Riding 2-up

[foobert]

So, I'm taking my wife on the bike for a little weekend anniversary getaway. First time time riding 2-up for me. She hasn't been on moto since riding with her dad as a kid, but, she's keen on this trip.  

This is what I've got figured out thus far:

1) Bump preload/dampening
2) Slide the air-hawk seat pad back to the pillion location
3) Back-rest installed on the top case
4) She's kitted out with all the gear head to toe
5) Plan on stopping more frequently


So, any pointers you might offer for riding 2-up, either as the rider or as a passenger?

Thanks!

[Justin]

Only thing I can suggest is talk to her about being a good pillion. First and foremost, till her to site still and straight. A good pillions weight does not move and shift. When you turn and lean, she needs to stay straight and not try to lean the other way etc.

[R1rider]

make sure to break her in gently with the throttle(speed)...    until she get's used to the bike, anyway.    


i learned that lesson the hard way.  


ride safe and have a good trip.

[Justin]

make sure to break her in gently with the throttle(speed)...    until she get's used to the bike, anyway.    


i learned that lesson the hard way.  


ride safe and have a good trip.

OH! Was that your g/f that I had to swerve around in the middle of the road?

[Thor]

Remember that a little bit of lean for you will feel like a lot for her.

Start with the basic stuff:  When to get on and get off (on signal), don't put your feet down, lean with the rider, etc...

One thing that some people do when the get scared is close their eyes.  When you close your eyes on a motorcycle you have a natural tendency to sit straight up and down.  Have signals for her to communicate with you and if she gets scared have her look at the back of your helmet.

Lee Parks has a section on passengers in his book, "Total Control".  I haven't read it in a while, but it might be worth taking a peak.

[Blunder]

First time time riding 2-up for me.

The first time you've ever had a passenger?  Try a few short trips together first so you become accustomed to it before you head out on an extended journey.

[chornbe]

The first time you've ever had a passenger?  Try a few short trips together first so you become accustomed to it before you head out on an extended journey.

+1

Even some local neighborhood stuff at least. The biggest thing will be leaning into turns at real road speeds... for both of you.

I tell new passengers to just "be part of the bike. keep you back against the back rest and don't try to lean either way. Just keep your back there and I'll do the work." They seem to get that a lot easier than a bunch of technical discussion or "do this then, then do that then, then do this when I do that" kind of stuff.

K.I.S.S.

[Rincewind]

Only thing I can suggest is talk to her about being a good pillion. First and foremost, till her to site still and straight. A good pillions weight does not move and shift. When you turn and lean, she needs to stay straight and not try to lean the other way etc.

I always say to pillions - if you want to look over my shoulder in turns, look over the INSIDE shoulder, NOT the outside.

And yeah, make sure she communicates when she needs to move around, dismount, etc, or you could easily be caught out of balance.

[Rincewind]

I tell new passengers to just "be part of the bike. keep you back against the back rest and don't try to lean either way. Just keep your back there and I'll do the work."

Yep - "Be a sack of potatoes" is what I've said.

[county]

My Blackbird owners manual has a short section on carrying a passenger.  Good info.

[leveredge]

Yep - "Be a sack of potatoes" is what I've said.

My wife is learning to ride her own bike. 'Sack of pototoes" days are over now.  LOL.
Have her alternate getting off both sides of the bike and have a signal which side YOU want her to depart. It sound simple but it can come in real handy on a side hill on a gravel road with traffic in VT.!

[DmCole]

I would not plan on traveling to far as it will not be pleasant for either of you.
Plan on short rides/destinations at first no more than 2-3 hrs, with extended time off the bike.
Also carry Advil/something for discomfort(don't be afraid to use it)

Good Luck

[Castertroy]

LISTEN TO THEM!!


My wife was ALL IN when I got the RT...prior to that, on the R1 she swore off riding period until I got something decent.

