My kids have been riding as pillions on the occational short ride - since they were three (less than 20 kms). For the first couple of years I used a special child seat for motorcycles, complete with stirrups. I've used a special harness with handles on them - strapping the child to the rider (I preferred the seat, although they can be used in combination). The last few years I have not used any of these safety measures as the kids are getting big and can now reach the footpegs (also there are some risks with these safety measures as well as the kids won't clear the bike or the rider as easily in the event of an accident).

Before, when I used the extra safety measures, I was never concerned about the kids falling asleep. As I no longer use them, I am. I therefore never take trips longer than I know I can keep them awake (less than 30 minutes in my daugters case). I would now like to go further and would like your opinions.

My number one concern is my kids falling off in their sleep - though I have never heard that happening to any pillion - ever.

My second concern is that their sleepy heads, being tilted, could cause more severe injury in the event of an accident. A neck brace could probably be the answer to this latter problem though.

I am not too concerned about the dead weight's effect on handling. It takes a lot of riding together before a pillion and rider acts as one, and I am yet to be so fortunate to experience such a thing for myself. The kids are not exactly heavy weight either.

I would like to start taking my kids on rides beyond my back yard...

What are your thoughts?

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I have certainly had pillions fall asleep on the back, I had a girlfriend who on long motorway journeys would rest her head against my back and sleep for 15-30 minutes which was slightly disconcerting but never caused a problem, I think you are right to be concerned but I do not have a solution beyond the safety harness you have used before.

Like Mark I've had people fall asleep on the back on long rides, and felt them start to slide to one side or another as sleep took over. Had I not been very aware if it and used my elbows to nudge them back upright it could well have ended badly. A number of times I've caught pillions actually in the act of falling off and in some really bad cases, where we really had to keep going, we roped ourselves together to stop them moving. The problem is that sleepy slippage starts slowly but ends quickly, so if you're distracted by traffic or something and miss the warning signs it can end badly very quickly. I have seen someone fall off the back of a bike (when they fainted). Fortunately it was at low speed so no damage was done but having that happen on a busy road doesn't warrant thinking about.

I know that most of my sleepy pillions were other people's children but while I've taken my kids on the back of my bikes for rides of various lengths I wouldn't continue if I felt them nodding off. No techno fixes, no harnesses, electric shocks, glue, rubber rings or anything like that; if they can't stay awake, we stop.

I have also had an adult fall asleep on the back. We were on the M4 and I luckily saw him start falling in my mirror. I stuck my arm back and held him up while getting to the hard shoulder where I had to stall to a halt because my clutch arm was holding him up. He was still asleep and I had no choice but to let him fall.
When my daughters are on the back I try to regularly communicate when possible and at speed/on the motorway I grab a knee from time to time or even deliberately duck to give them a wind blast.
I think the answer is probably helmet comms.

2002 in Thailand I had a hired V-Max with my wife on the back and our three year-old daughter sandwiched between us. When we disembarked we discovered that our daughter was out for the count.

Given my wife's propensity to fall asleep on a washing line I could well have been done for riding three-up with a two-thirds majority fast asleep.

My wife's slept for what by now must be into the thousands of miles on the back. the first indication is when the front of her helmet taps into the back of mine - that wakes her up - at which point I sit a little more upright, so the next 'tap' is between my shoulder blades and she generally stays asleep; I then settle forward once again and she sinks down with me to sleep comfortably provided that it's a motorway/major highway, she'll sleep for hours. A few years ago she slept the whole way across Switzerland and only woke when I pulled into a petrol station in France.
She is a bit selfish about it though: As I say, she's slept for thousands of miles on the back and I've never complained, whilst I've only once gone to a sleep on the front and it was less than half a mile before she was waking me up annoyed and shouting.

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BobnLes

When I worked behind the bar at a motorcycle rock club it was quite usual for the guys to take their very drunk girlfriends home on their bike.

They would take their girls arms out of their jackets and tie them around their waists. Like some kind of sling.

Hilarious to watch. That was only 20 or so years ago. It would never happen now in the world of CCTV.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
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Can't say anymore.

Heck, that problem is easy to solve.

Ride the moto like you stole it, drag the pegs, lift the front wheel from time to time - if the kids are sufficiently terrified, they won't fall asleep and you can be sure they will be holding on as tightly as they possibly can.

Michael

I've done that when riding pillion and had others do it when I've been 'up front'. It can get annoying when the wind whips the pages around and everyone I've seen doing it in recent years have been using Kindles. Easy on something like a GoldWing with a backrest and side arms to rest your elbows on.

I've had a young (6) rider start to nod off on an city Interstate. Scared me, hit his leg, went to the shoulder, let him walk for a while, got him home fast. I was a lot more aware after that.

Back in my younger days I regularly used bungee cords around us both to keep one girlfriend secured on the pillion - she'd a low tolerance to alcohol.

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BobnLes