She says she's comfortable....
 

Bought a helmet and jacket for the girlfriend the other day, been for a few spins together since. I've raised the tyre pressure and put the rear shock on a stiffer setting, tis my first experience taking a pillion (and her first as a pillion) and it seems to be going allright, well accept for having to ride slower and more sensibly so I don't put her off for life :)

She seems happy enough with the whole thing but I'm not convinced she's sitting right. On my pointy K3 there is a big old drop from the pillion seat to my seat, under braking she slides forward loads and puts pressure on my back, I can't see but I'm guessing she is dropping off the pillion seat down on to mine. Then she has to do lots of weave inducing shuffles to get back up on to the pillion seat.
She's also quite a way back from me and has to bend right forwards with her elbows on her knees to hold on to me, she could use the grabrail instead but she prefers holding on to me and I do too really, good to know she's still on there! :)

Have I bought the wrong bike for carrying a pillion, or is there some secret that we're missing? Anybody got any photos of where they and their pillion sit?

Thanks,
Mike.

The K3 has a higher pillion seat than the later pointys don't it?

Get her to train up those thigh muscles.

She's just not bracing herself properly. I was a pillion for years before i got my own bike and always used the grab rail, hated holding onto the rider, but when i went on a bike with no grab rail and had to hold on i found i had to kinda grab a handful of jacket on each side and kinda push on that locking my arms when we were breaking. I also used my legs alot gripping the bike, this meant many miles of hands free pillioning.

I've never used one but alot of people use 'love handles' (I think there called that but i could be dreaming) these kinda work the same as grabbing a handfull of jacket, they give the pillion some thing to hold onto to brace against and to stop then flying off the back under acceleration.

Get some of that sticky rubber matting, cut out a good size square & drape it over the pillion seat. She won't slide around then :D

I'm not sure of the proper name for the stuff - think it might be wonderweb ?, you can see it advertised on most of the bike accessory websites - although I got mine from my local Morrisons supermarket as it was £1.99 for a large sheet :D

Good take it steady. :lol:

I got a huge roll to go under my tank bag from Poundland it was err well a pound :lol:

I use "love handles" when my wife or kids are on the bike with me, they dont cause any grief to you, ie pulling around the waist.
Also you can get antislip matting for your seat, this will help loads as BigApe has it on his bike and i have been pillion to him, so i can tell you from experience it is good stuff.
You can get the antislip matting at Halfords.

Get her to grip onto your sides with her knees and when braking, move her hand from being around your waist to pushing on the tank. It comes down to her intuition of what you are about to do next - accelerating or braking - and set up some kind of signal:

When you blip the throtle at the lights, she must hold on cos you're going to nail it :shock: :lol:
or roll of the throttle for 2 secs then brake when going for a corner so she can use the overrun as a signal to brace on the tank.

My gf's fine with leg grip :wink: but then she's a 3rd Dan Black Belt in Judo...

So yeah her legs muscles are good... :wink:

My lady has to do 150 mile a day on the back of my k5 so tell her she should be grateful! :shock:

Just about to get my missus on the back (of the bike)
I'd prefer it if she held me round waist.

I've been pillion on a bike with a long, one piece seat. Male rider.

It doesn't seem right putting your arms round a male pressing your n*ts into their back.

That's just plain weird..

Well thats my problem I reckon, one long seat would do us fine as then she could get as close as she liked, quite happy for her to press against me! :)

I guess she'll have to work on the bracing stuff, and we'll try some non-slip webbing too, but looks like next bike (or maybe a second bike, Hmmmnn.) will have to have a one piece seat. Now what do those Sprint ST's have... :)

How tall are you? Do you ride with you ar$e close to the back seat or forward?
Me, being tall, pushes my posterior back, to the front of the back seat, if that makes sense, when I'm riding.
She won't have to got to far forward if your sitting back.
Of course, only if you ride like that anyway :roll:

I'm short enough, she's smaller again and we're both reasonably slim, I usually ride right up against the tank - keeps the front down pulling away from the lights ;)

Me to. My girlfriend is pretty good anyway as a pillion, but 'love handles' really are good. She didn't feel amazing comfortable just holding onto the grabrail (my fault really - I took off a little too quickly once and she almost fell off the back :oops: ) and arms around the waist means constantly bashing helmets and a cr*p view for her. Love handles pretty much solves all the problems except they look a bit stupid when you're not on the bike.

