I wrote this and posted a while ago in another forum, but thought it might be appropriate here as well. I still like two wheels but have no problem with trike or the riders. They are fun machines too and get the job done.
I`m very proud of my wife determining it was time for her own ride. I write this as encouragement for any passengers out there that my be thinking about becoming the RIDER. My wife has ridden well beyond 200,000 miles as my passenger since high school. She never really had a desire to operate the bike since she had never even ridden a bicycle until around 23 years of age. In 78 I was a Motorcycle safety instructor and our ride group convinced her to take the course just so she might be able to ride a bike enough to get help in and emergency. She took and passed the course, but the weight of my bikes and her limited balancing skills on two wheels kept her more than happy to remain a passenger. And we`ve had a great ride.
Until Sept 2009. We ride a lot with friends, both men and women riders. One of our lady riders, who was a new rider and did a significant amount of miles with us on a Soft Tail just had a hard time at parking lot speeds, backing a heavy bike, etc. We helped her pick the bike up a few times from the easy layovers due to sand, gravel,and short legs. When HD finally came out with the Tri-Glide she had one of the first in our area. She loved it and the miles all equaled smiles. Well, the wife and I took a 6000 mile ride this summer and saw a LOT of TRIKEs. Seemed they were everywhere now. By mid September the wife said, "I think I`d like a TRIKE of my own". Yeh right, I laughed. Couple of days later it came up again. I told her to think it through a couple of days and if that`s what she really wanted and was going to put out the effort in learning to operate it, then let`s do it. Remember this from a gal who rode a motorcyle only two days nearly 30 years ago and still hates bicycles. And I actually bought a bike for her a couple years back that she said to sell as she was never going to ride it. Well we bought a FLHXXX that week.
Put her on the back and took her to the local Cinema parking lot for a couple of hours three days straight. Lots of figure eights, quick stops, starting and stopping. Always let her drive home on the back streets and found some isolated stretches of two-lane to get some shifting techniques and to feel what operating at 70 mph was going to be like. Even found a hill or two the start and stop on. Fourth day we each rode our own on a 150 round trip throught the foothills of a pretty twisty road. On the way there I kept speeds at or below posted limits and turn recommendations. Asked if she was ready to ride like a touring rider would actually ride through turns on the way back. She said she was and she did. We did`nt hot rod but we did make good time.
Labor day weekend was here and our group had planned a 3 day run of a bit over 1000 miles. She said she wanted to ride her own and was ready. The first day was 383 miles of 85% two-lane and 50% mountain winding roads. We kept an eye on her and she did great. We had no trouble getting in well before dark. The next two days she had the whole thing down pat. Everyone commented that they never once looked at her that she wasn`t grinning from ear to ear. By the time she had the FLHXXX a month it had 2400 miles on it.
To me, that`s a success story. Bike or Trike, she is a rider and loving every minute of it. So if you know someone thinking of stepping up from the back to the front seat, encourage them to do so in whatever fashion works best for them. It is very cool to watch it happen.