Passenger fell asleep!

[Allen42]

So twice now, I've been riding, and go to stop and get konked in the head from my rear. Come to find out they dozed off! This scares the &^*$! out of me! Has anyone heard of someone falling asleep, then falling off of an RTL? I don't have passenger armrests, but am thinking about it now in order to help cage them in!

[KosherKid]

I've had my backseater fall asleep on my RT and my old Gold Wing 1800 which I used to ride. I guess both are too comfortable and too much fresh air.

[BajaRon]

Happens a lot. At least the falling asleep part. Have not heard of someone falling off from it. But if it's possible, it's been done. I'd get the armrests...

[2dogs]

My wife was dozing off on the back of my Venture Royal years ago and I thought it was the wind blowing and moving me back and forth across the lane we were in. I caught a glimpse of her bobbing back and forth in my rearview mirrors and quickly pulled over so she could walk around a bit and wake up. A very spooky experience to say the least. Scared both me and her.

[Calimusjohn]

When my wife was undergoing chemotreatments for lung cancer, she would occasionally fall asleep on the back of my Goldwing. I attached a sidecar. She hated it. The spiked hubcaps on 18-wheelers scared the bejesus out of her when they were at eye level. When I "flew" the sidecar on a sweeping turn, she turned my thigh into a boxing bag.

We finally settled on a Goldwing trike with armrests. I seatbelted her in and relaxed. Her last ride of 6,000 miles swept through eight western states before she said, "It's time to go home."

She would have loved the Sea to Sky.

[terryp51]

My wife would fall asleep pretty regularly on my Goldwing, havent had her on a long trip on the Spyder yet but im sure she will again. Is a sign that she trusts the driver IMHO

[Woodaddict]

So twice now, I've been riding, and go to stop and get konked in the head from my rear. Come to find out they dozed off! This scares the &^*$! out of me! Has anyone heard of someone falling asleep, then falling off of an RTL? I don't have passenger armrests, but am thinking about it now in order to help cage them in!

start driving aggressively, that might cure the sleepiness

[BajaRon]

start driving aggressively, that might cure the sleepiness

...Or! Get rid of them altogether!

[Navydad]

My wife has been sleeping on the back of our bikes for years. The only thing we have found that works, for her anyway, is taking a break. I don't worry so much about the Spyder, but our past bikes have been SPORT touring rigs. They didn't have the Lazy Boy accommodations that our RT does.

[Peter Aawen]

I've never lost a sleeping pillion passenger off the back of a Spyder, but I have lost a sleeping pillion passenger off the back of a Honda 900...

Long story short, it'd been a tough week preceding a late night, and early the next morning, a bunch of us were planning on heading off on a road trip for a long weekend. Only a number of bikes got stolen during the night, so the 'road trip' ended up being just me'n my Honda (cos I parked it upstairs! ) with one of the other Adelaide native fella's riding pillion, heading from Sydney to Adelaide across the Hay Plain... The Hay Plain really deserves more of a description than this, but it's basically a vast expanse of flat land and saltbush that is counted in the top three flattest places on earth... so all the roads out that way are pretty long and straight, and there's not much to see &/or do but endure the 460 odd miles it takes to cross, with only a couple of gas station stops along the way.

Sooo, there I was, punting along, maybe juust squeezing the speed limit a tad, & after a while, I felt the occasional 'clunk' on the back of my helmet from my 'now beginning to doze off' pillion passenger. I did yell back to ask if he wanted a wake-up break, but he assured me he was fine, so I kept on... until all of a sudden, I saw as a flash thru the extreme peripheral vision in the corner of each eye, the quick glimpse of a boot heading skywards as he toppled off the back!!

Luckily, he woke up as he fell! He was fully suited & had the presence of mind to keep his arms & legs/feet up when he hit, flat on his helmet, back, & arse; and ended up sliding for what must've been the longest 200 odd yards of his life down the road. I stopped as quick as I could, popped a 'U-ie' & headed back, fully expecting to see a pretty bloody & messy sight; but apart from the ruined gear & his arse almost visible thru the now very thin layer left between the great outdoors & his now almost au naturelle & partly cooked skin; and the clearly visible adrenalin coursing thru his body (with some small amount escaping & running down his legs!) he was OK!

