The more time you spend in the motorcycle world, and chatting with other riders, the more you realize our struggles are pretty similar.
Not exactly the same; most other riders I meet are, after all, quite a bit taller than me. Or, at the very least, they have longer legs (which helps). For the record, I'm a little over 5'3" and have an extremely moto-discouraging 27-inch inseam, so you have some idea of my perspective. My arms aren't long, and my hands and feet are also pretty small, too.
But at the end of the day, the thing about any vehicle you're going to spend lots of time in (or on) is that it needs to be comfortable and accessible for whatever your measurements are. In cars, you can pretty easily adjust the driver's seat to accommodate multiple drivers who are different heights. On bikes, it's also possible, if not quite as simple.
The thing is, you'll have to make modifications to that bike if you want it to fit riders of significantly different heights, in most cases. Depending on whether you do it, have a knowledgeable friend do it, or have a shop do it, you'll have to spend different amounts of time, effort, and money to make it work.
Over time, more motorcycle manufacturers have made accessory low and tall seat options available, on top of whatever the standard seat option is. Kawasaki even took this to a greater extreme some time ago, introducing its Ergo-Fit system to make easy adjustments to handlebars and foot pegs, in addition to saddles, so riders could more easily dial in the correct motorcycle fitment for them. And that's absolutely to their credit.
But as I've said before and will say again, all the accessory low and tall seat options in the world aren't going to get a hesitant potential buyer to convince themselves that it's the right bike if they can't experience that perfect fit in person. After all, you don't know what you don't know until you experience it. Right?
I've been riding motorcycles for close to two decades now. And in all that time, I can still only count on one hand the number of times that a manufacturer that offers an accessory low seat has made it available for demo rides in my area. I'll remind you, I live in Chicago; not exactly the middle of nowhere. And just so we're clear, folks who do live in the middle of nowhere should have these opportunities, too, but it would maybe be more logically explainable in a less populated area.
The purpose of demo rides is to convince people to buy motorcycles. But if a potential buyer can't comfortably ride a motorcycle on a given demo ride, how likely are they to convince themselves that they want to buy it? Not very.
If you're a very short or very tall person, and you show up with your significant other or your friends to a demo event, and then you consistently find that none of the bikes you want to ride fits you, pretty soon you get discouraged from even bothering. That goes double if you know that low or tall seat options are available in theory—but only if you shell out the cash first.
It's not the same as a comfort seat, or a set of panniers, or heated grips. Those are all nice to have, certainly, but they're not usually the type of make-or-break options that tell you whether you're going to successfully be able to ride that bike in the first place.
That's one reason I was elated to be able to spend some quality time with the low seat accessory on the 2025 Triumph Speed Twin 900. True, that was a press event and not a demo ride. But at the same time, I'm able to talk to you about it because I was able to actually try it. That's not always the case.
What would be extra nice to see is if dealerships were able to have low and tall seat accessories available for anyone taking bikes out on demo rides to try if needed. I understand that might not always be practical, but I can hope. I know I'm not the only short rider, and tall riders could benefit from tall seat options, too.
What do you say, manufacturers? I think you only stand to gain more riders this way, and it shouldn't be too expensive, difficult, or impractical a thing to offer.
