Mini-Me Pillions

[Henriettaah]

What is the youngest age pillions people have taken on the back of their bikes?

My son is four and, now I've passed my test and am allowed, I really want to get him kitted up and take him out - though admittedly, at this age, it would at first be no more than ten minutes round the block!

What age is considered just tooooo young?

His legs are now long enough to easily reach the pegs, and he has an understanding of what happens if he lets go whilst moving i.e. : you fly off and get badly injured. He's been up and down our road (300 yards) with me on the LC before now and did well i.e. listened to me saying "hold tight and don't move around!"

Opinions?

[dieziege]

When I was 8 or 9 I sometimes rode on the back of people's bikes... I think that's a good age 'cause when I fell off I was young and light enough not to be seriously hurt and old enough not to start screaming the second I saw blood.

Seriously though... don't do what those people did (which was to dump me and sometimes themselves off the back after about 10 feet because they were jerks who couldn't handle the throttle) and younger would be fine... but four seems a bit too young to me. At that size they'll mostly be seeing your back anyway.

Four is a good age to start them on a dirtbike of their own though...at least that's the age most of my neighbors start their whelps.

[Henriettaah]

Hmmm... mini-moto's are popular amongst the great unwashed round here, they are also popular with the police who like to confiscate them (they are illegal, 99.9999% of the time). I do think that it would be too risky to give him his own throttle, although I've been thinking about getting a motoX bike to take us both greenlaning (legal offroading) - but I reckon that has a bigger risk of dumping us both in the mud/dirt!

[Z (fka Sweet Tooth)]

My son's 11 and has his own gear, I'll only let him ride pillon on the Gold Wing, and just to bike nights and stuff close to the house. Not that it's any safer but it's alot amoother ride that the other bikes. My daughter is 9 but she can't sit still for 2 minutes.

[dieziege]

Around here it's more like this:



They go buzzing around like a bunch of mad buzzy things.

Except honestly I've never seen any training wheels.

[Henriettaah]

Now that looks an even mini-er me!

Seriously, the idea of son + access to petrol engine doesn't seem right yet

[Mintbread]

I wouldn't take my eldest on the bike until she was at least a teenager, so when she turned thirteen I finally had to let her on. I plan on doing the same with my other two children as well.
Small children are just too fragile to be put in harms way like that.

[NorthernPete]

my wife has told me not until hes 10. I agree, they have to be able to reach the pegs and understand whats going on.

[DieMonkeys]

My dad used to take me out when I was 6 and even my brother as well (he was about 5). He's the main reason for my interest in motorcycles. I'd say the best age is when they can get their arms at least partly around your waist so they can grab on. Heck, you could even get one of those belts that has loops on the sides for them to grab onto.

[Henriettaah]

You mean these..? http://tinylink.com/?MvWVkrQrRV