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When my 5'1" daughter started riding 3 years ago she took her BRC on a Honda Rebel then started riding the Ninja 250 pregen she had bought. She was very uncomfortable not being able to flat foot the Ninjette like she could the Rebel in her class.
After a couple of months of listening to her complain I got a set of lowering links from someone here on the board. Yep it lowered the bike and got her feet almost flat on the ground and she felt much more comfortable. Fast forward about six months and we are riding on some local backroads, there is a really weird intersection with a tight left hand turn (posted 10 mph) with a road entering from the right. She came in a little too fast, a semi was coming out from the right, she didn't panic too bad, leaned over hard and scraped the center stand as she went through the corner. Scared the crap out of her.
When she got her Harley Sportster it was a bit too tall for her, was the old style with the 13.5" shocks in the rear. She adamantly refused to let me lower it with shorter shocks. She made do with handling the heavier bike on tip toes. But has had some issues, and I think she has dropped it a couple times. I found a Corbin "Reach" seat on Craigslist and picked it up, at first she didn't want it, but I put it on and she tried riding, the seat is much narrower, thinner padding and moves her forward about an inch. It works great around town, but on longer rides it's a pain in the butt. It's only 1 bolt to swap out a seat so now if she knows she is going for a long ride she puts the stock seat on and just deals with being on tippy toes.
As a temporary solution so a new rider can get more confidence on a bike lowering links might be OK, but they are not a good permanent solution for short people.
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