What's a good motorcycle for a short person?

My friend has a early 70’s Norton, it sits pretty low to the ground and he Loves That Bike!

for recent bikes, your best bet would be the Yamaha V-Star series. common to all the models is a 28” seat height, which puts you really low to the ground as motorcycles go. you can go with a 650cc engine, 1100cc engine, or 1300cc engine, have your choice of 3 different body styles regardless of engine size. my first bike was a 650 custom, absolutely loved it and chose it exactly because of the low seat height. my current bike is the 1100 silverado, exactly what you’d expect from the bigger brother of the 650 series. they’re excellent bikes new, but if you go used, I’d recommend 2000 model year or later.

also, the V-stars are great because their drivetrain is a shaft drive. so if you’re a semi-newbie and don’t want to deal with adjusting chain tension, and you’re going to be riding in the mountains (where chain tension would be most important), shaft drive would save you A LOT of time and effort.

Yamaha is a good choice. Triumph also has a bike with a lower seat height. You will probably want to go and straddle several bikes and actually ride them if you can. Sometimes the width of the saddle comes into play based on where you are most comfortable on the saddle in riding position. I’m not sure about all of the manufacturer’s, but I know on Harley’s you can get different saddles and rear shock heights to get a better fit.

The Triumph Bonneville or a Kawasaki W650 are both pretty short.