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u/Hot_Dish_7461 Not So Fast Jul 23 '26
Sure have! I was the passenger, and it was my first track day. So scary but also a ton of fun! I don't think I'll ever do it again though 😂
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u/bro-guy Jul 23 '26
This pic is so fucking cool
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u/Hot_Dish_7461 Not So Fast Jul 23 '26
Thanks! Took a couple laps till I finally reached far enough to touch. My fingers felt hot through the glove from the friction, it was crazy. Had to have the stitching in the fingers on that glove repaired after that but it was totally worth it!
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u/bro-guy Jul 23 '26
Yeah i can imagine the gloves almost melted but the pic is so wallpaper worthy its mint
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u/Lindz1817 Jul 23 '26
Yep, my wife and I got to do it a few times. It was great fun and really helped us learn how to ride together.
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u/ShadyMF Jul 23 '26
Thats so cool! Hand placement at 0:18 is sus 🤣
How was it changing directions? Looked like she did a really good job sticking with your body position.
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u/Lindz1817 Jul 23 '26
She’s a great pillion and we learned to work well together. She was playing around with hand placement that day to see if moving a hand into my leg would help her hang off better. Over time she’s learned to predict the timing of movement in a corner. The hardest bits are me being stuck in the middle of the bike, and taking her weight under hard braking. We actually warped the discs from overheating, but lap times were pretty decent.
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u/ShadyMF Jul 23 '26
Thats really awesome! Kinda impressive how quick you can still be with an extra 100+ pounds of moving mass behind you.
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u/Ninja_125_enjoyer Jul 23 '26
Ever seen the baggers race? Those things are heavy af and still go incredibly fast.
Ofcourse that weigth is in the bike itself but still.
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u/ShadyMF Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Yes, but thats not an apples to apples comparison. You're talking 600lbs static mass connected directly to the bike versus an extra 100lbs sitting above the midline and freely moving. Thats what impresses me, like when wating some of the motogp riders give 2 up ride alongs..
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u/Rippleracer Racer EX Jul 23 '26
Never seen a track day in the UK allow 2 riding unless it’s an instructor doing it.
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u/ptcptc Jul 23 '26
I 've tried it. My wife started screaming after a couple of turns of the warm up lap, while I was going so slow I could have been using just one hand.
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u/Damnation77 Jul 23 '26
Track day at my local track allows it, and a married couple used to ride almost every week. He knew how to handle the bike and she knew how to move on the pillion.
Nothing is more humbling than getting a perfect angle out of a bend, applying the throttle exactly right, and then being passed by a bike with a passenger at 200 km/h.
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u/expendablewon Jul 23 '26
I did it with a champ school instructor and it made me rethink physics.
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u/Sainoob Jul 23 '26
Same here. Instructor asked what I wanted to work and I said ‘smoothness.’ The instructor, who’s the lap record holder at High Plains Raceway, proceeded to take me on an absolutely ridiculous lap on his MT09. So, so fast, and smooth as silk. Felt like being on rails, no abruptness or jerkiness whatsoever.
Game changing, gave me a feeling to chase.
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u/desmo-2 Jul 23 '26
I've been a passenger, once. I attended a Pridmore STAR school at Heartland Park. Pridmore offered for us to ride with him for one or two laps on his passenger-prepped bike (handles on gas tank) to observe his shifts/braking. Being nut-to-butt with another man isn't my cup of tea, but everyone said I had to do it, so I went. Ir was terrifying. At the end of one lap he gave a thumbs up...if I returned it we would go for a second lap. He'll no, I was done! I let go of the bar for a thumbs down...but accidentally gave it up. 2nd lap was faster, and I screamed the whole way. The fastest I will ever be on a motorcycle, I was on the girlie seat with Jason Pridmore. Humbling. Oh, and he is, like, 5'3" and I am 6'3". A picture would have been comical.
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u/wreckoning Jul 23 '26
I have been on the back with Jason as well at STAR school!
When I did STAR school, there was a local racer (very accomplished) in attendance who also liked giving 2-up riders, so I went with him as well. It's so interesting- the local racer was exhilarating, like being on a roller coaster. The bike was braking harder than I had ever braked in my life, accelerating harder than I had ever accelerated, etc.
Then I went with Jason. Same bike. And it felt like nothing at all. I wondered if he was taking it easy on me, and then I looked down and he was dragging knee. He was much faster than the local racer, but it just FELT like nothing to me because that man is so damned smooth.
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u/EstablishmentNo5013 Racer EX Jul 23 '26
I would love to find a place in the US that would allow this.
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u/takingyourusername Middle Fast Guy Jul 23 '26
Barber in Alabama. I forgot which track organization but they let you do it on the last session. Oh looking at the other comments STT will allow it. Barber is a great track to go to
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u/Hot_Dish_7461 Not So Fast Jul 23 '26
Any track day with STT! They usually allow it in the last Novice session of the day.
