Rio de Janeiro as a motorcycle passenger: the ride, with no licence needed

You do not need a motorcycle licence to see Rio the way riders do. On the Co-Rider Experience a professional pilot takes the traffic, the corners and the navigation, and you sit behind them with the Atlantic on one side and the rainforest on the other. This is what it is actually like, and which roads to ask for.

What riding as a passenger is actually like

A Co-Rider ride starts at our garage, with a helmet and gloves ready in your size. Before we leave there is a short chat: the route, the pace you like, and a simple signal to tell the pilot to slow down or stop whenever you want. Then you climb on behind a professional pilot, and that is all you have to do. The pilot reads the traffic, the road and the corners. You look at Rio.

There is a topcase behind you to lean on and a comfortable seat, and the pilot rides for two. You do not have to be an experienced rider, or any kind of rider: if you love motorcycles but do not hold a licence, or you would simply rather not face the traffic of a city you do not know, this is the ride for you.

The routes you can ride from the back seat

Every tour on our Rio page can be ridden as a passenger. The Highlights ride climbs through the Tijuca rainforest to the great lookouts, past Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf, and finishes with a fresh coconut water on the beach. Coast to Coast follows the Atlantic edge of the city from the old quarter of Urca, through Copacabana, Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca, to the wild protected beaches of Grumari and Prainha on the far west coast. For a day out of the city, Twisty Teresópolis climbs into the Serra dos Órgãos under the granite peaks of the Dedo de Deus, and there are country roads in the hills beyond. You can read what each of those roads is like in our ride report on Rio.

Your own photographer, on the same ride

The pilot knows where the best angles are and takes the photos and video while you ride, so you never reach for your phone. Júlia Torres, who did the Rio Highlights ride, wrote on Google: “Besides showing me the most beautiful spots of Rio, Gabriel also took a lot of great pictures of me!”

Why Rio from a motorcycle, and not a taxi or a bus

Rio is a city of viewpoints, and most of the best ones sit at the end of narrow forest roads that tour buses cannot use. A motorcycle takes you up the Tijuca forest in minutes, finds a space at a lookout where a car would not fit, and is on the beach road before the traffic has built up. It is also, by a long way, the most fun way to see it.