• A few people have been scammed on the site, Only use paypal to pay for items for sale by other members. If they will not use paypal, its likely a scam NEVER SEND E-TRANSFERS OF ANY KIND.

New female rider

HuskyMama

New Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2020
Messages
4
Reaction score
9
Points
3
Location
Palm Springs
Visit site
Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and new to riding as well. I just bought a 2020 NC750X DCT/ABS. I was previously riding a Yamaha R3 but just did not get comfortable enough with the clutch to safely ride it in California traffic. I’m hoping this post will help other women considering this bike- I’m somewhat tall, but thin, so I was worried about getting used to a 500 pound bike. But, I am very relieved I made the decision to buy this bike. I’m now enjoying the experience, it’s not difficult getting used to its physical size and weight, and since it’s automatic (control wise) I can focus on what’s going on around me instead of overthinking what each hand and foot are doing too. I am riding neighborhood roads and large parking lots for now until I’m a little more confident. Are there any other female riders in this forum? Any tips to help me get more comfortable in faster traffic? Thank you.
 
Welcome! There is a “girls” subforum, but it doesn’t see a lot of posts. https://www.nc700-forum.com/forums/nc700-girls.15/

I suspect there are female riders posting but they probably don’t always identify themselves as female, and really would have no reason to.

Good luck with your new 750! I’m confident you made a good choice.
 
... Are there any other female riders in this forum? Any tips to help me get more comfortable in faster traffic? Thank you.
My wife rides a 2016 NC700x. But she is not active on any forums.

Not sure how you bike fits you, but at 5'8" the bike was a bit too tall in stock form, we used a Soupy's Performance lowering kit and now she can flat foot her bike at stop signs. She too prefers the DCT (as do I).

YYRZUB-Qry-TUMy-Bj1-K8-A.jpg
 
My wife rides a 2016 NC700x. But she is not active on any forums.

Not sure how you bike fits you, but at 5'8" the bike was a bit too tall in stock form, we used a Soupy's Performance lowering kit and now she can flat foot her bike at stop signs. She too prefers the DCT (as do I).

YYRZUB-Qry-TUMy-Bj1-K8-A.jpg

Looks fun! Looking forward to traveling with it some day. I’ll check out that lowering kit, as I’m able to stabilize but only on my toes.
 
Welcome Huskymama!

A lot of motorcycles have seat heights exceeding the NC700X's 32.7" and if you get used to always needing to put both feet flat on the ground it will limit the bikes available to you and limit the places you are comfortable riding to. Lowering a bike's suspension often alters it's handling characteristics away from what the designers and engineers had in mind and brings issues with side stand and center stand use. I think that learning to three-point balance with one flat foot and 4 point balance with the balls of each foot is a better strategy to gain confidence and ability as we gain experience. Admittedly I'm biased toward learning because I'm 5'6" and the NC isn't the tallest bike I've owned. A great thing about the NC bikes is the low center of gravity that makes it feel lighter than it is. It's a wonderful bike in many ways.
 
Last edited:
My wife’s bike was lowered as far as it would go and it did ‘bottom out’ the suspension. She has since raised it up a bit because it was lowered so far that the bike was actually too short for her. Felt a lot like a HD Street 500, but without the heavy clutch lever.

What I will say is that she is far more confident on the NC now that it’s lowered a bit. Occasionally I ride her bike and I don’t notice any handling differences between her lowered 2016 NC and my unaltered 2018 NC for on street use... perhaps offroad or on a race track there is some difference? But the NC isn’t really an off-road or track bike. Certainly they can be adapted for many different uses but that might also alter handling somewhat.

Given that the real world handling isn’t an issue it seems that lowering the bike, within reasonable limits, is beneficial for some riders. After all, your car seat adjusts to your height, if altering your bike’s height doesn’t adversely affect handling why wouldn’t you adjust it to fit you?
 
Changing a car seat doesn’t affect the way the vehicle handles. It still responds to control inputs - steering, braking, and acceleration/braking inputs the same way. There are no surprises waiting to catch a driver out when reaching out into the corners of the vehicles' designed performance envelope which an emergency maneuver may call for.


