Tell me about riding with a child passenger.

[oldbike54]

 Might be time to put the mechanical "bull" back in the barn 

 Dusty

[stevet]

The epilogue to my original inquiry: my nephew has decided to hold off purchasing a motorcycle until his daughter is older.  He wants to spend those formative years with her rather than being out on a ride while she's at home.  (It's not like she would be out with him for every ride anyway.)

I had sent him a link to this thread in its early days, so maybe he read some of your words.

Thanks,
Steve.

[johnr]

This business of people going to sleep on the back is an interesting one. 

I had it happen rather a lot on the back of my BSA Rocket 3. This even included on some occasions rather nervous (initially) first time on a bike people! 

I'm not sure why this was so on that bike.  It may have been a combination of factors.

*A comfortable passenger seat without a back rest. (The R3 s weight distribution, handling etc was all set up for 2 people as factory standard)
*The fact that I consciously rode more smoothly and gently when with a passenger.
*The drone the exhausts made.

Who knows.  Only once did any of those people start to fall off. He was drunk though and further more had a gladstone bag full of booze on his knees between us. This prevented him from sitting in the way that I like my passengers to sit  and left him free to unstably wobble around on the back.

While the incident above ultimately led to the nastiest prang I've ever had, in every other case bar none the passengers helmet would rest on my back and the passenger just stayed there. Often I didn't even know they had been asleep.

It's a weird thing.

[Muzz]

When my wife and I got married back in '71 we had an instant family, no money and i had a low paid job. What we did have were two pushrod Honda 50 cubs, the old C100. At aged a bit over two our son was on the back and when our daughter arrived she was on the back aged two. As the money situation improved we changed my wife's C100 to a C90 stepthrough; both kids still rode on the back.

Fast forward ...........years and son is still on bikes. Our daughter's daughters love getting on the back of the quadbike when they come out here on holiday. The fact that both our grand-daughters appear to be petrol heads in the making prompted our son-in-law to remark that "my genes have a lot to answer to".

[m13]

WOW! an interesting thread for sure
I have said that my number one responsibility as a parent is/was my children's safety. Whatever threshold of risk a parent choses and defends is their choice. I am NOT making any "good parent/Bad Parent" judgements any more than any of the rest have. Seems the sleeping theme has dominated the discussion, all well and full of information, and only a little bit of sharing, maybe? on the other dangers as a passenger of a total, asphalt tumbling, both down and vulnerable to cars and guardrails and inertia with body mass at high speed outcomes. Perhaps more? likely a reality than falling off while sleeping. We know that the Best and experienced riders are subject to a crash, no matter what their skill level, real or imagined. Now, having said all that, What I HAVE noticed, and will gladly accept correction/enlightenment is,..are there any mothers chiming in? ( I don't know many of you here, so I may have overlooked a few Mothers?) I would guess there are as many opinions in that subset as there are from you fathers who have shared their opinions. Bring those mothers to the table, the forum's microphone and have them also chime in.Those mothers who feel their child's passenger benefits exceed their risks as well as those who wrap their children in fluff to protect them from all dangers in life. I know, just a wild thought getting the mother/mothers of your children to participate here, especially on this topic, but would be certainly an interesting experiment?, just for fun?, disclosing to them all the crazy things we have exposed our/their children to with out the mother's knowledge! Just a friendly poke, just a friendly imaginary tangent . It's all good. Just an early morning rant,.. peace be with you.