So ive got another newbie question. The GS is my first bike and im still on the break in, and i was just wondering how long i should wait before riding taking a passenger for a ride. not on main roads or anything just like around my neighborhood. also do you guys have any tips on what to do to learn. im honestly terrified of it but i dont really know how hard its going to be. id hate to drop the bike just because i gave in to my friends begging to ride with me.
I am a newb as well.. I started riding w/ my GF on the back about 2 weeks after I got the bike. You need to be sure that you are comfortable on the bike by yourself first. However I have found that riding 2 up isnt hard at all. I noticed that stoping is a bit different and when going down hill.. guard your jewls :oops: . It helps if your passenger understands what is going on as well. My GF was never on a bike before so she didnt like leaning w/ me in the twisties :dunno: That made it a bit difficult until she got the hang of it.
All in all, I say make sure you are comfy on your bike alone first. Then, start w/ short trips 2 up. It wont take long and you can start pickin up chicks all over town :thumb:
Be safe! :mrgreen:
Also the manual says to increase tire pressure when riding 2 up. I havent done this myself but my GF only weighs 100lbs :thumb:
tell them as a noob you are officially banned from giving rides. (unless they are really hot chicks.)
...
when I took the MSF I asked the same question to the instructor: "how long before I can ride with a passanger on the back?"
I was told: "wait 1 year at least, so you get used to the bike and your muscles develop memory from it.
However, im thinking that my instructor assumed that I will be riding mostly on the weekends and rarely on weekdays.
Since I got my permit, I've been riding everyday non-stop. You see, the bike is my only way of transportation, so as of today (2 months later already!?), I am very comfortable riding the bike and I've logged almost 1200 miles already 8)
Anyway, im thinking to go to the bike store with my gf and get her gear so she can ride as a passenger very soon.
I will have to tell her and re-tell her what to do beforehand (lean with me!, hold on tight, if hot girl nearby- don't hold on too tight :thumb: )
Besides, gf wants to ride a motorcycle, so maybe that will help her to get a feel for the speed/vibration/noise of motorcycles.
I've only had one passenger so far, and I was somewhere between 1200-1500 miles. She had grown up riding on the back of bikes (her dad has a harley) so she actually knew more about motorcycles than I did, in a way. She knew what role the passnger needed to play in riding, she knew about leaning, she knew how to mount and dismount the bike, etc.
So if your passenger has been a passenger before, and you've go upwards of 1000 miles, I'd say give it a shot around town. If she has no clue, you might want to have her ride with SOMEONE ELSE that has a bike so she knows what to expect ya know? You DONT want to hurt yourself, and you especially don't want to hurt anyone else. Not only would you feel bad but that could be an insurance nightmare.
Get a good sense of your bike first. I am also a new rider. I am now at 1,700 miles this first year. My sense of the bike has really started to improve over the last 500 miles. As it all comes together, you should know when you are ready for a passenger. I intend to wait a while longer. At the present time I only want to be responsible for myself and not someone else.
...
I was thinking about this for a few seconds...
while riding in hot weather... doesn't the passenger get 'hotter' since the air is being blocked by whoever is in front?
Riding with a passenger is at the high end of motorcycle skills. As many people have indicated get some experience in first. If / when you start taking a pillion, remember there are adjustments to be made if you are going to do it regularly.
Tyre preasure
Chain tension
Headlight angle if applicable
Shock-suspension
Try and be much smoother in braking accelerating, clicking helmets is not fun and remember braking takes longer and you may need to adjust slightly your front-rear braking ratio depending on your riding style.
Don't forget to instruct your passenger to stay with you, they should neither lean nor resist the lean and arrange some "touchy-feely" signals in case they need to communicate with you.
I see lots of guys riding wearing jacket and helmet, with a pillion in a swimsuit (I live near a beach). What is that supposed to mean? They worry about dumping enough to get their own jacket, but the passenger... well, she doesn't matter?
