By far the biggest annoyance about being a pillion is that motorcycle and farkle manufacturers really don’t care about or cater for pillions. As an economist I understand this is about demand and supply dynamics: there are far fewer ‘regular’ pillions than there are regular riders, so the potential market for things pillions want/need is relatively small. Anyone supplying to this market is likely to be producing in small quantities and charging high prices.

Nevertheless, there is a market. Rather than designing the pillion seat so the bike looks pretty when it’s not being ridden, it would be nice if manufacturers designed comfortable seats. Funnily enough it might actually encourage more people to sit on them!

Most bikes come with a rear seat that is rock hard, flat, and with hard corners on it – oddly enough those hard corners dig into the back of the thigh while sitting and I challenge you to straddle the equivalent of a park bench with a blanket on it for 3 hours and tell me you’d happily stay that way for 11 days.

Kiwi has kindly forked out $400+ to have the pillion seat for the RT remodelled to provide a degree of comfort (thank you Kiwi). He did the same for the 2007 RT and then BMW decided they needed to change the connection design for the 2015 model so the old seats don’t fit! 😖 Mick at MJM in Goulburn, Australia has done a great job ensuring I have a seat I can comfortably return to over multiple days.

So what about farkles? In short there are few. The first shoutout is to Suburban Machinery for their foot peg lowering kits (https://www.suburban-machinery.com/R1200RT2.html) which move the foot pegs down a couple of inches and forward so that my ankles are almost below my knees. This makes a huge difference to comfort by dropping the weight of my legs onto my feet, taking pressure off my pelvic bones, and enabling me to brace myself through my feet when we’re braking rather than have my hips shift forward.

If you want to see the difference for yourself, try sitting on a chair and move your feet and knees forward and down, then back and up and notice how the position of your pelvis and sit bones changes, including weight distribution. Then try putting your feet behind your knees and have someone push on your hips compared with the same activity having your ankles directly below your knees… Makes a difference, right? This is a big deal for me and my ability to ride comfortably and safely over multiple days.

The other farkles that make life easier for me on the back are USB charging ports that I can reach and a plug point for a heated vest (second shoutout and infinite thanks to James Owen for getting these installed for us!). BMW does provide a heated rear seat but I’m not a fan unless it’s to stick my hands under my butt to get them warm.

But that’s largely where the pillion farkles end. As a rider, you can find gadgets to install multiple GPSs within easy reach, you can mount (and charge) your phone, install cup holders… the list goes on. If you sit on the back, you’re on your own.

I’m the one person on the bike who can legally and responsibly use a phone while we’re riding, but to do so I have to hold it myself and often what ends up happening is I’m looking down and with a helmet and the weight of my fat head I get quite a sore neck and shoulders.

For this trip I came up with a cunning plan to mount a camera setup/selfie stick arrangement from the rack on the top box. The idea was this gadget would hold my phone just below eye height, saving my arms and my neck. It would extend over my shoulder while riding and concertina back so I could still get on and off the bike. It didn’t work.

Did I mention I’m an economist, not an engineer? To start with the ball mounts for the camera setups that I’d ordered were smaller than the 1” balls used for RAM mounts. I purchased a spare 1” ball from Amazon but the 1/4” thread was too big for the existing hole in the arm. This was overcome through some trusty DIY by Joe in Eden Prairie who re-threaded the arm to fit the 1/4” bolt. But then the strength of the connection points and the arms and the RAM mount was insufficient to hold the weight of the arm itself with the phone on the end. On our trial ride, the arm dropped so it was rubbing against my collar bone and the phone was down at chest height. A $150 Fail.

Onto plan B. The current setup looks like this:

It’s not perfect. I can’t get the ball mount to adjust to right angles at the top because i can only mount in one direction to the camelback. To see the phone when I want to use it, I have to tip the mount towards me (visible in the second photo) which brings it closer to my face than I’d prefer. But it’s better than the alternative. I think it will mean I can route etc on the bike without killing my neck so fingers crossed it all works.