Hello and welcome to Simplified on PowerDrift where we take complicated automotive ideas
and break them down into bite sized pieces that you can use in your life with motorcycles.
And today we're talking about the times when you're on a motorcycle, but you're not alone
because your partner, your friend, your mother, your girlfriend, somebody's sitting behind
you, what to do what to tell them, it's all in this video.
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Do give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it
and this time, this is not a video just for you, it's a video for them as well,
so please do share it with your partner, your mother, your friend, your girlfriend, your
sister, your brother, whoever is going to be riding a motorcycle with you.
But in spite of the fact that we've made this video, what we're about to tell you in this
video is information that you need to transfer to the person you're going to be riding a
motorcycle with.
That is important because it opens a channel of communication where both of you know exactly
what to expect from each other.
And the first rule of having a pillion on the motorcycle is that once they're seated
on the motorcycle, it's their ride and you are only a vessel ensuring that they have
a good time.
And therefore, once they're on, whacking the throttle open, pulling wheelies and all of
that is only a good idea if they are asking for it.
And in the same way you ride alone, you ride tank to tank which means you're sitting on
the motorcycle for 250 kilometres at a time or something, that's awesome.
But if your pillion says they need to stop, that's it, you need to stop, you need to give
them a break, they are in control.
So as long as they're happy, they're comfortable and they're enjoying ourselves,
we're doing a good job.
If they're uncomfortable, they're scared they need to go to the loo but you won't stop, all
of these will ruin their experience and ruining the experience of riding a motorcycle,
honestly, you're an enthusiast, why would you do that?
So when I have pillions who ride with me, I give them a very short briefing about what
behaviour I expect from them.
The first is they do not climb onto or off the motorcycle until I am ready for them which
means I will actively tell them saying okay, I am braced, climb on.
If it's a particularly heavy person, I might have a side stand deployed
and they will climb the motorcycle from the side stand side so that even if I lose with balance
a little bit, I have a backup of a side stand that will hold the motorcycle up.
The same goes for dismounting as well,
you will never dismount on the high side of the motorcycle you will always use the side
stand side to get off the motorcycle only after I am sure that my feet are in a secure place,
I'm holding the motorcycle firmly and now you can get off. The other favour you can do
your pillion and I know that it's not the easiest thing to do is to rack the preload up a little
bit because once your pillion sits down their weight will push the back of the motorcycle
down so the front end is up, it won't steer as well, you won't have a good time, they
won't have a good time as well.
Just taking the time to prep the motorcycle for them requires you to just crank the preload
up so that once they sit down, the motorcycle's attitude is still a natural attitude, which
means it will handle heavier than normal but will operate just like normal.
The second thing I do with a pillion is to tell them that they're supposed to sit on
the motorcycle in a relatively secure, unmoving place
because remember, your pillion might be something from 38 kilos to 130 kilos
and this kind of weight moving around on the motorcycle will cause steering inputs, which
will make you uncomfortable and the ride less smooth.
So generally, they can move their body around
but if they're going to shift around like that, I want them to tell me, which is not
really that difficult to do,
even though you're going at speed, it's a matter of tapping you on the shoulder and telling
you that I'm going to move and then the rider will confirm that okay, I'm bracing for your
movement, and then the pillion can move around a little bit.
But turning your head, turning your body, trying to look at traffic, this is all interruptions
and this is something that you generally want your pillion against.
If they turn only their head while keeping their body stable, it's still okay, but if
they're going to turn their body fully, that is definitely going to be a cause of problems.
So I generally tell them that what I want the pillion to do is hold their knees close,
so they're holding the rider's body a little bit and quite firmly if they can, if they
have the ability to do it, they will be holding you quite firmly,
I generally don't like hands on my shoulders because I am using my shoulders and hands
etc to control the motorcycles,
So generally want their hands around my waist, it's a more secure place to hold than even
the grab rail in some cases.
So I want you to hold like this, I want you to stick your knees in and I want you to look
over one of my shoulders, pick one it doesn't matter and see what's going on so that you
can anticipate the fact that I'm about to brake or accelerate and your body can anticipate
the movement that is going to come to you, if they don't anticipate, they're sort of thrown
back by acceleration, thrown forward by braking, you'll bang helmets and stuff and it just makes
the experience more uncomfortable for them
and making them look ahead reduces their fear levels as well as increases their involvement
levels in the ride because they now have a job to do,
they're just not sitting there like a sack of potatoes waiting for the destination to arrive.
The change that they can make is move their head from over one shoulder to the other one
depending on what turn I'm taking,
I would generally like my pillion's helmets to be on the inside.
So if I'm taking a left turn, I would expect to see their head somewhere here.
If I'm taking a right turn I would expect to see their head somewhere here.
You don't need intercoms, you don't need any of these complicated things to achieve a very,
very simple balance between the rider and the pillion.
The pillion has a few rules which are mostly about not upsetting the motorcycle
and the rider has a huge task, which is to ensure that the pillion enjoys the ride on
the motorcycle.
I promise you, you've met this new girl, you're trying to impress her, she sits on the back
of your motorcycle and your take off at 8 million miles an hour, she is going to be more frightened
and she's going to be so frightened that she can't be impressed with you yet, you've just
made the job of impressing her harder for yourself.
On the other hand, if you take her for a nice, smooth, jerk free, easy ride, they'll get
off the motorcycle having enjoyed the experience, having enjoyed your company, and the entire
experience is more pleasant
and at least in the case of my wife when I tried this,
she was thoroughly impressed
as it turns out, she was also a speed freak,
so once we got off she was like, is that how fast you go?
I said no, I go quite a bit faster than this
and at that point, she said the next time can you go faster I would really like that
because I do enjoy the sense of speed.
And the next time we went quite a bit faster and she had a much better time,
but remember, it's her ride, it was her choice to make.
So once she informed me that she was comfortable going faster
we did and we both had a great time
and that's all there is to it.
When you're riding with another person,
the responsibility is not for you to have a great time on a motorcycle,
that's a good side effect to get.
The task is to ensure that the pillion has such a great time that they want to ride with
you again, hopefully to the point where they get themselves a motorcycle and become a motorcyclist
and now they're no longer clogging your backseat,
they are running with you on their motorcycle,
you've just made a friend.
Thank you so much for watching.
This is Simplified on PowerDrift where we take complicated ideas, break them down into small
bite sized pieces that you can use in your life with motorcycles and their pillions,
thank you so much for watching.