F650GS Seat... How Loooooow Can You Go?

So I'm a vertically challenged rider, 5'6 with a 28" inseam (barefoot) and an utter newbie to boot. Now the normal theory for beginning riding would be to snag something to gain experience and confidence on, but that's not in the cards for me - the wife and I are expecting our first kid, and the hammer has come down. "I'm okay with you getting a bike, but no doing what you normally do. (Which is buy something, have it for a year or so, then decide I need the better version). So whatever you get, it's gotta be something that'll last you at least five years. Otherwise, no go."

Obviously ruled out the F800GS, way too much bike for a beginner, even without the height issue. So been eyeing F650s. Since this has to last me five years, I'm scraping together enough to go shopping for a decent twin starting next month, given that the overwhelming consensus seems to be twin > single. (Not that the single is a bad bike, just seems that the twin is superior). I'd really rather not lower it suspension-wise, so wondering what the best bet would be for me with a seat? Anyone in the same (short) boat that can chip in some experience or advice would be appreciated.

I have a 14 F700GS and lowered it with Touratech one inch lowering springs and love it. I have taken some out of the seat myself! The bike fits me very we'll. I have a 29" inseam on a good day. for the first time I can set on the bike and move it around at a stop. Stop lights, stop signs or stops on the gravel don't scare me anymore.

You're much taller than me ...And I ride a 2012 factory lowered F650GS Twin which has both lower suspension and lower seat. I can't flat foot the bike this lifetime and don't want the bike too low because of ground clearance and seat comfortability. but I think you should be OK with even a standard F650GS

Hahaha, well done! So can you flat foot it, or are you on the balls of your feet? And did you take out some of the standard seat?

MUCH taller?! I think that's the first time those words have ever been used to describe me!

Oooh, I dunno. Considering Rharrod there is a wee bit taller than me and had to lower his a bit, I think a straight F650 would be pushing it. Considering I'm a complete novice, I wanna get as much of my feetsies on the ground as I can, but would rather lower it as a last resort. (Down the road I have delusions of grandeur in taking this down to Baja)

I think I need to get myself down the BMW dealership to compare stuff, but they only have standards in stock. Standards, standards, standards. No love for us short folk! Feel like riding up to Marin and letting me check out your bike?

i just got a 2009 f650gs twin w/ standard seat. I'm 5'-7" w/28" inseam and have no major problems with it except when retrieving the kick-stand on slanted surfaces, especially when the high side of the road is on the kick-stand side. you can decrease the hydraulic dampening to lower the bike with your weight... hope that helps. cheers!!

yes, I cut some foam out of the standard seat. I need to take like a 1/2 inch more to be flat foot.

Wifey has a 27ish inseam, with seat cut down and Daytona M-star boots she is totally flat foot.

Here she is on the left in Peru's Canyon del Pato.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/world_wide_ride/14123468380" title="canyon del pato 83 by Sara &amp; Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2911/14123468380_487cdc66c2_o.jpg" width="640" height="413" alt="canyon del pato 83"></a>

You're... you're... suggesting I wear heels?!?!

*runs away behind sofa and peeks over in horror!*

Daytona M-Star boots (aka Ladystars in the lady line) are known to give riders about an inch or more of height. They are technically the same boot, but at around size 40 they switch names since guys wouldn't want to be in ladystar named boots. I actually think my wife has the M-star version too since hers are size 40. Either way, definitely worth looking into!

Daytona Ladystar GTX Boots: Worth The Money?

Deffo noted, and was tongue-in-cheek at the thought of wearing heels. So these likely add about 1.5-2" on the inseam overall? (1 inch "lift", and the rest the natural raise you'd get from boots?)

Aside from that though, what's the best (and I suppose) lowest seat option without arsing with the suspension? I know BMW makes a low seat, but hear plenty of horror stories about them being awful for a day in the saddle. I know Touratech makes a low one, but is it worth the $500+? Sargent makes a low one for the single, but not the twin (at least it's not on their site if they do). Renazco a good option?

By the way, youse guys are friggin' awesome, helping out an idiot like me. Lurve this site and promise you'll be well rewarded with shenanigan and stupidity filled RRs in a year or so.



(wait, that probably doesn't help...)

I am not vertically challenged but have BMW low seat as a spare and I actually find it better that the standard height stock seat. Go figure.

The Daytona boots give you the lift on the inside of the boot and are very stable. Plus they are amazing quality, over 100k rough kms on ours and the boots still function and look great.

