By T.A. "Roadwryter" Stone
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Welcome to Biker's Boot Camp
Ride-Mission: Essential Intell, Strategies, and Tactics for raw recruits, seasoned veterans,and all motorcyclists in between.
The BIKE: Make the bike fit you
The stock motorcycle you purchase off the dealer’s showroom floor or used from a private seller—or even the bike you’ve had on the road for several seasons can be made more comfortable, safer, easier to handle, and more fun to ride by investing in aftermarket parts and accessories that make the bike conform to your height and reach.
Most often, this means making adjustments for a rider’s height, inseam, or arm length. Alone or in combination, the changes below can help the bike fit you better. Most can be installed by the rider with common tools, although a motorcycle dealer or shop can certainly do the work for you.
Handlebar risers
For those with shorter arms, handlebar risers can move the handlebars up and closer to the rider. If you find yourself hunching forward or stretching for the grips, seriously consider this upgrade.
Different handlebars
A variety of handlebar choices are available for American-made motorcycles, imported cruisers, and sportbikes. Some options can be installed when you purchase a new motorcycle, or the modification is easily done by weekend mechanics. For those with less time and expertise, a dealer can order the part and usually make the swap for about an hour’s worth of labor.
Adjust the handlebar position
This adjustment is normally well within the expertise of weekend mechanics. Even a very slight adjustment of the handlebar angle can make a big difference in comfort and control. Be conservative, however—radical adjustments may make the bike difficult to steer.
Change the stock seat
Aftermarket seats are not only usually more comfortable, they can change your riding position. Consult your dealer or experienced riders. Installation is usually simply a matter of taking the stock seat off and popping the new one into place.
Lowering kits
Bike too tall, even with an aftermarket saddle? Lowering kits can be obtained for most American made and many import motorcycles. Note that these kits change the motorcycle’s geometry and so may effect handling and cornering clearance. If you don’t do serious canyon-carving (and there are few canyons in the Midwest), this may not be an issue. However, after installation be sure to get some parking lot practice to fully understand your bike’s new characteristics.
Aftermarket footpegs or floorboards
Kits are available for riders with longer legs and for those who are vertically challenged. Installation is usually simple and can be done with common tools. Again, depending on the kit, these may affect cornering clearance, so be sure to practice in a safe area before you hit the open road.
There’s much that can be done to make a stock motorcycle better fit your individual size, shape, and riding style. Consult with your dealer or use on-line forums or expertise in your riding group to find the best accessory or combination of accessories to make the bike fit you for a better riding season.
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The Gear—Don Full Battle Rattle
There hasn’t been an infantryman yet—probably since the dawn of ground combat—who didn’t complain about the amount of gear he’s wearing. Whether it was the heavy shields of the ancient Spartans or the tactical equipment and body armor of today’s troops in Afghanistan or Iraq,
“Grunts” wear a heavy load of mission-essential clothing and gear—and those helmets and body armor have saved many a life and limb. For bikers, the old adage “when you go down, you’ll be wearing what you got on with” applies. We’ll just take our cue from professional riders, long-distance tourers, law enforcement motor officers, the AMA, and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and offer the following list of Biker
Mission Essential Personal Gear:
A well-fitting helmet
A full-face helmet provides the best protection. Modular helmets and 3/4 helmets follow, trailed by half-helmets at the end. Novelty helmets are nice novelties but their protection is questionable at best. The only way to know if a helmet fits comfortably with just the right amount of snugness and no pressure points is to try it on. Most of the full-service motorcycle dealers featured in this issue will offer a good selection. Note that a good helmet can help keep you warmer in chilly weather by diminishing heat loss through your head, as well as cooler in hot weather by keeping the sun off you.
Eye protection
Quality, shatter-resistant glasses or goggles will keep out most dust, road pollution, bugs, and wind. A helmet’s face shield will do as well. Normally riding a behind a windshield will not be enough in terms of protection, although a windshield may satisfy legal requirements. Your best bet is to buy your eye protection at a motorcycle dealer or from an on-line outlet that specializes in eyewear for riders.
Gloves
Leather or textile, the choice is yours, but gloves are a necessity summer or winter. Most of us make our living with our hands in some way, so leaving palm skin on pavement or busting knuckles on hard ground can put a big dent in the income flow. You’ll probably want a warmer pair for early and late season riding and a vented, mesh textile or perforated leather pair for the summer months.
Equipment Issue Supply Point: Where to Gear Up?
