AIBU & WWYD DH & DD1 motorbike trip....

[Babylon1]

DH and dd1 (7yo) are planning to go off to top of Scotland on DHs motorbike for approx a week in July.

I'm shit scared something bad will happen while they are away, and the last few nights it's played on my mind :(

DH says I'm bring daft and they'll be fine. He is a safe rider, but it's other road users that bother me.

DD has been on bike before, she has ALL the necessary safety wear and is comfortable on the bike. They will be doing a mixture of camping/travel inn and b&b.

Do I let her go? I will be at home with small DCs during this trip.

I could have written your post last week!

My DH is going on a trip to Scotland on his bike with my DF and Dbro. He said that he would like to take DD with him, (who is also 7) and did I think it would be ok.

Now DD also has the neccesary equipment and is comfortable on the back, but has only ever been short distances with him. I suggested that Scotland was indeed a long way off and as such I imagined she would get rather bored rather quickly and I didn't want her to stop paying attention or god forbid, fall asleep on the back.

Based on this he decided that she probably was too young to do such a long trip and so he is not taking her. Had it been somewhere within an hour's reach, I would have been O.K. with it. (Worried sick until they called but O.K.).

Good Luck

Oh god, the defibrillator thread was mine too

Ok, going from Derbyshire straight up M1 and A1M

DD already has her own bike and rides well and does sit very well as a pillion.

They have intercom, so anytime she needs anything she can just talk and dad can hear her.

DH has made a much higher cissy bar for the bike which also doubles as a luggage rack, so no danger of DD just falling off - for her it will be like sitting in an armchair!!

7 is too young for such a long journey on bike.

I used to ride pillion when dh had his (very fast) bike. We went all the wa to Cornwall from London for the eclipse. Rained the whole way and was arse shatteringly uncomfortable. You need to stay alert on back, and I would imagine a 7 year old (ds1 is that age) getting incredibly bored. Not like you can easily converse or spend time sleeping/reading etc. when ds gets bored he gets wriggly. When he is uncomfortable he gets wriggly (as did I, but as an adult I was able to ignore it). Wriggly on back of bike is not a good idea at all.

Oh and bike is a tourer, not a sports bike - not that this makes much difference

Life is a continual decison about the relative risks of each activity.

I know my DD is at risk form being hit by a ca as she walks home where there is no pavement, but she also needs to learn independence.

Your DD and Dh will have a wonderful time if they go, but are there other ways they could have fun with less risk.

Knowing some of the Scottish roads, single track, not well maintained always, wet, the risk of a deer jumping out in front of you etc, I would not allow my DD to go. This is keeping in mind that your DH is a safe driver, but he can not always know what is just round the next bend.

Well it does make a difference in terms of comfort . Sports bikes are not made for long journeys (whole body aching at the memory).

And in terms of her not falling off, well that also is good (obviously).

I dunno - I suppose it's just that I cannot imagine ds1 coping. Nor dd (nearly 9). But your dd is obviously used to riding pillion, unlike mine (dh sold bike when kids were born, not because of safety but because when dd was little neither of us had much opportunity for time consuming hobbies. Though he did come off just before he sold it, oil leak on road, slow speed and all ok but he was a bit shaken).

Getting splinters because have veered from "no way" to thinking "I don't know".

I hate to frighten anyone but less than two months ago my uncle, an experienced biker who had been all over Europe on his bike, had a serious accident on the ten minute journey home from work.

He was killed instantly, he was forty eight.

The utter devastation it has left behind, his five sisters left without a brother, his mother left without a son, his wife without a husband and his kids without a father, is incomprehensible.

Please please PLEASE ask your husband to sell his bike and never ever allow your daughter onto it. They all say the same thing 'it won't happen to me', my uncle thought the same thing. They absolutely terrify me now and I have told my DP who always dreamed of owning a bike that if he, or our DS ever bring a bike back to my house I will personally smash it into tiny tiny pieces and then set fire to the wreck.

