A passenger on the back can have an enormous effect on the stability of your motorcycle. Ensuring they are in the right position and doing the right thing, is critical to the safety of you both.
Ensure you go through a suitable briefing, and that your passenger understands how they need to become ‘one’ with the motorcycle. Effectively, you want your pillion to become like a top box on the back of your bike - utterly predictable and doing nothing to upset the machine at any speed.
As a passenger mounts or dismounts, stand with both legs on the ground to best brace yourself. On sloping ground have first gear engaged as a brake, so both your hands are free, and hold the bars.
If your bike is tall or has panniers, passengers should mount as if it was a horse, using the left footrest to step up and swing their right leg over, while holding onto your shoulders. If the footrest isn't strong enough, they'll have to slide their right boot over the passenger seat from the left, following it until seated.
On bikes with low seats, they can either stand on the left and swing their right leg over the rear of the bike, or slide a leg over the seat. Positioning the bike next to a kerb helps.
Passengers should sit close to your back, especially when starting and stopping, riding at slow speeds or in wet conditions. You may occasionally bang helmets, but that's better than a passenger moving around.
Passengers should adjust their body and hand positions depending on what you’re doing. In normal braking and acceleration they should be able to sit with hands on knees and use their stomach and back muscles to counter any force. In hard or downhill braking and uphill acceleration, holding a rear grab handle is best. (If a passenger is sliding into you, you’ll need to resist using your upper body with knees gripping tank. Don’t brace with your arms.)
