Aside from all other things mentioned, avoiding helmet clacking is the biggest change when riding with a pillion. It's one of the reasons BMW cites for including the shift-assist on its non-sports bikes.
The rationale, I expect, is that you and your pillion can progress at maximum acceleration without clacking heads, whereas the rest of us need to ease the acceleration for gear changes as described above. It's important to get to that coffee shop for an intimate refreshment with your pillion-in-a-million as fast as possible, it seems.
My best pillion experience was with a riding colleague to the pub at Phillip Island. He grabbed the rear rack of the f800 and braced himself better than a suite if OEM luggage. With that, and his paltry 75 kg, I virtually didn't know he was there.
My worst was as a pillion on a Kwaka Mach 3. It was an opportunity ride, so a borrowed helmet was my only safety gear. Holding onto the grab rail behind the seat provided minimal comfort as we progressed at maximum acceleration through the first three or four gears, the front wheel lofted high. I thought I was going to die ...
Good advice guys - I haven't ridden two-up in a long time but I'm sure I will at some point. I always caution the passenger to NEVER put their feet down...keep 'em on the pegs.
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My worst was as a pillion on a Kwaka Mach 3. It was an opportunity ride, so a borrowed helmet was my only safety gear. Holding onto the grab rail behind the seat provided minimal comfort as we progressed at maximum acceleration through the first three or four gears, the front wheel lofted high. I thought I was going to die ...
I have only ridden pillion once, many years ago. I think it was a Kawasaki 900 of some sort. My R60/5 had broken down with a burned out electrical connection. I don't remember the details now, but I think it was a short in the headlight nacelle. We immediately wheelied because of the added weight on the back.
As a general principle, I never ride on the back. It is dangerous enough that I prefer to control my risk. But in practice, it has only came up that one time.
Did first longer, or "longer", around 100km ride 2-up last Sunday.
Had my oldest son, roughly 70kg, riding with me and I was very surprised to notice that R has quite a tendency to pick it's nose up... I'm still running my bike in so I wasn't even pushing it, just a normal swift acceleration after stopping to an intersection and on 2nd it just started to push the front up. Luckily my son is already quite experienced rider so it didn't scare him too bad, in fact I guess I was more startled than he was. I had settings 2-up, road, road on so I think there's nothing too extreme there either...
So no harm done. But... When riding with someone, especially inexperienced passenger, I suggest rain-mode or extreme caution with the throttle.
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