Had a buddy in town last year and wanted to take his wife for a ride on my [less than a month old] Triumph Thunderbird. Tossed him the keys and told him to have fun. What good is having something like that if you can't share it?

Life's short. The bike's insured. Let your buddy take it out for a day.

 

I've never borrowed my bike to anybody. I've never loaned my bike to anybody, either.

 

TI've ridden just about every Harley doing this same thing with friends who ride different models. If we could only incorporate switching the wives

 

I've done ths same thing, also was asked to ride others and Brother's bikes to see if something was wrong.

 

Well, if you can stomach riding that suki 650 you could go along. I've let friends ride my bike before...no big deal. If you trust him, let him ride it

 

My first bike was a Honda 550K. Spring came and I was trying to get it to start so I could sell it to buy an Interceptor. I wore the battery down so my roommate offered to keep trying with the kick start while I was at work. He called and said he got it running and could he take it for a ride. I figured since he put the time and effort into getting it running I would say OK. He wrecked it.

 

a 650 to a bagger no way unless he has learned to handle the weight difference. I've seen the strongest of of em all lay down a bagger myself included , and I've seen some really small men and women handle these bikes like a pro. Experience should be at you own expense, Tell him to rent one.

 

My daughter's boyfriend started coming over last Spring on his Street Glide. Every time he pulled into the driveway, I'd beat her out the door just to look at it. It's black cherry and has a LOT of chrome on it. He always asked me if I wanted to take it for a ride. And I always declined. The best way to ruin any kind of relationship is to damage someone else's bike, or they damage yours.

But, his coming over finally pushed me over the edge to get my own again. Since then, I've let both him and my son-in-law ride it. My idea, not theirs. Both are experienced riders and I know that if anything happened, they'd make it right. Plus, in one instance, I wanted to see how my pipes sounded from a bystander's perspective.

I think the OP already knows what he wants to do. He hasn't let the guy ride it yet for a reason. Keep following those instincts!

 

Husband did years ago. We had a friend who was being "detained" downtown for a bit. He missed his bike so he wanted us to ride it around the parking lot so he could see it. I rode on the back. I think Husband was a little nervous about it, since it wasn't his, but everything went well. Years later, he lent the same friend his bike to go to a small event going on where we lived. Of course, my Husband can ride mine anytime. I won't even try to ride his big Electra Glide though. I have one other friend I would let ride mine, that's about it.

 

I've let the wife ride my bike once, and she wants to do it again....which I'm willing.
I've also got one friend that I would let ride it & he's let me ride his bike a few times....but then, I test rode his bike for him & am the reason he decided to learn how to ride.


But yea, there's an EXTREME level of trust that's required. So far, there's not more than a couple people that have earned it yet.