| Author | Message | ||
     Towjam |
Are there any shorter Badweb riders (5'6" or under) riding a stock Uly? If so, what's your secret? (Emphasis on stock - I'm interested to see how feasible it is for someone my height to live with a Uly without having to swap out the suspension.) | ||
| L_je |
5'6", 130#, and not getting any taller. I probably put 1000 miles on it with the '06 stock seat, but switched to the '07 seat. I've never ridden 2-up, nor off-pavement with the '06 seat. Riding 2-up hasn't been a problem, and if you dial in the suspension properly, it will handle every bit as well, if not better, with a passenger. I once tried to keep my road/dirt ratio at 95/5, but with the onset of hotter weather, I've stayed off of the FS roads, so my ratio has now fallen to 98/2. Pilotting that 500# beast through blind turns on FS roads seems to put the fear of God in me, and I tend to get quite hot. It's not really the fear of washing out, but the fear of meeting up with an oncoming vehicle. If the bike were shorter, could I ride more aggressively on dirt? Yes. On FS roads, if I need to turn around, I'm getting off the bike and using the grab bars. I am not a parking lot hero. If I'm trying to do a min-radius turn, sometimes I'll have to put my inside foot down. This is tough [scary] when you already have your body weight to the outside of the turn...but, if I can do it, so can you. You will have to keep on the throttle, though! If you put your foot down, and roll off the throttle, that bike is going to get way too heavy, way too quickly! On the plus side...if you are shorter, you'll find that the stock Uly offers all the wind protection you'll ever need. Only twice has the bike hit the ground because I was too short: 1)in a parking lot, with the bike straddling a storm drain cover, so the ground was about 3" below where it normally would have been. 2) in a quarry, just after I crested a 30ft tall burm, only to find out that it was actually an earthen dam, and I fully locked the front and back tires to keep from going in the pond. If I were a little taller, I could have probably kept the bike upright as the front wheel washed out near 0 mph. Tips? 1) Use the engine to keep the bike upright, not your feet. 2) Do not press your knee against the header while picking your bike up from a right-side tip-over. | ||
| Growl |
I'm 5'10" so not exactly the same situation but I sure appreciate the low seat. Consider taking your riding boots to a shoe repair and put some really thick soles... | ||
| Adrian_8 |
Tall bikes on uneven ground..usually get an.. OH! Sh----t! My KTM 450 is the same...slightly taller, it just dosn't weight as much as the ULY...The ULY is no dirt bike and other than getting the lowest seat and perhaps taking massive doses of Human Growth Hormone and a pair of Kiss Boots, I think you gotta play the cards you are dealt. Enjoy the ULY..quite fun. | ||
| Old_mil |
5'8", 29 inch inseam...but I can honestly say if I was so much as half an inch shorter, the bike wouldn't work for me. I'm on an 07, an 06 is out of the question (unless it has an 07 seat). | ||
| Xb12lp |
I am 5'8" with a 30" inseam, I installed a 1" handle bar lift so I could raise the forks up 3/8". that and the low seat made a big difference. If you try to raise the forks, you have to lower the o-ring first. |