The vendors in this and other issues of Midwest Motorcyclist all feature gear made especially for riders. Many of our advertisers ride themselves—some have decades of experience. They know good gear and feature it in their offerings. While you can get cheap jackets, sunglasses, boots, and so on from mall retailers, your best bet for quality, safety, and satisfaction is to visit a dealer who specializes in serving the riding community. If you need to save a dollar or two in today’s tough economic times, visit a dealer’s or vendor’s booth at a show or rally to take advantage of specials.
Jacket
A jacket made for motorcycling is one that is constructed of heavy leather or textile materials. Most Midwestern riders have at least two—one much lighter made of mesh (textile) or perforated leather. There are heavy-duty denim variants as well. The second will be heavier for cooler weather. The best models have protective padding along with CE or other rated armor at contact points such as the shoulders and elbows, as well as some kind of integrated back protection or padding. Good jackets are not cheap, but can be had on sale or sometime found used. Brake and swerve away from cheap, thin leather that just looks “biker.” You’ll get no protection and be buying another after only a season or two.
Riding Pants or Chaps
We’ve learned the hard way that plain jeans will shred three feet into a skid across blacktop and offer no protection for knees and hip bones. Many riders prefer the traditional “biker” look of leather chaps, and these can even be found in perforated leather for summer riding. Others go with vented or non-vented textile overpants, which offer the advantage of armor in the knee and hip area. Whatever you choose, get some protection for your legs, knees, and hip bones.
Riding Boots
Whether you choose over-the-calf big black leather biker boots or high-tech, racing-inspired plastic composite materials, good riding footwear is critically important. Look for ankle protection that will shield against rocks and support your ankle in case of a hasty or un-planned get off. Non-skid, oil-resistant soles and a shift patch are also important features.
Is all this gear really necessary? After all, you see riders in everything from full leathers to balls caps, tank tops, and flip-flops. Some items are mandated in some states (check your local laws), but unlike in Europe, where head-to-toe government-tested safety gear is mandated for motorcyclists, in most states US riders have some leeway in how much and what kind of gear they wear. Whether you choose an “all the gear, all the time” philosophy or a “some of the gear, some of the time” outlook, take responsibility for your own protection and consciously manage the risks of motorcycling so you can enjoy our short Midwestern riding season to its fullest.
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The RIDE: Beat the left-turn ambush
It's said that being an infantryman is the most dangerous job on the battlefield, because everything can kill you. The same can be said for motorcyclists - what might cause the driver of an SUV to call his insurance agent can cause a biker to call an ambulance - or worse. As the season begins, we'll address the number one occasion responsible for most motorcycling accidents.
Threat #1: the right-of-way violator, a.k.a. the leftturner.
The biggest cause of the majority of motorcycling accidents, whether you look at the graying Hurt Report or more recent motorcycling safety studies, is a vehicle violating a motorcyclist's right-of-way. The most common form this takes is a vehicle turning left in front of an oncoming motorcycle.
Like a veteran infantry patrol, a tactically smart biker will have drills as well, and in this drill we'll focus on intersections. When an oncoming vehicle and your bike are closing on a location where the vehicle could pull a left-turn ambush, react immediately with the following:
1. Bring your eyes up
Smart riders scan the road 12 seconds ahead—in traffic or on city streets this often translates to five cars. Looking this far ahead gives you early warning of potential hazards and increases the time you have to react.
2. Bring your speed down
When an infantry patrol closes on a danger area, they slow down and move much more cautiously and deliberately. That's good advice for motorcyclists as well. Reducing speed as you approach an intersection reduces stopping distance and slows down time, giving you more time to evaluate the situation and take evasive action should a vehicle pull across your path.
3. Cover the brake
Cut your reaction time by slipping two or three fingers of your throttle hand over the brake lever. It's that simple—and that effective. Covering the brake can mean the difference between a controlled stop and a panicked one or between a smoothly executed brake-and-swerve and an extreme maneuver.
4. Find an exit
A left turning vehicle violating your right-of-way will most surely require that you repeat the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) "Brake and Swerve" exercise. This time, however, you'll be dodging steel and aluminum rather than plastic orange cones. Parking lot practice is a good way to keep sharp in this technique, but in traffic you'll need to find that escape route—determine where you're going to swerve to and determine it beforehand.
5. Get some cover or get some space
In an ambush zone small folds in the terrain can offer protection from incoming fire. In traffic, a four-wheeled vehicle may provide you some protection. If possible, adjust your position in traffic so that you go through the intersection together with a car, truck, or other four-wheeled vehicle. If you can't use another vehicle for cover, then back off from those in front or behind you—especially if there's a large truck, van, or other vehicle that blocks your view of vehicles that could cut across your path. Backing off gives you a greater likelihood to be seen and more room to maneuver and more time to react if you're not.
