SRC Moto in Pendleton, Oregon, has a solution for better footing on the Honda CRF300L Rally. The stock seat height of the Rally is 35.2 inches, and we don’t all have 32-plus-inch inseams. My 29.5-inch inseam had me on tiptoes whenever I stopped the Ultimate Motorcycling Honda CRF300L Rally Project Bike. It has YSS fork internals and an MG456 rear shock, and I have almost no sag, which keeps the seat height high. The minute I noticed that SRC Moto had an OEM Honda seat that had been cut down by roughly 2 inches, I got one.

I have been riding tall bikes for a long time and simply learned to hang a cheek off to one side when stopping. However, that doesn’t work in many situations, and down goes the bike for a short nap. Because I have never ridden an off-road or adventure bike that I could flat-foot, I just accepted the consequences of odd-angle drops. Even though the Rally Project Bike is about 150 pounds lighter than our now-retired Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike, it is still not a joy to pick up.

SRC Moto takes brand-new Honda CRF300 OEM seats and reduces the seat height by 2 inches by hand-shaping and reforming. The Rally seat is $428 MSRP, and the CRF300L version is $348. Those 2 inches are the difference between being on tiptoes in Alpinestars Tech 7 boots and being flat-footed. That is the margin of error between keeping the bike up and dropping it in most circumstances.

There is only one tradeoff I noticed on my first 460-mile day ride with the SRC Moto Lowered Seat: the rider triangle ergonomics necessarily change. It raises the handlebar and footpegs by 2 inches relative to the seat. This reduced legroom became evident on a 146-mile freeway drone. It wasn’t bad, just noticeably different.

SRC Moto also offers a lowering service for riders who want to reduce seat height without replacing the seat. You can send your seat to their facility in Pendleton, Oregon, where they will perform the lowering work for $218, plus shipping each way; if you live nearby, you can drop the seat off in person. The promised turnaround is five days or less.

The OEM Rally seat assembly lists at $268, and SRC charges $218 to rework a seat you send in, a total of $486. SRC’s $428 turnkey price saves you $58, so the finished seat isn’t a premium over the DIY route; it’s a discount.

The reshaping of the seat removes the upper portion and shaves 9 ounces off the weight. The OEM seat is 8 inches across at the point where my butt lands, while the SRC Moto Lowered Rally Seat is 9 inches at the same location. My experience testing many seats is that width is an important comfort factor.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the SRC Moto Lowered Seat was tolerable compared with the OEM seat, which I found intolerable after just 30 minutes. On this all-asphalt day ride, 146 and 60 miles were sitting freeway stretches, while 254 miles were standing highway miles. Yes, I’m an unrepentant stand-up rider, even on the street.

Being able to plant my left foot firmly saved me from a drop on a recent ride. A speeding car made a surprise appearance from behind a parked step van, and I had already started a left turn directly into its path. I both saw the approaching car and heard my riding partner yell “STOP!” at the same time. I hit the front and rear brakes simultaneously to avoid getting hit, fully expecting the front brake to grab during a left turn and drop me. But because I was able to make a solid left-boot plant, I saved it. For me, those 2 inches are more than a change in seat height. Those 2 inches can mean the difference between riding away and having to pick up the bike.

SRC Moto has a strong reputation for customer service, and the seat returned to me demonstrated top-notch craftsmanship. Cutting 2 inches from the seat height makes a huge difference when you need to touch terra firma. All you have to do is decide whether the ergonomic change is an issue. It isn’t for me, and I am impressed by the SRC Moto Lowered Seat for the Honda CRF300L Rally.