I’ve been riding for a lot of years. If you haven’t read it, and have some time, go and look back over the previous 5 articles, which go into way too much detail on my long and varied history on 2 wheels. From all of that experience I’ve hit one long standing annoyance; the fit of a motorcycle. I’ve been on a life long quest to get a motorcycle to just fit me. Okay, that’s overly dramatic, it’s been more like 15 years of attempts, failures, and successes. Let’s take a step back, and look at the styles of motorcycles, which fall into pretty much 3 categories:
The cruiser, aka the Harley, aka the cool bike. The cruiser puts the seat low, the feet forward, and the bars around shoulder height, sometimes higher. If you’ve heard of “ape hangers”, this is where they come from, because on many examples, the rider appears to be hanging from the bars. Some “cruiser” bikes happen to fall more closely into the standard or neutral riding position with the bars a little lower; mainly those from Japanese makers, but it’s the exception not the rule. This riding position is found exclusively on cruiser style motorcycles.
The sport bike, aka lets hug the tank, aka where’s my race suit. The sport bike puts the seat neutral to low, the bars way forward and low around hip height, and the feet back and upwards. By it’s very nature, you are pulled onto the tank to be able to reach the bars, I mean clip-ons, because there are no bars here; just little control nubs at the sharpest angle, clamped right onto the forks. Like cruisers, this riding position is exclusive to sport bikes.
The standard, the universal Japanese motorcycle (UJM), the upright, neutral, etc.. The seat is a neutral height, the bars are in a neutral position roughly elbow height, and the pegs / controls place your feet under your center of gravity, and slightly forward. Unlike the previous two, this standard position is found across almost all types of motorcycles, and the types of motorcycles just keep expanding, with this riding position being the defacto standard.
Up front, and candidly, I believe that only standard or upright riding position motorcycles can be made to fit the tall among us. I have a great deal of disdain for the crotch rocket riding position, and dislike the cruiser riding position. I’m going to explain this through out the article, or what’s the point, I just thought it might be good to admit I have some bias built out of my own personal experience. It’s possible a tall person could ride a crotch rocket, or a cruiser; for 20 minutes at a time in any case. With that out of the way, lets get into it.
What defines comfort and fit? For me, it’s a combination of hip and knee angle, my back in an upright position, and not having to reach too far for the bars. If my knees are too bent, it’s painful. If my hips are too bent, I can get back pain. If I have to reach to much for the bars, shoulder and potentially back pain. Alternately, if I’m leaned over the bars, and have to apply too much pressure to my wrists to support my upper body, that is all sorts of uncomfortable. In a perfect world my hips and knees are making angles greater than 90 degrees relative to my core and thighs, my back is straight, and my elbows are nearly at my sides with my forearms nearly parallel to the ground. In short, everything in a nice neutral position. The seat height is the same as, or within 2 inches of, my inseam. Ultimately this usually means a taller seat, raised and pulled back handlebars, and sometimes lowering the pegs and foot controls. There are other factors, like wind protection and seat construction, that play into comfort; but from a pure fitment angle, this is what I look for.
Cruisers are what people think of when they hear “motorcycle”, generally speaking. They are the icon of motorcycling for the average person. They place the seat low, the feet forward, and the bars above the elbow or higher. The result is your body is in a “U” shape when you ride, feet and legs forward, back leaning slightly forward, and your arms nearly straight out. For an average height person, I can see this could work if you’re willing to deal with the strain in the shoulders and lower back. Frankly, the low seat height is probably very attractive for those average and under in height, because generally a cruiser has a seat height below 28 inches. Add to that the Japanese cruisers that place the bars at a more reasonable height, and I could see it being very attractive to a shorter rider. My inseam is 36 inches though; I feel like I’m sitting on the ground. Add to that having to place my feet forward, and it gets awkward fast. In placing my feet forward, they end up higher relative to my hips, which means my knees end up higher. Instead of looking cool, I look like an adult on a child’s bicycle; knees above my hips, comically hunched to reach the bars in that awkward forward and tall position. I’ve ridden a couple of cruisers, and sat on a dozen or more. In almost all cases I felt unstable at a stop, awkward when riding, and generally uncomfortable; with lots of strain on my shoulders and back. 20 minutes on a cruiser caused a day of aches.
