heh heh...yeah

The BMW F650 has the possibility of mounting a lowring kit.

sorry, when I said I'd nixed many fine bikes, I meant i'd passed them over because they were too tall for me. I haven't dropped anything because of height *yet.*

I don't know which picture you're talking about but I suspect you are talking about my DRZ and my old DR350.


Generally, the blue dirtbike in the newer photos is the DRZ400S. It is my all-time favorite motorcycle. It does a lot of things pretty well. It's not a race bike, it's not a touring bike, it's not a motorcross bike, but it could fake it at doing any of those things in the right hands. I've ridden it to Nevada and back twice. Many people will tell you it doesn't do the freeway, but I obviously don't agree. It's not great at freeway riding, but actually, it's probably saved me a lot of money in speeding tickets for that reason. I LOVE my DRZ.
The DRZ400S I have isn '03, and I had it lowered, and changed the seat. There are many options but what I did was I took it to Aftershocks, and Phil did magical things that lowered the seat about 2 3/4", also making my suspension feel AWESOME. I also bought the gel seat from Suzuki, which is more comfortable and 1" lower.


Farther back, the white dirtbike is the DR350, it was was a '93, kickstart only. It was stock at a very manageable low-ish seat height. No problems with the height on that one at all. It is also a great bike, but the particular machine I bought had major starting issues. I got rid of it for that reason only. Everyone else tells me they never had those problems with their DR350s. I really enjoyed riding that bike. It is lower than the 400 out of the factory, so you wouldn't have to do anything to it.

These dualsport machines are tall, but narrow, and generally light enough that you can balance them more easily.

BMW dualsports are a completely different class. they are generally much bigger, much heavier. They will probably perform better on the freeway, but worse in the dirt. Generally. I keep threatening to get a BMW, but feel dwarfed when I climb onto one.

Dualsport bikes are awesome for bombing around the city, since they eat up the potholes and toss into corners easily. They are less fun on the freeway than other bikes, generally. Unpaved roads, well, you can see my photos for that.

Money: A new DRZ is probably around $6000? I can't remember. And then you'll have to insure it and all that, so budget it in.
I think you can get a used DRZ on Craigslist for $3000 or so?
Still, it's a lot more than a massage, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

another option, if you're really short, is to get a bike that's been supermotard-ed. Smaller wheels mean the seat height comes down more. Actually, Suzuki is selling the DRZ this way now as well.


In closing, a proper dirtbike shouldn't even have a shiny side, so this is all off topic.