2Wheeltips

Well it finally happened.  I knew it would eventually - statistics rarely lie, and I am a new rider after all.  I dropped my bike.  Nothing damaged but my pride, thank goodness.  It happened at a stop during my commute home yesterday, and it was the highlight of what turned out to be a really bad ride.

The drop happened when I came to a stop at an intersection on a left-curving road.  In hindsight, I was way too casual about braking smoothly, and I underestimated how much the left-leaning camber of the road would affect my balance and left foot plant.  By the time I realized it, the bike was down.  I got it back up pretty quickly, and a nice guy even pulled his car over and got out to see if I was OK (a fellow rider, perhaps?). 

But like I said, that was only the highlight.  The entire ride seemed riddled with mistakes - rolling on and off the throttle too abruptly, jerking the handlebars around instead of using smooth counter-steering, braking erratically, and those are only the ones I'm not too embarrassed to mention!  Now I've had my bike for several months, and I've put over 1,000 miles on it in practice sessions, pleasure rides, and commuting to work.  I've never even come close to dropping it before yesterday.  I thought I was getting the hang of this - how could I have such a bad ride?

The answer (I think) is that I've hit the first of many plateaus in my motorcycling career, and that may have brought on a touch of complacency.  Lately I've been feeling very confident with basic riding techniques, and more comfortable at higher speeds (I don't mean going fast, I mean actually getting up to the speed limit).  I'm past the super-newbie stage and ready for the next step, but that will require finer honing of the basic skills, and learning new ones as well.  It will also require a renewed commitment to concentration, or to SEE, as the MSF basic course taught me.

So my recovery from this bad ride will begin as my motorcycling career did, in an empty parking lot at low speeds, further honing the basic skills that make the bike go and stop exactly where and how I want it to.  Or as David Hough calls it, "doing my homework".  And the next time I come to that intersection on the left-curving road, I'll be keeping the shiny parts up.

Ride Safe!

Doug

In Industry, we pay a great deal of attention to safety for many reasons. Companies that truly care about their employees want them to go home in the same condition as they started the day. It makes good business sense and it’s simply the right thing to do. For that reason, it’s important to understand safety statistics, measure and track them, analyze trends, and take corrective action when things are going the wrong way. What’s this have to do with motorcycle safety you maybe thinking, well actually a lot!!

Near misses and or close calls are a warning that you are on the path of a serious if not fatal incident. OSHA statistics say:

• for every 600 near misses, there are 30 accidents involving property damage.
  

• for every 30 accidents involving property damage there are 10 minor injuries (first-aid cases).

• for every 10 minor injuries there is one serious or fatal injury. So, if we are having many near misses, it gets our attention in a hurry because we are on a path that will eventually result in someone being seriously hurt or killed. What this means to you is, if you find yourself having near misses and or close calls on your bike, then you need to take serious stock of your riding skills, the environment you’re riding in, and or the decisions you’re making while riding, and take corrective actions before you become a statistic!

Let’s talk about “near misses” for a moment. A near miss is an incident when something goes wrong and something bad happens, but just because of chance, nobody gets hurt. In my work environment, let’s say a fork truck driver picks up a load on a broken pallet. He lifts the pallet to put it in a rack space 20 feet off the floor. The pallet breaks, the 1,500 lb. load falls, and, by chance, no one was close enough to be injured or killed by the falling load. A riding example might be, you pull up to a stop sign, you don’t feel like coming to a full stop as traffic is light, and the road looks clear, so you roll through the STOP sign and make your right hand turn but go wide into oncoming traffic. A car coming towards you (that was actually closer than you thought) luckily sees you in his lane and he slows down to let you get back into your right lane avoiding a head-on collision. In either incident, once the load falls or once you’re in the wrong lane, it’s simply a matter of chance what the outcome will be!! You’re no longer the master of your destiny, chance and happenstance are!! In other words, “do you feel lucky today?”

The same is true of dropping your bike. How you drop it, how fast you’re going, where you drop it, do you fall and how you fall all become a matter of chance because you no longer have control. Chance takes over and will ultimately determine the outcome.

