Is there an age restriction on pillion riders on motorbikes ?
Saw what looked like a young child (under 10 ?) on the back of a bike - albeit kitted out in full leathers and helmet.
Steve
|
|
There is no age limit. The child must, however be able to rest his feet on the footpegs.
|
|
Hee Hee, with some of the modern sports bikes, the pillion pegs are so high, to clear the exhaust, that a young child would have no difficulty reaching them. The problem comes when a normally sized person wishes to use them. Could the pillion rider have been a very petite woman?
|
Slightly OT I guess, but your backrider is part of a team that includes you both and has an important role to play: giving signals, telling other traffic "back off" when it intrudes on your roadspace, warning you of hazards you may not have seen. In other words that means training.
She/he must also understand their effect on the bike that their weight distribution has and how to vary this according to road and traffic conditions.
I just mention this because I do a lot of m/c instruction and lately have been involved with this very subject.
I do not know what the rules are re age etc for backriders but I do know I would never take one on board unless he/she had had some proper instruction and practice first.
Having said that, it adds immeasurably to the quality and safety of a good ride to have an accomplished backrider on board (preferably female!) Mine is adept at sensing my mood from her position on the back and my level of tiredness or slipping concentration and encourages me to stop or rest when needed.
Live to ride, ride to live, as they say.
Got away from the question a bit.
|
Having only recently passed my test it came as a bit of a shock having a pillion passenger. We were taught on the riding course what to expect but that can't prepare you for the effects of a passenger who wants to anticipate every bend or isn't ready to pull away from a junction.
However my two sons, 10 and 12, love riding on the back, it's a job to get a ride out on my own now. I make sure they have boots, gloves, leather jackets and properly fitted helmets and take things very steady. I tell them to relax, go with the bike and stay as close to me as they can bear.
If we see some of their friends on the way it makes their day.
In my youth I had a biblical experience on the back of a Yamaha RD350LC which taught me that scaring the beejesus out of a passenger isn't very clever at all. I do still love to ride pillion on my mates big bikes.
|
I'm lucky in that SWMBO is an accomplished pillion. There is nothing worse than carrying someone with the deportment of a sack of potatoes on the back, particularly if they won't lean with you and throw you off line every corner.
I am not a comfortable pillion myself, there have only ever been two people I have been happy to sit behind. Sitting on the back of a Z1000 which clipped the door mirror of a car at 110 was my foremost brown trouser experience. Like stackman, I am not impressed by someone demonstrating their "ability" when I am on the back.
|
I agree Tom that it is not an agreeable experience to be riding pillion with someone who is determined to show off and my last ever pillion ride was with my brother in law at 80 mph down back lanes which had a 40 mph limit.He thought he was being clever - I didn't and told him so.
That was some 10 years ago or more.
I've never ridden pillion since and probably will not ever again.
I'm quite capable of killing myself......
|
15 years ago i agreed to be pillion on a ZX10 then the fastest production bike available, thought nothing of it untill we were doing well inexcess of 150MPH down the M27 by the Transit factory/ Southampton Airport.
Vowed never again to ride pillion as it frightened the life out of me.Amazingly the fella on the front is still alive.
I read recently an article about politicians trying to ban children from being pillions, i don't know if it'll get any further but i can safely say my 2 daughters will never get the chance to do it the reasons:
1. SWMBO will not allow it.
2. Although i think i am a good/competent rider there are some complete idiots in cars with absolutely no regard for other motorists who i would not trust with a wheelbarrow.
|
|
I can remember riding pillion on my uncle's bike, can't remember what it was, now, back in the early 60's. BSA of some sort I think. He was trying out a tweak he had done to it, and I was in school uniform complete with cap. He got it well wound up, said something, I didn't hear and popped my head up over his shoulder to speak. My cap flew off like a frisby. It seemed to take about 2 miles to stop. We went back to get cap and he said that he had shouted that we had just hit the magic "ton". Great fun. When we got back, Gran went mad and forbid him to take me again. I used to wait out of sight and we carried on as usual. Great fun! I was about 13 at the time.
|
When I was a fit young lad and into serious cycling, a clubmate had a Francis Barnett outfit with a rack fitted behind the pillion seat to take two bicycles. I remember getting a lift back from Basildon along the A127 one evening after an event. The sidecar had no floor so I had to sit behind him. No helmets, dressed only in lightweight cycling gear and oil from the gearbox blowing back over my leg it was an interesting ride home. Left handers were an adventure, with me virtually flat across the top of the chair to keep the left hand wheel as close as possible to the ground. Even on the flat the thing felt as if it would tip if we rode over a matchstick.
It was my first ride on a motorcycle of any kind, and rather than being put off I was Hooked! Six months later I was wheeling a brand new CB175 out of the showroom.
|
It was my first ride on a motorcycle of any kind, and rather than being put off I was Hooked! Six months later I was wheeling a brand new CB175 out of the showroom.
I passed my test in 1975 on a mate's CB175 with loose chain for which I got a rollocking from the tester and rightly so. Reason I borrowed it was that my Montesa trialer (247) was deemed inapropriate by me, but passed none the less.
Can't spell inapropreate thingy properly, sorry.
R'egs.............M.
|
|
My first and only ever experience on the back of a bike was on a Honda CB750 and it was one of the most frightening things I'd ever done. Just the other day I saw some twerp with a very young child on the back of his superbike. Whilst he was fully kitted out like Barry Sheene she was wearing school clothes and a helmet which was far too big to be of any use at all. I think there should be an age limit for pillion passengers especially in relation to the more powerful bikes the forces produced by which under rapid acceleration are enormous and could easily cause a child to lose their grip.
|
![2021 BMW X1 sDrive 20i [178] Sport 5dr Step Auto](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/1361e2fc18e15692d2bf13f9f21509af/0138407a7cd8e6c01912aac63e4afcbf.jpg)