6. Give a little shake
This is a technique you won't find in motorcycle safety courses or in texts on how to ride. As you approach an intersection where there is oncoming traffic, shift your weight very slightly left, right, and back again or give the handlebars just the slightest of left-right-left inputs. These actions will induce a small wobble in your bike and in your headlight. The result— from an oncoming motorist's point of view is a shifting light that now stands out against the steady visual background of traffic and roadside distractions. Some riders will go so far as to weave from the left tire track to the right and back again as they close on an intersection.
7. Watch their tires, not their eyes
The old adage about watching a potential left-turner's eyes isn't the best advice. The eyes just aren't a reliable indicator of a left turner's next actions, although a quick glance to evaluate if the driver is otherwise distracted can cue you to be even more cautious. Instead, keep an eye on the vehicle's tires if they start to turn, the vehicle is likely to follow.
8. Execute, execute, execute
The Hurt report and subsequent studies continue to report that when faced with such a right of way violation such as a leftturner, many motorcyclists very often do nothing. That's right; they do nothing (except crash). Any infantryman will tell you that when caught in a kill zone, the worst thing you can do is to stand still. Both combat ambushes and intersection/right of way ambushes require immediate action.
Infantry patrols have immediate action drills as a biker, your drill is to look where you want to go (NOT at the idiot who just pulled in front of you) and then brake and swerve. While a biker's "enemies" encompass a full range from cell-phone-zoned minivan drivers to tar snakes to kamikaze deer left-turners are documented as the most hazardous and most deadly to motorcyclists. Fortunately, tactical countermeasures are easy, quick, and usually effective at neutralizing this threat.
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Separating the threat—Sequential Situational Awareness
Motorcyclists know that the “staying safe” part of motorcycling is all about managing risk, and one way for riders to effectively manage the risky business and pleasure of riding is to adapt two key military’s concepts— “Situational Awareness” and “divide and conquer.” In plain language, Situational Awareness is the general concept of knowing what is going on around you. Yet life comes at you fast, so the TV commercial says, and so do situations in motorcycling. Too much situational awareness can lead to information overload and so to incorrect decisions, paralysis (doing nothing—except crashing) and a trip to the ER.
Again, the military provides a method to too many situations and too much information—divide and conquer, or use sequential situational awareness. City riders are taught to “separate the threats;” to get time and space between the left-turning car in front of you, the slick steel plates on the left, and the traffic coming up behind you. By dividing these threats, if only by a few seconds, a rider stands a much better chance of dealing effectively with each one and remaining upright and en route. The same tactics works for situations—divide and conquer so you can deal with them sequentially.
Before a ride, mentally divide your route into various situations on a “large” scale. That is, mentally ride your route through the different kinds of roads and terrain. Let’s say you have a day trip planned, leaving from home heading for some country road riding and returning just before the evening meal. If you live in a suburb, you’ll start this trip by spending some time weaving through the subdivision and side streets to get to an arterial road. Mentally, divide and conquer this situation—what threats will you face peculiar to side streets—distracted drivers backing out of driveways, cars parked on side streets that open doors in your path, MP3-player-oblivious pedestrians, dogs, blind alleys, or other hazards?
Now take the sequence down to greater detail—what will your preventative actions be? What will your responses be if prevention fails? Next comes the arterial: left turners and right-of-way violators will be your biggest threats, with others in second place but also hazardous. Again, what will you do to reduce the risk of a crash beforehand? Finally, you’re away from civilization and on curvy country roads. Curves—from twisties to gentle sweepers—are their own situations that you’ll need to think through. Toss in wildlife, farm machinery, too-slow and too-fast four-wheelers, and you’ll have a variety of situations to think through. If you live in the Midwest, don’t forget construction that cropped up overnight and that thunderstorm that was no where on the radar when you left your driveway.
Back on the arterial on the way home, what are the hazards? You’ll face tired cage drivers, traffic jams, and your own fatigue. Divide and conquer these by mentally rehearsing the appropriate response so that you don’t become part of the statistic that says most accidents happen within five miles of home. Situational awareness, combined with a “separating the threats” or “divide and conquer” strategy, gives rides a simple way of managing risk effectively and so having a safer, more enjoyable ride.
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The RIDE—Conquering Curves
While the left turn ambush is the number one cause of motorcycling accidents, the number two threat to bikers is not another vehicle on the road, it’s the road itself. One of the most enjoyable parts of motorcycling is also one of the most challenging and most dangerous.
Whether number two or number one, both the now-aging Hurt Report and more recent motorcycling safety studies again agree; from gentle Wisconsin sweepers or tight technical corners along Tennessee’s “Dragon,” among riders who crash the skill that is consistently lacking is the ability to properly and safely negotiate a curve.