Ahh BMW seats. First I will concede that the newer seats are much better but our bikes were nothing short of hell. We had Rich's custom seats do ours and they are now a place of paradise for the arse. My recommendation is to have the seat cut down and rebuilt properly. A custom builder can narrow the front of the seat so your legs have a straighter line to the ground and avoid the "bow out" which takes up a lot of inseam.

go to the dealer and check them out. try them all out. bought a 800GSA and put a low seat on it and it fits me perfectly.

The trick is,nobody needs to put both feet down flat,beginner or not.

Lowering a bike too much can lead to more problems then your fixing,handling suffers,dragging hard parts on corners,kickstand no longer works right.
And once youve ridden a month or so you'll see just a toe down on one side works fine.

I disagree. These are heavy bikes, the op has never owned a motorcycle and he lives in the Bay area, full of hills with lots of traffic.

Whether it is all mental or not, being able to flat foot the bike, adds to the riders confidence and the OP will never gain that under those conditions.

I have been riding for 46 years, class myself as an intermediate and own a F800gs. After shortening the seat, I can flat foot one foot. Every stop sign puts Adventure into owning an Adventure bike. They all seem to be at the crest of a hill or off camber road. My excuse is age and medical, but it applies to new riders too. Once it gets off center, I don't have the leg strength to keep it upright. Not an issue with lighter or lower bikes.

I have a 2010 F650GS with only the low seat and with my 28" inseam I can mostly flat foot. More than just the balls on my feet touch.

If you were in/near Chicago I'd let you give it a try out for size, unless you want to fly out here for a trial fit.

Haha, cheers for the offer Jon - appreciate that, but it's a bit of a haul. I'll counter that with a "Why don't you ride out here and let me try it? I'll even put you up for the night and buy you ONE beer of your choice!" (Seriously tho, thanks for the info!)

And yes, I do value the ability to flat foot, or at least as close to doing so as I can. As itsatdm pointed out, I'm extremely new to this, having really just gone through my BRC, and honestly would much rather just pick up a Rebel or some other little 250cc to putter around on for a few months to gain confidence, but as I mentioned am on a time crunch since when the baby arrives, that's that. That said, I really don't want to mess about with the suspension at all, which is why I'm looking for other options to be able to get my feet down on an F650GS. (The seat normally, although the notion of wearing boots with lifts is something I never considered!)

I found some data for you off a woman's motorcycle website. Not a slam, that is just where I found it.

F800gs regular seat height is 34.6", F700gs is 32.3", low seat 31.1, low suspension + seat 30.1".

I have a lot of riding experience. Every one of my 1/2 dozen drops have been coming to or stopping in some off camber/uphill situation. It is not riding it, but stopping it that causes me grief.

I had one thing in my favor, I could avoid the 4,500 person metropolis I live near. It still bit me in the ass, do you know how many 1 lane roads there are, where U turns become a necessity ?

How I fixed the F800 problem with my 29" inseam. Carved 3/4" out of the seat. Boot soles have 1+" at the heel. That allowed me to flat foot it, but the feet were so close together, that if it tipped, "timber"

Back to the drawing board. A 5mm shorter than stock rear shock(15mm at the seat). Upped the fork tubes in their clamps about 1/3 of an inch. Ordered a Seat Concept seat cover with softer than stock foam. Besides feeling good with my 180# on it, I can not only flat foot it, my feet are far enough from the center line that I don't worry about stop signs anymore. I have lost about 1" of ground clearance in the process, but wish I had done it 5 years ago.

You are buying a BMW get used to spending $$ on it.

Good to know the above, cheers. Yeah, by default a lot of the input I'm seeing is from female riders. No slam at all, just is what it is. And the spending of money is something I'm already wincing about. It's not just the bike and gear, it's the farkles that I'd consider reasonably necessary (for me, I would want engine guards ASAP since this will likely get dropped, and would rather spend the $250 on some metal than $1,000+ on new fairings, plus am assuming the seat.)

Am now looking around and finding info on seat shaving. I'm fairly handy with tools, so something to consider. (There's also an upholstery place near me that I could likely take the seat to and have them look at it, which should still be a lot cheaper than the $500+ for a Touratech).

Looking at your procedure on the F800, I'm wondering if carving out the seat (did you do that to the low seat, or the standard?) and decent height boots of an inch or so (as yours are) would be adequate?

Think end of the day, I just need to get my arse on an F650 with low seat, and go from there?