That is a good point Steve T, it could put her off for good!

She normally goes pillion on his bike but he is keen to get her to go on her own bike. His main argument being " we can take more stuff " ( first bike trip )

My wife will be on the back with me,( with not much stuff) I personally think it would be best if his wife goes on the back too. Scotland has been known to have the odd day.

The idea of a hire bike is not a bad one though I may try and drop that one in his hat. Even if just the odd day over the course of the week.

I think this is the best approach. Mixing bikes which vary in displacement by a factor of ten is difficult under the best of circumstances; throw in a new rider, potential bad weather, unfamiliar roads....

IMHO, a new rider should not be left alone riding unless she is ferociously self-reliant by temperament. Even then, you're asking for trouble. Equally, a new rider should not be pushed beyond her comfort zone by faster, more experienced riders. Whether or not they intend to do this, the mere fact that the rest of you are having to wait for her at every intersection is going to push her to ride faster than she's really ready for. That's not good.

A couple of days of good weather on a small, rented bike is totally achievable, and ought to give her just about the right taste for riding. If your friend wants to give her a good experience, he'll sacrifice his own pleasure for those few days and ride along with her while the rest of you frolic. Ideally, they'd both rent identical little bikes and go for a gentle tour together. If he's not committed enough to do this, bringing her along is going to backfire on him...and probably on the rest of you.

He's got to make some decisions about where his priorities lie. It's not really fair to foist this off on the rest of the group.

All IMHO, of course.

Mark

I used to ride my 350 enfield (probably a similar performance to a modern 125) with my mates who, at the time, rode a BMW 650 Funduro and a 650 Dakar.

Quite frankly it was a pain in the arse for all of us. We're too good mates for it to affect our friendship, but I could tell they were champing at the bit to get going and were frustrated by having to wait ages for me to catch up.

On my side, I found the constant stress of trying to keep up a pain and my breaks were consequently shorter than theirs, so it was tiring too.

Not only is a bigger bike physically faster, you ride it differently (IMHO). You open it up - give some throttle and blast along enjoying the speed. A slow bike you don't bother - you cruise along enjoying the view - or at least you do when you know your mates aren't tapping their feet and looking at their watches at the next pit-stop.

The idea of taking someone on a longish tour who has just passed their test and who will (unless it is very carefully managed) be pushing hard to keep up is, IMHO, a recipe for disaster. It's exactly what a learner rider doesn't need and quite likely to end in an accident.

I could be wrong of course, and you could all have a whale of a time!

Matt

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*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

We met a Swiss couple in Zimbabwe. He was Swiss 4 stroke MotoX champion at the time and she'd passed he bike test 3 days before setting off for Africa. She road a Aprillia 125 trail bike, he was on his competition bike with lights strapped on and we were on our R100GS. She seemed quite happy to travel at 60 to 70mph so on African roads (mostly gravel when we travelled together in Botswana and Namibia) no problem keeping up.

I reckon it would get annoying really quickly.

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As a 125 rider myself I reckon it's very little to do with cubic capacity and far more to do with riding style and temperament. It's already been said that a 125 tends to encourage a slightly more bimbling approach, pottering along, enjoying the views, taking in the air, the smells, the mouthfuls of midges (although tell that to a 16 year old on a 125 race rep). So if that is your style of riding, truly your style even on a big bike, and 50mph is your normal touring speed then there's no reason why it won't work.

But if either of you two on the big bikes likes to open the throttle and blat through the twisties then either the big bike riders will feel frustrated or the little bike rider will feel pressured, which will lead to tensions in the camp, and potential accidents on the road.

One small perk though, there's three bikes. If you could guarantee that if someone wanted a burst of speed the other big bike would bimble you could be ok. The risk comes when both big bikes blat off into the distance leaving the poor 125 behind.

Final thought, if you were both two up would you be using motorways at all, to get to Scotland maybe? Because don't forget you'll have to factor in the extra time, frustration, and, if it's a hot day (haha), sweat of having to ride through every town, ring-road and traffic jam there is.

Overall only the four of you, I'm including your wife on pillion, can decide. Sit down, work out what you all really want, and be honest in choosing the best firm of transport so that you all get to enjoy it.

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This worried me. I hope it's a typo or less serious than I read it.

Women are by and large less adventurous than the blokes, it's millions of years worth of culture pressing down. If this poor woman has been dragged through her test, dumped on some 125 and is now expected to traipse through Scotland in the wet with a bunch of blokes on bigger faster bikes I'd expect fireworks at some point.

I'm afraid these things need planning. Pillion this year, then work up to a matching pair of bikes IMHO.

Andy

My wife had a 650 V Star, and I have a 1200 Sportster, and this caused problems when a suitable passing place came along, but I was OK just bimbling (love that word!) along.
Apparently I would decide to overtake at the last moment, leaving insufficient time/space for my wife to also overtake with her smaller engine.
ANSWER TO PROBLEM: Buy her her own 1200 Sporty....
Rob