Passenger comfort !

[Ian Watson]

Are you game for a small survey ? Risky ? See, my wife (56 kilos or 8st.11lbs) is complaining that the Shadow provides a rather frequent healthy "jolt" to the head when riding on our admittedly not so perfect roads. Tyres pressures ,riding , etc ... normal. 1) If your wife /partner / friend (regularly) frequents the pillion seat could you please ask them to honestly rate the comfort out of 10 (one is migraine territory) 2) Is the general consensus that Thornton suspension units are the most effective ?

Thanks, and have a nice day (unless you've got other plans ). Ian

 

[BigEd]

Are you game for a small survey ? Risky ? See, my wife (56 kilos or 8st.11lbs) is complaining that the Shadow provides a rather frequent healthy "jolt" to the head when riding on our admittedly not so perfect roads. Tyres pressures ,riding , etc ... normal. 1) If your wife /partner / friend (regularly) frequents the pillion seat could you please ask them to honestly rate the comfort out of 10 (one is migraine territory) 2) Is the general consensus that Thornton suspension units are the most effective ?

Thanks, and have a nice day (unless you've got other plans ). Ian

My wife finds the Rapide very comfortable. Asked for a rating 1-10 she thought for a while and said 10. I do 6000-8000 miles a year and probably more than half the mileage is with Gloria on the back. We do quite a lot of short (10 - 50 mile) local trips and we also do longer trips (400 miles +) to Wales, Lake District, etc. I am probably 14 stone with my riding kit and Gloria around 10.

The Rapide is a "B" with Girdraulics on the front. The rear is fully sprung with two bits of tube from the rear of the seat to an extension on the footrest plates. I have fitted the longer Pettiford springs and an after market damper. It has the longer seat sold by the Spares Co. (Highly recommended.)

When I first made the rear fully sprung I moved the pillion rests forward a little. Gloria found this spoilt the riding position for her so I moved them back and re-arranged the way the supporting tubes were mounted. This suggests that there is more to comfort than plush seats and lots of suspension.

Having a nice day and it is about to get better as I'm going for a ride.

 

[Ken Tidswell]

The solution to your problem is to make a Gordon Griffiths 'sledge' this makes the back end fully sprung. See KTB . you will need longer Pettiford springs , to counteract the weight taken on the seat stays in the original version. Ken

 

[Jim Richardson]

I have the longer seat on the Rapide, which seems to have more padding, and don't get too many comfort related complaints, however if I forget to avoid pot holes or speed humps a squeal can sometimes be heard from the rear of the machine.
JimR

 

[ClassicBiker]

First bike ride I took the wife (then girl friend) on was on the Shadow. She found it rather bouncy and so I would say a 1. One day I took her on the Comet and hit a pothole, it nearly threw her off!. So a big fat 0 there. Since then she will only ride on the modern Triumph Sprint. I've made a fully sprung and longer saddle for the Comet to see how she might like it. But she steadfastly refuses to get on! So if I go on the Vincent I go alone or she follows in her car.

 

[A-BCD]

This is how I made the seat on my B fully sprung:

 

[timetraveller]

And I can confirm that this is a mod which is very difficult to spot. It took me some time before I noticed it and it is very neat.

 

[notap]

For some reason the temperature at home chilled considerably after I said to my wife last night "I might change the seat struts on the bike to accommodate your weight"

 

[Albervin]

That would be the diplomatic cold front that came in from South.

 

[redbloke1956]

For some reason the temperature at home chilled considerably after I said to my wife last night "I might change the seat struts on the bike to accommodate your weight"

My ex wife once said to me "why don't we get one of those intercom thingies for our helmets" I unfortunately replied (with brain coasting in neutral) "If I wanted to talk to you, we would be in the car"