Wobbly Front Tyre Carrying Pillion

Right, ive twice tried riding with a pillion on the back.

The first time i tried, the grab rail was not fitted, so it was arms around me and close to me. Was a bit uncomfortable at first but soon got into the swing of things.

Second time i tried, grab rail was fitted, so pillion was sat quite far away. This time, i found the bike to be wobbly as hell, and we stopped about 100 yards from the road and havnt tried since.

I only weigh about 55kg, so could it be due to a large amount of weight being over the rear tyre and not enough over the front causing it to wobble? Perhaps the seating position caused the pillion to appear higher, thus a larger moment or something? Maybe suspension?

[Dave20046]

Depends how fat your pillion is, I just wacked up the preload on my rearshock and off I went. Wobbly through traffic for the first 20 mins if you're not used to it but after you've took them pillion for a long distance once you're riding solo again it feels wobbly!
I have a feeling it may be a getting used to it thing but if it's dangerously unstable perhaps not!

[Bibio]

its coz you are trying to 'correct' your stearing all the time to compansate for the extra 'wobbling' that is going on at the back. it takes practise to ride with a pillion. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

dave gave some good advice about winding up the preload on the rear couple that with practise and you will get there.

only date skinny wimmins...

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by Razor

only date skinny wimmins...

fek off, padding for the pushing an all that. slap the stomach and ride the ripples of pleasure.

yep just turn up preload, should help. make sure the pillion is leaning with you too, if they are fighting the turn it will make things unsteady!!

you need to eat more pies to equalize the weight distributionn, lol. practice, practice.

cheers guys, next time we plan a trip out ill turn it up.

Never heard that one before Bibio!

[Dave20046]

Measure how much you change it so it can be reverted back to how it was when you need to. Also don't change it willy nilly - I altered mine because the weight changed so much it made the chain tight as a bow, only adjusted the preload until the chain had adequate slack with us both on.

Also worth noting there's a c-spanner in the standard tool kit - I wrecked a good screwdriver for nothing!

& check your tyre's aren't soft. 1st time I took a pillion on the SV it felt like a shopping trolley. I blame the missing 10psi