For you new and learning riders, a great tool to help you track your performance and progress is to critique yourself on every ride. I can remember almost every one of my close calls; when I went wide, when I target fixated, when I lost my balance and struggled to keep the bike from falling etc., etc. I started keeping a log and I listed the things I thought I did well and also, the things that didn’t go so well. Following each ride, I tracked if things were improving or not. I know this sounds really anal, and maybe it is, but we’re not talking about a bad round of golf here and a few lost balls. We’re talking about making mistakes that at the wrong time and wrong place can seriously impact your life.

What I did was take an index card and logged the date, where I rode, how many hours and miles, and the positives and negatives in bullet points. (You could do this on a spread sheet on your computer if you prefer.) When the positives were exceeding the negatives, I felt I was making progress. When it was the other way around (and it was a lot in the early months), I would go back to the parking lot and practice or to a place where traffic was at a minimum (quiet suburban streets very early on Sunday mornings) and work at fixing the mistakes. This critique took all of maybe 10 minutes following each ride, certainly not a huge investment of time or effort, but extremely helpful in keeping a scorecard of my performance.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article and I hope you got something worthwhile out of it.

Ride safe, be safe, live long and prosper.

 

It has taken me some time to pick up the pen,
and attempt to write something that is not only for men;
riding a bike is a universal divider,
that it is much like that of the soul of a scuba diver.
It is something that a lot of people want to do;
but afraid to try it because other people say, “It is not for you.”
Sure there are lots of deaths,
where divers did not have air to take their last breath.
Jumping in deep and going down below,
is like a rider mounting their bike ready to go.
Riding gear and Scuba gear is a personal choice that must be made,
and can cost you a lot of money and somebody wants to be paid;
Before you ride a bike they call it the T-clock,
before you scuba dive you need your sun block.
Check your air, your hoses, and gages as well,
to run out of air 90 feet below is asking for hell.
A diver must dive with a buddy plan,
and a rider must avoid the slippery sand.
There is such a thing as being in the zone,
but when you scuba dive you don’t want to be in it alone;
There is such a thing as a biker’s wave,
but for the diver it’s a sign that a shark is in the cave.
The old the young they all have fun,
especially when they are going on a biker’s run;
The old the young they all have fun,
especially when the dive just begun.

When I lived in Korea , and just started riding my motorcycle, often I would read the romantic stories of riders and dream that one day that will be me. I read an article where a rider described the different smells that one will encounter along the way. The smell of pine trees, hot tar at construction sites, the ocean, and one writer wrote about the romantic smell of cow manure. I chuckled within myself and said, “Yea, right.” I thought about the “honey wagons” that I had smelled in different countries. When I left Korea and lived in Hawaii, often I could smell the ocean, the pineapple fields, mangos, and fish from the marina. Well to my surprise while riding from Ann Arbor, MI on US-12 (Michigan Ave) headed towards Irish Spring and Sturgis, MI the great moment of a particular smell went up my nose. I first attempted to hold my breath, but that would not work, I knew I had to inhale and exhale in order to stay alive and what I was breathing was cow manure. I said to myself, there is nothing romantic about this as I thought about the article that I had read almost nine years ago. I made it through the smell and continue on down US-12 I went fast. Well I have been riding up and down US-12 for about two years and went I come to that particular spot, I prepare myself to inhale what the cows left behind. Today, I went for a ride and I rode to Monroe, MI to check out the state park to see what their beach looked like, and maybe go there on Labor Day weekend. On my way, I went through this town outside of Dundee, MI on M-50 and behold, I inhaled cow manure and it was strong, stronger than what I smelled on US-12. I said to myself, “That must have been a Bull.” I went to Monroe and saw the Vietnam Memorial, the State Park Beach, and several riders enjoying themselves. On my way back again, I passed “The Bull.” It was a very nice day. I stopped off at a Harley-Davidson place in one of the small town and did window shopping. I jumped on the bike and when down M-50 and onto US-12 and I came upon the old spot and for sure the cow manure smell was there. To my surprise it was not all that bad, and smell much better than what I had encountered earlier. The thought came to my mind to write an article “A Beautiful Day to Smell Manure.” It was a beautiful day to ride, the sun was shining and the temperature was nice. I was in a good mood and was enjoying the ride so much that even the smell of cow manure was a romantic smell over against that of “The Bull.” There are those who are reading this article and can identify with every word and there are those who think that I am “nuts”. Well, just keep riding and inhaling and exhaling as you ride down the old country road pass the farms and you will encounter a moment of breath taking manure that will truly take your breath away.

