| Author | Message | ||
     Ronmold |
As wife & I grow more *mature and I see her enjoying riding w/ me more, I feel the need for a bike that has a lower COG and is easier for her to get on/off. We almost need a step stool or curb as the Uly pillion perch is just way up there. She also loves the Harley tourpak-type backrest (couch) which I've seen versions on many brands of bikes, and passenger floorboards. I'm trying to decide between a sport-tour Connie / FJR type or a tour-equiped cruiser. A Road-glide ultra would work great but the $$$ points me toward a similar metric bike at less than half the cost. What do you guys ride? Uly will stay, nothing much could replace it. *mature: less flexible & more gravitationally challenged. (Message edited by ronmold on September 10, 2011) | ||
| Andymnelson |
Hey Ron- I came from sportbikes that had a MUCH lower seat...heck, Sam could basically jump on from the back if she wanted to! She hated the Ulysses at first, but will now tell you its her favorite bike to be a passenger on, since she figures out how to mount it. Here is what she does: I get on, grab bars, stand bike upright She grabs my shoulders and mounts like a horse- left foot on left peg and stands up and steps through the bike, then sits down. I know this doesn't give her the couch she wants, but maybe it can make the rides you do have on the Ulysses a bit better! Good luck! | ||
| Ratbuell |
First, get a Hepco-becker pad for the topcase. If you don't run one, you can make something nice and cushy for the tripletail. Next, send rwven a PM here on badweb. He makes passenger peg drop brackets that are awesome. +1 on the "mount like a horse". On the kickstand side, have her put her left foot on her left peg, use your shoulders as a brace, stand on her left foot and toss a leg over to the other peg. | ||
| Towpro |
No need for a curb or ladder, while you steady the bike by the handlebars (standing next to it), have her step on the LS front foot peg with her Left foot, then she puts her Right leg over the bike, then moves back to the rear position and moves her feet to the rear pegs. Then you get on. | ||
| Schwara |
I'ts only my 3rd bike & it took my wife a little getting used to but now she loves it a lot more than any of the others. She gets on similar to the descriptions above, but I usually leave it on the kickstand for stability. For height maybe send jasonb a PM ... might help a little. I have the lowering collar, looks great, but haven't had a free weekend to put it on yet. If I get it on soon I'll check to see if the wife notices a difference. I'm confident that I will. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Good suggestions above. Maybe one or more can help keep the Uly in the #1 preferred pillion bike slot. "I usually leave it on the kickstand for stability." +1 When we first got the XT, I made the mistake of letting my son mount it while I had it parked in the grass. With side stand already up, he mounted from the left side, and did not immediately put his right foot on right peg. With his weight so high and all on one side, it was too much for me to hold up, and we went over on the left side. Fortunately, it was a soft landing on the grass, and our m/c friendly neighbor was close by to assist in the pick up. My key takeaways were: -No mounting the bike on soft surfaces unless its the only option, then proceed with caution. -Side stand down til we are ready to roll. I do not keep weight on it, it is just my "safety net". -Technique refined so my son does not appear to be "using his mother like she was a set of monkey bars" (neighbor's quote). | ||
| Froggy |
Add a Man Step? | ||
| Andymnelson |
Lol. While that is a funny commercial, I find it pretty pathetic to bash the competitions innovative feature with nothing, such as it did. | ||
| Towpro |
Sorry I omitted the fact I leave the kick stand down, but I still stand there and steady it with the bars. I never trusted kickstands to hold up anything but the bike. | ||
| Steveford |
We do exactly what Towpro does. The sidestand recall came about, I believe, from this one guy who would leave the sidestand down, stand on the l/h peg with his left leg and then swing his right leg over. He weighed around 200 pounds, give or take, and one day the sidestand snapped off when he had his right leg halfway over the bike at a gas station. At any rate, for dismounting I get off first (with the stand down for security), hold the weight of the bike up a bit and then let her hop off. | ||
