If you’ve never taken a pillion before, and want a few tips;
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Arrange a signal that they can give you if they are uncomfortable. Don’t let them sit there scared witless at 70mph afraid to move.
Take it steady to start with. Having a pillion on the back effects braking and acceleration. So allow time in judging gaps during overtaking and don’t break suddenly.
Stop frequently to check they are ok.
Check for pulse.
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if you ever get to Italy, you will realize how silly these rules are.
Italians drive scooters and bikes in a unique and carefree manner that defies description.
Hell bent for leather comes to mind but that doesn’t quite describe the joy they have driving 🙂
Body parts. He was just taking body parts to the dealer. It’s good casual income for motivated Mexicans.
It’s equivalent to the germs who deal in bear parts for the oriental potions trade here in Western Canada. The bear trade is the worst of the two ventures.
At least Mexican bodies usually go cold of natural causes. Not so with our bears. TG
Passenger feet up near you’re head are an indication that you are accellerating too fast.
Don’t get on the back of a motorcycle ridden by anybody you don’t know. (And check the rear tire to see if it has any tread left on it, (most of the crashed motorcycles deposited at the wreaking yards have a bald rear tire.)
In Thailand, they’ve banned doubleriding on motorbikes in The South because it is the preferred method of assasination for Muslim terrorists. I predict The Next Big Terrorism explosion to happen in either a Phuket nightclub or a Bangkok nightclub.
Relax in your hummer!
Sorry to go OT. But as grisly as this is, it’s still a lesson to be learned.
Don’t Cross an Aussie
You hear that, terrorist enablers and cowering appeasers?
Don’t drift both wheels through corners, it upsets the passenger. And later at the stoplight she will slap your helmet really hard. ~:D
Poor Kate!
You miss your bike already, don’t you?
Don’t worry, only 6 months ’til riding season again…sigh.
Mad Mike
And don’t do a 200 foot wheelie after the stoplight. No, don’t do it!!!! It will hurt bad when she slaps your head after the helmet comes off! Owie!
Speaking of which, if they’re wearing a helmet like this, insist on walking.
Heh, that pic reminds me of Tom Green and his Ban Roll-On applicator eyeballs…
One more suggestion – don’t wear a short sleeve shirt with no jacket (as in photo). Road rash is bad enough when you drop a bicycle – never mind a motorcycle.
Kate,
I was riding around Nanaimo on my Yamaha FJR1300 yestrerday … Picked up a couple of jugs of milk … went to Starbucks and sat out on the patio with a tough coffee.. smiled at other bikers … lots of them out here ..
I’ll bet your doggie woggies would love this weather. No pot holes and very few flying bugs all year long …
You need to be here kiddo!
“…if you ever get to Italy, you will realize how silly these rules are…”
I love Italy & I love the Italians & as Fred has noted the way they “drive scooters and bikes in a unique and carefree manner that defies description”. Especially the women, who somehow are able to miraculously manoeuvre through the most awful traffic on those scooters wearing those high heels, short skirts accompanied by their little dog and all the while remaining poised & perfectly coiffed till their destination. I’ve definitely never seen anything like it.
Actually they made me sick. Now if I could only fit in the stupid skirt that I bought in Italy maybe I’d feel a little different.
Does Aretha have brakes?
Perhaps I’m mistaken. Last I checked, lever touching bar did not equate to “functional”.
And JFTR, that helmet has never touched the ground. Violently, that is.
Oi Doug that’s a pretty creepy story about australian teens, I wonder if the prime perpetrator is covered in gaesatii tattoos and walks about naked most of the time. Ya talk about your throwback personalities, whew…
Daryl
Way back when, when most of the readers of these comments did not exist, in 1951 to be exact, I was a 21 year old jet pilot stationed with RCAF 421 Squadron at Odiham west of London, England. Yes kiddies there were jets back then, they were called Vampires and Meteors. On the afternoon on which my story occurred most of the pilots were stood down. I was tabbed to give rides to some
Air Cadets who were visitng. After my flying was finished, three of those who were stood down (they had spent the afternoon mixing and downing gin and lemon cocktails) prevailed on me to give them a ride from our dispersal area to the Officer’s Mess. I owned a 350cc Royal Enfield motorcycle. I sat on the gas tank, one sat on the seat, the third on the pillion seat and the fourth, who stood a mere six feet four or five, climbed onto the shoulders of the man in the middle. With the rear tire almost flattened by the weight we had an uneventful two mile ride to the mess, even unhindered by the security guards at the gate.I believe it was the relaxed state of my passengers that allowed me to carry out the mission without mishap.
Actually, Aretha has pretty good brakes now – complete with braided steel lines.
Oh, to be 22 again and strapped into the seat of a jet smelling those sweet fumes..
Bob Wood .. did you happen to meet or know George Hill? He flew Spitfires durming the war. He was from Pictou NS.
They’ve found my ex-wife!
Kate, nice helmet! Might be a bit much for me these days, I only have a 1976 Honda TL 125 now. Sold the rocket RZ 500 back in 1987, to which I attribute my continued posession of all four limbs.
The old TL can still wheelie all the way down the street, just not at 70 mph. No pillion though. Since I married her she won’t ride with me anymore. ~:D
Duke,
I did know of, more than knew a Wing Commander Hill who was a wartime pilot who could very likely be the man you refer to. The pilot sitting behind me on the Royal Enfield was Fred Evans, an ex wartime Spitfire pilot who hailed from Saint John NB. I would follow him anywhere in the air and did so often. On one flight we were flyng low level on the south coast of England. We were in loose finger four formation crossing from the sea over a flat shoreline. A family group was walking along the beach. I saw the father pointing at Fred’s aircraft as he croossed near them. What the father didn’t realize that I was aimed staight at them just moments behind Fred. The last thing I saw was the father pushing his daughter to the ground and falling himself. I guess we were young and reckless and some little girl was either scarred for life or else had an exciting story to tell her friends for the rest of her life.
Phantom:
Re: RZ 500
Cycle Canada had a wonderful cartoonist who drew a great one regarding this bike – I can still picture it although I forget the exact caption.
It pictured a father lecturing his son on the type of motorcycle he could get. It had to be:
no bigger than 500 cc
two stroke – “It’s simple – like you” (I remember that)
His son was pictured standing there with the silliest big grin with a picture of the RZ 500 in his head.
On the subject of riding pillion and women,I have always advocated that more women should ride their own. Not because of any paticular “sensitive new age male” pantload(by way of Mimi of the Drew Carrey Show),but by the simple fact that after about 25 miles of the old Island Highway,fighting freight trucks,r.v.;s ,moronic drivers(2+4 wheeled),bad engineering and pavement,the women always seemed to need the use of the “little girl’s room” ,so to speak……When you were riding from the northern end of Vancouver Island to the Southern end for a concert or party,it was a pain in the posterior….At least if they rode their own,the pain in the assedness that constant stops bring ,could at least be understood.:)
I thought the RZ was a 350- Cycle Canada called that one ‘the streetsquirrel’s ultimate wet dream’.