The back of his helmet was almost ground right thru to the liner, and there wasn't much back or bum left holding his suit together anymore - but if he hadn't been wearing it & didn't have all the built-in back & bum armour in place, then I reckon there would've just been a loooong smear of 'former person juice' left on the tarmac!!

After that, NO ONE goes to sleep on the back of my bike anymore!

[Quickdraw]

Headsets are great for keeping people awake. If all else fails, get gorilla straps.

[Pandy]

Wife would fall asleep regularly, depending upon length of the ride. Armrests bungeed together and she can relax. And take it all in or not.

[Kromm]

My wife has been falling asleep on the back of my bikes for years. Luckily for her I have always had a backrest for her so she has never fallen off. She says she gets comfortable and cant help it when we are on long rides. It mostly happens on what she says is the more boring parts (Freeway, Some Hwy). But when we are in the twisties that keeps her awake. My bikes have included "78 KZ 900, "04 VMax, and a "08 FJR 1300.

[Mikey]

I bought my bike on consignment from a dealer locally, and when I was doing a walk around the bike, I say a blue strap stuffed under the seat towards the rear of the bike, well when I lifted the seat up to check under there to my surprise there was a homemade built seatbelt. Needless to say, that was the first thing to go! The past owner had a nice set of aftermarket armrest on there, and I would fully suggest getting some on your bike, my bride loves them to death. But I asked the dealer what the deal was, and he said the past owner's wife had a habit of nodding off while riding the countryside, guess she was a small woman and he, or she felt they needed the belt! I would not suggest this at all!!!! Armrest, yes by all mean and nice set of aftermarket ones that come around the sides a bit that make it easy to mount the bike but wrap around the sides and be able to rest your arms comfortably are a nice farkel to have! Happy and safe wife, happy life!

[Allen42]

I have the RTL, so she has a backrest already. I'm more worried about losing her to one side when cornering. Maybe that's highly unlikely. I'd get armrests, but she already complains it's cramped back there with my driver's backrest in her crotch.

Maybe the old joke will play out ... "I used to have a loud screetching noise come from the back of the bike when I went too fast .... but then she fell off."

[Mikey]

I have never thought that a rider's backrest with a copilot in the rear looked the comfortable for them! It's great for you, that's nice; but I don't think straddling one of those things all day would be fun either. A much as I would love to have a backrest, I would not put my bride through that. Just me!! I have tried to get her into driving her own bike, like she does with her sled, but she likes being the queen on her throne; to smell the roses; and to tell me how to drive!!!!

[jnt]

W used to do that on trips, especially when we had the Beemers. Since the , not so much - Spyder ergonomics too different.

[sandeejs]

I used to ride with a woman on a Goldwing Trike conversion. Sometimes her daughter would ride pillion. There was one time when daughter started to nod off and tilt a bit in the seat. I offered some duct tape to solve the problem. Dear daughter never slept again..

[cruisinTX]

Happens a lot. At least the falling asleep part. Have not heard of someone falling off from it. But if it's possible, it's been done. I'd get the armrests...

or at the very least a good ratchet strap.

[DGoebel]

Wife falls asleep on the back of my RTL many times, we do have the fold down (not swing out) OEM arm rests, She's never come close to falling out, and yes, I've stopped and she's head butted my helmet with hers. I'm not sure how a sleeping passenger could fall off a Spyder RT with being situated between the Driver and the Rear top case/backrest (Unless you had one of the newer RT's with no rear top case, like this -
https://youtu.be/ZdaTzcB19Qs?si=rNJPmU3LjgkWJrLV - CoachBob3's old '23 BlueBelle). They'd have to have pretty flexible legs/hips to allow their leg to slide out. Never heard of a pax falling out.