Pillion?? FZR???

i was a pillion on my mates fzr and thats what made me buy one, and now iv driven mine with passangers. seein as how iv been in both situations i might be able to help.

my experiences as a pillion were cool, andy was still well able to throw the bike around a few twistys, although he's a fairly good driver so it might not be so easy for all of us. my back shock also does that banging over speed ramps and i reckon its not too good for the bike, although unlikely to be a real problem once you dont go over too fast or too often with a pillion.

as for driving with a pillion, its fine. you can still get up to 160kmh if you want and the brakes are still well up to it. winds liven things up a bit so be careful when its breezy. iv just been thinking about it and i think il try to avoid taking passengers from now on. motorbikes are dangerous regardless of how well you can control the bike and apart from the fact that pillions adversly effect the performance of the bike, its not comfortable to carry them and you're taking someone elses life in your hands.

might sound grim but in reality, none of us want to have a severly injured close relative/friend on our consience, i say just give them the bus fare lol <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

 

I agree with Liamo on taking pillions. I just don't do it.

 

I take my wife on the back most days to work. It takes a while to adjust, but you get used to it.

No problems, only that it compresses the shock a bit and going up the gutter causes my stand to scrape on the concrete.

If the person is heavy you need to make sure your shock is on level 7. My wife is about 45kg and I have it on 4.

I went pillion once on my bike while a mate rode it.... Is strange.

 

May be a stupid question but how do you adjust the rear shock, is it a big job?

 

There's a collar around the rear shock with numbers on it. If you have the original tool kit that came with your bike (i do <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->) then it has a weird L shaped tool... thats the shock adjuster. Just pop it in with the bottom of the L sticking into one of the collar holes and just turn it. You should feel it notch into the next position quite firmly.

 

Ok, but what do you do if you don't have the original tool kit?? Are these "wierd L shaped" tools available anywhere else or would something else do the job?

 

Buy a boa constrictor (search the net) it's a rubber band with a handle, will do the job and will only cost $15. wrap it around the top of the shock where the markings are (1234567).. tighten it... move it ;-) done

 

I took a mate on my fzr once...he is around 80kg...the bike just bogged down something shocking...acceleration had halved lol.

I then took his 45kg girlfriend on the back..and it didn't seem to effect the performance at all.

 

I've taken 70kg's. Power isn't that noticable. just until you get to powerband from one, then it's a matter of keeping it up 8k-14k.

 

I equate riding a 250 with a pillion to riding around with your foot brake dragging constantly; it just doesn't have the poke it should do.

The one point i make when riding with a pillion is to stiffen (increase) the preload only 1 setting from my usual commuting setting. This means that i've got a little more suspension travel than i would do without the extra notch, but the extra wait still dulls down the desire for the bike to tip in quickly.

FYI i use the following setting for suspension & tyres for different times:-

Commuting:-
Tyres: Front 30, Rear 34
Rear Preload: #4

Twisties / long rides:-
Tyres: Front 32, Rear 35
Rear Preload: #5

Track / Intensive twisties:-
Tyres: Front 30, Rear 33
Rear Preload: #7

Using the Track / Intensive settings causes the bike to tip in dramatically faster (be careful the first time you set it up like this... it may be very twitchy). Also, i drop the tyre pressures to allow the tyres to heat up more and shed more rubber. The more fresh rubber, the more grip. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

 

This is a good topic.

For many years I was pillion with hubby, I just loved being out riding with him, trusted him wholeheartedly. Now I ride alone, and because of a restricted licence, no pillions allowed. I often wonder how the bike would handle with a pillion, (or how I will handle with a pillion), then think again, as others do, I wouldn't like to cause anyone harm in anyway.

I find the above comments very interesting.
Each to their own.

 

How's this for having a pillion?



Go ahead, count the knees and then find the helmets. The guy in blue/white is the driver.

 

ROFLMAO... thats 5 knee's down! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

 

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Koma,

You must be a very interesting person if you can feel the difference between 1 level of suspension, and more importantly if you can tell the difference between 1 or 2 extra PSI in a tyre ;-)

Okay you can feel the difference if your tyre has deflated to 30 psi and you inflate it back to 36psi. But seriously ;-)

 

<!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_roll.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling LoL" /><!-- s:roll: --> <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_roll.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling LoL" /><!-- s:roll: --> <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_roll.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling LoL" /><!-- s:roll: -->
thats a classic! how's the dude at the front hanging off backwards <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: --> <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: -->
reckon this'd have to end in tears about 0.5 seconds on