Do you have your passenger get off when negotiating gravel parking lots?
I had an unfriendly encounter with a parking lot that was basically hard scrabble with a thin unevenly distributed layer of gravel. I had to have my wife get off so I could better negotiate the area without dropping the glide!
I pulled into my dentists office to have a few fillings replaced and the fight was so bad my blood pressure was about 180/114! Scared the bejezzus outta me!
I have about 1/4 driveway that is graveled with crushed lava cinders. I never have my wife get off, just get in the friction zone in 1st gear and take it easy. A few places I have been had really loose gravel and that fishtail affect gets my attention real fast!!
Do what you gota do. If I am going forward, my passenger usually stays on...if I need to back up.....she may get off. Depends on if I can back up with her on or not.
If she gets off.....she doen't help push though. Just makes it lighter for me.
Just crossing a lot or parking, she stays on; turning around is usually a solo job on gravel. I visited a new gun/archery shop last week that had a 300-400 yard long single lane rock drive, with much of the rock the large railroad bed type. It was interesting on a bike.
It really depends... my wife is a great passenger... you do not even know she is on the back of the bike. If it is really loose stuff, I have her get off... Always safe than sorry. I have nothing to prove... and a dropped bike can put a damper on a great day of riding.
Sometimes I do. My VFW Post has real small pea-gravel compressed into a loose sort of gravel/asphault mix. It was cheap and rain soaks right through, good for cars but terrible for a scoot.
It really depends... my wife is a great passenger... you do not even know she is on the back of the bike. If it is really loose stuff, I have her get off... Always safe than sorry. I have nothing to prove... and a dropped bike can put a damper on a great day of riding.
+1........this is where I'm at also.
I've ridden so many miles, done all the things I should have done and a few more that I shouldn't have. I have her get off if theres any question at all.