Workshop: How to set your bike up for a pillion

Adding a passenger and luggage will cause the bike to sag on its suspension.

This means it will be soaking up more of the available travel on both the forks and rear shock before you have even started moving – effectively changing the chassis geometry and not for the better.

Added to this, the extra weight will require more damping to stabilise the sprung components. Usually when taking a pillion, the rear shock will need more adjustment than the forks, this is because the centre of mass will be focused more toward the rear.

Don’t be shy when using the adjusters – as long as you make a note of the standard settings you can always go back to them, plus the stock settings will be detailed in the manual.

Once you find a setup that works, write it down for reference. One final thing – different firms use different methods and terminology when describing suspension set up: some adjusters will use ‘clicks’, while others require ‘turns’, and some adjustments are prescribed from the adjuster being first set ‘fully in’ while others are from ‘fully out’ – there are no set rules.

Make sure you’re familiar with method for your bike…

Step 1: What adjustments are available?