After almost a year of riding the SR/S this weekend I took my first pillion passengers for a ride, and the experience was pretty good. We had a couple of nephews visiting, and an outstanding invite for Sunday lunch elsewhere, so we decided to take both the SR/S and the car and give the young chaps a pillion ride on the bike each way. I put the Givi top box on so they'd have a back rest, but it's got to be said that both have the build of a racing snake so they had plenty of room behind me.
I didn't get any photos, so you'll have to picture us on the SR/S in your mind's eye based on this image of an SR/F above from visordown.com
In comparison with my BMW K1600GT (the king of pillion passenger comfort) the SR/S performed remarkably well. Of course the SR/S is not a touring bike like the K1600, doesn't have automatically adjusting suspension, heated rear seat, and so on. But with just a bit of additional air in the rear tyre and without any adjustment to the rear shock there was only a slight sensation of lightness from the front end, and there's more than enough go from the motor that the additional weight of a passenger does not hinder progress.
Both passengers confirmed that the pillion perch is comfortable for about an hour, but little more. And neither had any issues with their knees, grab handle access, or sliding around on the seat under braking or acceleration. The seamless power from the electric motor also means no headbanging for your passengers as there are no gears to change. And strangely I didn't notice a huge reduction in range, probably as I try to be super smooth when I'm riding with a passenger, more so than when I'm solo. We completed the 65 mile journey on mostly 3-digit A-roads across rural Shropshire and Herefordshire with 40% SoC left at the end, and a trip efficiency better than 120Wh/mile (8.5 miles/kWh).