Saw this on another forum. Its a bit of a long read and has quite a few spelling and grammatical errors but the information is excellent. Ride Harder, Faster, and Better If you aren't at least a little surprised by something on every ride - a bit of motorcycle control you haven't used in a while, or the new charming behavior of a four wheeled pilot - you simply aren't looking hard enough. The best riders - and the oldest ones - realize that there are many small lessons in every ride. The measure of your skill and ultimate safety isn't whether you arrive without incident - it's what you learned along the way. I. Survival A. Stayin' alive First of your advantages is your greatly improved visibility that comes with your higher eye level. You can see (and feel) changes in traffic flow that are undetectable to car drivers. You can use your lateral mobility within your lane to see around trucks and pick up on traffic trends long before the car guys have a clue. The motorcycle's small size lets it slide through gaps unavailable to cars; tremendous acceleration can blast you out of tight situations as well. A motorcycle is a small, hard to see target, and you move in ways that are unpredictable to car drivers. They don't see enough bikes around to be aware of them. If they happen to see you, they will avoid you. If you don't catch their eye, they'll behave as if you don't exist. Steering clear of other drivers blind spots is critical to your survival. Statistics show that riding with your high beam on and wearing brightly colored clothing and a highly visible helmet are ways to reduce your risk of being taken out by a four wheeled pilot. Riding well and avoiding random acts of automotive idiocy is an intense mental exercise, an act of sustained concentration on your part. The more into the ride you are, the better you'll ride - and the safer you'll be. B. Top Three Natural-Born Killers 1. Be inconspicuous Car and truck drivers don't really want to kill us. It's just they won't avoid what they can't see. If you pull into an intersection on a black bike with burnt headlight and a dark colored helmet, wearing a dark jacket; for all intents and purposes you are invisible. Expect the worst. 2. Ride drunk This just in: drunk people do stupid things! One of the stupidest is convincing themselves they're OK to ride. Alcohol reduces motor skills and degrades judgment, while at the same time boosts bravado. This makes an excellent way to find yourself, or what's left, in a body bag. 3. Ride unaware Motorcyclist face threats from every angle and virtually all of them can be easily dealt with by an aware, mentally involved rider. Sh*t does happen, but if you're paying attention you can see it coming. II. Engine Management It's the engine that makes a motorcycle so interesting, and it's that motor that can get you into so much trouble if it's not properly managed. The tremendous acceleration that most bikes offer is a big part of your self-defense. Passes that would be suicidal in a Ford Taurus are nothing on most bikes, or merging with fast moving traffic is like second nature. All that power demands smoothness on your part, especially when it's carried in a package as pitch sensitive as a motorcycle. Being able to stand on it's rear wheel one moment and then on it's front wheel the next makes a motorcycle particularly intolerant of sloppy handling. Smoothness is the key. This means understanding where your particular engine makes it's best power and developing the skills to deliver that power to the rear wheel when needed. The key to downshifting properly is to understand the purpose of the exercise. To get the engine in proper RPM range to pull hard the next time the throttle is opened. Downshifting will slow help to slow down your bike, but it's a very expensive brake. Matching engine revs to the rear wheel speed is the challenge of downshifting, and it requires a feel for your bike that can only be developed over time. Get the revs wrong and you'll upset the chassis, but if you do it right the new gear will arrive seamlessly. III. Skill Building A. The Turning Point You don't have to be able you design a motorcycle to be a brilliant rider, but you do need to understand counter steering. That's the term used to describe how direction changes are initiated on a motorcycle. If you ride at all you are already counter steering (subconsciously, at least). Consciously learning counter steering can dramatically increase your motorcycle's maneuverability and your control over it. In panic situations this skill and the confidence to use it can save your life. How it works? A bike traveling in a straight line at moderate speed will keep going straight. The faster you go the harder it is to change directions. Making a turn requires you to upset the happy balance of physics. The most efficient and precise way is apply force to the handle bars, surprisingly, counter the direction of the turn. This brief counter steering steers the tire contract patches out from under the bike's center of gravity, banking the bike and rides into the planned turn. With the counter steering force released as the proper lean angle is reached the bike will carve the turn with minimum corrective steering input. Doing this subconsciously is one thing, but doing it consciously can be rattling at first. How you apply the counter steering force and how you visualize what your doing is your personal preference. Most riders think of it as push left, go left, and vice versa. Although, a pull back on the right grip will do the same either way works