10 Ways to Save Your Ride

The following is a list of very good ideas you should remember every time you get on a motorcycle.

1. Lane Check

While riding it can be easy to become complacent. Besides just checking your mirrors, do a full head turn, left and right, before changing lanes. How many times have you checked your mirrors only to find someone in that blind spot once you started to switch lanes?

2. Riding the Line

A fluid, efficient turn begins with taking the proper line. The proper line is the quickest, easiest and safest way to negotiate a turn. Approach turns wide, meaning you start a right turn from the left part of your lane, or a left turn from the right part. This gives you the best view of a blind turn and requires the least amount of braking and lean. Use your whole lane as needed, but be very sure to not cross the center line!

3. Braking

During a hard brake, momentum makes the bike want to continue forward. This puts weight on the fork and compresses it as the rear lightens and rises, making the rear brake easier to lock. That is why the front brake is designed to handle 75 to 80 percent of the braking load. Practice hard stops on a quiet but well maintained road using mostly your bike's front brakes. If you tend to lock the rear during hard brakes, try leaving the clutch lever out and the bike in gear when braking, and pull the clutch in just before coming to a complete stop.

4. Cornering

We love to ride our cruisers and dressers, but they come with a downside. Being low it is easy to drag the pegs, floorboard or pipes on the driving surface during a turn, and even lever the weight off the tires and cause a slide. A solution is to set up the suspension with the maximum amount of spring preload on your shock absorbers. Some riders even install longer shocks and fork springs.

5. Passengers

Two people on one bike make for potential problems. Avoid surprises by giving passengers some basic guidelines: 1) Do not mount or dismount the bike until instructed to do so; 2) Do not suddenly talk into my ear unless first squeezing my arm; 3) When approaching turns, stay neutral except to look over the driver's shoulder in the direction of the turn (right turn, right shoulder, etc).

6. Unstable Surfaces

Have you ever see riders navigating a gravel parking lot or rough terrain by dropping their feet and awkwardly walking their bikes? Ride with your feet up as your bike's low center of gravity and low torque pull you through. You may feel more comfortable executing a U-turn with your feet down, but once you have the bike pointed in the right direction, get your feet up and look like you know what you are doing. A little practice helps a lot.

7. Obstacle Fixation

Have you ever rounded a corner, seen a pot hole or stone you could have easily avoided and run right over it? That is obstacle fixation. You tend to steer your bike where you look. Focus on a pot hole or stone, and that is where your tires will go. Try looking where you want to go versus at the obstacle. Do not look at the pot hole, look at the path around the pot hole.

8. Equipment

Equipment is worn by everyone exposed to potentially hazardous activities. Athletes wear shoulder pads and a helmet if they play football, construction workers wear hard hats and steel toed boots, and firemen wear helmets, breathing apparatus, and fire/water resistant gear...and nobody dares call these guys wimps! So what is stopping you? We are firm believers in letting the individual decide, but things like boots, gloves, long pants and a protective jacket are pretty much the basics. The helmet may be the most controversial, but it makes sense for many riders and may be required by law.

9. Practice

Practice maneuvers in a quiet parking lot or the like. Practice hard braking from 30 miles an hour. Practice very tight turns with your feet up. Try pulling in the clutch and lock the rear wheel so you can see how you and your bike react. Run over a 2 x 4. There are many different road situations you can recreate in a parking lot. It is better to encounter areas you need to work on in a parking lot than a busy city street!

10. Drinking

You know this already. It is not a good idea to drink and ride. Yet, many enjoy an outing on their bike to a local bar or nightclub. Although we never advocate drinking and riding, here is a strategy that may keep you out of trouble...and alive. If you must drink, try alternating your alcoholic beverage with a soft drink, or better yet, water (since alcohol dehydrates you). This will slow your alcohol intake plus keep you from getting dehydrated. Do not rush through the non-alcoholic beverage just to get back to the alcoholic one; the idea is to stretch out the time frame between alcoholic beverages as well as rehydration. Better to adopt a strategy like this than getting a DUI ... or worse.

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