Can a cruiser be made to work for a taller person? With some limits, sure they can. The most successful alterations I saw turned the cruiser into a Scrambler. Taller, longer, and flatter seat. Dirt bike handlebars with pull backs. Foot controls moved slightly; heal shifter removed. That’s the catch, because if you consider a Scrambler, it’s a cruiser converted to a standard riding position, with more dirt bike like styling. To make a cruiser fit a tall person comfortably, is to convert that cruiser to not a cruiser. It’s completely doable, and many companies make and sell accessories to do this; custom seats, bolt on sub frames to support the seat, new foot controls and pegs. Even if you can’t find an off the shelf part, you can adapt and fabricate most of what you’d need to accomplish this with hand tools. But is it still a cruiser at that point? I don’t think a Scrambler is a cruiser any more; it’s closer to the classic UJM, the Honda CB series from the 60’s and 70’s; the most iconic being the CB750. So, you can make a cruiser fit a taller person, but to do so in a way that is functional, is to make it no longer a cruiser, at least in my opinion.
Moving on to sport bikes, this is probably the bike you see when one cuts you off on the highway. I don’t understand the appeal to these mobile torture devices. The seats are too low, the pegs and controls are directly below your hips, or behind them, and the bars are around the same height as your hips. All of this forces you into a tucked position just to ride it. When you’re tall that means very cramped legs, very sore knees, very sore back, and generally very awkward to ride. I’ve ridden one sport bike, once. I’ve sat on 10 or so. I was able to ride for 5 minutes before it was a flatout no. I actually stopped a demo ride, and got the person leading it to swap bikes with me. It was a Yamaha R6, if you’re curious, though I found the ergos about the same as any other sport or super sport bike I’ve sat on. I completed that ride on a XSR 900, which is also on the small side, but way more comfortable than the R6 for me. There are so many fails on the ergos for this style of bike if you exceed the average height of around 5’10”. Hip angle, knee angle, foot angle; pressure on your lower back and shoulders, neck, and wrists. If you’re within the size range these are designed for, they can be comfortable to a point, but as soon as you’re outside that range, it’s just painful. You can actually see average people riding these, actively showing you the discomfort they’re in, when they ride with one hand on the throttle, and the other on their knee supporting their upper body in a more upright position. You will see riders moving their legs and stretching them while they ride. Overall, this class of bike can be fun, but is more suited to track days, or quick hops around town, as opposed to serious riding.
So, can a sport bike be made to work for a tall person? Frankly, I don’t think so. You can add actual risers and handlebars. You can raise the seat. In most cases you cannot relocate the pegs and foot controls without some serious fabrication work. The end result, at best, is probably going to be a slightly more comfortable bike, that is still going to hurt you after 20 minutes, and never feel right. Some people tour on sport bikes, so they must be comfortable enough for some. Touring spawned a whole other sub segment of bikes; the sport touring class, which has the sporty styling and aggressive motors combined with a standard riding position. Sport touring bikes are adaptable, because they already have handlebars, taller seats, and more neutral or standard riding positions. You can add bar risers easily. You can add a taller seat easily. You can get taller windscreens, and peg lowering kits, and all sorts of other accessories to fit that style of motorcycle to a taller person. In short, you can get a sport bike to work for you, just start with the sport touring version first and go from there.
That leads me into the standard category, which is represented in almost every style of motorcycle available. Touring, almost all standard. Adventure touring, all standard. Dirt bikes, all standard. Sport touring, standard position. Naked, mostly standard. You can find solid standard riding position motorcycles that cover almost every single facet of motorcycling. What makes most standard motorcycles so great for a tall person is that the riding position lends itself best for adaptation. Raising the seat doesn’t significantly alter the design of the bike, while giving you leg room. Lowering the pegs and foot controls is possible on almost all standard bikes, but still doesn’t significantly alter the position of the rider, while granting more leg room. Raising the handle bars with a set of pivot risers or pull backs is easy, and again aside from improving reach doesn’t alter that neutral position. To alter the previous 2 to fit, you would ultimately be altering the bike to be closer to neutral, requiring more significant alterations. Adapting a standard motorcycle can be as little as putting a sheepskin or an air hawk on the seat for a little more leg room. It can be as extreme as 3 inch bar risers requiring new control cables, coupled with peg and foot control lowering.
