Pillioning. Is it discussed enough?

[Drew]

Interesting thread topic. Kiwifruit is the man to ask for pillion tips. Done a lot of laps round Taupo two up that mofo. Drags his knee, two up on something horrid like a GSX1400 or B-King.

On the road though. I can get along fast enough to get a passengers heart rate up, without moving my arse, or pushing the front end of the bike. That's the absolute limit for me.

[Laava]

I find that clipping bollards gets the pillions a bit excited. Plus they have to help me right the bike which is good cardio for them. I am a good cunt like that.

[Mom]

Sneezing.

Don't sneeze, I find the reaction from a sneeze over rides any other pillion riding tip I can give. Big sneeze results in helmet clash. Maha thinks I have fallen asleep and grabs up a huge handful of brakes to wake me up, resulting in another helmet clash

Don't sneeze.

[hayd3n]

getting punched in the ribs is not a indication that your pillion wants to go faster , i found out the hard way lol

[Maha]

Sneezing.

Don't sneeze, I find the reaction from a sneeze over rides any other pillion riding tip I can give. Big sneeze results in helmet clash. Maha thinks I have fallen asleep and grabs up a huge handful of brakes to wake me up, resulting in another helmet clash

Don't sneeze.

It was night time, I thought you nodded off
Not such a rare thing, a number of pillions do actually fall sleep.

[Bikemad]

many years ago in ChCh a few of us yobbos took turns riding and being pillioned around sitting backwards holding the grabrail between ya legs.......scary shit at first but you sure did sit still and though you couldn't see you still knew what was coming.........but not when

[russd7]

ok, wasn't gonna get dragged in to this one but WTF
firstly, theres a saying which is quite true, if you dragging your knee whn riding on the road you are trying to hard, if you are not dragging your knee when riding on the track then you are not trying hard enough.

ok yeah when i take any one for a ride they are told to look at the back of my helmet and go where ever that goes, im to lazy to slide off the seat,I dont need to hang off to have a shit load of fun whether 1up or 2up, there are not many roads around where you cant maintain 100km/hr without dragging ya knee.

has been said already that bikes need to be set up to pillion, and when you don't have the luxury of electronics on ya suspension then ya have to find a happy medium.
pillions do go to sleep on the back of bikes which is why i you need to be aware of what the pillion is up to, normally the helmet resting on my back means the wife is sleep so when coming up to some twisties i give her leg a shake.
i have never had an issue with the pillion sliding in to me under heavy braking, im normally braced anyway so never been an isuue.

weight is definately an issue, the zzr is 233kg dry, add to that 20l fuel and 4l oil and thats 257kg, then add a 110kg rider, theres 367kg , add to that 70 or 80 kg of pillion, thats 440kg then add some panniers and gear and you gettin over half a tonne that ya want to stay on the road with 8 square inches of rubber, the goldwing is over half a tonne as soon as i climb on

[unstuck]

ok, wasn't gonna get dragged in to this one but WTF
firstly, theres a saying which is quite true, if you dragging your knee whn riding on the road you are trying to hard, if you are not dragging your knee when riding on the track then you are not trying hard enough.

ok yeah when i take any one for a ride they are told to look at the back of my helmet and go where ever that goes, im to lazy to slide off the seat,I dont need to hang off to have a shit load of fun whether 1up or 2up, there are not many roads around where you cant maintain 100km/hr without dragging ya knee.

has been said already that bikes need to be set up to pillion, and when you don't have the luxury of electronics on ya suspension then ya have to find a happy medium.
pillions do go to sleep on the back of bikes which is why i you need to be aware of what the pillion is up to, normally the helmet resting on my back means the wife is sleep so when coming up to some twisties i give her leg a shake.
i have never had an issue with the pillion sliding in to me under heavy braking, im normally braced anyway so never been an isuue.

weight is definately an issue, the zzr is 233kg dry, add to that 20l fuel and 4l oil and thats 257kg, then add a 110kg rider, theres 367kg , add to that 70 or 80 kg of pillion, thats 440kg then add some panniers and gear and you gettin over half a tonne that ya want to stay on the road with 8 square inches of rubber, the goldwing is over half a tonne as soon as i climb on

I tried sliding into the back of you, but your too much of a tight arse.

Did I do well????

[russd7]

I tried sliding into the back of you, but your too much of a tight arse.

Did I do well????

just as well i dint have to brake hard then huh

are ya gonna pop round to the mates rally

[unstuck]

just as well i dint have to brake hard then huh

are ya gonna pop round to the mates rally

Not sure yet. Got a lot happening at the moment, but I may find time.

[GravelRashKid]

Don't push any limits on the road.

This must be a misinterpretation of Juniper's comment "You push limits just a little bit each time till you become better".
She's not saying pushing the limits as in knee scraping, rear tyre sliding, front wheel off the ground limits. Nor is she saying taking risks with traffic or road surface. She's saying gradually improving the skill level, as all motorcyclists do by default when riding over time (i.e. learning), else they would still ride as they had in their first week.

There are different riding styles and we each have our preferences. The motorcyclist for whom I have the most respect for, doesn't open his knee let alone slide off the seat.
In the later portion of my riding years, I have begun to enjoy sliding off the seat on the odd occasion (such as Mangamuka Gorge). This is not necessarily to get more speed through the corner, it's because I enjoy doing it. When it's smooth and controlled it feels amazing.

It seems my post (#10) got under the collar of a few. I should clarify that I don't envisage completely replicating my 20 year old pillion experience as a rider now.
For one, the rider I pillioned with was a hell of a lot better rider than I'll ever be.
Two, I was not a rider back then, once I developed my own riding style we lost our complete unison.
Three, it's not that total package of "skill and speed 2-up to be faster than 1-up" that I'm aiming to "achieve in less than 5-6 years". I'm more thinking of establishing that rider/pillion synchronisation which allows this style of riding occasionally, for the enjoyment of it.

Thanks for the ideas of Rob Taylor, Lee Parks and Kiwifruit. And I love the tip about sneezing, thanks Anne.

[Juniper]

Been some interesting replies. Thanks Brian for posting!!

[Juniper]

I do like this thread a lot better!!

Very informative.

[BuzzardNZ]

Sneezing.

Don't sneeze, I find the reaction from a sneeze over rides any other pillion riding tip I can give. Big sneeze results in helmet clash. Maha thinks I have fallen asleep and grabs up a huge handful of brakes to wake me up, resulting in another helmet clash

Don't sneeze.

Also, don't chunder. Mate of mine did that in a full face while on the back of my old Suzuki GP125, which almost caused me to crash, but mainly from laughter ( even though some went down my neck )

[GravelRashKid]

Here's one for the panel...

Pillion hands on the tank seems to be working pretty well. Although more grip would be better, plus the hands can get tired after a while. So looking at various options for pillion grips on the tank.

Here're a couple that would almost work, except said pillions arms are too short for this position (or perhaps it's the position of the pillion seat vs the tank - let's go with that).
http://www.duo-drive.de/en/node/131
http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-...lion/5694.html

Again this one is too far from the pillion seat.
http://thekneeslider.com/images/tankgrip.jpg

So now considering something custom made, and wondering about methods to fasten to the tank.
Options may be:
Magnets. Don't know that we want to trust a life on magnets.
Glue or epoxy. Potentially.
Strapping harness. Could be challenging to find someone to design and make.
Welding. Probably involving putting argon into the tank, and a new paint job. Strongest and safest option?

Any thoughts on moulding or fixing?