Ergonomics in action

I have never yet had a bike whose riding position suited me. Since my first Norton 16H over 45 years ago, I have tinkered with footrests, levers, handlebars etc to get exactly the right riding position. I suppose I have been influenced by a book of my father's (now in my possession) called Motorcycles and how to Manage Them which devoted a whole chapter to the subject of tailoring the riding position. That of course was easier in the 1950s when the book was written.

It's no different for my current Honda Super Four which, as a grey import, was designed for rather more diminutive Japanese riders rather than my 1.88 metres and 110 Kg. Also, as I get older, my knees and hips become less flexible and my neck objects to being at an acute angle for any length of time so the process becomes ever more necessary.

So I set to work.

First off: the gear lever was far too close to the footrest for my size 47s. So I got hold of a spare (I try never to make irreversible changes) and made and fitted an extension:

gear lever

The seat had a horrible dip towards the front that not only locked me in position but made my knee angle far too acute. So again a spare (kindly donated from a forum (400GreyBike) member) was stripped of its cover. More foam and new covering material were found at local suppliers, and the foam modified using an electric carving knife and electric file till it had a flat(tish) top giving room to shuffle about and also lifting me 50mm or so:

seat

The handlebars were too low and a little too far forward, putting too much weight on my wrists and shoulders as well as needing me to tilt my head back. A pair of risers from Squaredeal Motorcycles via ebay brought them higher and further back. Fortunately there was enough slack in control cables etc to allow this without compromise:

bar risers

I prefer to see what's behind me rather than look at my elbows, elegant though these are, so a pair of mirror extenders I'd made for my previous Honda SLR650 were pressed into service:

extenders

That's it for the moment although I am exploring the possibility of changing the rubbers on the footrests for something lower to give my knees yet more flexing room. I'm trying a prototype using a bit of old flooring. This is work so far:

footrest

Somewhere in the garage is some textured thick rubber sheet that should come in useful here.