THEN....I decided to take her 2 hrs north to a really neat place on the parkway...about an hour into it she was cold....we regeared, then 30 minutes further, she was hot....then cold...then she was just downright tired.

We were less than 30 minutes away when she whined enough to piss me off and we turned around.

She then admitted she will NEVER be the Pillion she or I THOUGHT she would be


Shoulda got the daggone police RTP instead  

[foobert]

Awesome advice, all of it.

Mount-dismount: we worked that out in the garage while test fitting, but, a gentle reminder when stopping the first few times -- check!

I tried to get a few short trips in before this weekend, but, what with using up all our babysitting resources for this weekend, it just didn't happen. So, I'm thinking of making a few short trips while casually motivating towards our destination.  Surface streets and a brief easy freeway stretch and then stop for coffee after 15-20 minutes in the saddle. Then grab lunch lunch a bit further down the road. If it doesn't seam like its working out, then we can head back and grab the cage.  We've got all day to do a 171 miles, 1/3 of which is freeway.

"sack of potatoes" and "part of the bike" -- good tips. Agreed, K.I.S.S. is best.

"easy on the throttle, speeds and leans" --CHECK!  Learned that one the hard way the first time I took her out on the sport quad. What was a fun pace for me was scary for her. Of course, she didn't bother to tell me this until the ride was over.  I'll have to remind her that I can't read minds and please speak up -- she's not gonna bruise my ego


Thank you all!

[braindead]

I always tell new passengers to grab hold of me, and glue themselves to my back.  If they want to switch looking over shoulders, do so when we're going straight.  And don't move around during slow speeds... a lot of times they'll think it's okay, but that's the worst time.

It helps that I'm pretty large, and generally my passengers are around 1/2 my weight or perhaps a bit over 1/2.  If there is a large disparity of body weight (or she's got huge knockers ;-)... it'll be more mass to your mass..

Braking will take longer, if possible teach her to reach around and brace herself on your gas tank when stopping.

+1000 on what everyone else said as well.  

[Lon]

Remember that a little bit of lean for you will feel like a lot for her.

Until she gets used to it.  Then you can corner a bit faster than you might otherwise have imagined, as you can both hang off on the inside...

...or, so I've heard.

[Rusty the Scoob]

It sounds like you've got a pretty good handle on it.  The scariest part is that you have a fairly good-sized trip planned, even with a pretty good plan in place.

My pillion is 5'7" and about 145, so she has a HUGE affect on the little SV650 especially since I'm not much bigger than that myself.  So I'm approaching the process almost as if I was learning to ride all over again.  On the very first ride she decided to totally shift her weight around during a 15 mph left-hand city streets turn.   Yikes!   As it is, I feel the bike squirm around a little even if she reaches up a hand to adjust her visor when we're going in a straight line.  No big deal, but I sure wasn't expecting it.

Things I've noticed - it's harder on me physically... since I'm worried about her back there I'm less able to do the proper things like keeping my weight off my wrists.   Also she sometimes slides forward on stops... bit of a nut-cruncher.  Beware of downhill stops especially with bumps.  

Obviously beware that your bike will handle differently, brake slower, be heavy in the rear, be top heavy.  Stopping at lights will take more balancing and more strength to balance.  

What was said about leaning above is true.  I was careful to keep my leans to a minimum and she still felt nervous at times, even though she's usually quite brave.

Still, I've successfully had her out for about an hour or two and she likes it.

[Rincewind]

 

reach around  

+1 on reach arounds .  

[Blunder]

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet, but it's very bad form for the passenger to put his/her feet on the ground when waiting at a red light.  Feet on the pegs at all times.

[chornbe]

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet, but it's very bad form for the passenger to put his/her feet on the ground when waiting at a red light.  Feet on the pegs at all times.

+1

Seems obvious, but easily overlooked. I'm surprised none of us mentioned it.





Thanks a lot for shaming us all. Nice... Thanks.