fine. Practicing counter steering is easy. While your cruising in a straight line, give a short, sharp forward shove to one of the hand grips, and you'll see an instant lean to the same side. Experiment with how much force is needed and how long to hold it. B. Just Stop It Motorcycle's don't have the luxury of antilock braking system. Some have linked braking system, but there is still plenty of brake control up to the rider. Independent brakes are a pain for new riders and almost a gift for seasoned expert. The less experienced struggle to develop a feel for impending front wheel lock up and the proper balance between front and rear braking levels. A good sport bike on clean pavement can produce enough front brake power to raise it's rear tire off the ground. Getting a feel for the proper braking level is something that can only be learned through practice. Squeezing the brakes smoothly is less upsetting to the chassis and gives you the most feedback. Visions of stoppies make new riders use the rear brake more. This can be a fatal mistake. Rely on the rear brake to much and you won't use the front at all. This means you'll hit stuff that you could of missed by stopping properly. The real stopping power is in the front brakes. To building confidence in using the front brake is to use it at every stop. Though awkward and uncomfortable, the practice of keeping two fingers on the front brake lever at all times can reduce your reaction time in a panic situation. The ability to brake in a corner is a skill that must be learned. You may need to suddenly stop in a corner or just ride the brake a little to prevent from riding on the curb because you over shot the turn. Applying the brakes, soft and easy in a turn will stand the bike upright. To much will make you slide and end up on the curb. This is another skill learned with practice. C. Wet Weather Tactics Rain reduces visibility, hides low traction areas and conceals potholes with a "harmless" puddle of water. Railroad tracks, manhole covers, steel grating, and plates become highly treacherous.The available pavement grip is reduced to an unknown amount. The best thing to do when riding in the rain is devote your concentration to keeping yourself out of tight spots. This way you don't stake your life on finding traction that might not be there. You should double your following distance. Be aware of driveways, side roads and crossing streets that may give someone a chance to pull out in front of you. Never forget the left turning driver that just never saw you. The motorcyclist is far less visible in the wet, which is bad for anyone interested in reaching old age. Use your high beams, it's better to annoy a few drivers than to become lost in the background with the low beams. Despite your best efforts to avoid tight spots, a situation will arise that will require decisive avoidance actions. A trick experienced rain riders use is to calibrate themselves occasionally during a wet ride. In normal stop and go riding squeeze off a little extra rear brake at a normal intersection stop. On a familiar bike locking the rear tire ( in a straight line at low speeds) shouldn't be a problem to control. You can get a feeling of how much traction is available. You can also purposely apply extra power on the take off to see how much is available and what you can handle. When the chips are down, it'll be to late for experimenting. When you need to take action and how much depends on the situation. If hard braking is required to avoid impact and you see no other way out, then commit to full on braking. Whether the situation requires braking or turning the secret here is to get quickly and smoothly to a level of corning or braking that will get you out of trouble. At this point you're committed, worry about traction is useless. Either it will be there and a disaster will be avoided, or it won't and you'll crash. That alternative is impact at full force, braking hard will at least slow things and impact may not be as devastating. Not an appealing prospect but one that should help you maintain your mental focus on staying clear of trouble on your next rain ride. D. Assume The Position Body position of a rider can tell you a lot about a rider's skill level. A relatively upright posture is the byproduct of an involved, aware rider. What sport rider hasn't felt the urge to get into full tuck and rest on the passenger pegs, and what cruiser pilot can resist the comfy highway pegs. A sprawled-out position can easily add an extra second you may not have when trouble arises. At 60 mph you'll roll an extra 88 feet before you're in full-battle readiness. That's 88 feet you may not have. Adopt an active posture and you're ready to react. Cornering styles vary from rider to rider and within certain bounds are personal preference. Some riders are most comfortable with a mild hang off riding style when cornering. Others hang off radically in high speed twisties leaving no room for error. This kind of riding is not very promising. E. Speed Reading The surface of the road has a story it's dying to tell; are you willing to read it? The condition of the pavement you ride on has a dramatic effect on your safety, and in turn should weigh heavily on how you set your velocity. Rain is a problem dealt with in the previous story, but what can cause trouble on dry pavement? A lot! Much of city riding tactics are built around staying out of driver's blind spots and out of the slick areas in the center of a lane. The best path to follow is the wheel tracks of the car in front of you. They'll graciously