| Schwara |
What years does the kickstand recall affect? I don't go out of my way to put lots of load on it, but by the same token I don't worry about it a great deal either. Mine looks just as beefy as any other stand I've ever had and I'm not doing anything different with this bike than I've done in the past so since I've never had a failure (or even a bend) on any other bikes I haven't put any extra thought into this one. Is this something that I need to start worrying about on an '09 Uly? Thanks. | ||
| Ourdee |
I like the ford. Oh, kick stand down when loading and unloading here. "Man Step" oh yeah! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Now, I'm 6'4" with a 34" inseam, but... I go stand-up when I have a passenger. Simply toe my left foot in, so my knee is braced/locked against the frame. It basically "becomes" the kicksstand, with my knee locked against the frame. No strength is involved, my leg is simply a wedge. I have also used the kickstand in a pinch. Keep an eye on your baseplate mounting bolts, though - the stock ones like to stretch. I put an XT stand on my X when they first came out so I could get the big ol' "golf club" foot, and used GR-8 bolts when I did. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Granted, I don't weigh much more than Froggy, but I climb on my Uly from the left with the kickstand down. Just like mounting a horse. When my wife rides with me, I get on and hold the bars while she does the same climb-up onto her pegs. Mine's an 09 with the "golf-club" stand, no probs yet. Z | ||
| Bike_pilot |
The wife and I just gave the XT a quick test. I held the bike up vertically and she hopped on and off a few times to see how it'd go with all the luggage on the bike. I had no issues holding the bike up (I'm a 5'10", 160lbs office dweeb). We both have good balance and ride off road so even when she's climbing aboard she doesn't put much off-balance force on the bike. I've had non-riding passengers who were much smaller than my wife but wobbled the bike a lot more. I think she tried using the passenger peg and riders and also just kicked a leg over then sorta hopped. All three seemed to work ok, I'm sure she'll pick a favorite soon though. I don't like putting any extra strain on the kickstand. Maybe it is strong enough, but I haven't looked carefully at how it attaches yet. The wife is 28 and fairly limber though  I'm not sure a Connie or FJR would be even as comfy as the Uly though and they might not be a whole lot easier to board. They certainly don't have floorboards or a lazy-boy style back seat. They do have a ton of power -- about 2x the uly's power with much better throttle response in the case of the Connie. Maybe a goldwing? They have ultra-luxurious passenger accommodations and I suspect used ones are less expensive and probably cheaper to keep running than the similar HD models. I'm told the handle half-way decent too. | ||
| Tootal |
Well if you're looking for a Geezer Glide then the Road Glide would be my choice over any other Harley. I have 90,000 miles on one. As big and heavy as it is it does handle pretty good, compared to other Harleys. Now Victory has the Cross Roads which will out run and out handle the Road Glide. I've never ridden one but it looks pretty good. It has a much better suspension than the Harley, especially in the rear. | ||
| Bike_pilot |
They also have the Vision which I think is quite cool, though I realize it is rather polarizing. I like how they did their own thing and did't just copy HD in terms of styling. I haven't ridden one, but hear it works quite well as compared to others in its class. It is expensive though. | ||
| Danair |
I'm short and even added a half inch to my boot soles because I refused to not ride a Uly. Kickstand down, wife horse mounts from left. Full bag setup so that's about the only way. Periodically check stand No issues in 10k. My other Uly has no bags and is much easier but I still use the stand. | ||
| Svh |
I get on putting little to no weight on the stand then stand the bike up. Pull in the front brake and signal for her to get on. Left on left peg then steps over and sits down. Works great for us. May need to get the drop down pegs specified earlier but otherwise she loves it. Some friends have Goldwings and their spouses climb right on with it on the sidestand and I cringe all the time. Stand could collapse or the bike tip over. | ||
| Bike_pilot |
