Subject: RE: Loopframe passengers....
Author: Lannis
Date: Apr 24, 2004, 7:50 PM
Post ID: 1716625410
Custom Guzzi wrote:
Lannis, Easy solution........Buy the wife her own bike, then you can keep your nice shiny crashbars. :) Paul |
Paul -
I'd do it in a second if I thought it would work out.
We were "childhood sweethearts", she started riding with me when we were
16; we didn't have a car until after we were married (at 21).
She would occasionally ride one of my trailbikes by herself, and, when
we moved to Atlanta to live ('76 - '80), I traded my RD400 on a Vespa
P200E.
She learned to ride the Vespa, got her motorcycle endorsement, and
started riding that thing in downtown and suburban Atlanta traffic.
Having owned 21 normal motorcycles and that one Vespa, I consider it the
hardest thing to ride I ever owned. A 20-horsepower 200cc engine that
would push it to 70 MPH on the interstate, in a frame designed for a
4-horsepower 90cc tiddler to be run at just over walking speeds, on 10"
wheels with a funky twist-grip shifter where you had to pull in the
clutch and twist at the same time....Yuk!
She did pretty good with it. She tended to be too aggressive in
traffic, like she was going to push someone around with it. She dropped
it in a sandy intersection one time, but picked it up and went on to
work with a couple scrapes on her and the scooter.
So I know she can do it. She, however, says she feels very
uncomfortable trying to ride a bike on the highway. She just doesn't
LIKE doing it. I've suggested MSF classes or anything else that might
help, I've told her how attractive a girl in good riding gear on a
competent bike looks out on the road.... but I don't want to talk her
into something that she feels is going to hurt her.
A Breva 750 would be perfect for her 5'8" frame and 34" inseam, and I'd
buy one in a New York minute if I thought it might tempt her, and have
told her so, but I fear it is not to be....
So the search for passenger accomodations continues....
Lannis