Here I am again, writing about something that I'm sure I've covered many, many times. There has to be a video, audio or pictures on this topic somewhere on 2wheeltips.com, but just not under this heading. So here goes......

Now that you have finished your motorcycle class and have a bike, it's now time to hit the road. Before you do, you need to understand how important it is to put on the right clothing.

Now, some of you are probably thinking, "I'm not going to dress up like a crossing guard. Part of riding a bike is looking good and there is no freaking way I can look good dressed up like Capt. Safety." I agree......some stuff that passes as motorcycle gear looks like it belongs at a construction site and not on a biker. But that doesn't mean you should ignore the need to protect yourself from the dangers you will encounter when on the road.  

Take a step back and think of the many everyday activities that are considered dangerous and how those who participate in them handle the danger:

• Construction site? Hard hats, safety lines, steel toe boots
• Baseball? Batters helmet to protect you from a 100mph fast ball to the head
• Football? Helmets & pads to prevent concussions and broken bones after a tackle
• Soccer? Shinguards to protect your legs from cleats
• NASCAR? Helmets & harness to keep you from snapping your neck in a crash
• Airline luggage handler? Earplugs to keep you from going deaf
• Road worker? Gloves to protect your hands from cuts and abrasions

            .......
            .......

• Motorcycling??? Hmmmmmmm.......
  

Motorcycling is just as hazardous as any of the above. If you fall off your bike at 55mph without the proper gear, guarenteed you will get hurt worse (perhaps death) than anything you could get from the above activities.  But guess what? Many people will go out riding dressed like this:

Instead of this:

Do you think the hot exhaust pipe can melt her flip-flops? Or how about a piece of metal hitting her at 55mph? Do you think it will split her arm open? What if they crash? Will that tight t-shirt and shorts protect her skin from road rash? We all know the answer to each of those questions.

I'm not deceiving myself here. I know that some people will never wear anything but jeans, t-shirts and novelty helmets. That image goes with a certain biker lifestyle and it will never change. However, you do need to understand, just like a football helmet or a safety line, how the right gear can prevent serious injury.

In the upcoming articles, I'll discuss why you need to wear:

• A helmet (a real one)
• Jacket & Pants
• Gloves
• Belt
• Boots

Stay tuned.......

As I begin writing this article I have four books and a magazine article open and lying on the floor in front of me:  

• “Corner Vision” an article by Ken Condon
• “Total Control” by Lee Parks
• “Riding In The Zone” by Ken Condon
• “More Proficient Motorcycling” by David Hough
• "Twist of the Wrist III" by Keith Code

The above books and articles are written by well respected authors and professional riders with a wealth of experience and expertise. All of the above authors have devoted at least one chapter of their books to the importance of vision skills and seeing “the big picture” while riding. I would strongly encourage you to read one or all of them as they are extremely well written, to the point and give you tips and information that is invaluable in improving your riding skills.

My objective in this article is to discuss some of the concepts and skills the above mentioned “experts” describe that will help you avoid mistakes like “target fixation” that is so prevalent with new riders. Let me share with you some quotes:

• “Spotlight versus Floodlight: What you are able to see is based on not only the amount of light available, but also on the types of things you choose to concentrate. Some people choose to illuminate the world with a spotlight. Others view their surroundings with a floodlight…. Using your vision as a floodlight slows down your sense of speed and allows you to be aware of more potential hazards and opportunities.” Lee Parks

• “How far ahead a rider scans is one measure of proficiency. Most new riders struggle to look more than a few second ahead. It’s natural to look down at the road when we are anxious. Unfortunately, focusing in the near distance exacerbates anxiety, which can develop into a vicious cycle of escalating fear”. Ken Condon

• “When riding, every decision you make is governed by the amount of space you have, think you have, feel you have or believe you have. The two basic functions (speed and direction change) of a motorcycle are totally dependent on the amount of space you have to do either of them. All riding “survival reaction triggers” (more on this a little later) have not enough space as their common denominator”. Keith Code (This is my favorite quote!! Read it about half a dozen times and the genius of it starts to sink in, which is why having good vision skills is so important.)
  

