seat height help

[dugan1]

Hi, I'm looking at the hawk 250 dlx and the templar x 250 seat height. They both seem similar, hawk 36" and templar 36.2" and I am wondering how well a 5'8", 230lb guy will be able to touch on either bike? Any experiences you can share with me would be greatly appreciated thanks! Used to ride an old yz400 as my tallest bike and it was doable back in the day but I'm a lot older now lol.

[Hap]

Originally Posted by dugan1

Hi, I'm looking at the hawk 250 dlx and the templar x 250 seat height. They both seem similar, hawk 36" and templar 36.2" and I am wondering how well a 5'8", 230lb guy will be able to touch on either bike? Any experiences you can share with me would be greatly appreciated thanks! Used to ride an old yz400 as my tallest bike and it was doable back in the day but I'm a lot older now lol.

I just got a Templar X. And it is a pretty big bike. I’m 5’11” and comfortable once seated. But I’m not flat footed on either side. In your regard to age. I’m 56, and one thing I’ve noticed since getting back in to dirt bikes. It used to be a lot easier to throw my leg over the seat on these taller bikes. (:
With that said, I really like the Templar X. It’s a well made bike with many quality and durability features found on much more expensive Japanese and European motorcycles. Welcome to the forum!

[JerryHawk250]

Hap, when you reach our age you learn to mount these tall bikes like a horse. With kick stand down, place your left foot on peg then throw the right leg over. Dismount the same way with the kick stand down. The KPX is a tall bike to.

[Hap]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Hap, when you reach our age you learn to mount these tall bikes like a horse. With kick stand down, place your left foot on peg then throw the right leg over. Dismount the same way with the kick stand down. The KPX is a tall bike to.

No doubt Jerry! The fifties are tough man! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good time in life. Hell, I want to do more now than ever. But every time I turn around. I run up on one of these little “limitations” that just didn’t use to be there! (: But hey! With age comes wisdom. And we just have to figure out how to get around those “limitations”. Like what you just taught me this morning. Thanks man!

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Hap

No doubt Jerry! The fifties are tough man! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good time in life. Hell, I want to do more now than ever. But every time I turn around. I run up on one of these little “limitations” that just didn’t use to be there! (: But hey! With age comes wisdom. And we just have to figure out how to get around those “limitations”. Like what you just taught me this morning. Thanks man!

I'm a little older than you. I'll be 64 next month. I never stopped. Yes I wake up with aches and pains, 5 minutes on the bike and that all goes away. Nothing like wind therapy.

[Texas Pete]

Age just brings you more to new discoveries. Yesterday I put the bike kickstand towards the curb to give me height advtange and went back to inspect the garage for anything I might have left that I needed to take with me, another age related discovery. Went to the bike and had the easiest mounting ever then when my right leg hit the ground and took the weight a muscle the size of my thumb I never knew I had in the side of my leg up near the hip pulled itself. Oh that was fun


But as you have experienced in the past these bikes have to be tall because of the ground they go over and the need for much larger suspension travel distances to absorb everything on the ground they were designed to go over. The good news is once you put some weight on them their greater suspension travel brings them down a decent amount given your particular weight.


My bike for example is fully adjustable so you can do some inches of adjustment of sag on the rear shock but if you need to make greater distance changes then its easier to get a different tensioned spring swapped out on the rear shock to get your on bike sag down into that correct zone for the suspension.


As Jerry says its all in learning the mounting technique, I was playing with a new one above and got my reward for it

[Thumper]

I am going to do this before the end of Winter (lots of time ):

https://www.chinariders.net/showthre...ighlight=lower

The excess length on the arms just aims down with nothing in the way,
probably not even poking farther than the linkage. Clearly this is possible (see the KTM replacement shock-there are TWO options for height). There is lots of excess length on the Templar shock. I am not sure how much distance at the shock mount position on the swingarm is needed for a 1, 2, 3" lowering. It is just math !

The key will be to drill holes exactly the same diameter, and parallel. So I will try using a drill press with a block of wood on it to lay the shock sideways, and go for it. What the heck. Live dangerously

[dugan1]

Originally Posted by Hap

I just got a Templar X. And it is a pretty big bike. I’m 5’11” and comfortable once seated. But I’m not flat footed on either side. In your regard to age. I’m 56, and one thing I’ve noticed since getting back in to dirt bikes. It used to be a lot easier to throw my leg over the seat on these taller bikes. (:
With that said, I really like the Templar X. It’s a well made bike with many quality and durability features found on much more expensive Japanese and European motorcycles. Welcome to the forum!

Ya, I'm 54, pretty sure I can still throw a leg over lol. Looks like it's a good bike and I'm more interested in the counterbalanced, larger engine than the hawk dlx. The efi sounds good on the dlx but like most people on here I'm ok with working on my toys.

Thanks again guys, good to see all the "old" guys still out there having fun!

[Hap]

Originally Posted by Thumper

I am going to do this before the end of Winter (lots of time ):

https://www.chinariders.net/showthre...ighlight=lower

The excess length on the arms just aims down with nothing in the way,
probably not even poking farther than the linkage. Clearly this is possible (see the KTM replacement shock-there are TWO options for height). There is lots of excess length on the Templar shock. I am not sure how much distance at the shock mount position on the swingarm is needed for a 1, 2, 3" lowering. It is just math !

