crappy. 

[superhawk996]

I'm weird, I run my pegs at max height for more comfort.