Passengers on a 50cc?

[doctor_prox]

Ok i have just passed my car driving test this year and i have done a CBT, what i want to know is can i take passengers? I have read various sites on this and some say i can, some say i cant. The one that makes me think i can says:

Note: a full car licence automatically gives you the right to ride a moped (50cc maximum) without L-plates and to carry passengers, you will have to take a CBT if your licence was issued after 1st Feb 2001.

I tried the DSA site but it doesnt even mention passengers except for on 125s.

[Punky]

as long as you've got your CBT and license, i think you can take passengers mate. i'm riding mine on a provisional and CBT, so i can't unless i take the L-plates off, making it highly illegal and not even worth considering.
it aint gonna move very fast if its only a 50cc with 2 people on it tho mate, mine doesn't move that fast with just me on it (14 stone-ish), and its been de-restricted. still managed to get it to 65mph once tho
take care mate, they aint the safest form of transport.
peace

[TeePee]

I'm scared that you would consider this.

No-one should ride with a passenger without being able to ride at least to test standard, preferably beyond.

[doctor_prox]

Ride at test standard? This is a scooter and im just wanting to take my mate home from college thats all, not like its a 1000cc off down the motorway. Anyway i just don't wanna get pulled over.

[Rave]

The police will probably pull you over anyway, but it is legal. You just won't be going anywhere fast

Rich :¬)

[TeePee]

In that case you're fine, stupidity isn't against the law.

[doctor_prox]

I never asked for your opinion mate, you are making it sound like im an idiot for checking if i can take my mate home legally. You just wasted a few minutes of your life, and so did i.

[Devilbod]

TeePee, its a 50cc, and it probably wont make it over 30mph with someone on the back.
If you have to learn how to take a pillion and how having one on the back of a bike will effect the handling it's the safest way to learn considering they give you NO training for pillions in the main test (which in all honesty is just another CBT but on the road but unlike a CBT you can fail).

It's how I started call me stupid if you like but it would be better to learn on a scooter at the slow speeds and good seating position than on a race bike that has the abillity to go a lot faster and without being as stable with a pillion due to the seating.
Personaly I still sh*t myself every time I going out on the bike with an untested pillion because I dont know how they are going to react and so I take it very carefully and I've been riding a fair few years now and have taken a lot of pillions rangeing from a 12 year old upwards.

As I understood it as long as you dont have L plates anymore its fine Doc, with the weather getting colder I'd make sure you both have gloves, fingers can get painful quickly on a bike in cold weather even with gloves. If you can get the pillion to sit as still as possible because you'll be more used to a fixed weight that a shifting one, that the mistake a lot of pillions do they try to lean and I dont mean getting them to sit bolt upright either, the trick is to get them to let the bike lean them not getting them to lean the bike otherwise it just throws the bike/scooter over unexpectedly making it very difficult to control.

Personal tip: ignore manly behaviour and get the freind to hold on to you, its better and in truth a little more reasuring, because you know if they move about rather than just feeling the bike wobble madly from side to side and that way they can give you taps with there hands easily if they want you to slow down or something.

Other than that be safe and have fun

[doctor_prox]

Thanks a lot DevilBlood! Apreciated.

[[GSV]Trig]

Deffo get use to driving with someone on the back and make sure that they aint the kinda n0b thats gonna be wiggling about n tryin to wave at his m8's as he goes past them as it'll upset the balance of the bike which if u aint got the experiance will end in tears...

[TeePee]

Thats simply not true, it's better to learn on a bigger bike. A bigger bike is more stable than a scooter for several reasons, mainly that they are heavier, and so a pillion shifting their weight has less effect on the balance. They also have larger wheels, and the riding position is better balanced. I wouldn't reccomend learning on a bike which doesn't have a decent pillion seat, nor would I suggest riding at high speed the first time out just because the bike is capable of it.

The bike test is a test of basic vehicle handling, and if you aren't able to pass it you certainly shouldn't be riding with a pillion. I'm prepared to risk wasting a little of my time to hopefully save your friend from serious injury. Hopefully you feel the same way and are prepared to 'waste' a little time to do some training and get past your test.

[doctor_prox]

Went out and about today to and from college etc. I see what you mean about the balance, i told him to sit still and its not all that bad. Not something i would like to do every day but its handy when we both have like 3 hour breaks and wanna go home.

[Devilbod]

mainly that they are heavier, and so a pillion shifting their weight has less effect on the balance. They also have larger wheels, and the riding position is better balanced.