The key will be to drill holes exactly the same diameter, and parallel. So I will try using a drill press with a block of wood on it to lay the shock sideways, and go for it. What the heck. Live dangerously

I’m definitely leaning towards this myself Thumper!

[Bob Kelly]

I have a TT250 and with the LOW seat the seat height is something like 31" which is still too tall for my short butt as I have a 30" inseam ( I can touch flat footed with a 28" seat height) I always am amazed at how many guys ride around on bikes that they cannot safely flat foot on.... this is very necessary for your safety and the bikes well being too
a young friend of mine in Bhutan is just learning to ride on a MT 15 and he has to
Tippie-toe the bike .... it's that tall for him ! but being a hard head he has been practicing in a parking lot at walking speeds or a tad more....
he reported to me that he dropped the bike last night because he killed the engine and
tried to put his foot down to catch himself and the bike but his foot went into a slight hole.... no contact with the ground and over he went....
For some stupid reason the bike manifacturers have been producing all bikes for people that need to be 7' to 8' tall..... yet the average height is much shorter than that
I'm only 5'9" with my boots on so I'm a short stocky individual but seat height is something I take very seriously.... I lower my bikes I have 4 bikes in the back yard
and I have lowered every one but the Triumph T120 as I can flat foot it the way it came.
all the rest I have had to lower.... and in most cases it's not that hard
just raise the front forks in the tripple trees (both the exact same amount) and then back off the pre-load on the rear shock..... and that is all it takes to be able to at least flat foot one foot.... on my new RX4 I had to make a new lower link because of the extreamily short stroke of the shock but I did get it lowered to where I can flat foot both feet....
Sure You don't have to lower your bike but I am telling you it is 9 times better if you do ! I fell over 3 times with the RX4 before lowering it ... because of it's weight and height off the ground and my dwindling striength ( I'm now 70 years old) but sense I have lowered it I haven't dropped it sense. that should tell you something !
seat height is everything when it comes to bike controlability putting your left foot down and doing a burn out really isn't possable if your seat is too high by the time you lean the bike over that far the tire is on it's side completely and it's not the same at all
at the most you want it at a 45 degree so you can pivot around your foot but that isn't easily done with a tall seat height....
..... Obviously.... your bikes are too tall guys, lower them for your own good and for less bumps and scratches on the bike ! if you have riding buddies here is a challenge for you... one of the group lowers his bike as low as he possably can say 2" and then let the other guys ride it and see what it feels like.... it's a night and day difference ! believe me !
.....
I lowered the TT250 about 2" and it helped alot, but I had to raise it back up or cut the side stand to match and my Kid didn't want the side stand cut on his new bike so I raised it back up a bit so it would stand on the side stand it's too tall for me now
but I can at least touch well with the balls of my feet on both sides but I can't get the heals down at all....(he can but I can't! LOL)
on the RX4 I took out 1.5" of side stand to make it lean on the side stand that is how much it is lowered.
a low seat height is far better than a high seat height ANYWHERE even hopping over logs....
just my opinion, you do what you want, but it is not hard to lower one of these 250's
.....
Bob.....

[Jagguy]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Hap, when you reach our age you learn to mount these tall bikes like a horse. With kick stand down, place your left foot on peg then throw the right leg over. Dismount the same way with the kick stand down. The KPX is a tall bike to.

I wanted to say thank you for this tidbit of information!
I'm new here and just bought a CSC TT250 and was surprised in how tall it is.
I've been riding 50 years, I'm 68, and I've had all types of bikes from Enduro's like Yamaha DT250's and Honda Elsinore's to HD's. I've been without a bike for a couple years thinking I didn't need to ride anymore. But the bug hit again. (It's happened many times before LOL). The TT250 seemed too good for the price so I had to try one out.
I like it a lot, and I can stand flatfooted but mounting the bike has been somewhat un-graceful!
But I read this about mounting it like a horse, and it's like DUH, why didn't I think of that.

I'm going to enjoy the forum and the bike.
Greg in So Ca.

[culcune]

Originally Posted by dugan1

Hi, I'm looking at the hawk 250 dlx and the templar x 250 seat height. They both seem similar, hawk 36" and templar 36.2" and I am wondering how well a 5'8", 230lb guy will be able to touch on either bike? Any experiences you can share with me would be greatly appreciated thanks! Used to ride an old yz400 as my tallest bike and it was doable back in the day but I'm a lot older now lol.

I have ridden a Hawk 250 (non-DLX; not sure how similar they are to each other) at 5' 7". Quite tall, but wore boots. Tip-toe at red lights. Footwear is key for us shorter guys.

[buzz]

Just get a lower bike, mine is to high for me. TBR7 have dropped it a couple of times because it to high for me. Have to watch out where I stop or stall out. Nothing I can do about it, just to short 5 ft 6 inches.

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by Hap

I’m definitely leaning towards this myself Thumper!

I should have the 10mm drill bits (2 for ~$11) tonight. I will get this done by tomorrow night. I will have my answer as to the effect of creating a new shorter effective shock length. That articulating triangle probably won't tolerate too much of a change before it screws up the progressive shock compression action. I hope this works!

[Hap]

Originally Posted by Thumper

I should have the 10mm drill bits (2 for ~$11) tonight. I will get this done by tomorrow night. I will have my answer as to the effect of creating a new shorter effective shock length. That articulating triangle probably won't tolerate too much of a change before it screws up the progressive shock compression action. I hope this works!

Can’t wait to see your results! Thanks!