Survival Strategies Volume I

Words of "Wisdom"
Riding Tips The following is a bunch of riding tips… very few of which are original… but it is stuff that we have collected over the years and… for the most part… adhere to their mantra.


DON’T LOOK AT WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO HIT

This may seem like a strange concept… but it holds true every friggin’ time. A typical scenario is this… you are rolling along at 15 over the speed limit and you notice up ahead there is something in the road… let’s say for our purposes it is a piece of 2 x 4. You want to make a quick adjustment to avoid it… and have enough time to do it… barely… but you have been staring at this obstruction since you noticed it… and lo and behold… wham!… your front tire hits the piece of wood kick it up into your left shin… two thoughts… fu&*!!!.. and… what the fu*&!!!! I should have missed that!

The reality is this… without exception… your bike will go where you look. If you fixate on the object you are trying to avoid… you will hit it. Rather than focus on what you don’t want to hit… concentrate on the open line that you want to take. The bike will naturally respond to your movements that are responding to your point of focus. This works!


LEFT IS RIGHT AND RIGHT IS LEFT

WTF you say? Hear me now or listen to me later… In some panic situations immediate re-direction of your line is necessary. A tip I got out of a sport-bike magazine years ago said that the quickest way to initiate a turn is to push on the handgrip that is on the side of the direction you want to turn. Essentially, you are turning the handlebars left to initiate a right turn and right to initiate a left turn… talk about counter-intuitive! once the turn is initiated and you have begun to lean into it you can let the front wheel follow its natural direction. The harder you push on the handlebars the quicker you initiate the turn. Try this out in non-panic mode on a safe stretch of road… you will be amazed at the results… I was. Note: This method is not appropriate for parking lot speeds… this only makes sense above 20 miles and hour.


NO… YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FLIP THE BIKE OVER

A common misconception that folks have is that they think that if you grab the front brake too hard you will flip the bike over the front wheel. You are not riding your old ten speed. If you are on a Harley or any other cruiser style motorcycle there is no friggin’ way that is going to happen. Even on the extreme performance sport bikes this is quite a feat! Between the rake in the front end the weight of the bike this just ain’t gonna happen.

The reality is that the front brakes supply about 75% or so of the bikes stopping power. In a panic stop… the best thing you can do is grab a fistful of front brake. The weight of the bike and rider transfers to the front wheel as the suspension compresses pushing the front tire even harder into the pavement making it grip even better and in most cases preventing you from locking up the brakes… ‘cuz once you lock it up… it’s time to pull the rip cord. The converse is true if you choose to stomp on the rear brake. As you slow down the weight still transfers to the front wheel… which in turn lightens the load on the rear wheel… which will cause the rear wheel to loose grip even quicker than it should… which will cause you to lock up the rear wheel… and most likely hit that object that caused you to panic in the first place. The worst sound in the world is when riding in a pack you hear some amateur behind you lock up his rear brake… he/she ain’t gonna stop in time… guaran-fu*&’in-teed.

Try out this theory in a parking lot… you will be surprised at the difference in braking power between the front and rear brakes. Practice a hard front brake with moderate rear brake and you will drop your stopping distances dramatically!

THE WORLD DOESN’T REVOLVE AROUND YOU

Now, I am not saying that you need to start reading the world events section of your local newspaper. What I am saying is that you need to keep your eyes focused as far ahead of you as possible. It is VERY easy to find yourself fixated on the stretch of road 20 feet in front of you… especially in a turn. The tendency is to look ahead to a particular spot in the road and then stay focused on that spot until you just about get there… then readjust your line of site to the next spot. You will never pick a good line on an onramp using this approach… and also leave yourself open to being an easy mark for changing traffic conditions.

Try to focus your vision as far ahead as you can. Your peripheral vision will pick up on circumstances that change immediately around you should they need your attention. If you do this in an on/off ramp situation you will find that you will pick a much more solid line and will not be surprised by a decreasing radius corner (one in which the turn gets sharper mid-way into the turn… requiring you to turn harder half-way through the turn). This concept is not as easy as it sounds because your natural tendency is to look at things closer to you. Keep this in mind next time you ride. Purposely focus your vision as far ahead as you can and see how much your riding improves. In my humble opinion this is the single most important tip we can give.

THAT WOULD BE THE OPPOSITE OF HELP

Ever get the feeling that your actions are your own worst enemy? For example… ever go into a turn too hot and realize that you are gonna run out of pavement on your current line… panic and grab a ton o’ brake… only to have your situation go from bad to worse because now you have even less of a chance of making the turn.

The above occurs because when you lean the bike into a turn while under power it takes a certain amount of muscle to get the bike to turn… when you brake suddenly, physics dictates that the bike will want to “stand up” and go in a straight line unless you compensate by putting more “muscle” into your lean. In a panic situation… you grab a bunch a brake in a turn… forget about the physics involved… and find yourself running wide into the tree-line on the side o’ the highway. In such situations it’s best to be easy on the brake, lean hard, and don’t worry about scraping the pretty parts… hell leaving all those chrome shavings on the pavement will actually help you slow down the bike without the previously stated consequences (sort of like throwing out an anchor)!

Check this out on your next on-ramp… again… you will be surprised!

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