My DH commutes on his bike and my two DSs love going riding with him into town etc, but such a long journey would be uncomfortable for her I think and with all this rain we are having I know from DH it makes the roads more dangerous.

I would let them go, you said yourself that your DH is a safe rider and so is obviously experienced enough, and that your DD has been on the bike before and is comfortable, so I don't see a problem. We can all obsess about the other road users but the fact remains that an accident could happen whether they were on the bike or not, I don't mean that to sound harsh BTW. My dad rides bikes and used to go on the back of his from a young age, I now ride bikes myself, possibly the reason why I see no problem. But from the information you have given, I don't see why a trip to Scotland should be any different from a trip to town, same bike, same riders, same road users, same risk.

Out of the 30-odd bikers I've known since I was in my 20s, six are now dead:

One died riding his bike (and the way he rode it really was just a matter of time),
Two died in separate car accidents (neither was the fault of my friends, one of whom left behind a wife and two small children),
Two were found dead in their homes due to illnesses,
One committed suicide.

Bugger. I'm all sad now :(

I wouldn't like it and would think it an unneccesary risk. Yes let him go and have his holiday alone with DD if they want to, but say you'd rather he took a car or the camper van (which is a lot more practical, surely?).

Bike accidents are comparitively high but bike accidents involving an experienced rider on a touring, with a child as pillion (so therefore your DH will be taking even more care than normal) have got to be about as low-risk a motorcyclist category as you can get.

I come from a family of bikers - I'd have no problem with this holiday at all.

Life is full of risks, but as someone who lost my Dad in an accident (dangerous sport), I would never put my 7 yrold in that position.
I just don't get the mindset.
I'm not some freak-my 10 yrold walks to school on his own, my 7yrolds cross small roads without me, but letting them travel at high speed on the back of a bike? I just don't get it.
We honestly do have fun and stuff without having to do this.
It's like how I feel about smoking-yes it was nice, but inherently risky so, now I'm mature enough to know better, I won't do it and I'll try and put my kids off doing it.
I actually didn't realsie this was legal.
To me, it's a bit like seatbelts-can't believe we didn't use to have them.Hopefully people will think that about children on the back of motorbikes.

I sound like a nutter don't I?
On a practical note, we drove kids from east midlands to northumberland last week, they were all bored, fidgety and 1 fell asleep-and that was in a car.

It doesn't matter how safe and experienced your DH is, sadly. All it takes is some other idiot, and there are plenty of those unfortunately.

I think she is too young at 7, tbh. That is a long way to ride pillion.

I wouldn't be againts it if she was older, but dd was 11 I think before she went any distance on the back of a bike.

defineme, "but letting them travel at high speed on the back of a bike? I just don't get it."

This is where this type of discussion gets silly and common sense goes out the window. Who the hell said anything about the DD going "at high speed"? Certainly not the OP!

So they're going to travel all that way at 30mph then? On a motorway?

Oh god what a decision. I think I would be physically sick with worry the whole time. But what an amazing experience for your dd. How many hours riding a day would it be?

I doubt it, badtaste, because that would be dangerous.

Don't know how practical a suggestion this is (and I should be doing my ironing and not worrying about your family problems!) but, could he not take the bike in the back of the campervan and travel up to Scotland in that then once there, use the motorbike to zip around with daughter on the back. That way, they get to do the trip and have some time together, but they haven't freaked you out by doing the long journey exposed on the bike?

I think 7 is too young to be comfortable riding pillion up & down the motorways/B roads of Scotland...could they take the Camper Van & put his bike in the back(unlikey given the size of most tourers!)/on a trailer?

If they do go, it sounds like they'll have a lovely time & obv. a tourer is the best bike to do it one!

backatcha Graham

IMO travelling on a motorway = 'high speed'

Anyways

I took my son (I am a girl) on the back of my motorcycle from Hampshire to France, and back. We went for a weeks holiday. Stopped off plenty on the way, including a kip, and we both had a thoroughly good time.

He wore all the correct safety gear, and we devised a method so that he could tell me he needed to stop for a rest or a pee break.

He was also 7 at the time.