carrying an adult passenger on an xtracycle

[Eli_Damon]

I just my got xtracycle and it is super sweet. I thought I would test it by giving my girlfriend a ride up and down my street. I had a lot of trouble keeping my balance and travelling in a straight line. I was weaving all over the road and had to concentrating very hard not to fall over. Have any of you other xtracycle riders had this problem? Did you solve it? Did you get used to it?

[streetlightpoet]

speed helps, but mainly you just need to just get used to it.

[AllenG]

Gotta get used to it. A lot of weight up high makes for a twitchy ride. Getting them to hunker down helps a little, but not much.

[puppypilgrim]

Get used to it. I have no problem with wife and child on board. But the passengers must not move or be moving. Getting started is the hardest part. Once you get going its fine.

[Maxwell]

I found that adding a short handlebar in back much improved handling with a passenger, and gives a great handle for moving the bike around. It definitely does take some getting use to, but certain things can definitely increase or decrease the wobble. I found the worst was with the passenger holding on by the snapdeck, without footrests.

[Corcis]

My passenger (her ~100lbs vs my ~220lbs) does a good job these days. You need to figure out how it handles with the weight up high, but they also need to learn NOT to move and to announce if they're intending to. They also need to learn how to position themselves in corners - it can REALLY upset the handling if they move certain ways, to the point of almost removing all traction the rear tire has.

Straight line stability is not as much a factor of having a handlebar for them (using a stoker stem) as getting them to move towards the center of the bike, to begin with. If my passenger is 1" farther back than she was yesterday, I notice. And it upsets my sense of balance. Try working on this first. My passenger doesn't hold onto me or a stoker bar, yet she pulls it off perfectly these days.