Many street riders tend to shift too frequently: One test to see if you fit into that category is to ask yourself, “do you forget which gear you’re in?” If you can’t tell the difference between your speed and engine sound in 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th or 5th – then it’s probably because you shift so often you don’t have a sense of what each gear can do.  But just the way good golfers practice shots with each golf club in their bag, learning its feel and swing and the distance it sends the ball – part of motorcycling skill is getting to know each gear, using it thoughtfully, and developing a mental map of what each can do and how the engine feels in each gear… So what can we do?

So here’s what you do: city riding is good for the first three (or four) gears.  Spend some time with each gear.  Instead of shifting up as soon as you can, spend some time in each gear, starting with the higher gears.  Cruise in 3rd.  Take slow turns in 3rd remembering to get on the throttle early and gradually rolling on throughout the turn.  Then cruise the same speeds in a lower gear.  Make mental notes as to how sensitive the throttle is going from on to off or vice versa.  Learn to ride smoothly in that gear using your throttle control.  And as you go from one gear to the other make mental notes as to the difference in engine speed.  Aim for smooth shifts and smooth throttle control especially in the lower gears.

I know lots of experienced riders who have plenty of miles under their belt, yet have trouble riding smoothly around town in first gear because they never developed the throttle control to manage their engines in that gear.  Then they wonder why it’s so hard for them to ride on slick roads – they never learned to be delicate with throttle control.

By the same token I meet newer riders having a tough time riding smoothly because they tend to use lower gears.  They get around much easier once they convince themselves they can use a higher gear without stalling the engine.

So on a given road (at a given speed) you can probably choose from at least 3 gears, all of them can carry you comfortably, and all of them have their place in your riding arsenal:

• the higher gear will keep the engine sound low, so it’s good for riding quietly through neighborhoods.
• The lowest gear is good for acceleration and for making sure your engine charges your battery (many bikes don’t charge batteries adequately below certain engine speeds); but is hardest to be smooth with.
• And the middle gear is good for slippery surfaces balancing throttle manageability with the control needed to handle wheel spin.

Related posts:

1. Tips on Braking and Downshifting
2. Reasons to Gear-Up
3. Clutchless Shifting

One interesting thing you see here – because it’s such an extreme move – is how you actually need to countersteer to pick the bike up from a lean. Most of us are holding onto the bars too tight to tell, but there are really three parts to a turn… One, you countersteer to initiate a turn. Two, you let go of the bars and the bike will remain at that angle. And three, you need to countersteer again (the other way) to pick the bike up. Most of this happens unselfconsciously to the rider, in the part of the brain that does the heavy math to maintain balance… But skilled riders know first hand, you can take the pressure off the bars in a turn, but need to make a steering input in order to straighten back up. This here is an amazing save – but it couldn’t have happened without a well executed countersteer to pick the bike up.

Related posts:

1. Getting comfortable with lean angle…
2. Steering Feel
3. Moto-Myths 2: How to Steer a Bike

“Soccer is great, except for all the running.”  If that statement describes you, then have I got the game for you…

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2. Biker blogs on the inter-web
3. Biker Cops Overseas

We seem to be living in this magical age where classic motorcycles come back to life…  Not just Triumphs and Harleys but Indians, and…Norton.  Now most classic-come-back’s seem to feature the chromed out engine exhaust motif.  The sad truth about Cafe Racers is that they are neither comfortable (sometimes barely ridable on a commute) nor fast by today’s standards, and the chrome doesn’t help with the latter…  But what caught my eye here are the name brand bits: Brembo brakes and Ohlins front and rear.  Even without seeing one up close it tells me that these Nortons means business.  You can find out more on the factory website here.

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1. Tire Talk
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I often warn people who don’t usually ride this way to watch out for those turns, they’re sharp enough to cause survival reactions to kick in and it’s easy to target fix on the wall if you come at it quickly – especially since you can’t see far around the corner. But a little bit of oil and water can make these turns treacherous. So a heads-up from Courtney to all the people riding to Queens – take the lower level or the outer lane if you can. But this is a good reminder in general for rainy weather around the city: there are a lot of old cars and trucks dumping oil, and no one to clean it up…

Related posts:

1. 30 Minute Rides: Good Eats in Queens
2. 30-Minute Rides: Saw Mill River Parkway

You’ve seen the ads, “two year old bike, always garaged, never seen rain…”  Is rain really so bad for a bike?  What should you look for in a buying a bike parked outside?  What can you do to weather-proof your investment?  The good news is bikes are pretty much made to sit outdoors.  While it’s not a good idea to douse your bike with a garden hose, there’s little that can go wrong as a result of rain falling down on an otherwise healthy bike.  Just don’t use a high pressure hose to wash your bike because that might force water into places it normally wouldn’t go… Rotors, get rusty looking in the rain, but a quick ride around the block will clean them off and your brake pads will be no worse for the wear…

But rain isn’t ideal, even when you’re parked, so there are some things to look out for.  Here’s my top five along with some easy fixes.