I thing 'wing stands are built for that sort of use. | ||
| Schwara |
Just realized that I was incomplete when mentioning my pegs. I actually got the lowest pegs for both myself & the passenger that Knight offered in the design I liked. Both my wife and I like the feel of those although she has probably not ridden much longer than hour at a time with them. | ||
| Hooper |
I think I understand where Ronmold is coming from...no matter how comfortable the backseat of a Uly is (and it really is), it still takes a bit of "athleticism" to get onto a bike that high (especially with the topcase on!). What I think he's looking for is a bike that doesn't need a "first step" on the passenger peg. He's also trying to keep costs down. I might suggest a lightly used bike - great savings can be had. The ones I think are low enough are the Harley tourers and the similar bikes, but don't forget the Softails. My wife is not tall and not experienced on bikes - she was always intimidated by the Uly's perch. We rented a basic Electra Glide and had a ball going down and up Big Sur. It was easy. In other words, think used, low mileage... | ||
| Ronmold |
We went out for a 5 hr or so ride today, great weather, and it went very well. I let her get on first and had her work on keeping herself centered over the bike while climbing on. I would switch to the hiway pegs & she would use mine giving the legs a extra stretch, now I need to teach her to shift! Low speed maneuvering still takes a lot of effort to keep upright and with 2 it really seems like the front tire is helium filled. The new '07 springs were noticeably smoother over several miles of "repaired" roads (filled cracks running perpendicular to the road) and braking dive w/ two was much improved. I'm thinking now an XT would do the job - except for the wheelie problem. Thanks for all the advice. | ||
| Ronmold |
Just picked up a '94 Vulcan 1500 w/15k (5k on rebuilt engine) for cheap. Extremely clean, owned by a woman but she wanted something smaller. Has aftermarket windscreen, Corbin K & Q seat, V & H pipes, K & N intake, and jet kit. Lots of torque but it only has a 4-speed! I was impressed how robustly overbuilt the frame & components seem to be, shaving off weight wasn't Kawi's main goal on this design. I need to replace the rear shocks w/ some 2-up ready Progressive 412's and passenger platforms and we'll be ready for the road next Spring. | ||
| Ronmold |
pics  | ||
| Conchop |
Ronmold - Had a very similar situation. My hubba bubba size plus my wife's mmmmm queen stature did not work on the Uly at all. Look at the Victory's. I never knew she was on the back of a Vic. | ||
| Uly_man |
Its a bike and you will always, on any bike need to throw a leg over to get on and a pillion will be worse with the rider on board. The pillion comfort on a Uly is very good. It is a tall bike so let the pillion mount first with the stand stand down to help things a bit. That or buy a car as all bikes are a bit that way to some degree. | ||
| Etennuly |
We load like Towpro does. The bike on the side stand on a hard level surface. I stand in front of the left bar reaching over to hold the front brake, I grip my left hand on the cross bar so she can have the left grip. She gets on in the rider position stepping her short self on the left peg tossing the right leg over. I keep the bike balanced as I move to my mounting position. As she slides straight back to her seat I lift my right leg over and slide in front of her. Been doing this for nearly sixty thousand miles. The sidestand recall was for the '06 and early '07 model years. For reference, we are also mid fifties, stiff, sore, and vertically challenged with weight problems. I'm 6' she is 5'4 I won't get into her numbers  but together we are around 500 pounds with our riding gear. | ||
| Growl |
Same issue... my wife has to strain her hip to get on the Uly. I got a second bike - a Harley Dyna, and I just love it - strong and reliable day in and day out - great for touring two up... I put a touring seat on it. The Uly is now more like my exotic sport bike... I use it but not day in and day out... the thing is... my wife still prefers to ride on the Uly, go figure! | ||
| Etennuly |
The best thing I did for my wife wanting to ride with me was to buy her a Blast, send her to riding school, and modify the bike with bags and a Uly seat so that she can ride it all day without pain. I just did 240 miles on the Blast today. We call it Blastulys.  |
