another bike you might like to check out for the lady, is a Kawasaki KLE500.
I know they can have their seats lowered, and they are robust. I have a friend with one, and he swears by it.

The KLE500 is another bike we never got in the US but I've seen them all over Europe and in the UK. Great bike if not a bit heavy. It uses the SAME motor as the Ninja 500 (ZZR500) mentioned earlier in this thread.

I met a British woman touring on one in Italy. She was tiny and having the time of her life. It was lowered, she was about 5'2" or so and the bike was fully loaded up.

been MIA for a while but I've been busy...

I ended up buying one of the German Military KTMs... unfortunately there is not a heap of them on the market so they hold thier price better than I was hoping, but with all the kit it comes with and for being a 4 year old bike it is still a good deal (i think).

I haven"t had a chance to get on it for a proper ride yet thanks to the crappy weather, but as soon as i do I will give you all an update.

Thanks to everyone who helped with advice on here!

What you need is three of these. but fit the low seat (720mm) to the one for the lady and standard dual seats to the other two (saving money).
If you wish you can have 21" front wheel but I would avoid that so you only need one tyre and tube size.

You can buy 22 liters ( 400 miles range) tanks for about £150 from Price parts ( you could probably rent something similar or do a buy back deal with him.
http://www.haywards.co.uk/Trail_efi.jpg

what is that ?

PS had a 5 hr ride on the KTM Military bike this weekend... so far happy with it... It certainly vibrates tho, which people chalk up to it being a 1 cylinder... It is also noticeably less stable when zipping around the autobahn at 120kmph+

The guy I bought it from recommended cruising between 80 and 100...

Whilst the seat is comfy enough.. after 2 or 3 hrs in the saddle I was already thinking how I could make it more comfy... any ideas guys?

Oh & the hand heaters have 2 settings... uncomfortably hot and is it on? so you just toggle through them...

oh, and as far as height... I am 5' 8" and can flat foot it fine... not a lot of extra room tho...

But the shorter lady can't even tip toe it... :(

thread revival & update...

I ended up buying a KTM LC4 Military... that i am still "getting to know" to put it nicely.:rolleyes:

The Shorty lady is in the process of getting her license & I am back to the drawing board of what bike to get her.

So far the ones I have "narrowed" it down to are pre 2000 model DR's, XT's, GPZ (ninja's) KLE's and the Honda XL(R)...

I think most of these I will have to lower... but what does lowering a bike really mean???

How do you do it (other than buying a thiner seat)?

And for the above bikes how much would it cost to lower ?