best way for a passenger to ride a sportbike?
 

i have virtually no experience personally riding on the back of a sportbike, so for years i have gone by what others suggested to me for my passengers.

mainly,

a) dont hold onto me, rather reach around me and support yourself on the tank.
b) make sure not to head butt me from the back
c) lean with me , etc...

my GF seems to always complain that she has hurting hands / wrists because of the pressures applied when i brake. even when i take a long time to take a slow easy braking ride. because of this she doesnt want to ride much and doesnt enjoy it, and when she does, she cant handle distance longer than say, 10 miles.
what is she doing wrong? or what can she do?

When I rode passenger, I braced on the tank, never on the pilot. So when he broke, I could tense my arms to keep from slamming into him.

I did have hand numbness; riding gloves with a gel palm (look at cruiser style gloves) will help with this.

Do keep in mind that the passender seat isn't at forgiving as yours, so she might need to stop and rest more often than you do (but with some vibration absorbtion in her hands, she should last longer than 10 miles).

WTF?

If a girl is on the back...I want them to grab me around the torso. Best way for proper positioning of boobies on the back.

IF I have to get some dude riding bitch then HE puts his habd either on the tank or holds the exhaust can (for their own goddamn good. If they are pussy enough to not have their own bike AND be forced to ride bitch then the only way they can make up for it is to hold on to the exhaust pipe)

If there are grab handles tell her to hold those as you break for lights etc. Also if it is a controlled smooth brake she can put her hands on your back. I do it all the time with Kerry and he has never said it hurts, bugs him. When riding aggressively or under hard breaking, I would always brace on the gas tank.

And for the record I do not lean with the rider, I lean with the bike. I try to stay in line with the bike because the rider may chose to shift his weight further to the inside.

yea i am on a GsxR 750 - not a great seat, and no handles.

i do tell her to keep in line with the bike - even though she can forget sometimes.

hokie, you put hands on his back like how?
how about regular position while under motion?

Kerry and I both ride 750s so I am familar with the riding position. When riding casually, I just let my hands stay around the front of his hips or hold on to his sides, hell sometimes I dont hold on.

If he is braking towards a planned stop that I see coming, I will put my hands on his upper back (kind of like i'm pushing him) until the bike is stopped.

If there is any type of quick or emergency stop it is not difficult to go from the "hip hold" to the gas tank to brace for the stop. The big thing is that she needs to be actively scanning what is going on to know what the situation is.

Kerry also has a vanson leather jacket that I am very fond of because it has vents up under his arms/shoulderblade area that I can slip a hand it for casually riding just to feel more secure.

hrmm ok i will try these things. that slipping hand thing sounds kinky.

she def. already scans because she is pretty nervous about wrecking - which means she probably is tense because of this , adding to discomfort.

If she has her hands on the tank the whole time, that will put constant pressure on her wrists.

T will move her hands freely if we are just cruising. She knows to place them on the tank if I start to brake.

For the majority of riding, she doesn't really have to "hold on". Acceleration is truly the only time it is necessary.

I like my passenger to have at least one hand on me so I know they are alert and ready to grab ahold if necessary.

that is most-likely her problem. She needs more seat time to learn to relax. Do you have a park near you that has less traffic so she can work on form while not worrying so much about her surroundings?

And the 750 is one of the most comfortable passenger sport bikes I have ever ridden so once she learns to relax and go with the flow she should be ok. If her butt is really hurting from rides, tell her to get some compression shorts (you can get underarmor-like ones from walmart for cheap) they really do increase your gluteous endurance. And leather pants is by far the best way to easy buttache...and they prevent you from sliding around on the seat. Textile can be bad at that.

I really prefer the hands be on my lower-back/sides under 'normal' riding conditions, since I think you both feel more 'connected' and it's easier to lean together. Like Kathy said, it's easy to shift one or both hands to the tank when necessary for harder braking/more aggressive riding.

Just don't let her get too comfortable, or she'll be nodding off to sleep - I hate it when dem bitches do dat! :lol:

I only did that once...that I can remember

Yeah, but you'll never live it down! :nee:

This is key.

Yeh leaning in any way is bad, throws you off balance. It leads to you having to steer the bike and steer against the inputs the other person is giving you

Good point about leaning w/ the bike vs. rider - essentially staying centered over the seat. The real problems come in with someone unfamiliar with riding that tries to 'counter' lean and stay upright as you lean into a corner - that can make for some very unsettling motion!

I once gave my ex-wife's fat bitch sister and her fat ass kid each a ride around the block.

Hard to say which one was worse. It was like riding with a loose 200 pound sack of potatoes on the seat behind me. A bad passenger is a scary fucking thing.

You've got an ideal situation here. Lady complains, she stops riding, you're home free.

My experience before I started riding and was just a passanger...I HATED IT!

