new riding season-making sure you and your bike are ready

kawi-z · Motorcycle Enthusiast Joined: Jan 18, 2009 Posts: 26

Hi Ladies,
My name is Jennifer Grant and I am here to assist in promoting a safe riding environment for us all. I am a certified MSF rider coach and have been doing so for 5+ years, as well as a Lee Parks Total Control Advanced Riding Instructor (I think this is my third year now). I am currently housed out of Oklahoma after recently moving from the Pacific Northwest.

I ride a variety of bikes and can answer any questions you may have about yours. If not, I can get the answer as I have quite a network of motorcycle guru's at my arm's reach!!!! I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by such knowledgeable people and credit my riding abilities to them and what they have taught me.

Which brings me to my first and most important point now that riding season has begun or will soon begin for those who are still buried in snow Crying or Very sad

Practice, practice, practice!!! Most of us who ride all year round, tend to ride very differently in the winter than in the summer. And for those of us who have parked the bike for the winter, getting back on means we aren't quite as familiar with the machine as we may think. When learning to ride, we begin with training our gross motor skills and eventually work to building our fine motor skills. When we have stood idle so to speak, we tend to lose"the feel" of some of our motor skills. When gearing up to ride again, get out and practice first. Take easy rides-even go in a parking lot or another safe place and just practice the basics-quick stops, turning with big head turns, clutch control and swerving. Since these are the skills that will save our lives, refamilarizing your muscles with the feel of these techniques will make you more confident and comfortable on your ride. It will also hopefully prevent you from crashing if the unfortunate were to occur.

I will use my husband as an example...every time he has taken a long trip and had been off of his bike for 2 months or more, he would come back and the first thing he would do (because he missed riding so much) was get on his bike, go on a long ride, and crash going 5-15 miles an hour. Guess what he didn't do before the ride????? Yes, you got it....practice and refamilarize himself with his bike. It is now a long-standing joke between us. I make him go with me to a parking lot and refresh his skills before he goes out for that first ride.

Oh yes, if you can take a refresher course. It is always better if someone with motorcycle training experience is watching you to give you that critical feedback. We often don't realize the things we do or don't do and that other TRAINED person may be able to get us to the next level in riding. One of the Goldwing groups that I taught, told me that they make it a point to get their club out every spring for a refresher course to ensure their safety.

Stay safe this riding season, and I will post again soon.
Jen

Altheeviltwin · Motorcycle Enthusiast Joined: Mar 08, 2009 Posts: 5

You are absolutely right about practicing on your bike if it's been sitting a while. I've riden for over 30 years, and currently ride a 1980 Ironhead Harley with apes. It had been at least 6 months since I had taken her out as I had repair work that needed done. I had completely lost the feel for the brakes and unknowingly locked the back brake up trying to stop in a hurry....which is not the big mistake...the big mistake was releasing the rear brake after it was locked. OMG! For those of you that don't know not to do that, I'm telling you now...DON'T release the back break if you've already locked it up. The bike started fish-tailing...real bad. For a split second I looked over at my friends and they were looking back with mouths hanging open, just knowing they were about to see me ditch it right in front of them. Luckily, I had enough room to accelerate and pull myself out of the fish-tail and then stop safely, thank heavens. But I do believe I had to change my underwear Smile

A lot of people in that situation would have panicked and grabbed the brakes even harder...which would have resulted in a nasty tumble with the road.

So ladies, when you do practice...practice emergency stops too. I know it can be scarey...especially when the screetching starts, but it WILL save your butt one day. If you have not been to a riding class, and do not know how to do emergency stops properly, get with someone who has been to one of those classes so you can be taught properly from the beginning and not establish bad habits. Oh yeah, and get your butt in a class...you will learn soooo much.

Later, Dingo.