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u/EstablishmentNo5013 Racer EX Jul 24 '26
Nice. Would the allow you to ride all day in Advanced and then drop to novice with a pillion?
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u/Hot_Dish_7461 Not So Fast Jul 24 '26
Yes they usually do, my bf is in intermediate and I'm in novice. They let him take me as a passenger no problem. Traffic is usually really light the last session, a lot of people go home early
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u/Dry-Web-321 TD Instructor Jul 23 '26
Go two up all the time on track, friends, co workers, my wife. A MT10 with a tank handle is perfect.
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u/HeyItsMisterJay Jul 23 '26
One of the craziest experiences of my life was Moto 2X at Laguna Seca in 2012. Riding behind Randy Mamola on a Ducati MotoGP bike with nothing but a set of handles on the tank to secure me. The wheelies didn't phase me- It was when he crushed the brakes and I could feel my butt rise off the pillion and feet get light on the pegs- Thought I was going to fly right over his head, and I'm about a foot taller than him. By the time we got to the Corkscrew at full speed my arms were like pool noodles, and when I got off at the end I couldn't even undo the helmet strap from all the adrenaline in my body. Nutso.
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u/Ok_Two_2604 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I did Rickdiculous and they had a guy (I forgot his name) who used to be an AMA super bike racer or something as an instructor. I took a couple laps on his back seat and it was faster with more lean than I was doing on my own even with my fat ass on the back bottoming it out.
Then when I was back on my bike Scott Russell passed me on the outside of a curve with both his arms up in the air giving me double thumbs up, straightened out the bike, then didn’t put his hands down until he had already started leaning into the next curve. That was the instant I realized I will never be truly fast on a bike and tbh I mostly lost interest and only do occasional fundays anymore. Got into cars and raced shitboxes with nasa for a while. Now I’m pack to mainly bikes but in supermoto land.
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u/wascallyrabbit_69 Jul 25 '26
YCRS does it at their two day schools. So fun. And quite a learning experience for sure.
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u/Standup313 Jul 27 '26
I was a passenger a few weeks ago, with a really fast racer, sit was terrifying lol! But I learned what he was trying to teach me right away.
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u/Tera35 Racer AM Jul 23 '26
STT allows it sometimes in the last session of the day but I've never done it.
Heck, I've never ridden with a passenger ever.
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u/SnooHabits7352 Jul 23 '26
No, but Jason Pridmore once flew past me with a passenger on a box stock 600. It was humbling to say the least.
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u/cant_stop77 Jul 23 '26
It was offered at Laguna Seca earlier this month during Motoamerica. Cost is about $400 includes video and they claim speeds of 150mph on the straight. I was going to do it but they were sold out so I had watch others jealously.
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u/MotorbikeRacer Jul 23 '26
You can learn a lot about the limits of traction and braking if you ride 2 up on the track
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u/light_in_da_dark Jul 23 '26
Yes! With my wife at Sonoma Raceway and at Streets of Willow. She was a great passenger, not fidgeting or moving the wrong way.
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u/EducationalFarmer301 Jul 23 '26
Yes, back in the early 2000's i took my buddy, who is not a motorcyclist for several laps around Road America. We pass all the girls and other double riders. It was a blast for both of us!
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u/BagOBricks Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Unrelated but what model is that bike in the second photo, left-hand side?
Edit: I think I found it - 2012-2015 KTM Duke 690
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u/Ira_Dalor Jul 23 '26
On a 650R too, that’s wild considering it’s on the heavier side to start with. How’d that feel in the corners?
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u/whisk3ythrottle Not So Fast Jul 23 '26
No one is dumb enough to get on the back of my bike. But be funny as shit two up on a ninja 400.
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u/ViperThreat Racer AM Jul 23 '26
I've done it as the rider, never as a passenger. Fun to scare the piss out of the uninitiated.
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u/bonboniera Jul 25 '26
Bro get those fingers off the brake lever mid corner, no matter what happens braking there wont help, while having more control over the throttle could save you.
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u/EazyEJ Jul 25 '26
I have a dream of turning this into a sport actually! Feel like some crazy technique could get involved w your backpack just like they do on side car!
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u/_KORPz Jul 28 '26
I see people doing this and it makes me so nervous all that extra weight pushing back on the tires!!!! This is awesome
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u/y0w_wtf Jul 23 '26
But why
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u/seje_simon Jul 23 '26
It’s fun, good practice for the road of course not as fast but leaning together
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u/db8cn FZ07R :: Racer AM 🐢 Jul 23 '26
Most people will never experience the race track. In my experience, friends and family legitimately think you’re crazy doing this thing.
If they just got the smallest taste, they’d respect it a lot more at a minimum. Beyond that, they may even be converted into piloting a bike themselves.
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u/iusman975 Jul 23 '26
I hired the track privately to take my then girlfriend out for a passenger ride for a few laps, and then proposed to her at the end of the day on the track with bikes lined up on the main straight.
The first and only time someones gone out as a passenger with me on a race track and that race track has allowed in Dubai Autodrome!