• “It’s not enough to simply look ahead. You must practice visual attentiveness and actively search for hazards by keeping your eyes moving, never fixating on a single object for more than a couple seconds. By scanning continually your mind can assess multiple hazards in a short amount of time.” Ken Condon

• “Imagine riding an urban street where sight distance changes from moment to moment. When riding a long straight boulevard it may appear that you have unlimited sight distance, but remember that vehicles can appear suddenly from side streets, alleys and entrances to parking lots. So, your sight distance must also include the possibility of intruders who haven’t appeared yet.” David Hough (What awesome insight!!)

• “We should all be aware of common vision quirks as well as specific vision problems we might have. One important quirk is speed related tunnel vision. As speed increases, the eyes focus farther and farther out in front, and the brain blurs out the dizzying view towards the sides. That’s why it’s important to mentally keep track of surrounding traffic while motorcycling down the super slab.” David Hough 

If you find the above excerpts to be valuable information I would encourage you to spend a few bucks and buy the books. It might not be as cool as that new leather riding jacket but they are every bit as valuable, in a different sort of way, and far less expensive.

So let’s talk about the consistent theme here, the “big picture” as it were. I love Keith Code’s “Twist of the Wrist III” and his discussion about “survival reactions” and how they are usually exactly the wrong thing to do when you panic. I’m going to digress here a bit but I think it’s worth it to touch on Keith’s teachings. Keith uses the example that you have only so much attention to work with. He gives you a maximum of $10.00 worth of attention. If you spend all $10 bucks of that attention on a wet spot up ahead in your lane and fail to see that car pulling out of a parking place into your lane you just spent all of your attention on the wrong thing. Though Keith’s book is primarily focused on racing and improving your riding skills to go faster, it applies equally well to street riding and avoiding doing the wrong thing because you allow your “survival reactions” to take over when you’re scared and in panic mode. The following are some of the “survival reactions” Keith discusses:

• “Roll of the gas: more problems are caused by cutting the gas then staying on the gas and keeping the weight balance between front and rear in that 40% front / 60% rear than not.”

• “Target fixation: steering in the direction of what you’re fixated on, freezing and not steering at all.” VTXRon just covered this in his recent article.

• “Braking errors: both over and under braking.”

Let’s get back to vision skills and I’ll continue with more of Keith’s teachings on this. He proposes that you practice keeping your vision out wide. Rather than moving you eyes around, open your field of vision as wide as you can then let your brain decide what it wants to concentrate on as compared to moving your eyes around from one target to another. Widening your field of vision reduces stress, opens up space, slows things down and allows you to make better decisions. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to improve their vision/riding skills. The whole concept of “survival reactions” I found fascinating and by understanding how these work against have really improved my riding skills.

To conclude I’ll share with you what Ken Condon writes in his article “Corner Vision”:

“Visual information is abundant but you need to be selective which bits of data are most important and which should be given less attention….. The wider your visual field, the more likely you are to identify a potential problem. You won’t get a clear look at objects in your periphery because periphery vision is not sensitive to color and detail, however, periphery vision will alert you to movements that could indicate a possible hazard. Rapidly scanning between potential hazards within your wide field of view allows you to observe individual objects while keeping track of the whole environment to better prepare you to manage multiple hazards.”

Remember to:

• Look well ahead, 5 to 6 seconds is good.
• Look in the direction you want to go.
• Look at the solution not the problem.
• Keep you vision wide and your eyes moving.

Hoping you found this information thought provoking and useful. Again thanks to the wonderful authors I’ve used to pull this information from for their valuable insight and knowledge.

Ride safe, be safe, live long and prosper.

 

I am writing this because I want to stress the importance of always wearing your gear. Had I not been wearing it, my injuries would be far worse. Here is what happened. I was very lucky.

I was on a ride about a week and 1/2 ago on Rt. 84 in Highland County VA with a few other people on the way back to Marlinton WV. We had done so many twisties that day and I was a little tired so my husband agreed to lead us back.  Two people were behind him, then me and then the sweep. We came upon a sharp curve. I know I downshifted before the curve and slowed down but my friend said he thought I may have come in a little too fast. I may have just misjudged. I just can't remember and they said I may never remember. I remember thinking that I had to lean a bit more to make the turn and I did that while twisting the throttle.  What happened with other riders is that they lean so far that the rear wheel lifts off the ground and there is no way to recover.  I remember thinking that I was going to fall, my butt hit the ground hard on the left side of the bike and the next thing I knew, I was in a gully with the bike leaning on it's right side and my right leg was trapped. A friend lifted the bike off me.

