Common questions about how motoergo estimates riding posture, seat height and ground reach — and how accurate it is.
motoergo is a free motorcycle riding-position simulator. Enter your height (and optionally inseam, arm span and torso), pick a bike, and it estimates your forward lean, knee and hip angles, and whether you can get both feet flat on the ground — so you can judge fit before you ever sit on the bike.
Seat height and wheelbase come straight from the manufacturer’s published specs. Handlebar and footpeg positions are not published, so they are either measured from a true side-profile photo or estimated from class-typical geometry — each bike shows a data-confidence badge for how solid the numbers are. Your body is a stick model built from standard proportions. Treat the figures as a calibrated estimate and always confirm on the real bike before buying.
The “feet-down preview” estimates your ground reach from your inseam versus the seat height — flat-footed, balls of the feet, tip-toe, or not quite reaching (with the shortfall shown). It assumes a typical seat width, so a wide seat spreads your legs and costs you reach. Your weight also plays a part: a heavier rider compresses the suspension more, so the bike settles lower and reaches the ground a little better than shown, while a lighter rider sits slightly higher — it depends on each bike’s springs and setup, so use the preview as a strong guide, not a guarantee.
Stand with your back against a wall in socks, feet a few centimetres apart, and clamp a hardcover book level between your legs — spine up, pressed firmly where a bike seat would sit. Measure straight down from the top edge of the book to the floor: that distance is your inseam. It matters far more than your height for ground reach. Riding boots add a couple of centimetres of sole in the real world, so a borderline tip-toe result on paper often becomes balls-of-feet in boots.
No — many experienced riders are happy on the balls of both feet, or with one foot flat and the other on the peg. Flat feet give the most confidence at stops, on cambered roads and when paddling a heavy bike, which is why flat-footing matters most for new riders and heavier bikes. If a bike you love leaves you on tip-toes, a low-seat variant, a narrower or reshaped seat, or a suspension lowering kit can each buy back a couple of centimetres.
Go by your inseam, not your overall height — two riders of the same height can differ by several centimetres of leg. As a rule of thumb from our model: you can flat-foot a seat at or below your inseam, get the balls of your feet down a little above it, and tip-toe up to roughly 4–5 cm above it. For a typical 175 cm rider (about 80 cm inseam) that means flat feet up to about an 800 mm seat and tip-toes into the mid-840s. Enter your own measurements in the simulator for a per-bike answer.
LAMS is the Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme — the list of bikes that learner and provisional riders may legally ride in Australia. LAMS status on this site is checked against the official Transport for NSW approved list; every state follows the same national criteria and the lists are near-identical, but always confirm with your state’s regulator. Qualifying bikes are flagged as LAMS-approved throughout the site.
Every bike is drawn in the same clean schematic style — one shared body template per bike type (naked, sport, cruiser, adventure, touring, dirt), anchored to that bike’s real seat, handlebar and footpeg points. That keeps the comparison fair (no marketing photos to bias you) and side-steps using manufacturer images. The shape reflects the riding triangle, not the styling.
Open the Compare page, enter your body size once, and add up to three bikes to see their riding positions and ground reach side by side — or overlaid on one shared ground line so the seat-height difference is obvious.
Cycle-Ergo pioneered the online riding-position simulator and is still a fine desktop tool. motoergo covers similar ground but adds a feet-down preview (flat-foot, balls of feet or tip-toe, estimated from your inseam versus the seat height), side-by-side or overlaid comparison of up to three bikes, fit adjustments such as lowering kits and taller seats, LAMS (Australian learner-legal) status on every qualifying bike, and a mobile-first interface. Each bike also carries a data-confidence badge showing how its geometry was sourced.
It is completely free. Your measurements are calculated in your browser and never stored by us. If you use “Share my fit”, your measurements and fit adjustments are encoded into the share link itself — so anyone you send that link to can see them.
Bottom line: seat height & wheelbase are hard data; handlebar/footpeg geometry and ground reach are calibrated estimates (see each bike’s data-confidence badge). Always sit on the real bike before you buy.