It’s interesting how some pillions get it and others don’t.
My partner is (how can I say this?) vertically challenged, and quite light, yet she is an awful pillion.
I had to give one of my mates a lift to view a car outside London a while back, and he is not a small lad (too many Guinnesses), I wasn’t looking forward to it but for some reason I can’t remember I didn’t have a car at the time so the big fella clambered on. It was no bother. I won’t say I wasn’t aware of him: the braking and acceleration were clearly different, but he was a lot less effort on the bike than my much lighter partner. It probably helps that he is a biker too.
My daughter has been on the back of my bicycles since she was a baby, she’s been pillion on the motorbikes since aged seven. Now she is an adult-sized teenager. She is effortless on the back. The only way I know she is there is the non-stop babble through the intercom.
I didn’t think that was even possible but seems it is!
Do you mean a sidecar with a bike that can still lean?
If so, you’re definitely old enough to remember the sidewinder that came out when they dropped the L plate limit from 250cc to 125cc in the early 80s. It was marketed to learners on the grounds could still ride their LC250s, X7s etc.
That was an interesting read, at £199 they weren’t cheap! Old enough to remember but I have no memories of such a thing, parallel universe shift? I passed my Catagory A test 12 weeks after my 16th birthday so much of the post 1970 legislation didn’t apply to me and I was already on ‘big bikes’. The headliner legislation I do remember was when 16 year olds were restricted to 50 cc mopeds (1973) the wearing of a crash helmet became compulsory (1973) and when we all took off our front number plates (1974).
The 1980’s were my Cortina (family) years