Seriously, there was NOTHING my husband could have done to make it any better for me. Maybe she is just not going to enjoy it regardless of what you or she does. :idk:

BTW - the bike I grew to hate riding on the back of was also a GSXR 750. :lol:

Best way for a passenger to ride a sport bike is on someone else 's!!!

exactly!!!

I hate having a passenger. This is a problem b/c my wife enjoys riding. Ask Gas Man what happened while he was here for 4 days.

so hokie do you have ur own bike?
nm saw u had ur own 750

Yep... so what Marko should have just said...

If you want to ride like this?
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...ly/NE09096.jpg

But have a wifey that wants to ride.

Get a buddy like this fool on the right to carry your wife around.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...y/NE09158a.jpg

As shown in this pic... back right
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...NERally191.jpg

Yup. I have my own 750...Kerry got one cause he wanted to be just like me.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...1/IMG_0152.jpg

But I do like a good 2-up ride, especially on this bike. We rode it 600+ miles in one day from NC to PA.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...A01/VFRrKk.jpg

I love those wheels on Kerry's GSXR

I only brace on the tank if he's braking or accel. hard. I also tend to use my knees a little bit to hold on as well. Doesn't bother Leon at all.

I don't ride on the back very often, I have control issues....snort

You sound like my wife with the control issues, it only took a handful of rides before she decided she needed her own bike:lol:

Love Buell looks but the front is just ugly. I can see yamaha copied it for their new bikes.

The Sprint give me wood.

Not just like - I gots tha bling-bling wheels, you gots tha bewbies. It works out. :nee:

This one - not so much.... :lol:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...DNA01/KkRC.jpg

I also just brace the tank for braking and accelerated, I pretty much know when either is happening, other than that i loosely hold on with one hand around the waist/hip.

Using your core muscles help with not putting all the pressure on the hands.

Get a sport tourer :)

I don't know how anyone can ride on the back of a liter bike for more than 20 miles.

I'm all of 5 foot 2 and my legs cramp up so bad after 20 miles I have to get off of it. Ergos for those bikes are for midgets only. :cool:

When I do ride, which isn't often (ass is waaaaay to wide :lmao:) I put hands on the tank for braking and hands resting on his back when traveling.

But, because I mainly ride my own, I lean before he does in anticipation of a curve. He asked if I wanted to pilot, cause obviously we weren't going around the curves soon enough. :lol:

Personally, I was my pass with one hand on my side/waist so I can feel where they are, and the other hand bracing on my leg or tank (or grab bar when i had one) Most of the girls I've ridden with also kind of hold on to my hips with their knees too. Not enough to restrict my movement, but enough for me to know where they are and how they are moving.
No one seems to like the seat on the Buell however, no biggy as I usually have the "no ho" on it anyway. :lol:

Another nice thing about older bikes is that they were made for carrying passengers. I don't care if it's male or female, but they hold on to me tight so there's no space between us. I don't want them, especially their helmet, banging into me.

And there is no movement of the passenger, except for their head. They can move their helmet around my helmet to see ahead to the inside of a curve. But they always lean exactly with me, not with the bike. If they leaned with the bike, you know they would do it wrong, and it could throw me off balance. And I always ride slower with a passenger because of the extra mass.

You and me both. But, a hand on the inside of the thigh is fantastic for "holding on". In all seriousness... a hand there, and not only can you hold on but also brake yourself on the tank.

I took my girlfriend on her very first motorcycle ride today. Our 1st ride was alright but she had trouble sliding into me. I've really only had one passenger one time and the girl who rode on the back had her own motorcycle before and ex rode for years with her so she was very skilled as a passenger.

But I then read this thread and I picked her up from school later on and told her some of the stuff I read on here (Hand on back, knees, stay inline with bike) and the ride was 10x better. She enjoyed it too.

Found some vids. Haven't watched them all yet but figured I'd post them...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpdiPjn4jsE

I like how they are preaching motorcycle safety and I can see Beer and they are in a Bar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2PNgnNgZQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao3l-2kh40o

The ZX-11 was so comfortable I fell asleep one time on the back.

:lol:

I guess I could say me too. It has been so long since I rode as a passenger I kind of forget what I did. But what I do remember is having my arms loosely around Erik while moving and acceleration. When he would brake I would either brace against the tank or put my hands behind and grab the tail section to keep from sliding. Also would tighten abs/core and use legs to control myself as well.
Head is generally right behind him, not much looking around, maybe even closing eyes (but NOT SLEEPING) and just allowing myself to move as the bike moves.

"get your own bike" is the best thing to say to a passenger.

Not necessarily. Some shouldn't be on bikes, period.

thanks for the advice everyone, i will be putting this stuff to good use soon.

i want to get her own bike but she is too timid and not really wanting it at this stage. so for now, while i don't love riding with passengers, i want her to be able to participate and group rides with friends, etc...

I usually keep my seat cowl and say sorry i only have 1 seat.