Good Bikes For Short People

I had a heck of a time figuring out what bike to get. I needed to find a bike that I could actually touch the ground on, and that would work for riding sand dunes, trails, and on the track. I searched online for suggestions for bikes for short people, but the only suggested "short person" bikes I could find were the Honda XR200, the Honda XR/CRF100F, or the Yamaha TTR125L. All are great bikes, but the XR200 was still too tall and too heavy for me, and the others wouldn't have been much fun on the sand dunes. However, if you don't have that immediate "need for speed", I think one of these bikes, or even a Honda XR/CRF 70, 80 or 100 would be a great bike to learn and gain confidece on, particularly if you are riding trails. The bikes are stable and you'll be able to dab. Perhaps even better, you can buy an older one, learn to ride on it, and, if you decide you either don't want to continue riding, or you want a different bike, you'll be able to sell it for most or all of what you bought it for.

However, since we do a lot of our riding on the sand dunes, my husband and I finally decided we wanted to find a smaller two stroke. We first looked at a KX110. The step-over height was about right, but the distance between the pegs and the seat is so short that I felt unstable when standing up (the seat hit at about the top of my calves). Eventually, we decided upon a 2003 CR85R Expert. The "Expert" designation merely means that it is the big wheel version (19" front and 16" rear). The CR85 is an amazing machine, weighing in at only around 150 lbs and packing plenty of horsepower. I had to learn throttle control early on, because you can definitely bring the front wheel up easily. As a matter of fact, the first time we had the bike out, my brother-in-law, who is actually a talented rider, managed to wheely straight off the back of it within 5 minutes! After that first trip, my husband decided to put a flywheel weight on it to tame the beast a bit. Even with the weight, you still had to apply a delicate touch because the front wheel would still come right up on you, but it wasn't so violent. As you might have already inferred, the CR85 is not a good bike if you are going to be scared easily (or maybe even scared at all). I've read several ads for them along the lines of, "Bought this bike for my wife. Scared her and she won't ride it again." But, if you like a constant shot of adrenaline, this is the bike for you. Great power and, perhaps even more importantly, great suspension and thus great handling. The one downside of this bike is that its quick power delivery makes it an unsuitable bike for a novice on twisty trails through the woods.

So, we started looking for a good woods bike. I really wanted a full size bike. We ultimately found a bike that few here in the US have heard of - the GasGas Pampera 280. GasGas is a Spanish brand that is best known for their trials bikes. There are several things that stand out about this bike. First, from the standpoint of this blog, is the low seat height. If I remember correctly, the 2004 and 2005 models had a seat height of only 30". With suspension compression, I could easily touch with my 29" inseam legs. Another great feature of this bike is the motor. The 280cc 2-stroke is from GasGas' trials bikes. Thus, it is a torque monster. It revs slowly, is very hard to stall, and provides great tractable power when you are inching around obstacles. Combined with amazing stability and this bike is possibly the ultimate trail bike for the shorter statured person. The bike is so wonderfully stable, when doing some trail riding in wet conditions on a trip down south, I think I actually had a easier time of it than my husband, who was (and still is) a far better rider than I am. The Pampera also features a wonderful Hebo hydraulic clutch, which provides for an incredibly soft clutch pull. Great for people with wussy hands like. It's so smooth and soft that people would pull it and think that it was broken. They were, of course, wrong. :) Finally, the Pampera 280 weighs in at a very light 200 lbs. I'm pretty sure that this is far lighter than any full size Japanese trail bike. That's important when picking the bike up after a fall. If you ride primarily trails, I'd highly recommend this bike. And, if you live in the Denver area, I'd highly recommend talking to Martha or Flint at Pro Motosports. They are an authorized GasGas dealer and provide wonderful customer service.

Well, that's the rundown on my first bikes and the bikes with shorter seat heights that I am familiar with. I hope someone out there finds some useful information here. Feel free to leave me a comment asking questions.