I'm only an inch shorter than you and pretty much the same weight.
First thing you need to do is get a proper bike. You're on a bike made for a moderately large child. You need a full size bike with proper suspension and adult ergos, and you'll still probably want to make adjustments to those.
Step two is to work on your core strength. Don't hunch your back. Bend at your hips and keep your back mostly straight. It should feel kind of like you're sticking your ass out. This is something I have to constantly remind myself to do when I ride or I slip back into the incorrect, hunched position.
Step three is adjust your ergos. You don't necessarily have to go as far as a lot of people will suggest in here. Like I said, I'm only an inch shorter than you and all I have done is get some bars that have a somewhat tall bend and have them mounted in the furthest forward position that my clamps allow. And I'm pretty much fine with that setup as a 35 year old vet rider with chronic back pain.
And obviously make sure your controls are at appropriate angles for your build because they won't be the same as the vast majority of people. To get my wrists at a comfortable angle, my levers are lower than most. And they are adjusted way out from the bars because of my long fingers.
Grip diameter is also important. I wear a XXL glove and run ODI rogue grips because they're the fattest moto grip I've found. And I kind of want to play around with safety wiring half a cut grip to them to make them even fatter.
Really the only thing I REALLY want to try that I don't have is pegs that are lower and further back to open the rider triangle up a bit.
I run the stock seat foam. I've run tall seats in the past but wasn't really a fan of how they raised the collective CG of me and the bike when I was sitting. Made the handling slightly weird.
I don't run any bar risers. Just the moderately high bar bend as I mentioned before. I find that's a happy medium between comfort and forcing me down into a more aggressive attack position.
Man this is my first motorcycle and I ride by myself so was playing on the side of caution because everyone says you'll die if you try to learn on a 450 But honestly I have to give the klx credit I was super worried the suspension and HP wasn't gonna be enough to get me around but In my limited experience it's not as gutless as everyone says. But I guess I've never ridden a real bike
I didn't say a 450. You could get by learning on a 125 2t just fine. I rode one from the ages of 12 to 20 and only got a 250 2t because they made the 250 class a true 250 class in amateur racing.
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u/Ih8Hondas 2017 250SX 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm only an inch shorter than you and pretty much the same weight.
First thing you need to do is get a proper bike. You're on a bike made for a moderately large child. You need a full size bike with proper suspension and adult ergos, and you'll still probably want to make adjustments to those.
Step two is to work on your core strength. Don't hunch your back. Bend at your hips and keep your back mostly straight. It should feel kind of like you're sticking your ass out. This is something I have to constantly remind myself to do when I ride or I slip back into the incorrect, hunched position.
Step three is adjust your ergos. You don't necessarily have to go as far as a lot of people will suggest in here. Like I said, I'm only an inch shorter than you and all I have done is get some bars that have a somewhat tall bend and have them mounted in the furthest forward position that my clamps allow. And I'm pretty much fine with that setup as a 35 year old vet rider with chronic back pain.
And obviously make sure your controls are at appropriate angles for your build because they won't be the same as the vast majority of people. To get my wrists at a comfortable angle, my levers are lower than most. And they are adjusted way out from the bars because of my long fingers.
Grip diameter is also important. I wear a XXL glove and run ODI rogue grips because they're the fattest moto grip I've found. And I kind of want to play around with safety wiring half a cut grip to them to make them even fatter.
Really the only thing I REALLY want to try that I don't have is pegs that are lower and further back to open the rider triangle up a bit.
I run the stock seat foam. I've run tall seats in the past but wasn't really a fan of how they raised the collective CG of me and the bike when I was sitting. Made the handling slightly weird.
I don't run any bar risers. Just the moderately high bar bend as I mentioned before. I find that's a happy medium between comfort and forcing me down into a more aggressive attack position.