Arm rests on R1150RT

[BMWfan]

Well, the problem with having friends with Goldwings is that my passenger now thinks arm rests are a needed accessory! Anyone with experience or advice?

[tallman]

Difficult for the pillion to participate using armrests.

 

Get an intercom and involve the passenger in the ride.

 

[BMWfan]

There is a certain fear factor that she thinks arm rests will help. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[Kouros]

When my wife was a teenager she had a ride with someone who thought it was cute to scare her on a motorcycle. She swore to never ride again until last year when I took baby steps to help her get over her fear at age 50....and I mean baby steps..... 100 yards and back, 200 yards and back...etc. Now we go for long distance rides from LA to Santa Barbara.

I've resisted her asking for arm rests and never added anything more than the rear rear case. She will not ride without the rear case. As stated above, the inter-comm helped a lot. I make her participate in the ride by having her do the hand signals, look backs and loo over my shoulders on corners. Take tallman's suggestion and involve her. Best of luck to you both.

 

Kouros

[tallman]

There is a certain fear factor that she thinks arm rests will help. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

Understandable.

 

Is she ATGATT?

Wearing good comfotable gear/gloves/boots/helmet?

 

I'd suggest short destination rides she likes with stops at someplace she likes.

Eventually increase number of destinations or miles.

Introduce her to grab rails, hands on hips, head position, foot pressure, looking over your shoulder, following your helmet/lead.

Have her do the waving at other bikes.

 

A lot of things to take her mind off outcome (-) and stay in the now (+).

 

My wife stopped riding as kids grew up.

We started again with 50 mile loops, then 50 miles one way, then 2 of the 50 mile destinations, etc to increase physical stamina, my skills, and introduce her to weather and riding in it.

 

Built up to a couple hundred miles.

Got her summer/winter sets/boots/numerous gloves/great helmet before that.

 

Then did a weekend 3 day trip to the mountains of 1500 miles.

After that she was on board mentally and spiritually.

Off the bike for a while, thought of selling, she wouldn't let me.

 

Best wishes.

[SageRider]

I understand the issue.

From a touring bike perspective, passenger ergonomics on the 1100/1150 are terrible.

The only hand grips are the rack behind the passenger seat.

The foot position is terrible for the passenger to be able to maintain position during abrupt deceleration.

The trunk (if used) hits very low on the back of the passenger and if the passenger is surprised by a fast acceleration, the weight shift will loft your front tire quite high as the passenger literally bends backwards over the trunk.

The trunk also does not "cup" the passenger in position.

 

I am not aware of any armrests out there.

 

On my 1100 I acquired a BuddyBelt ( http://www.buddybelt.com/ ).

This was a big help for my passenger.

Maybe this or something similar would help in your case.

 

FWIW, the R1200-RT corrects all of the above ergonomic issues.

 

[BMWfan]

Thanks for all the Great suggestions! We are working our way up to a long trip this summer. A 200 mile day with frequent stops has gone well, she is just concerned about falling off after multiple days. We will keep working!

[tallman]

Passengers fall asleep more than rarely back there.

Haven't lost one yet.

[Peter Parts]

+1... can't believe it when girl-friends long ago used to sleep on long afternoons on the road. Another place I'll offer my 2-cents on gender psychology.

 

Arm-rests... sure harms the esthetics. Funny thing is there are never forces to the side on a bike (unlike a car). Since brakes have "more HP" than engines, forward motion is the biggest force like in emergency braking. But the "driver" is there to stop passenger from sliding forward.

 

Long ago, a BMW buddy (a famous engineer at Bell Labs) created a strong belt (which he wore) with hand-grasps for his wife. If you think about the ergos and the forces, that location makes sense.

 

My excellent wife rather likes a back stop. I designed an alternative to the wobbly ill-designed POS Corbin supplies - see write-up URL below.

 

A good thread question, indeed. Dunno about you Boy Scouts, but I sure dislike being apart from the missus for any length of time... for reasons too prurient to mention. Good luck, BMWfan.

 

Ben

[SageRider]

Passengers fall asleep more than rarely back there.

Haven't lost one yet.

Ditto.

Also, you will know when the passenger falls asleep as invariably you will get a helmet to helmet thunk. Real easy at that point to wake the passenger and, if necessary for the passenger's peace of mind, find a place to stop for a few minutes.