Curves are the true tests of a rider’s abilities. Just about any fool can blast down a straight-line stretch of road and stay upright—a motorcycle’s geometry and physics make the machine want to do just that. You can tell the newbie by the way he goes through a curve straight up and almost runs off the road; you know an experienced rider by his smooth cornering, as if the bike were on steel rails.
Too hot to handle
Curves are more challenging and more fun, but with those come more risk as well. In general, accidents in a curve can be traced to one of 4 fundamental causes—the rider enters the turn too fast (“turns in too hot”); fails to see a hazard such as sand or gravel in time to avoid it; fails to sufficiently lean the motorcycle; or fixates on a guard rail, edge of the curve, oncoming vehicle, or anyplace other than where he wants the bike to go and promptly drives straight off the road or into the obstacle, vehicle, rail, or ditch.
SPORTS, BRAS, and SLLR
The Army loves its acronyms and there’s probably not an M16-carrying infantryman around who doesn’t remember SPORTS from boot camp—the acronym for immediate action applied to the weapon to reduce a stoppage. “Slap, Pull, Observe, Release, Tap and Shoot” gets drilled into every rifleman’s head, as does BRAS—“Breathe, Relax, Aim, Squeeze”—the marksmanship acronym for drill for sighting in and firing the weapon. Motorcycling has its own acronyms as well, and veterans of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s (MSF) basic and experienced rider courses will remember SLLR as the drill for curves. SLLR stands for the simple process of Slowing before you enter the curve to your desired entry speed, Looking through the curve where you want the motorcycle to go, Leaning the motorcycle by pressing on the handlebar in the direction of the curve (“go left—press left; go right—press right) and countersteering, and then Rolling on the throttle. For the vast majority of bikers who ride public roads rather than closed racetracks, the “Slow-Look-Lean-Roll” drill works exceptionally well and will get the rider through the curve quickly, smoothly, safely, and with just the right amount of excitement.
TWISTIES: What we live for!
The SLLR Drill in Action
As with all drills or techniques, there’s much debate on exactly how to execute SLLR. When and how much to slow? Where to look? How to lean? How much throttle to roll on? While every turn is different, across all the articles written on cornering some general rules are common and apply to most situations.
Slow before you enter the turn and slow to the point you could stop within your sight distance, and slow so that you can roll on the throttle during the turn. That is, if you can see only 50 feet, slow to a speed which would allow you to stop in 50 feet! Many riders slow by rolling off the throttle, but many are quite happy to apply the brakes as well. The key to slowing, again, is to get all your braking/slowing done before you enter the curve.
Look through the curve and look where you want to go. Looking can happen almost simultaneously with slowing. Note that your instincts will tell you to look at the edge of the curve, at the oncoming truck in the other lane, or at some other obstacle. Your instincts are wrong. Remember that a motorcycle will go where you look, so point your head, nose, and eyes where you want to go and go there, rather than off the road or into oncoming traffic.
Lean the motorcycle through countersteering, bodysteering, or both. Press the handlebar grip in the direction you wish to go. At speeds over a couple of MPH, a motorcycle turns by leaning. Most riders don’t know the true lean angle of their machines—even the biggest cruisers will lean nicely, and all the sound of the pegs grinding the pavement means is that you’re nearing the end of the machine’s leaning capabilities. Of course, the time to truly understand your machine’s capabilities and get comfortable with leaning the bike is in a parking lot, not on a Tennessee twisty!
Roll on the throttle. As you lean the bike through the turn, smoothly roll the throttle on. This helps stabilize the machine and actually gives you a bit more ground clearance so you can lean a bit farther. How much throttle? Don’t grab a handful—you should be looking for 3-5 MPH and climb on more, if necessary, when you get out of the turn.
If you’re doing it all right (and taking curves smoothly does require practice), you’ll feel that “it’s on rails” feeling. If you’re making significant mid-curve corrections, running too wide, “crawling around curves,” or snapping the throttle on and off, you have some work to do on your technique.
There’s much more to taking SLLR to the next level and safely and effectively negotiating curves. From books such as David Hough’s “Proficient Motorcycling” to Ken Code’s “Twist of the Wrist” to Jerry Paladino’s “Ride Like A Pro” videos, resources are plentiful so you can be a master of one of the most fun and challenging parts of motorcycling.
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The Biker Lifestyle—at the heart of the matter
I happened to be reading Dandridge “Mike” Malone’s “Soldier” the other day. Although Malone’s piece is a bit dated— today our soldiers are both he and she and our war is in the desert, not the jungle, Malone’s prose poem still goes to the heart of what it means to wear a uniform.