I would have agreed with you until I experenced this for myself, a bigger bike may have more weight than a scooter but it also has a higher center of gravity that is more greatly balanced to a single rider (unless your talking hogs) and the riding postion is higher and in the case of a pillion a lot higher and usally over the back tire.
The same goes for tire size too, bigger tires = high center of gravity. Since where a center of gravity is is more important to balance and the handling, a scooter is in most cases a lot more easy to balance.

I've had people on the back of a scooter a 90cc CUB and I've had people on the back of a CBR600 FL('89) and a 600 Hornet ('01) the most unstable is deffinatly the Hornet (In my experence) because of the elevated pillion position the offset of weight over the back tire makes it very twitchy because the bike becomes what I can only describe as top heavy, especialy at slow speeds and town work. Any movement by a person with there arms or upper body and even just there head becomes greatly amplified causing tremmors and extremely twitchy ride.

The most stable was the scooter because the sitting position and the way a scooter is closer to the ground and the body is in a more comfatable position, they also require less in terms of leaning for corners and there speed in terms of acceleration and overall with two people on is almost running pace making it very easy to correct and be cautous of mistakes, so instead on having to focus so much on what the bike was doing you can focus on whats going on around you which these days is more important.

In terms of weither doing the test first would mean someone has better control of a scooter I in all honesty doubt it because someone can do there CBT and a week later do a full test, expereience is what I think your mean.
I've knowen far too many people have a bad accident after a test because they think a test means they know how to ride a bike, only experence can teach you that and the only way to get experence is to ride the bike and learn, have a care and some common sence.
The only part of a bike test where you learn anything are the lessons you take to pass the test, not the test itself. And I dont remember anything that wasnt taught in the lessons that the CBT didnt cover first, I maybe wrong and the test may have changed but I still think thats down more to the instructor than the test itself.

And anyway most people that do their test do so with the intention get a bigger bike. ie a 125cc motorbike or over and then the whole thing of learning what happens to a bike with a pillion changes again. And you even do your test on a bigger bike so how that can improve your abillity of having a pillion on a scooter?

Fair enough you shouldnt go out and get someone on the back of a scooter within days of doing your CBT, but you are going to have to learn sometime and not everyone can afford extra training, as it is it is a good thing to learn because it at least teaches you how a scooter/motorbike can change under different circumstances, and shows you how fragile the balance of a motorbike can be.

Its unfortinate that the only way to learn how to do this is by yourself and in you own time and I would agree that taking your time over such things would be better but either way you have to learn sometime, but tbh I think Doc proved that he's got a fair amount more common sence and care than most because he took the time to ask on here first.

The final thing of course is that if, IF something goes wrong on a scooter your a damn sight likely to come off less as bad than someone having a bigger bike fall on them.

On the whole just calling someone stupid without offering any real advice is not going to help because they will more than likely do it anyway, with your help and a little knowlage could save there lives.
And if your wondering why I'm going off on one is because I sick of hearing this negative attitude towards bikers, you going to die, cripple yourself, hurt someone else, etc etc. All the good people that I have known die in bike accidents have died due to the actions of a car driver, not there own.

[doctor_prox]

All the good people that I have known die in bike accidents have died due to the actions of a car driver, not there own.

Totally true. I've had my scooter about 1.5 years now and ive been knocked off twice by idiots pulling out and "not seeing me". Anyway lets not go off topic, cheers for the help.

[TeePee]

Belonging to a very large bike club I know many people who have come off, some through riding outside of their abilities, somethrough poor road surfaces and some through the actions of car drivers, but one thing that gives bikers a bad name is the kids riding around on scooters without any ability to control them.

If you've had your bike for 1.5 years, then surely you can ride to test standard, even if you haven't passed your test? In you're original post you said you'd only passed your test this year, hence my questioning your competence.

[Punky]

some chav scum boxed me in 2nite on a dual carraigeway when i was coming back from work on mine. i had a tub-of-turd nova in front of me and a Reggie 5 GTT on my right, and they just slowed me down, then shouted stuff at me and drove off. gits.
i took my little bro on the back of mine yesterday, just down the road and back and i made him wear a helmet. it definately affects the handling, i didnt like it at all.
then again, i went on the back of my cousin's 1000cc Ninja and it scared the living crap out of me (130mph in shorts, tshirt and helmet :S), but was great fun and handled well.
just be careful mate and watch out for the inconsiderate rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish.
peace