Dirt bike manufacturers want to make life easy for themselves. And so despite the incredible variety
of types and shapes of humans, they will generally assume you are 178cm and 80kg. Five foot 10, 80kg.
Or if you belong to backward country stuck in the imperial past, that's five foot 10 and 176. Geez,
get with the program you colonial types. And of course, the manufacturers are automatically
assuming you are a guy... god forbid a woman should ride a motorbike. If you are chasing
specific tips on bike setup and riding style for short and tall riders, we've done it. Just use the
links at the end of the vid. In the meantime, let's meet Rob, a bloke I met while in Canada.
Based in Ontario he's a Beta dealer, mechanic and experienced suspension tuner who knows all about
air dabbing and tip overs, but on the positive side his power to weight ratio is through the
roof. Rob has done all the usual mods... custom lowering, shorter kickstand, softer springs, cut
down seat, raised footpegs, low bend bars set to the rear. And of course he adapts his riding style
to suit, we cover riding tips for pint-sized rider in the link at the end of the vid. I have ridden
with plenty of short guys, and we tall freaks of nature don't really understand how tough it can be
in rough terrain, committing yourself and knowing you probably won't get a leg down to save the bike
when it goes pear shaped. Speaking of tall freaks of nature, this is Dallas my evil twin brother and
editor of a dirt bike magazine so bad it makes my videos look quite good. He's a former professional
basket ball player, if only he had some talent on a dirt bike lol. He says it's great being able
to flat foot in any sort of terrain, but he's constantly in danger of decapitating himself on
tree branches, and trying to fold himself into the tiny cockpit of your typical dirt bike. So
he's got those cool Fastway footpegs that drop down and back. High bend bars, Rox risers, firmer
suspension and a tall hard seat. It ain't perfect, but it's an improvement and on the plus side no
one will ever want to ride his bike. I'm a tall freak and could barely touch the ground on his
modified FE450. All of this raises an interesting question... when so many of us don't fit the norm,
are the manufacturers missing out on increased sales here? A lot of short riders got very excited
about KTM Freeride when it came out. Some loved it, but many were disappointed that it was too
much like a trials bike. Then the Beta Xtrainer came out and has met with rave reviews from most,
although the suspension needs beefing up for serious enduro riding. Would there be a market
for a 3/4 size enduro bike that really kicked arse? Who knows? And for us tall freaks, what
if there was an enduro model that had a longer wheelbase, taller seat and larger cockpit to fold
our gangly limbs into? It would be so good to feel we were part of the bike, and not just perched on
top of a toy. Currently the closest thing to this is the kit from 2 Tall Racing that raises
the bike and lengthens the subframe, but it's currently only for KTMs and Huskies. Dallas and
I think about changing teams sometimes just to access this kit, but the ideal would be a bike
manufactured for us long streaks of misery. Anyway, it's all just a first world problem.
We aren't having our family members killed in Syria. We aren't starving in a third world nation,
or being tortured for our political beliefs, although no doubt some of us should be. Check out
the cool article about Rob and Dallas if you are literate and know how a magazine works. And now
I'll leave you with our extremely dodgy bike setup and riding tips for short arses and tall freaks