Gear-up your passenger at least as well as the MSF requirements: leather above-ankle boots, gloves and a DOT helmet. Consider tooling around at MSF speeds (20, maybe 25mph) unless she has a jacket too. For the highway/twisties, gear-up your passenger at least as well as yourself. Nothing says "I think you're hot; let's keep it that way" like riding gear.
I always make sure my passenger is the better equipped of the two of us. I waited 10K before I started taking passengers, and when I did I only had an extra helmet. You guessed it, the passenger got all of my gear because I couldn't imagine living with the guilt of my passenger going through road rash cleanings and skin grafts.
As for the passenger not getting as much wind, it's very true. The wife complains that it gets hot on the back of the bike. I calmly offered to let her take all the bugs and rocks off her helmet if she wanted to sit up front. She graciously declined.
Just wait until your comfortable and VERY confident in your abilities. If you feel you are weak in any aspect, work on that before riding with a passenger.
On a side note, riding with a passenger is some of the most fun ive had riding a motorcycle. Its great if the passenger is a good friend, or a girlfriend, great way to get to know someone better. (another side note, I have a no guy rule on my bike, except for emergencies, lol).
I could really feel a difference between my lady and my brother. She's 5'2" and well under 140 lbs, and my brother is 6'3" and probably 200 lbs. With her, we hit the freeway, the twisties, whatever and we feel great (she grew up on a Harley, so she's a great passenger). My brother, however, has never been on a bike. I just took him down the street back, but I felt really shaky with him on. I had to make a few rights and a left to get us back home, and I thought we were going down. It is really hard if the rider is bigger than you.
Dave :cheers:
You gotta pull a michael jackson and take younger petite riders.
I think the best advice to give a passenger is to pretend to be a sack of potatoes. Just stay balanced on the bike, don't try to compensate or control anything. This probably applies to a small bike more than a big one.
Quote from: aliveandkickinwondering how long i should wait before riding taking a passenger for a ride.
I'd say wait at very very very least a few months since your last "almost drop." Each time you nearly drop it from doing something wrong and being unbalanced, start the timer over...
I just reset mine two weeks ago... On my one and only
actual drop, I learned that it's kinda hard to recover from a slight mistake with an extra 100lbs on the back. I wouldn't have dropped it by myself.
My experience is a little different from the others and I'm not making any recommendations, just telling what happened with me.
I rode with a friend after about 500 miles and two months of riding. She was an experienced passenger and average size. I was nervous at first but riding with a passenger was surprisingly easy. We rode about 140 miles in 3-4 hours -- curvy country roads, four-lanes, city streets, the works. I'm 6-foot-5 and about 210-220, so I didn't have any problem holding my spot on the seat during braking, even one panic stop when her helmet hit mine.
I turned the shock to "7" and pumped up the rear tire to 41 psi as the manual recommends. I've left the shock at "7" and like it better than the stock "4" setting.
I've also autocrossed, dirt-tracked and road-raced cars, so maybe I have a better feel for things, but overall it was, like I said, surprisingly easy.
If you're going to be riding with the same passenger all the time (such as a girlfriend), I would suggest that you sign your passenger up for the MSF course. Going through the rider training would make anyone a much better passenger.
(It might also make them want to get their own bike, which is even better!)
Quote from: Cal PriceRiding with a passenger is at the high end of motorcycle skills. As many people have indicated get some experience in first. If / when you start taking a pillion, remember there are adjustments to be made if you are going to do it regularly.
Tyre preasure
Chain tension
Headlight angle if applicable
Shock-suspension
Try and be much smoother in braking accelerating, clicking helmets is not fun and remember braking takes longer and you may need to adjust slightly your front-rear braking ratio depending on your riding style.
Don't forget to instruct your passenger to stay with you, they should neither lean nor resist the lean and arrange some "touchy-feely" signals in case they need to communicate with you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now thats top drawer advice
Quote from: Cal PriceRiding with a passenger is at the high end of motorcycle skills. As many people have indicated get some experience in first. If / when you start taking a pillion, remember there are adjustments to be made if you are going to do it regularly.
