MontyCarlo wrote:.........I would also suggest you ride solo for at least 6 months/1000 miles before putting someone on the pillion....
ditto...
ditto also. As far as the helmet is concerned, I would buy one. Especially if you have a lady friend, she might like it and want to spend more time on it. As far as the neighboorhood is concerned, don't let your gurad down. A quiet suburban neighboorhood can still have oil in the street, sand/rocks on the side of the road, balls flying in to the street, chasing dogs etc... you get the picture .
First get at least 6 months, or 1000 miles under your belt before taking a passenger.
Folks occasionally ask for a ride on my BMW, and the easiest way to deflect the request without hurting anyone's feelings is to ask if they have their OWN helmet. I've only had one person respond, "As a matter of fact I do."
Then I had to bite the bullet and tell them no. He was only half serious in his request anyhow.
P
Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity - Alice Paul
My initial helmet was an HJC AC-11, I latered ordered an HJC CL-15 with the intentions of keeping it as a backup/passenger helmet. I tried the CL-15 on myself, and it fit me better than the AC-11 - putting no pressure on the tops of my ears, or the ends of my earpieces (glasses). There is a lot of "discussion" with regards to helmets, and opinions vary a great deal. I'll stick to HJC as they are affordable, and both Snell and DOT approved. I noticed quite a lot of HJC helmeted racers for the AMA Superbike races @ Barber (round 2) back in April as well.
I'll echo the suggestions to go ahead and get a spare helmet. Better to have and not need, than need and not have. I will not, I say again - WILL NOT - ride without a helmet. Period. A friend of my father's died in his garage. He was backing his bike up, slipped, and cracked his skull open on the floor - he was dead when his wife found him on the floor. His helmet was still on the helmet lock.
I'm not sure where the 6 months / 1000 miles figure comes from. I put 1412 miles on my SV in 6 days. Various circumstances (namely Operation Iraqi Freedom III) have limited the time I've actually had appropriate access to my bike to ride it to roughly 4 months. I've got 6000 miles on it now. While my SV is the first motorcycle I've owned, it is far from the first I've ridden - just to be clear. That said, my personal recommendation is to have your first passenger be an experienced rider/passenger. They will be able to give you pointers, and advice from real world experience after the ride.
Once at speed, riding with a passenger is little different from riding solo - it's the slow speed manuevers that increase in difficulty by an order of magnitude. None of it is impossible, just don't bite off more than you can chew.
An HJC CS-10 is fairly cheap and decent quality, and as stated previously, will not only give you one that a potential passenger can use, but also gives you a spare if something happens to your primary.
I wound up having a spare almost by accident. For three years, I had only one helmet (two years as a passenger myself, then one year with my own bike). When I bought my KLR, I quickly found out that a full face helmet really sucks when doing slow speed off road stuff on hot days. I went out and bought myself a Motocross helmet for the times when I want to do more off-road stuff.
Having the spare helmet allowed me to take my gf for a ride whenever she wanted one. She liked riding so much that she has decided to get her own bike, so in the last couple of weeks we got her her own helmet, boots, jacket, and gloves. She's now keeping her eyes open for a decent pair of overpants as well, and just waiting on the financing to come through for her own bike - an '06 Ninja 500.
Next time you just want to go around the block for a few minutes find a brick wall. Now, run at it as fast as you can and slam into it. You will probably only be going 10-12mph when you impact. When you wake up think about what would happen at double that speed.
Also, I took my first rider the other week on my 250. It was very unsettling. The bike couldn't stop like it should and I felt like I was going to fall over on slow turns. I could also VERY easily tell when the passenger leaned or shifted . My passenger weighed about 130 pounds and I weigh 190-200 in gear.
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