Child motorcycle pillions

[ar125alive]

Hi. What are your views on carrying children as pillions on motorbikes? My seven-year-old's feet reach the pillion footpegs so it's legal. I have over 20 years' experience as a motorcyclist. Is seven too young? What age is acceptable? Thanks.

I took DS2 to his first day at school on mine, but it did have a huuuuuuge cissy bar!

Wow. So was DS2 five? Thanks for the reply. The bike's a GPZ500 which has a grab rail. We'll try going round the block first. To be honest, my biggest worry is disapproval from other parents (not to mention OH).

DS2 had turned 5 a few days earlier, but his feet reached the pegs, he had a properly-fitted lid... You will get disapproval, that's inevitable. My bike at the time was a heavily-customised SilverWing, aka the Plastic Maggot, and thoroughly outdated now; DS2 is approaching 22yo! But a GPZ500 isn't exactly a sportsbike, and if you ride responsibily there's no reason you shouldn't take a suitably-booted-and-suited 7 yo pillion.

I am going back about 20 years, but I also had a trike, built from spare parts and a Reliant engine; weirdly, people saw that as "safer" than the bike. It really wasn't.

But it was loads of fun.

Oldladyknowsnothing- you sound amazing

No, not amazing, but we assessed risks and made our own choices, back in the day, same as you are doing now. Good luck to you.

I am a biker and was a bit stunned when I found out that causualties per mile for bikers are eleven times what they are for car drivers.

I've never had a fatal or near-fatal bike accident, but it gives me pause for thought.

It's not necessarily the bikers fault; but if a stone falls on an egg, alas for the egg. If an egg falls on a stone... alas for the egg

Hi PigletJohn
Were you also surprised to find the pedal cycle casualty rate is 10 times that for cars? Or that the HGV rate is one fifth that for cars? HGVs all the way. Smash all the eggs you like.

My DH is a biker and when we first had children we had the discussion about how old they'd need to be before they went pillion. This was partly due to a mate of his who took his tiny daughter down the road tucked inside his leather....

In the end we decided it was a good teenage privilege, so set the minimum age to 13.

dd1 was 13 last May, but was unsure about it, so he didn't push the issue. She finally went pillion for the first time a couple of weeks ago. DH currently has a YZF600 and had the top box fitted when she went on just in case!

DH would like me to point out that he bought the bike with the top box and he wouldn't ever use it normally!