Tyre preasure
Chain tension
Headlight angle if applicable
Shock-suspension
Try and be much smoother in braking accelerating, clicking helmets is not fun and remember braking takes longer and you may need to adjust slightly your front-rear braking ratio depending on your riding style.
Don't forget to instruct your passenger to stay with you, they should neither lean nor resist the lean and arrange some "touchy-feely" signals in case they need to communicate with you.
This is indeed great advice. I took my wife on a quick 10-minute ride tonight and noticed big changes in braking (had to add in more rear brake than I am used to) and handling (bike did not turn in as quickly with the extra weight on the back).
My wife has not ridden as a pillion before, so we were trying to work out how it should go as we rode. She found that gripping with the thighs helped a lot in holding herself during braking and turning so she didn't slide into me. She also kept trying to hug up close to me, which resulted in helmet clicking, and she didn't realize she was doing it until I asked her to not head-butt me every time we hit a bump. She also had a bad habit of waiting until I was slowing to a stop before wiggling around on the back to scoot to the rear of the seat, making me correct for the wobbling as we were stopping - rather unnerving. I don't feel my skills are yet up to snuff for riding with a passenger all of the time, but I wouldn't mind riding 2-up every now and then. I'm glad to report my wife liked the experience, so I'm once step closer to having a riding partner.
The rear shock on the GS absolutely sucks for riding with a passenger, I'm upgrading it ASAP. Even with the preload cranked to 6 of 7, it's seriously squishy back there. I would say that adding the extra tire pressure made a big difference in handling feel; with the pressure set for a single rider, riding two-up left the tires feeling soft.
I was surprised at how well the GS handled having a passenger on board, other than the rear suspension. It accelerated just fine, and once I got the braking down it came to a stop just as well as usual.
I dunno if this was mentioned in the thread, I'm just quickly looking over the topic but I heard that having the passenger put one hand up against the gas tank when coming to a stop helps reduce damage to the family jewels.
Quote from: NarcissusI dunno if this was mentioned in the thread, I'm just quickly looking over the topic but I heard that having the passenger put one hand up against the gas tank when coming to a stop helps reduce damage to the family jewels.
It might, I would just say stop delicatly and be prepared to sqeeze hard with your legs, cause I know everyone that wants a ride from me probably would hold on for dear life. So even if they tried to do that they wouldn't cause they would be afraid of falling off the back.
When I first got my gs i took one of my friends for a ride. She had never been on a bike before so i knew it was gunna be a treat for her. I live on a giant hill with a gravel lane leading up to it, we got down that fine. When we get to the pave road, i tell her to hold on an then i open the throttle a pretty quick, she got through that fine too. We get to this little tiny turn where i have to tilt the bike. Right as I start to lean, she screams and jerks the other way :o . Moral of the story.... make sure you tell your passenger a few key details before they get on the bike, like not to put there feet down and not to JERK THE OTHER DAMN WAY WHEN YOUR GOING AROUND CORNERS.
:cheers: cheers,
Kevin
Also setup your shock to manage the extra weight, if the bike lowers too muhc then it'll be less stable... and check up tyre presure to 41 psi...
...
today finally rode with my gf on the back.
no problems whatsoever. the previous day I spent about 90 minutes explaining her what to do and what not to do. Also, we rode on the parking lot for a bit. Nothing above 20mph.
Today we went to a nearby mountain, and I reached speeds of 60mph.
I thought she was going to be scared (many turns), but everything turned out fine.
Great ride.
oh wow, it has been a few months already :icon_mrgreen:
just to inform the community that since last post in this thread, I've been riding with gf more often than not. No issues whatsoever and I am more comfortable than the 1st time.
we still get looks from bystanders, I can imagine what they think... "look look, that bike's carrying a latin dude with a japanese girl on the back... wtf!" :laugh:
I'm waiting until Summer to try riding with my wife again... My problem is that my wife is Italian... If I hurt her I'd end up sleeping with the fishes. :o