[BMWfan]

Okay, adopted many of the suggestions here, i.e., good boots, jacket, talked through participating. We did a 150 mile ride with a much greater comfort level for my pillion. The biggest difference, though, was raising the windshield to deflect air. Thanks for all the thoughtful input!

[OoPEZoO]

My wife was terrified of bikes when we met. She had the typical story of someone irresponsibly scaring the hell out of her on the back of a crotch rocket in her early 20's. I had my GSXR at the time, but we gradually worked into it. Frequent stops and talking about things/situations that happened along the way really help. If she shifted her weight mid corner, we would talk about it at the next stop. I wouldn't just tell her "Don't do that". We would talk about why she shouldn't do it, and what effect it has on the handling of the bike. At that time, we didn't have an intercom so we worked off a lot of knee squeezes and shoulder taps, but it worked.

 

Fast forward a few years to when I bought my RT. I bought it around March and had a cross country trip to CA and back planned for August. It had an intercom that worked OK sometimes and other times not. We took a few shake down runs, but probably not more than a few hundred miles total. She flew out to Washington State and rode along for a week down the coast of California, and eventually flew home from Reno. She slept on the back of the bike for hours during that trip, and by the end I didn't even know she was back there.

 

That was back in '05. She has since become an excellent co-pilot. The recent addition of a good intercom has really helped. Now we talk all the time while riding, and she gets a kick out of me swearing at myself when I take a crappy line. She prefered the RT to the GS, but still does well. For some reason she feels like she can fall off the GS, she said she always felt more secure on the RT.

[Kouros]

BMWfan,

Look what I found. It was affordable at $30 so I bought it anyway although my wife has gotten used to holding my sides.

 

Oxford Rider's Grip.

 

 

[BMWfan]

Would you share your thoughts on intercom systems? That is next on the list!

[Kouros]

I purchased a set of Cardo Scala Rider G4. Pretty straight forward with both iPhone and Android/Droid based mobile phones. The issue I had with was that the module that comes off the Mic boom has gold plated tabs. The first time I popped the modules, I broke the tabs. It happened on my wife's unit too. I returned under warranty and got it fixed. This happened the second time again and I was frustrated. Communication was easy and great. However.....

The group I ride with all had SENA SMH10. So I purchased a set and quickly found out that SMH10 is even easier with just 2 buttons to do the same work Scala Rider does with 5.

 

I keep my wife engaged by having her participate in riding and now its much more fun.

[biometrics]

Kouros,

 

Nice belt at a nice price... I saw one of those online, but they were asking $65.00 for it plus shipping... went to Walmart and bought a leather weight lifting belt and two nice bicycle handgrips and made my own for less than $20... BUT, my wife doesn't like to use it...

[Kouros]

That's pretty smart....hehehe interesting idea!

[tallman]

The problem I see with the belt is that has the passenger pulling the handle rather than resting hands on hips.

Pulling can be contrary to direction of movement or exacerbate it.

Hands on hips allows passenger to feel the change the rider

is doing and mimic.

YMMV

[ElevenFifty]

Probably want to start a new thread re intercoms ... but here's my take.

 

A starcom1 Advanced or Digital model allows you to do just about anything you want with pillion - music - phone - gps - FRS radio. The only limitation is the cable that runs to the helmet BUT ... no batteries to recharge or replace.

 

Also - I believe that a Starcom Bluetooth module that just services the Starcom/helmet communication is in the offing ... The effect will be a wireless helmet with NO loss of capability otherwise.

 

I looked hard at Scala and Sena (preferred the Sena) but, while less expensive than a Starcom, I couldn't get around the (perceived) limitations. I could be wrong.

[BMWfan]

Sena and Scala are intriguing because of the wireless possibilities, but there do seem to be limitations. I am having trouble figuring out why BT systems don't seem to support FRS radios? Can anyone enlighten me on systems?

[BMWfan]

Just a note to say thank you to everyone who offered the benefit of your experiences. I outfitted my better half with a decent jacket, boots, gloves, and a sena system. 3375 mile trip including six national parks made this a wildly successful use of advice. I also figured out the beauty of the adjustable windscreen to keep her out of the wind. Thank you all for your generous advice!