I think the only thing you can do for your bike is raise the bars a little bit – try googling bar raisers or try this link. Some are adjustable so you can raise and lower it…

However, a part of your discomfort has to do with sporty bikes in general (the other part is that your bike is on the small side)… In a low sportbike position there’s nothing to support your torso. It might look like racers are resting on the tank, but they’re not…(at least not the ones you see on tv).

What you need to do is move back in the seat and get your head closer to bar-level that your center of gravity is right over the foot pegs. It’s like sitting in a crouched/squat position on the floor. The further you lean forward with your arms, the more you have to move your butt back to stay in balance…

One other mod you could do to make this easier is to get tank pads – stomp grips, coarse adhesives you stick on the tank so that your legs get a better grip. They make it easier to control your body position and not get off balance.

Hope that helps!

Leo

Really great tips but i still have a problem. I have a buell XB ss. These bikes are fairly small and i am an alsmot 6′3 guy. Don’t want a bigger bike i love mine. However, my legs don’t have much problem, my torso on the other hand is long. So when i got into the ridding postion for a while my lower back hurt because even bending to get my elbows at the right postition, my torso has no support.
Is there any adjustment on the bike i can do? Like a lower seat or lower bars? Maybe a higher tank?

Thanks

Anyway, I was surprised to hear the forearms should be parallel with the ground– i tried to recall if anybody had ever told me this, and came up blank.

Thanks for sharing that information, the little details really matter for us newbies : )

If it’s the *riding* position that’s cramped (and not the sitting at a stop position), then raising the overall height of the bike wouldn’t help. The problem is probably the distance between the seat and the foot pegs. This is a problem that taller riders have with sportbikes too – and unfortunately there’s not a whole lot that can be done… But one thing you can do is get a custom seat with more padding. This would raise the seat height and give you a little extra space for your legs. Also adjustable foot pegs – won’t be able to give you more space, but by changing the location of the pegs, it could make for a more manageable ride…

The best option, however, is to find a roomier bike if you can… the pricey option being a BMW GS, but also any touring bike will have more relaxed ergonomics.

But if you have to live with the GS500 for a while, better body position can help too.. Just think of Michael Jordan riding an even more cramped sportbike…we have the video somewhere on the site.

Good luck!