Maybe my 08 450 is too big & I have to get a "girls" bike

freind of mine is 5'2" he can't touch the ground on his drz400 so he doesn't try to, hes very good at slow stuff, pulls in the clutch puts it in gear before mounting then he kind of jumps on lets out the clutch and goes all in one motion then stays on till the end of the ride ... mostly.

my lil brother learn't to ride a yz80 as his first bike in the same way as a lil kid. he turned out to be a great trials rider.

glad you didn't like the lil kx, there is one in my shed im supposed to fix, the lil 54mm piston makes me laugh

What helped me w/tipping over is carrying a hair more speed through obstacles. For practice I pretend my 550 is a trials bike and attempt to ride sections and NOT take my feet off the pegs. I know, I have a "cheater" clutch, but I like stock gearing. :rock:

why don't you just lower the bike a bit colleen?
pretty easy to weld the top shocky mount on a bit higher.
i went 10mm higher,which gave me about 40mm at the overall length of swingarm.
of course you have to take the front down the same amount to get the bike to sit right again,but thats not hard.
at least i still have the same sag set up as i have always had, & the wheelbase is still 1500mm.
i lowered it for a different reasons than you, as my bike is a bit of a "lab experiement".
i was pondering in thought after 1 ride looking at my mates wr450,thinking why my berg had so much ground clearance compared to the wr? i think the official specs are 380mm for the berg & 320mm for the wr(is that static? i don't know?).
my reasoning for lowering was,we have a lighter bike with a higher c.o.g , so one counteracts the other,weighting the pegs flicking it through the bush,they feel much the same.
anyway ,i think the ground clearance now (ground to underside of frame "static") is 320-330mm.
seat height was reduced by the same amount,i think it was between 900-920mm & of course the top of seat to foot peg is still the same ,so it is no squashier than before.i could perhaps put more padding in the seat to strech out a bit more(cause i'm 6ft tall) but it hasn't really bothered me,cause i'm mostly a standing up rider & i got use to it the way it is.
lowering it has not had a detrimental effect on handling or suspension action.in fact,like i was saying about weighting the pegs through the bush dodging rocks etc has made it definitely more flickable & easier to pick it up if you spilled it.everything does help a bit ,that is, if you are on the borderline of downsizing.
cheers ..weed..

LadyBerg said:

I have found my GIRLY BIKE and it's a HUSABERG :bow: :bow: :bow:

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SSSHHHHHHH dont say this too loud, there are some upset people in the world now that the Bergs are considered main stream, and they will use any type of comment as slander against us.

On a good note, its great to hear that you are happy with your bike.

My 08 is a different matter, but i am giving the shop a chance before i comment publicly.

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Taffy said:

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

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What!! Taffy with nothing to say??? :lol: :lol:

Hey Ladyberg-Colleen. What a great subject, and you got answers from ENGLAND(Taffy) and Australia( Bushmechanic )
I will PM you next but first I have to put in my 2 cents on this subject. I have four daughters and three of them ran enduroes with me. Two became state champs(powderpuff class). One even won The JACKPINE in Michigan.(PP class) but she finished two days and 400 racing miles to win. Tough ladies. They had flower pattern seat covers and long pigtails and retired many would be racers when they passed them in the woods. Now for the encourgement!
We all fell/crashed sometime. Myself, only 4 to 6 times a race. However the winners went down about 25 times in 100 miles, mostly lowsides and controled ,but down , nonetheless.
ON the next subject---I see your sig line is very similiar to mine. I bought the BMW R1100S to ride with one of my girls(Harley sporster) and SIL(Yam1300). Then ,while researching maint info on the beemer , I found ADV Riders .
That rekindled my dirt leanings and I bought a very used 1997 Husaberg FE501E. I may have to buy a Suz 400 to keep up with my street legal friends here in Texas where there is no public domain land and we have to ride the gravel roads. Here is a link for a very fast JACKPINER, notice even he falls and gets stuck/stopped/falls down sometimes and the video is only 2 hours in 14 hours of race time.
http://midwestenduros.com/Videos/2010/2010JackPine.htm