[RJ2112]

We’re starting to see some threads concerning passengers, so I thought it would be a good idea to discuss this as a group.

In my mid 20’s there was nothing better than the feel of my (actually, any) girlfriend pressed into my back as we ripped around. Tee shirt with a halter top pressed against it was a glorious feeling.

As the decades passed and the number of crashes added up, I carried less passengers. I quickly realized that if I was taking someone else’s life in my hands, it was unfair to expose them to any more risk than I was willing to accept for myself. I couldn’t stomach the thought of walking away from a crash in good condition and having my passenger end up with long term health issues as a result of something I did or didn’t do.

If their gear was not at least as good as mine, then they wouldn’t be a passenger.

 

[RJ2112]

Another thing I will mention…. Most passengers are your worst enemy trying to ride a bike.

 

[RJ2112]

I’ve only ever had one really good passenger, a friend named Bear who needed a ride to the HD shop that had repaired his bike after a crash. I was about 5-09, 180. Bear was over 6’ and well over 200. Not my halter top aspiration at all, lol. The back seat of my VF1100S had him further out from the rider triangle than I had ever experienced. He could have wreaked havoc on my choice of lines.

But Bear had been through MSF training and was a well practiced rider. That was the first time I experienced what a competent passenger could contribute to the ride. Surgically clean lines through corners. No head butting. The only way I knew he was on the bike was because it accelerated slower than normal.

If you look through the archives on this site you can find a photograph of The Mistress of Mayhem riding passenger with a forum member something like 7 or 8 years ago. The photo is on here as she is dragging a glove through a corner on the tail of the dragon. She’d flown over from CA for a gathering and as a result didn’t have a bike on hand.

 

[RJ2112]

^^^ There is no reasonable explanation for why I still draw air….

 

[RJ2112]

^^^ this is why I always recommend formal training. No emotional baggage, controlled events in controlled environments limiting variables to manageable levels. A curriculum developed specifically for the level of aptitude available has a much higher chance of success than bumbling through it on our own.

 

[RJ2112]

Yeah, I do think repeating the same training has diminishing returns….. ERC, Sport Bike Riders course are less classroom more range time. SBR is still not as good as Team Oregon ARC. ARC is run on go kart tracks, and teaches how to maximize braking in a turn (emergency braking) and the mechanics of how the kinetics work as you have to bring the bike vertical as it slows.

Discussions on late apexes for street riding to extend sight lines before you commit to a speed and line through a blind corner is also taught.

Vital to understanding sight lines are life lines….

 

[RJ2112]

ARC was also the first place I heard a definition of carving a line through a corner.

When the suspension is right, when the power is right, when you don’t have to adjust your line, change acceleration & the simply flow through the corner….. you have carved that turn. When you set up your line so you flow from one to the next with no wasted motions….. you may carve a number in succession. This is when you see folk that can drag fingers on pavement, skim their knee pucks along their chosen path. There’s basically no steering input or anything else. Just the flow.

That can be really slow, really fast, or anywhere in between.

You can easily see when someone is hacking a corner up making multiple changes in any number of things relating to executing the corner. Their chosen line becomes a series of choppy lines as every ‘correction’ is applied. Smooth looks slow, smooth is fast.

 

[RJ2112]

Maybe in locations where motorcycles are a mainstream mode of transportation, the number of knowledgeable passengers is greater…. Here in the US, it is still true that you are much more likely to be in an accident with other vehicles, where that operator has no relatives or friends that ride.

‘I didn’t see the bike’ happens a lot more with people who don’t have any relation to motorcycles.

 

[RJ2112]

Not sure about that statement. I've had passengers that can ride and work with you. I also find it makes you a lot smoother as a rider - you have to be due to all that weight being back there and you don't want to make them uncomfortable. Having said that a ZX6R is not the place for a pillion unless you're freaking desperate. There are better bikes for these purposes. And yes (from experience), I've had a punch in the ribs from an ex as she hated being so cramped and up high.

I have heard SS perches described as being at least as bad as visiting the gynecologist.....

 

[RJ2112]

I take my nieces (cousins kids) out as passengers pretty frequently. When we go, I usually hit the less traveled mountain roads. Some time last year I took one of them on a 250 mile round trip ride out to the coast. I swapped bikes with my friend so I could make it as painless as possible. It was mostly tight mountain twisties. She was 9 at the time and by the time we got home, my legs and core were annihilated from keeping her from pushing me into the gas tank. I don't know how how you guys do it with full size people. She's a pretty good passenger but 250 miles was a stretch for her and the fatigue was real 🤣.

That being said, it's a different kind of ride when I have such precious cargo on the back. I don't actually take them out as much as I used to just because they ride their own bikes and it's not really worth the risk to put them on the road with me anymore. I am definitely looking forward to the day when this one can come do "motorcycle voyages" with me on her own bike though.

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There was a photo of you as a passenger on your tail of the Dragon visit,..... Do you still have that one available?