I’m not Mike Malone, but I wore a uniform for a long time and get what it means to be a soldier. I’m not an old-school, hard-core, 100%-1% biker either, but I’ve put enough miles on the bike and a little blood on the asphalt to say I know a little about what it means to ride.
If you want to turn a friendly gathering of motorcyclists into something close to a brawl, ask them what it means to be a real biker. If you just want to turn that gathering into an acid shouting match, ask them to define the biker lifestyle.
Some say that if you wear black leathers, eschew textiles, ride only an American-made motorcycle, ride all year, focus your life around rides, rallies and biker organizations, never trailer your bike, detest helmets, have multiple, visible motorcycle-related tattoos, and live a “ride to live-live to ride” existence, then you’re living the biker lifestyle. Others will contend that being a true biker and truly living the lifestyle takes more than action and appearances and instead comes from attitude and an outlook on life that rejects many of society’s norms, has its own code of conduct, and values freedom over all.
Whatever your definition of the Biker Lifestyle, motorcycling is at its heart. And at the heart of any lifestyle that involves motorcycling to any significant degree is an attitude that keenly understands, measures, balances and embraces levels of risk and reward to a greater degree than most of the population.
Understanding, measuring, balancing and managing risk are all activities of the head—but the other part of motorcycling is visceral. In other words as much as= motorcycling is about thinking, it’s also about the heart—about a feeling in your gut.
There are many who say that the true Biker Lifestyle and those who live it are mostly gone, and with some exceptions there’s some truth to this. Time and changes in society have worn away a good number of the motorcycling nomads of the late 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s.
Today’s biker lifestyle closely parallels and stems from motorcycling’s roots in the US, especially the branch of that history which includes the formation of motorcycling clubs in the late 1940’s that morphed into what we now call “Outlaw” or 1% motorcycle organizations. We can’t go into detail here, but there are numerous books and countless Internet pages and postings that give a variety of perspectives on life in these organizations.
It's about brotherhood and sisterhood.
Risk and the biker lifestyle. It’s about many things some say, but most of all it’s about accepting risk, taking responsibility, and enjoying the rewards. Doing those things makes those who ride motorcycles different.
Hollywood films and now even a TV series present perspectives on bikers and the lifestyle, perspectives which are generally about as accurate as their portrayals of say, cowboys in the Old West or of military combat.
Caveat biker.
There are also huge marketing campaigns by manufacturers of motorcycles and accessories which take elements and themes from the biker lifestyle and use them to sell their goods and services. Indeed, among marketers it’s often said that Harley- Davidson® originated and perfected the concept of “lifestyle marketing.” It’s interesting to note that the Motor Company wasn’t always the poster child for the Biker Lifestyle. Harley ads of the early ‘60s have clean-cut tennis-sweater wearing couples on shiny bikes off to “Widen [their] fun horizons.” It was not until years later that Harley would appropriate black leather and bad attitudes and use them in its marketing to get weekend outlaws to purchase Milwaukee iron using Harley’s own financing program.
There’s a demonstrated attitude that goes with the Biker Lifestyle. Call it hardriding, hard-living, hard-riding, or call it remembering that life is about the journey and the ride, not just getting there—you already are there. Call it loving the freedom of the road and living that in the rest of your life. There’s an element of brotherhood and sisterhood, and much like the cowboys of the Old West an attitude of your word being your bond, being cool under pressure, not conforming to the rest of society, and being an active part of the biker community.
Like “real bikers,” those who can and do live the “real” Biker Lifestyle are few and very far between. The Old West has changed for the cowboys on whom many old school bikers were modeled. Today’s cowboys drive air-conditioned pickups more than they ride horses and are more likely to be corporate employees than they are to be independent loners. The realities of 2009 make it difficult for the Biker Lifestyle to be more than aspirational for most people as well.
Yet there are pieces of the Biker Lifestyle that all who put a leg over a bike and miles on the road share—motorcyclist, RUB, enthusiast, and biker alike. At the heart and soul of the lifestyle is a love of riding translated into the action of miles put on a bike—in sun, rain, cold, and heat. There’s the heartbeat picking up just a little when you lean it over hard, real hard, in a curve. There’s the complete peace of the motor ticking over and being one with the machine on smooth asphalt and an open road. There’s the rage at the rider killed by a cage driver who “didn’t see him” because she was painting her nails. There’s the frustration of a roadside breakdown, the delicious hot meal at the end of the day, the kid in a toy store fascination with new machines, and the resigned frustration with the non-motorcycling community who just doesn’t get it. It’s being in the same wind.