I knew I was in pain but adrenaline must have kicked in since I could walk. My right hand was hurting, my butt was hurting and my legs. When the adrenaline wore off, all of a sudden I was in tremendous pain and couldn't straighten up. I started to feel nauseous and dizzy. They laid me over my husbands bike and thankfully the ambulance came as I started to pass out. They said I was in shock and my blood pressure was extremely low and stayed that way for a long time. There was no cell service so two riders had initially went to find help. Once the state trooper and the sheriff arrived, they radioed for an ambulance. The hospital was 4 mountains away and they took me to Waynesboro.

I have a possible hairline fracture on my hand (x-ray didn't show it but my doctor at home is sending me to an orthopedist since it still is quite painful), a hematoma on my left gluteus maximus, and terrible bruising on my legs and elsewhere. The hospital had never seen a bruise that bad on someone's butt so I was the talk of the hospital. After showing the 4th person, I was no longer embarrassed. Luckily, my head didn't hit the ground.  Somehow I held it up and I also held on to the bike so I wasn't thrown off until the last moment.  That helped as well.  My jacket saved my arms from road rash and possible other injuries to my back.  My gloves saved my hads and I only had a few scraps were the gloves shredded on my finger.  My over the ankle boots saved me as well. 

I am thankful to have such wonderful friends both on the ride with me and at home. My friend drove down from NJ on Monday (he left at 5 AM), picked me up at the hotel at 12 noon, took me to get my bike an hour and a half away and then drove me home. I got home at 10:30 PM that night. It was a long an painful ride. My husband spent most of the day before renting a car and then going to Marlington to pick up our stuff and taking care of me since I was pretty much helpless.  He had to ride home and he was shaken up by the whole thing.

I also have to mention how great the State Trooper and the Sheriff were. They couldn't have been nicer and more helpful.   So many times you hear horrible things about the police but these two couldn't have been nicer.  There is a law in VA that they must issue you a reckless driving ticket for all single motorcycle accidents.  You then have to appear in person and normally they will down grade it.  The trooper said I seemed like a nice person and he didn't have the heart to give me a ticket and he would just hear it from his sargent.  I was shocked that he didn't give me the ticket.  So always remember to be nice to the men in blue. 

Also always  make sure to wear your gear no matter how warm it is.   It may just save you.

I'm sure I wrote a blog about this somewhere, but since I didn't see it in this category I figured I'd write another one. I guess it will not hurt.

Donʼt even think about riding without insurance or registration
If you get stopped, you could pay fines, get points on your regular license and  have increased car insurance. The police will not let you ride it away meaning you will need to get it towed. If you leave it on the side of the road, it's an invitation for someone to steal it. Either way, you will be walking.

Take a class and get a motorcycle license
If you don't, you are a danger to yourself and to others because you havenʼt learned the absolute basics of riding a motorcycle. If you think you will not get caught, think again. Police set up check points all the time on motorcycle routes because they know a good deal of bikers donʼt have licenses, endorsement, inspections, proper helmets or insurance. Again, if you want to walk home, have your bike towed or stolen, and pay big fines....ride without a license.

Get enough insurance
Another thing is to get the proper amount of insurance. Unfortunately you can get a bare bones policy that offers very minimal coverage. Not even enough to fix a broken arm, replace a car rear view mirror or even repair your bike. These policies are cheap, but are they worth it?

Don't get a stolen bike
In some areas you can get a “hot” bike for $500.00. It may be tempting..... but do you really feel comfortable riding around on a stolen bike?

Although you probably would never do any of the above in your car, too many motorcyclists ride around without a license and proper paper work. With all of the focus on cracking down on motorcyclists, doing any of the above is a sure way to get yourself into trouble.

I wanted to alert all of you to a very customer unfriendly web retailer:   Cycle Shop USA. The short version is don't go there and don't buy there. I had bought some things from them a few years ago and had no issues, but this month the experience was drastically different and not in a good way.