You can get antislip matting for the seat. Google "triboseat".

You can get pillion peg extenders. They move the pegs lower and forward so pillions can brace with their legs more.

Finally, you can get an intercom. That way you can shout out "If you want kids, move back!" :lol:

Something that works really well, but not many pillions do it, it to have one hand on the grab rail and then one hand flat on the top/back of tank.

Under acceleration they can brace on the grab rail and your waist if needed, on braking they just need to brace on the tank.

Works well and impossible to throw them off!

and tell her not to do "a weave inducing shuffle" when she moves back on the seat.

She must take the weight with her legs and lift jsut enough to slide back. Shes far more balanced that way and so are you in turn. Took mine a while to get it but once they get over the "omg i'm gonna lift my bum off the seat" fear they realise how subtle a lift it is.

I thought this was totally bonkers when I was advised to do this...But, it's the way forward(no pun intended :roll: ) in London traffic!! :D

Oh... & good thigh muscles!! :wink: :lol:

As an ex-pillion here's my tuppence...

I used to ride with my left hand holding the rider (generally as much of his jacket that I could bunch up. :lol:), right hand holding the grab rail. Always had knees ready to squeeze and heels/toes ready to dig in.

e.g.
Braking:- grip rider with knees and dig heels into footpegs to take some of the strain of heavy braking from right arm (I'm right handed). Obviously adjust according to amount of braking. Don't forget stomach muscles to keep upperbody in place.

Accellerating:- left hand holding rider, right arm pushing against grab rail, toes dipping down on footpegs. Knees, well... gripping the rider... lots. :lol:

On the motorway there wasn't much reason to ride like this so I'd just hold the rider with both hands and grip knees.

Was told about that sticky matting stuff for the seat... looked pretty efficient. But then I got my own bike. :)

sticky matting is pretty good. stopped our lass from sliding up n down :shock: . i did set off a bit sharpish one time and guy on bike coming towards me thought i had a lovely pair of boot earings for the helmet :)

Triboseat

http://www.triboseat.com/images/indexmesh.jpg

The matting I used got warn away quite a bit. It's not really designed for the purpose of supporting pillions. The Triboseat however IS.

Re: She says she's comfortable....
 

If she prefers holding on to you, you could do with investing in a set of Motrax 'Lovehandles' (or similar)

http://upload3.postimage.org/228166/...dles_loose.jpg

This is a belt which goes around your waist with two grab handles on it for the pillion to hold on to... My missus is much happier with this method of holding on, than trying to use the grab handles :!:

To stop the sliding, you can get a anti-slip cover that goes over the seat which stops the bum sliding around, also very good (so I've heard...)

Stick with it though ;)

:stupid:

Love handles make such a big difference. My 'better half' does the one hand on the grab rail the other on the handles, and found that the sliding then went away.

The only way to go... :lol:

Two hands on the grab rail is too freakily wrong. Dunno how blokes riding pillion on blokes bikes can do it just for honour's sake... :lol:

Why worry about the seat? - Get her to sit her test.....

.......far too many ladies on pillion :( - get her out riding.

My good lady Quedos will be along shortly to concur..... it's her fault that I ride :thumbsup:

Garry 8)

Its top stuff that triboseat, got one on my SV and its very grippy stuff

Looks like I'll be getting a Triboseat and Love Handles before too much longer :roll:
Never taken a pillion yet, but my OH and my son are both keen... so I'll probably take them on a few pillion rides (reluctantly) this summer

I just purchased some today. It seems that triboseat can be purchased from a few places-

http://www.triboseat.co.uk - the site is in the middle of being updated so its a bit flaky but I just ordered mine today and the guy I spoke to (Kevin) seemed very helpful in helping me measure my seat(had some extra padding added). Price £9.49 including delivery.

http://www.triboseat.com they seem to also sell on ebay and it looks like exactly the same stuff as above but at £15.99 including delivery