more passenger comfort?

The new g/f likes to ride with me and I kinda enjoy having her along too. I managed to get some air on a fun road near my house which had her giggling and holding on tight :D and she's hooked on riding with me. Experience so far is the bike works moderately well 2-up, but could really use the rear suspension worked over and maybe a big bore kit too... but the biggest issue is the seat. She's not a big fan of the passenger accommodations on the WRR. Any tips or suggestions to make the pillion a more comfortable place to be? Seat to peg length is ok for her, but the seat itself isn't terribly comfortable. I'm thinking of trying some sort of seat cushion first, possibly moving to a custom seat, but I'd love to hear some suggestions before I go off hacking the seat up or the like. Worst case, especially if she sticks around, is to move to a bigger bike (leaning towards a wee strom or F800GS) and cutting back on the trail work for more travel...

Maybe get a small Air Hawk for her to sit on?

I'm with you on the wee strom.. My wife has been mildly interested after years of seeing all the cool photos i get.. & i tell her most are on easy gravel roads. If she will agree to ride with me sometime, i'm going to pick up a good used wee for the 2 up riding. I'm afraid if i try putting her on the back of the wr, it will spell the end of her riding.

A lot of guys here seem to like the wee/wr combo. Riding 2 up you don't get into very gnarly stuff, anyway, so might as well have a bit more power & comfort. If i had the money, i saw one in the tucson CL.. like new, low miles, late model. Maybe later this year or next i can swing it. The big question is whether the missus will take a chance & live dangerously..

Wee.

Best of both worlds!

The Wee Strom is decent 2-up, took the passenger pegs off the R², not much point in even trying it. My wife points at Goldwings and says, "I might ride on one of those".

Unfortunately I'm in the position of only being able to have one bike for a while, so its not an adding a bike scenario for the time being.

Air hawks are pricey! Wowweee... gonna try a camping seat pad from REI or something first I think and go from there. Maybe. Shouldn't have sat on those triumph's today... street triple feels oh so right and the thruxton is sexy (even if neither works any better with a passenger )

rydnseek wrote:

I'm with you on the wee strom.. My wife has been mildly interested after years of seeing all the cool photos i get.. & i tell her most are on easy gravel roads. If she will agree to ride with me sometime, i'm going to pick up a good used wee for the 2 up riding. I'm afraid if i try putting her on the back of the wr, it will spell the end of her riding.

A lot of guys here seem to like the wee/wr combo. Riding 2 up you don't get into very gnarly stuff, anyway, so might as well have a bit more power & comfort. If i had the money, i saw one in the tucson CL.. like new, low miles, late model. Maybe later this year or next i can swing it. The big question is whether the missus will take a chance & live dangerously..

My wife misses my Wee more than I do... wait, that sounds bad...

I had the Hebko Becker Jr bags on my DL650 and she liked the back rest. She really enjoyed riding on it with me. The big 1150 Adventure is too hard for her to get on and off.

get her to try padded bike shorts under her pants - ( the ones for Tour de France type bikes ) They may feel goofy at first but they made a huge difference for wife while riding around 2up on the X .

Quote :

Worst case, especially if she sticks around, is to move to a bigger
bike (leaning towards a wee strom or F800GS) and cutting back on the
trail work for more travel...

Okay... So I'm reading into the predicament that the worst case is that she actually sticks around and you have to trade mounts.

My response would be:

1) Never pick YOUR motorcycle for a potential spouse.

2) Attempt to choose your potential spouse as a potential riding mate.

- "Honey, I know this is getting serious so I bought you your own WR ! "

3) If #2 fails, then eventually you'll need an escape path

- You better find a way to make an excuse if she likes it that much, or you'll be riding a GS/SV solo

Seat-wise... No back seat (in my mind) is that comfortable without the influence of adrenaline (e.g. actually holding the handlebars).

Chamois lined/padded liners are all I can imagine to improve comfort.

Edit: Just for context, my wife has three bikes (SVS the WR and a CRF).

It doesn't hurt that I wouldn't mind a larger, faster bike too. So much of riding is on the pavement, and as good as the WRR is its not the ideal high speed cruiser.

One of our newest members is selling his Wee.....

skierd wrote:

It doesn't hurt that I wouldn't mind a larger, faster bike too. So much of riding is on the pavement, and as good as the WRR is its not the ideal high speed cruiser.

No argument there.... ....thereby defending the three (in my case four) bikes per-person kaleidoscope of rubber types in our garage.

You (people) can try it all you (they) want, but in reality, one size never fits all.

X-Racer wrote:

You (people) can try it all you (they) want, but in reality, one size never fits all.

As an X owner, it doesn't for me either. Love both my WRX and Triumph STripler. Now I just need to get the old Norton and vintage Honda 2-smoke on the road too!

Back on topic: Of my 4 real bikes, I think only the Norton is suitable for 2-up riding.

Wow, tough situation to solve ... bottom line is that the seating arrangement on the WR² is never going to be comparatively comfy without affecting other aspects of what the bike was intended for.

Any chance she would like to ride herself, finding a used xt225 or something might be as cheap as doing a decent job making the WR² a two-up bike???