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Ren's Biking Blog
The Things I Do For The GF
Blog Date - 25 July 2013
The gf is only tiny. If you read the recent Guest Blog from the gf you'll know she's just purchased a bike but she'll have to wait a week or two whilst everything is sorted out. In the meantime we want her to make a start in learning to ride. The CBT will be a whole lot easier if she's mastered getting going, stopping, gears and brakes. She can start to focus on dodging cars and errant pedestrians rather than trying to find the gears.
Practice makes perfect but without a bike to practice on practice is impossible. I have a 125, a CBF 125. Trouble is it's about 2 inches too tall for Little Miss Shortarse. Her little legs flail helplessly in the air if she sits on it and I hold it up. I do also own a CLR 125 City Fly but that's even taller so no chance there then.
I looked long and hard at the CBF. There's plenty of space between the rear wheel and the underside, I need shorter shocks to lower the bike. I can't push the forks through the stanchions because the top yoke is a plate rather than a clamp. I can't explain, you'd need to see one to understand. But if can take a couple of inches of the shock we might just be rolling...
I'm sure out there are some shocks that are about 2 inches shorter than the original CBF 125 shocks. But they're going to be hard work to find and costly to buy. In the mean time I decide for the purposes of learning suspension at the rear is a luxury the gf can live without. She won't be on the road, just car parks until she's done her CBT in which case she'll have her own bike.
So I found a bit of pipe in my shed. I cut it. I drilled it. I flattened the ends a little. And here we have it. The new LOW RIDER HERITAGE HARDTAIL CBF 125.
CBF 125 Hard Tail Low Rider. You know it makes sense.
So far the gf has achieved starting, stopping and getting around a corner around my back streets. Next time we'll find a big car park and get onto gears...
Some would say some paint might be in order. I'll leave that to the "finishing" team.
Reader's Comments
Sharon said :-
Thank you for making your bike smaller for me. Also for running along side the bike with me and you patience. The things you do are appreciated lots and lots
:-) xxx
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Steve latchford said :-
Bloody marvellous made my day that! Oh and well done Sharon I know you will have the time of your life just as I did and still am doing.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
carrie said :-
If it works safely - go for it and good luck!
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
James Tyrrel said :-
Haha!! I am only a shorty to that is how I found this page. I can get on a cbf but I am on tip toe.
Would it be legal to ride the motorcycle like this?
07/07/2016 14:11:37 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi James. Just bolting a couple of random pieces of steel in place of the shocks like I did would most certainly NOT be advisable! The metal I used was not really up to the task of road riding.
Strictly speaking you are not required to have suspension at the rear end, there are many "hardtail" motorcycles out there. However even if you were to use good strong steel in place of the shocks my concern would be that the bolts that the shocks fix onto would not be strong enough to cope. They are designed to take a gentle force because the shocks take the shock out of the road bumps. Without the suspension the bolts would experience a lot of harsh forces.
Don't be messing with the setup of the bike. These things aren't just thrown together casually, there's a lot of highly skilled people who's job it is to make motorcycles as safe as possible.
08/07/2016 17:12:27 UTC
Graham TK said :-
My god! What on earth was it like to ride?
21/03/2017 07:20:12 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
In terms of rideability it was fine. We only rode it like this on a smooth car park, I wouldn't fancy it on a pot-holed road.
21/03/2017 14:38:05 UTC
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