Tips for first time pillion carrier?

I've been riding nearly a year and am about to carry a pillion passenger for the first time so was wondering if anyone has any practical tips for me and my bro. (the stuff they tell you when learning is like "tell them to put their feet on the pegs and not to try and touch cars/lampposts whilst in motion") We're both about 11.5 - 12 stone in full gear and am running on stock suspension on a 51 curvey S model. Also, has anyone else got a Datatool system 3 alarm with the underseat anti-tamper switch and swap between a solo seat cowl and the rear seat? I have to remount mine when I swap as the undersides of the two are different. Bugger.

You might find the front is a little light, so up the preload on the back...and watch out for wheelies. I find the sv bike copes pretty well though apart from light steering through traffic so watch out for that one. Def practice first in a carpark or summit if either of you have never done the pillion thing before my advice.....

Just take it easy and try to ride as smoothy as possible, trust me your pillion with thank you for it. Also tell your pillion to go with the motion if the bike and not to try and lean one way or the other. Your pillion should always be in line with the bike.

Also make sure you have worked out some type of communication, taps on shoulder etc.
For example
3 taps for "please stop I need to get off your are scaring the **** out of me"
2 taps for "ride faster what are you man or mouse?"

In all seriousness it's a good idea to have something worked.

Also make the first couple of stints short, half an hour or so, you'll find that you will need to be concentrating hard, and this is knackering whether you feel it or not.

One other really important tip do get your pillion and you to do some streches before getting on the bike, it's likely that you will both be a bit tense and this will help to eliminate crap.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Usual stuff, tell em:


Not to get on 'til you say so.

Not to get off 'til you say so.

Not to put their feet down, at all.

Tell them where you'd prefer them to hold, i.e. you, grab rail, somewhere else.

To sit still at slow speeds.

Not to wave their arms around, shout at drivers on your behalf, etc.

Lean with you into the corners.


Swiss is spot on about smoothness and taking some time. Depending on the experience of your passenger it'll take a while for you both to settle into it, so take it easy, lot's of idiosyncracies between pillions so take some time to get used to their 'style'.

Best advice I had was don't try an impress them, especially first timers, it's quite enough of an experience without trying to get the bike right over or demonstrating just how small a gap you can get through when filtering at speed.

Re: weights etc, I've had a 16 stone mate on the back of my '01 without adjusting anything, it handles a bit differently, but was OK, quite happily went over 100 as well (on a private road of course! )

1. leave more room for braking...
2. don't be afraid to put both feet on the floor when stopping - mostly I just use one when stopping at junctions, traffic lights etc, but with a pillion, they sometimes move when you're not expecting it which can catch you out, when the bike starts to fall over, it's a lot more difficult to catch it with a pillion on.

dont wori mate, within 2 min or riding with bro on back ur be fine! GF ellen trys leaning the wrong way round roundabouts and generaly ebeing a cow if she dont wana go the way i do, and yes u noticie they are leaning wrong way, but its fine u can always safley make a roundabout etc.. even with them trying to go other way!

buy a set of love handles made by motrax... i have a set of these and stops the bear hug reaction of nervous passengers, my lady loves them, she feels more comfortable using them

philc2000 has a point. Seen a few bikes nearly topple when the pillion squirms at the lights.

Experiment where you want them to hold, If their arms are long enough i find one hand round me and one on the rail works best. They can hold forward when you acccelerate and hold back when you brake. so no lunging backward and forward feeling like they're gonna fall off.

At the end of the day, it's night. . No seriously though just take your time a little more. they'll be screaming to overtake things and hammer it soon enough without scaring them away from bikes for life.

when turnign the rear suspension will compress more and make your line wider than you expected, you learn to cope with it quickly enough, but take it handy the first few times till you learn how the bike responds 2up

I passed my test i January and took a pillion for the first time just last week. I was bricking it before hand but once I set off I was fine ... Just take it easy and relax