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Kawasaki 636 Ergonomics


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After purchasing a Kawasaki Ninja 500 and putting about 8,000 miles on it since last August I decided to step up to the plate and get ready for Superbike School as soon as I can afford it. So I looked around and bought a second hand 2006 ZX-6R with a slip on Ackropovic. So far I've put over 1000 miles on the 636 since I bought it a month ago.

 

Wow, its a totally different bike than the 500. One thing for certain, the thing like to turn. But there is a small problem. I have really short arms and legs for a 5'8" guy. I just don't fit the bike like I do the 500. In addition to the neck and back strain after more than a half an hour of riding I don't seem to have the leverage on the bars as I should. When steering in anything higher than a half-crouch, especially at very slow speeds (ie parking lots) I feel as though I'm pushing more down on the bars than forward which makes requires much greater effort and seems to compromise accuracy and ultimately makes balancing the bike much harder. I've tried sliding back in the saddle but that doesn't seem to help as my arms are still much more extended than I think they ought to be.

 

I really like the bike and was really hoping to be able to be relatively comfortable on it. Isn't this the bike you use in the School? Would it be wise to try to modify the handlebars with something like Clip-ons, Convertibars or Helibars, or would it be smarter for to find a bike that fits me better? Too bad these things don't come in different sizes.

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DUH! Sorry, guess all I needed was a little time to experiment on the bike. The bike seems to fit me perfectly now. In the process of simply becoming more active on the bike everything settled into place naturally. I submitted a long post on it in another thread... "sliding off the seat". I realize I'm ignorant about everything at this point but I do have to admit the early stages of the learning curve are usually the most exciting. Thanks for putting up with my posts.

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