It's not anything about track racing or off road. Changing suspension changes the dynamic response of the motorcycle to control inputs so changing suspension height is fundamentally different than a car's seat height adjustment. Lowering/raising a bike’s suspension unequally from front to rear changes the motorcycle’s steering geometry in ways that can be detrimental to handling. One may not notice it until an emergency maneuver is called for and then it’s too late to notice. A bike that is already bottoming out as you say, or is almost bottomed out, just going straight down the road or in gentle turns is riding the rear shock bump stop with virtually no travel left. This might be not a thing on a Harley that starts out with 2 or 3" usable suspension travel but the NC has 5.9" and a weak OEM shock. Bottoming the suspension in a corner or turn from a surprise bump or pothole upsets the arc of the line the rider has chosen which could result in running off the road or crossing into oncoming traffic. Ruin your day or worse.

On the other hand, raising or lowering a fork or shock can sharpen a bike's handling but shortening dog bones and links typically lower the rear much more than the forks can be slid up in the clamps to equalize ride height so the bike ends up steering slower than designed and giving up rear suspension travel.

Lowering within reasonable limits as you say, well people do it all the time and get away with it, most of the time. They still have to deal with side stand and center stand issues.

Safety wasn't my only point though. If a rider's thought paradigm is shifted to mastering a tall bike with simple techniques of adaptation rather than limiting one's self to low seat bikes it opens up riding confidence in other areas.

Perhaps another thread should be opened and leave this one to the purpose of welcoming a new rider.
 
Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and new to riding as well. I just bought a 2020 NC750X DCT/ABS. I was previously riding a Yamaha R3 but just did not get comfortable enough with the clutch to safely ride it in California traffic. I’m hoping this post will help other women considering this bike- I’m somewhat tall, but thin, so I was worried about getting used to a 500 pound bike. But, I am very relieved I made the decision to buy this bike. I’m now enjoying the experience, it’s not difficult getting used to its physical size and weight, and since it’s automatic (control wise) I can focus on what’s going on around me instead of overthinking what each hand and foot are doing too. I am riding neighborhood roads and large parking lots for now until I’m a little more confident. Are there any other female riders in this forum? Any tips to help me get more comfortable in faster traffic? Thank you.
Congrats on your choice. Having had many bikes over the years, the dct is a godsend and wish I would have discovered it years ago. I have a goldwing in the shed that has been used 4x this year - my 750dct is the go to bike.
 
Given that the real world handling isn’t an issue it seems that lowering the bike, within reasonable limits, is beneficial for some riders. After all, your car seat adjusts to your height, if altering your bike’s height doesn’t adversely affect handling why wouldn’t you adjust it to fit you?

Changing a car seat doesn’t affect the way the vehicle handles.

As I clearly stated, the lowered, within limits, doesn't seem to alter road handling but did increase confidence in my wife's ability to control the bike. Other's who have also compared my stock bike to her lowered bike commented similarly. I've actually met other forum members and had them compare my bike to my wife's bike.

Not trying to start any argument here. But as long as there is no real world adverse handling change to a modest lowering then lowering a bike is actually very similar to moving a car seat forward/back to make the car easier to control for the driver.
 
No doubt there is a threshold where handling characteristics become unruly when demanding conditions are brought into play. But one only need to look at various stock motorcycle chassis specs to realize that before that threshold there are a lot of permutations that are considered safe by the manufacturers for their intended use. I won't debate what is what, but a person feeling a bit more comfortable and safer probably helps make them – more comfortable and safer, as long as they stay within their limits. Where do we draw the line on this anyway? Handlebar bends and heights and widths, risers or none, and how much is permissible? Tire sizes beyond the stock ones? Slippery slopes here...

On the other hand, it does help to be able to adapt to a motorcycle's environment rather than adapt the environment to the "early rider". ...Perhaps the a little of each is the middle ground for many.

920x920.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Seat Concepts offers a "low" seat cover which lowers the seat slightly. I have one and like it much better than the stock. Also takes out the forward sloping. I've done some 500+ mile days on it and been relatively fine.

I thought about lowering mine for a time, but decided against it. I do have the shorter center and kickstand as well as the lowering links if you are interested.
 
Seat Concepts offers a "low" seat cover which lowers the seat slightly. I have one and like it much better than the stock. Also takes out the forward sloping. I've done some 500+ mile days on it and been relatively fine.

I thought about lowering mine for a time, but decided against it. I do have the shorter center and kickstand as well as the lowering links if you are interested.

Thanks for your input. I think I’m going to continue to try to get used to the height as-is, but it’s nice to know these options are available to me if it’s not working out. I’m going to check out Seat Concepts too.
 
Back
Top