I bought some riding pants on 8/10/10 and they charged my credit card on 8/11/10. I keep checking my account to see when they are going to ship the pants they allegedly had in stock and no information is available. They still show my order as "processing" after 7 days.  So I called the customer service number where the web site says I will be connected to a friendly and helpful CSR. Well...due to call volume they are no longer accepting calls so they tell you to e-mail them at: webmaster@cycleshopusa.com or you can leave a voicemail message and they will call you ASAP. I've left about a dozen voicemails and have not rec'd a call back. I have e-mailed the "webmaster" about 6 times now and my e-mail is returned as "undeliverable" because the mailbox is full.

I did get an e-mail fron their Customer Service Manger who told me they would advise me when they had a tracking number for my order but didn't mention if that would be in my lifetime or not. I tried to e-mail him back to cancel my order but my e-mail came back as undeliverable as his mailbox was also "Full".  I guess he and the webmaster are real busy right now ignoring customers and losing orders.

The only positive I can put on this experience is I used my Americacn Express card to charge this order. They have an awesome customer dispute system where they intervene on behalf of the customer and credit you back for your purchase immediately until the dispute is resolved. I have used this service several times and have been delighted with the results!! Yeah American Express. Boooo Cycle Shop USA.

Please stay away from this Company and spread the word to your riding friends and on any of the other motorcycle web sites you frequent, to spare fellow riders the pain and aggravation they will experience by placing an order with Cycle Shop USA.

    A golf instructor once told me that in order to achieve an efficient swing every time you must allow your muscles to remain loose.  Grip the club softly because tight muscles are slower than loose muscles and you’ll never achieve a decent club head speed with stiff muscles.  You become fatigued when having a real firm grip and it becomes impossible to achieve a smooth swing.  What does this have to do with riding a motorcycle?  Funny you should ask.  Recently a friend brought up a good observation when it comes to new riders, and it is also a very common problem with new golfers, and it is where the two are very similar.

    A motorcyclist needs to be aware of a million different variables; the situation that you find yourself in is dynamic and fluid.  Anything can happen at any time and riding requires a tremendous amount of concentration; sometimes your response can be the difference between a simple inconvenience and a trip to the emergency room or worse.   Most experienced riders are comfortable on their bikes and are relaxed.  The way their hand wraps around the grips is loose; allowing smooth responses and inputs into steering the bike also adjusting throttle and braking.  Where the experienced riders tend to make the mistakes is because of complacency and over confidence; they assume they have enough time and miles under their belt to simply know better or that they have the ability to outride the laws of physics. 

    A newer rider has more of a tendency to hold the handlebars with all his or her might, hoping that doing so will somehow enable them to react quickly when in fact, the opposite is true.   Also the fear of what could happen manifests itself in holding the grips with white knuckles and being overly cautious of what could be.  A good habit to get into is to learn to relax while still remaining aware and sharp.  A result of holding the grips too tight is that after a while, you will begin to feel fatigue in your shoulders and eventually your upper back.  If you are on a long ride, this becomes more dangerous because now your focus is shifted from the hazards around you to the pain in your back, shoulders and hands.  Coupled with hand fatigue which might cause you to let go of the grip, this could be a disaster in the making.

    Remember the tight muscles?  Those tight muscles make it impossible for you to react quickly and smoothly.  You may recall from your BRC class that it takes one half second to take your hand from the throttle to the brake lever and another half second to squeeze the brake.  If you find yourself having to make an emergency stop, those tight muscles will not only reduce your reaction time considerably, but also cause you to snap off the throttle and slam on those brakes, almost guaranteeing a massive loss of traction and inevitably, because you are now panicked, the bike will more than likely go down.  In addition, slower turns are no longer smooth and safe, but become choppy and abrupt usually resulting in a wider turn than what you had anticipated, possibly causing you to cross the center line or even leave the road surface altogether.  Faster turns will be more difficult and efficient counter steering becomes impossible because you can’t lean the bike smoothly possibly creating a situation where you take the turn way too wide.

    Worst of all, you just don’t look cool.  Your shoulders up around your ears and your arms straight out make you look like a scared mouse in a helmet. Definitely not cool.  Just remember to relax.  You know how to ride; just stay focused on what’s going on around you and loosen up those hands.  Stay focused, not afraid. You might even find that you can go the extra hundred miles and still come home smiling, ready to go out again tomorrow.