bunt much of the minor road trash out of your path. Make a surface check a part of your visual scan. Use your high view point to look for spilled fluids on the road ahead. This is important information, since the action you take in response to a threat depends on what the surface is like. Keep alert for a whiff of chemicals, fuel, or a sudden wave of humid air. These can tip you off of something slick in the road ahead. On and off ramps are a dumping grounds for fuel, creepy liquids that come out of garbage trucks, and plenty of other trash. Unless your eyes tell you differently stay to the extreme inside of a filthy corner. The bad stuff is usually thrown to the outside of the turn. Away from the city surface contaminates are more stealthy. Sand and gravel have the same texture and appearance as the underlying pavement, but with none of the grip. Some states cover fresh tar with pea gravel to extend the life span of older roadbeds. Besides the fun flying gravel, this situation leave the surface alternating between well bonded gravel to loose gravel that mimics marbles. Not good. Another is the application of tar over pavement cracks. When recently applied under the hot sun this goop has a fraction of the grip of the surrounding pavement. One good thing is tar strips are usually easy to see. Painted lines, road surface reflectors and manhole covers can also be very slippery. Open road tourers only have to see one big truck tire come apart and they realize that they want to be far away from big rigs whenever possible. IV. Advanced Tactics A. Out With The Gang Group riding is one of the great pleasures of motorcycling. Provided your out with a good group, people you know and trust. Staggered formation is the building block for group rides of any size. The leader should take the left wheel track of a selected lane and the follower in the right wheel track trailing behind to stay clearly visible to the leader and allowing room for lateral movement. The rest should follow the pattern. If you can see the eyes of the rider ahead of you, you'll be assured of ample clearance. Side to side riding should be left for stops or deserted interstates where sudden threats are few and far between. Any time a situation gets scary the group should fall in a loose, single file formation. In heavy traffic or in the mountains this is the way to go. A simple rule to keep riders together over many miles is: Each rider is responsible for the rider following. Make sure you get a glimpse of that headlight every couple of minutes, and nobody will get lost for long. B. Finding The Perfect Line Much is made of the art and science of line selection. Whether it be on a twisty road, or on a full-blown race track. Everybody has their (or soon to develop one) of what the "fast line" is. In simplest terms, the fastest path through a given corner is the straightest path. By effectively straightening out the corner, you have to slow down less. That means your velocity at maximum lean will be higher and you'll waste less time slowing down into a corner and speeding up coming out. Though some race track turns can approach the simplicity of a textbook corner, most turns, particularly those on the street, have a great many variables that demand a shift in your line selection priorities. Chief among these (for riders interested in riding well into the future) is visibility. When driving into a partially blind corner that is either completely unfamiliar or is not manned by corner workers ready to warn you of debris or obstructions (that would be all corners on the street), a modified line is in order. Call it late-apex cornering. Instead of entering wide and gracefully arching down to tag the classic midcorner apex, then feeding power to widen your exit arc all the way back to the outside again, you take a different approach. You stay on a straight path under braking at corner entrance, and continue deeper into the turn than you normally would, slowing to a slightly lower slower lower cornering speed before banking sharply toward a late apex. Much of the direction change is concentrated in the section of the corner just after braking is complete. Since much of your direction change is done, instead of waiting until the classic apex to feed in power, as visibility permits, you're on the gas sooner. The late apex approach has substantial benefits for the street rider; the greatest is that it allows you to get through an unknown corner very quickly, without having to commit yourself to something you can't see. For starters, braking is done with the bike nearly vertical, where almost all available grip can be used to get you slowed down. Your braking zone is visible throughout your approach, making it easy to judge. Then at the point you're done braking and begin imitating your turn-in, your outside position gives you a better view around the turn than you would have on the classic "racing" line, and at this moment in the process, your speed is lower. At this point you have the luxury of the reassessing in the corner and it's condition. If it's clean and free of centerline-crossing cars, you can roll on a heady blast of power to charge out of the bend. More important, if all is not right with the world, you are in a far better position to take corrective action than the guy on the classic racing line who's committed to a high cornering speed and has nothing left in reserve for braking. Anything that forces him wider (whether it's a too-close oncoming car or dirt on the road) threatens to send him clean off the road, with messy consequences.