Can a standard motorcycle be fit to a tall person? Absolutely, almost always an emphatic yes. There are exceptions to this rule, I’m looking at you BMW R NineT, but generally it can be done. In my opinion, if you’re 6’ and over, you want a standard motorcycle. The other two types are going to give you problems. Yes, you can ride them. Yes you can probably mod the crap out of them to make it work. Is it worth it? Not really, when you can much more easily adapt almost any standard motorcycle to your needs, with off the shelf parts. It will be easier, and cheaper to start with a good base. If you want the minimum amount of fuss and trouble, look at the adventure touring segment. Those bikes are almost always already tall, with a massive amount of aftermarket support. I cannot more strongly recommend the Suzuki V-Strom lineup for this purpose. They’re never going to win a race, or keep up with sport bikes, but they are fast, fun, reliable, and really easy to make comfortable.
My personal V-Strom was a 2011 DL650A. I added the following to fit it nicely to my 6’7” frame. Suzuki tall touring seat. Adventure tech peg and control lowering plates. Rox 3” pivot risers. New braided front brake line. Madstad windshield bracket. Alaska leather sheepskin butt pad. Suzuki hand guards and centre stand. In total around $1000 Canadian invested for comfort. That was it, and has been hands down the most comfortable motorcycle I’ve owned.
My current motorcycle, a 2018 Yamaha Tracer 900 (non GT), has the following. Rox 2” bar risers and pull backs. Corbin saddle, which is a little taller than stock and about 10x more comfortable. A Givi short sport windscreen, which is taller than stock and fixes highway buffeting. Lowered pegs. Givi crash bars, purchased to add highway pegs, but that was a failed project. I also had the rear suspension replaced, and the front suspension re-sprung and tuned. The stock suspension is under-sprung for a taller person, causing handling issues. I’m around $3000 Canadian into this bike adapting it for comfort, and I am still working on it, trying to make it more comfortable. The V-Strom was far more comfortable, especially over distance, but the Tracer is a lot more fun. If I were to do this again, I would buy a Super Tenere or a V-Strom 1050, and I may still do that. I wanted something more sporty, and while it’s proving possible to make it work for me, it is costing me more than 3X what a more suitable bike would have. That is a hard pill to swallow at this point, when I could have purchased a Yamaha Super Tenere ES for the same money I have into my Tracer, which is worth at best half of what a Super Tenere would cost.
Overall, when you’re bike shopping, stick to the standard or neutral riding position motorcycles. They will provide you with the best base to adapt to your taller frame. If you’re not stuck to a specific look already, the Adventure Touring segment offers excellent motorcycles across displacements, that will most easily fit your needs. Pretty much every single manufacturer makes a bike in the Adventure segment, even Harley Davidson.
Before you pull the trigger, do your research. Look into taller seat options; what is available, and what does it cost? Look into bar risers; the cost isn’t as simple as the actual risers, because you may need to also replace your control cables and wiring to extend them. Look into peg and control lowering; it may not be feasible, or possible, to lower the pegs and adjust the foot controls to match. You need to look at those 3 contact points you’re going to make with the bike, pegs, bars and seat, and ensure you can successfully adapt them to you. Most importantly, if possible, test ride anything before you buy. Demo days are great for trying new bikes at no cost to you. 20 minutes in the saddle can tell you if that bike is for you, or not.
Lastly, try not to focus on a single specific motorcycle; be open to what works for you, and not the other way around. I love the BMW R NineT; it’s gorgeous, especially the Urban GS model. I loved it right up to sitting on one. That was when I realized there was no possible way it could work for me. Everything about it is too small. I could see someone convincing themselves it was possible to modify to fit a tall person. Maybe you could, but it would cost far more than it would be worth. I had to be agile in my thinking, and move on to something else, despite the fact that I loved that bike. Don’t make the mistake of liking the idea of a bike, and ignoring the reality of that bike. Most of the mods you can make add an inch or two here and there with the seat, bars and pegs. If the bike has a 26” high seat, you’re not making it work for you. If the seat to pegs relation is really tight, you’re not fixing that. If the bars are in a really bad position, pivot risers are not going to fix that. The bike you pick needs to be close to fitting in it’s stock form, where adding or moving things an inch or two is going to solve that problem.