...

Based on my experiences with kid seats I'd say you don't want to do it. As our kids got older and heavier, balance, handling, and safety got worse.

It works for the big dummy because the extra weight is positioned between the wheels, not on top of or behind the rear axle.

I used my cheap-o Nashbar steel rear rack as a seat for my wife once. She went for a run and I was tired so I pedaled along to keep her company. She got a bad cramp about 1.5 miles from the house so she hopped on the back and I gave her a ride back. This was on my Trek road bike with 700x23 tires. Bike handled like crap but it worked in a pinch. Would I do it on a regular basis? No way!

Edit: she only weighs 100#.

I was thinking the same thing.. because when I visit my friends in Amsterdam I often take a ride on their rack on the way to and from dinner. Their bikes are clearly more sturdy and you see people sitting on the rear racks all the time, it's quite common.

How is your rack attached? 6mm screws into brazeons? Wouldn't imagine they would take that kind of weight on a regular basis. FWIW, my teenaged sons have broken racks this way.

Most better racks have a weight rating on them. Keep an eye on that; and if its too cheap to have a number its too cheap to hold a person.

For foot rests try BMX pegs.
In fact try having her stand up on BMX pegs and forgo the entire rack-as-seat idea; its less likely to catastrophically fail.

+1 Rock the BMX pegs!

Are you dong this on a regular basis? If so, then yeah, i think you can justify getting the right gear for the job. If it's just a once-in-a-while thing, why not just have her walk it? A mile or two isn't that far.

pegs lead to titties on your back

Doesn't sound like a particularly safe idea to me.

The dutch would just hop on the rack sidesaddle






But most of their racks are more substantial than anything found here.

back in middle school i used to always give girls rides home, but my excessive braking eventually put an end to my awesome BMX peg taxi service.

Another consideration aside from safety is to check your local bicycle laws. Here in Washington, it's illegal to boost somebody for a ride on the rack/bars/pegs, etc.

RCW 46.61.760 Riding on bicycles.
(1) A person propelling a bicycle shall not ride other than upon or astride a permanent and regular seat attached thereto. (2) No bicycle shall be used to carry more persons at one time than the number for which it is designed and equipped.

OK, being an empiricist and a moron, I propped my bike up, sat sidesaddle on the rack as pictured, and bounced my ass around to test it. Thing felt solid, and I weigh about 160. I'd say that's a pretty decent limit at which either A) the rack will suffice to carry your ladyfriend, or B) you need a lighter ladyfriend.

I most certainly wouldn't go fast if I did decide to try it, and I'd prefer not to ride in traffic. But if you had to do it, it might work. The pics from the Netherlands suggest that it's not entirely fatal.

Lest I open myself up to legal liability, I cannot condone such stupidity, though I do enjoy engaging in it myself.

racks have a weight limit.

Xtracycle
&
Big Dummy

are legal to carry passengers.
the Dummy has built in foot rests
and/or
XtraCycle sells "footsies"

from a litigious view point...
if a person was to get hurt, and need medical attention
insurance is going to want to know the cause, etc...
if its something significant and the cops/ambulance shows up, a police report, etc...

you get the picture...

someone will get sued, bcz someone will have to pay the bill.
(at least that's typically how things like this play out in California)

I don't know how strong those European/Chinese utility bike racks are, but I would imagine they aren't geared for high performance, and those can carry full size adults just fine as pictured.

I do find that most North American racks, especially the after market kind, are flimsy by comparison.

Those Dutch bikes are built to last through a nuclear war, unlike the bikes they sell in the USA where everyone is all like 'HURRRR DURRRRRR WEIGHT SAVINGS HUURRRR!'.

get them a tea set while you're at it. seriously get a clue and a second bike for yuor friend.

Tandem.

One or two rides, the typical rack would probably hold up. Doing it continuously, not unless it was designed for.

And what sort of climbing do the Dutch have to do on their way to work?

Irrelevant question since there are as many flat areas here(if not more since we're much, much bigger) as there are in the Netherlands. It's your choice to live in hilly areas.

I think what you meant to say is that there is more square mileage of flat terrain "here" (by which I assume you mean the United States -- this is not a USA-only forum, btw) than there is in the Netherlands. While that's true, it's not particularly helpful or meaningful, since the likelihood of a cyclist in the USA having a flat commute is lower than a cyclist in the Netherlands. As for the observation that it's a choice to live in hilly areas, that's just plain silly. Most people in the United States aren't independently wealthy and can't choose to simply live wherever they want to, just because they want to: they have to go where the jobs are, or where the colleges are, or where their family is, or something like that, and we can't all find those things in Kansas. Of course, I suppose we could all live in flat areas...but follow your line of reasoning: "If I live somewhere flat, I can pedal a sherman tank of a Dutch bike, giving me the benefit of being able to take a passenger on the fantail I mean the rear rack, and if I can just carry a passenger on the rear rack it will be totally worth uprooting my family and quitting my job and exercising my choice to go to this flat place."

No need for me to add anything. +1

I think this part of it's beatable. It doesn't say *originally designed and equipped* and the modifications can be construed as designed and equipped.