Yesterday I made my first two-up ride for over a year, and the first on this bike.
It's rare for me to have a passenger, so maybe my observations aren't expert, but may be of interest.
Picked up my passenger, who is an experienced motorcyclist, though been off the road for a few years. I had no problems with his behaviour, he knew what was expected.
With my previous ('10) bike, when I carried a pillion, I had a fair amount of trouble making smooth gear-changes, partly because I was a little nervous (I'd not had a passenger for some years, never one of his weight, also because he's a very experienced motorcyclist as well as a friend), partly because with his extra weight the bike behaved a little differently, so my throttle control was probably not optimum. Anyway, that was for about twelve miles in moderate city traffic.
So, yesterday I learnt that the changes Yamaha have made to the YCC-S have helped in this gear-changing with a passenger. However it isn't perfect. Setting off with normal acceleration through the gears, I found that changing gear as I would normally, we were tapping helmets. Not hard, just a touch.
This journey was about 115 miles, so I had some time to do a little experimentation.
I started using the obvious method of easing the throttle to no acceleration just before the change, then accelerating again after the change. That helped with the helmet tapping, but not with progress.
I then tried touring mode. Now things were much better. That smoother, slurred change I referred to in my previous post meant that, even without easing the throttle, there was much less of a jerk (although "jerk" is too strong of a word), and head-tapping was reduced. Found myself changing modes, touring when in traffic with lots of gear-changing, then sport mode in more open roads, where, if I want to overtake, I want to overtake NOW (albeit with due regard to keeping the passenger attached to the bike).
Another head-tap occurred after I'd been using the cruise control. With the CC holding at about 70, I released the CC by using the "close the throttle hard" switch. The sudden deceleration caused another tap. Changing down or touching the brake while the CC was active was even worse. I eventually found the best way of releasing the CC was to ease the throttle up until I was controlling the speed, then tap the gear change switch as if to change up. Since I was already in 5th gear, no change was made, but the CC released. I could now gently wind down the throttle to reduce speed gradually. Unfortunately it wasn't always possible to predict when slowing was needed, or at least in sufficient time for an un-learned technique. I'm sure this could become second nature for someone who frequently carries a pillion.
Overall, without any "clever" techniques, the consistency of the changes meant there were never any unacceptable clashes, and the changes were all far less jerky than some of them were on my '10. I'm sure the better changes on the '10 were at least as good as the "touring mode" changes on the '14, but I could never make all of them as good.
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