Jen,

The answer really comes down to the intended use for the bike. If this is going to be primarily a street ridden motorcycle then by all means, have it lowered so that you can be comfortable on the bike.

If you are going to track the bike then you will want to at the very least leave the ride height alone (these bikes actually like to be tall to get the most out of the handling so most of the track riders actually raise the bike a fair bit).

The impact to handling by dropping the bike .5-1" will be minimal for street use to the point where you likely wont even notice it. Just be sure to drop it equally in the front and back!

Hope this helps. Welcome to the site and good luck with your new bike.

 

Thanks! The FZ-09 is a perfect height. I bought an r3 two years ago, and at 30.8 inches, my knees are bent, so I'm not looking to lower the zx6r more than an inch.

I'll have to ride it and see if I'm okay with the height. I called the local dealer and they mentioned only dropping the rest, which didn't sound right.

 

Hi Jen,

Do you ride with boot with a thicker sole and how tall are you? My girlfriend rides a 2011 zx6r non- lowered. The weight of a super naked and a sportbike is very different. Even tho you might not be able to flat foot the bike but the weight of the zx6r should be lighter and help you with confident on tippy toeing your bike. I would recommend in shaving down the seat professionally 1st than lowering your bike. I'll also as my girlfriend yo chime in as well.




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I'm 5'4" to 5'5", every time I get measured, they tell me something different. I'm okay at 32.2 inches. The FZ-09 is actually a little more than ten pounds lighter than the zx6r.

I ride in full race gear, with race boots. I have TCX RS boots (which are awesome, by the way).

Thanks for your advice. I've never lowered a bike before and have heard it messes up the bike, but I've also never had a bike I couldn't flat foot

 

If you can comfortably get the balls of both feet on the ground, I would not lower the bike to assure being flat footed. The only realistic reason to need both feet flat on the ground is to be able to push the bike backwards...... if you are in a situation that requires that sort of motion, it is far safer to dismount and push it back the right way. Then, you are sure of being flat footed.

I'll second the idea of shaving the seat to allow your legs a more direct path to the ground.... shaving the 'nose' of the seat so it presents a more narrow profile would let you have a straighter 'leg' to the ground. Pretty much any time I am trying to make contact with the ground I am all the way forward, on the narrowest portion as it is.

Another option which I haven't seen anyone explore, is to change the location the tail section mounts. The whole seat/tail section system mounts to the main chassis on 4 bolts. If someone were to fab up some extensions for the mounting tabs of the tail section, I'd think you could lower the entire thing on the back of the chassis quite readily. It may take some finagling of the battery location to accomplish much more than an inch, but I do believe there is quite a lot of real estate between the wheel and the tail......

 

Okay. So I got the bike. It's actually not as bad as I thought. My feet are almost flat, so I'm hoping it will be fine. I'll have to ride it to see for sure. Thanks for the advice!

 

Glad you found it to be ok and congrats on the new bike! pics!

I have a 30" inseam and I raised mine a good bit. I am sure you will be fine =)

 

Thanks. Apparently, my race boots are flat according to my husband. I felt like most of my foot was touching.

I took the bike out for the first time. Whoa learning curve!! I felt like a new rider all over again.

 

Sweet you finally got to ride it!

I can get the balls of both feet down when I'm wearing shoes. I can't put both feet down solidly when I'm wearing race boots. I learned balance on a different bike, and had practice on my ZX6R before I had the boots, and now when I come to a stop I just pick one side or the other to lean on (usually to the left).

I can barely tiptoe on both sides, but it's not stable, so I pick one or the other, or switch in between if I need to click it into Neutral.

 

On my 1198, I couldn't flat-foot the bike and then I raised it by like 15 mm too, which put me on my tip-toes. It was a race bike though so I didn't care. Never bothered me and didn't have any incidents.

 

I had the same bike as you, '12 zx6r. I'm 5'0", AND have short legs (26-27" inseam)
I dropped the bike 3 inches and always wore 2.5" platform sneakers, just to be able to touch the ground on the balls of my feet. You get used to anything! Don't worry about it.

The bike still handled great, but I needed to tune the suspension a lot... dropping a bike that much messes w the suspension geometry, so I'd suggest getting used to not fully touching the ground, rather than dropping the bike.

 

Seat width has as much to do with it all as seat height.