Starter bikes for TALL riders
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Hi all, I’m new to the world of motorcycles but am very interested in purchasing my first one. I have done a fair bit of research as to what would be an ideal starter bike for someone with very minimal experience such as myself. The Kawasaki Ninja 250 seems to be a popular name that is coming up however I have also read that it is an ideal bike for shorter riders. Being 6foot 5 inches I was wondering if that would negatively affect my because of my height. If there is anyone out there with any advice as to what would be a good bike to start off with especially for tall people I would greatly appreciate that.
Regards!There is a contributor on this site (eternal05) who is I think is 6′ 3″ who rides a Ninja 250 (among other things). He purchased something for around $120 that allowed him to adjust the footpeg position to give him more room. Failing that anything in the dual sport or supermoto style is inevitably taller. Lots of options in the dual sport 250cc range from Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda. One of eternal’s other bikes is the Suzuki DRZ-400SM, a supermoto that I think has a high seat height.
Lot’s of options out there, hopefully there is something you like.
Dual sports are the best starter bike for tall riders. If you plan on doin any time on the highway geta 650. Anything less youll get blown all over the road. A cruiser with forward controls would be a good option too. Though most of the smaller cruisers with forward controls still give tall people problems. U can easily buy forward control extension for a couple hundred dollars at the most though
Yeah, Eon’s spot on. If you want a sportbike, get a Ninja 250 and get adjustable footpegs for around $120-130. The only issue with size on the Ninja 250 is length from peg to fuel tank. Your knee is supposed to fit under the top of the tank, but with my long legs (I’m 6’4″, thank you very much
) I couldn’t get my knees underneath. Adjustable footpegs fixed that by allowing me to lower the pegs by the inch I needed to get fit my knees in.Honestly, while I loved the crap out of my 250, you do have lots of other options. Dual sports / motards are great for tall guys because, as Eon said, they tend to have high seats. You still have to go sit on them, as the high seat doesn’t always translate into lots of room for your legs. It all depends on where the pegs are in relation to the seat. All the “big four” Japanese companies have equivalent dual sports ranging from 250 supermoto bikes (tons of fun) all the way up to 650s. Try one out and see what you think.
One rearset adjuster company is below, to either raise or lower the driver footpegs. They usually only raise and set back the footpegs for racing use, with some extra holes for adjustment- what you do is flip them upside down and put them on the opposite sides of the bike to lower the footpegs and bring them more forward instead:
Do you notice more frequent dragging the pegs when going around tight corners after lowering the pegs?
These lower footpeg adjusters are sold for sportbikes and the standard/sportbike 250cc Ninja- you have to be going well over the speed limit in a corner to scrape the footpegs, even with them lowered an inch or so. For track days, the footpegs would need to be raised back up or put higher than stock.
For cruisers the footpegs are moved more forward for longer legs, because the footpegs are already quite low and easily scrape just a little faster than the speed limit.
Hyosung GT250 if you can stomach the lack of support.
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