honest opinions: lowering a CB1100

[the Ferret]

Once you lower the bike, the side stand will be prohibitively long and the centerstand will be useless because of what LR said.

and then there are the issues of the front fender hitting the horns or triple tree on a severe bump or hard braking, and the pegs digging in on a decreasing radius turn

Uunfortunately, I know where your wife is coming from, a lot of bike I try and test ride my feet just swing in the air. I have stood beside them, kicked them in gear and let out the clutch while stepping on the near side peg and swinging my leg over, and coming to a halt and jumping off and holding it up. Mostly on Adventure style bikes, which is why I don't own one of those.

I recently lowered my FJR 1/2" in rear with adjustable lowering links and sliding the tubes up 3/8" in the trees in front (as far as I could go). I'm ok with it now, but one of these days I may have another 1/2" taken out of the seat, but I really don't want to mess up the rider triangle. Raise the pegs or lower the seat and the knee and hip bend becomes more acute.(tighter bend)

Funny thing is I fit fineon the CB and my wife and I measured the two bikes the other day. Seat height on the CB was 30 7/8 ". Seat height on the FJR was 30 3/8". The FJR was actually 1/2" lower in seat height than the CB. I was shocked. But it is also 1 1/2" wider at the front of the seat, which is apparently what makes it feel so tall.

[Houtman_imp]

In the Middle Ages they used to put people on a rack to make them taller , I think that this is no longer legal.....

[GoldOxide_imp]

I have seen on a few occasions "short" women (i.e. not tall women) having much difficultly lifting/maintaining an inline-4 upright in critical situations. We all know the CB1100 is top heavy, and that is the primary reason.

A critical situation might be something like a short stop with front fork recoil. That is usually enough to go down and potentially break a leg or mush an ankle.

Anyway, something to seriously consider even if the bike can be lowered.

In the Middle Ages they used to put people on a rack to make them taller , I think that this is no longer legal.....

lol - I swear you and popgun are siblings.

[misterprofessionality]

perhaps that's why she has such an easy time with a Scout. it's MUCH lower on the center of gravity, and basically feels weightless a lot of the time.

the fender hitting the tree/horns was also a big concern of mine, and was one of the reasons i wanted to make this thread. i don't know how to find out if the fender will hit at a 1.25" of decreased height. the pegs i had already compensated for in the original post.

as for her leg-bend angle, i'm not worried. with short legs like hers, she can go up real tight without a problem. i've seen her sit on a grom and tuck her legs right up, and it's not even remotely uncomfortable for her. honestly....a grom looks like the right size bike for her. if only they could put a 500+ CC engine in that bad larry.

[Lord Popgun]

Mr. P,

Put a tie-wrap around one of the fork tubes at the bottom by the seal. Go for a ride. Hit some bumps, do some hard braking, etc. when you get home, you can see how far up the tie wrapped moved.

[pekingduck]

I'm just curious what bike she is riding now.

[misterprofessionality]

she's currently riding her starter/beater bike, a Suzuki S40. ultra lightweight, ultra flickable, low powered, really low seat, and DIRT cheap, so it doesn't matter if she crashes. she's probably going to stay on that at the very least until next summer-ish.

[pekingduck]

That would be quite a jump up in weight (200 pounds more) and center of gravity. Might I suggest something in between, like a Triumph Street Twin?

[misterprofessionality]

Actually, you're not far off the mark. my strongest reccomendation to her is a Triump Bonneville T120, because some of the pre- 2015 models came stock with 29.1 seat heights. swap the seat and you could have a 28" seat height no problem, without messing with the suspension.

but i will say that the suzuki is in no way heavy for her. that's why we got it. i wanted her to have something that was so light as to be nowhere near her threshold. as i had mentioned above, i wouldn't believe she'd be ok with the CB11, but for the fact that i've seen her handle bikes of equal weight without instability. none of those bikes were topheavy though.

[the Ferret]

The Bonnie America like Empty Sea's wife Cheryl and Stichill just got already has a 28" seat height