#1 The chain…  The number one victim of moisture is the chain.  But the simple fix is to make sure it’s cleaned and waxed regularly.  Take a toothbrush to loosen road dirt after riding in the rain as dirt can easily stick to wet grease or chain wax.

#2 Exposed nuts and bolts…  Bolts that hold on fairings and lights can survive any weather, but nuts and bolts that actually hold critical components are made of hardened steel that can rust easily.  The main engine bolt, the bolt on the rear wheel axle, etc.  An easy fix is to make sure you dry these parts after washing your bike, and spray a little chain grease or wax to keep them from contacting moisture.

#3 Front forks…  This is mainly a problem with older bikes (5+ years old), where corrosive elements like road debris or insects wear away the enamel of the forks and allow moisture to create rust spots.  Eventually pitted forks (that develop rust spots) will need to be cleaned and re-coated or else they will wear away the fork seal.  People always complain how a lot of Japanese bikes come from the factory with overly-soft front fork settings.  But one benefit of soft forks settings (that bottom out occasionally) is that the forks stay clean.  A better way to keep forks clean is to make sure to wipe them down after a long ride, and make sure they are clean of debris and bugs.  If you do get rust spots you will eventually need to either replace them or have them resurfaced.  But until then you can keep your fork seals happy by cleaning the rust off using crumpled aluminum foil and something for the rust (some people use Coca Cola), then give it a light coat of oil.

#4 Aftermarket electronics…  If you’ve had HID lights installed or an outlet for a vest or even just installed a plug for a battery tender, you want to make sure these components stay out of the rain.  Sometimes components are wired using plastic clips in place of solder; these can become corroded over time and cause problems.  Make sure they’re covered.  If you can’t move the connection to some place completely out of the elements (like behind a fairing or under the tank) then at least wrap them up with some electrical tape.  For under seat electric connections (like for after-market rear turn signals), make sure they are someplace where water can’t splash upwards from underneath while riding.  Once again a bit of electrical tape can make a connection a bit more weather resistant.

#5 The gas cap.  On older but still modern bikes the seal around the gas cap can leak a bit.  Usually people only find out after the bike gets tipped over and fuel leaks out.  But it also means you can get water in your tank after sitting in the rain.  The cheap fix is to make sure you put a cover on your bike – that helps with #1-4 as well.  But if you want to replace the gas cap, it’s usually just a super-easy fix, or a five minute job with an allen wrench.

Got any more tips for protecting your bike in the rain?  Share the wealth in the comments section!

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2. How to clean anything in 30sec or less…
3. How To Clean and Lube the Chain

It’s that time of year again, when students go back to school, and the weather (hopefully!) begins to get a little cooler, and motorcyclists all over hit up Craigslist to think about buying or selling their bikes.  That’s when starter-bike riders think about getting their first big bike, 600 riders think about their first liter bike, and standard riders start thinking about something with more luggage.  But before you brush up on how to buy a motorcycle, consider this…

There’s a principle in business management that says people are often “promoted to incompetence:” those who do great jobs keep getting promoted to bigger jobs and more responsibilities, until they get to a job they’re really mediocre at, then they stay there forever.  I think there’s a similar principle in motorcycling: trading up until you no longer enjoy riding.  People get the biggest, heaviest or fastest bike they can handle – rather than getting the best bike for their ride and riding style…and they keep trading up until they no longer enjoy riding or are no longer able to do it safely.

So before you go off on a big purchase, just think about this one thing: would you rather be the fast rider on the slow-ish or older bike, or the clumsy rider on the fast bike?  Would you rather be the one with the fancy ride who can’t ride?  Or the one who can ride under any condition with finesse, only on a bike with less power and heft?  Choose wisely…

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1. Going Fast…
2. What fast looks like…
3. Mad Slow-mo Gymkhana Skillz

You’ve heard of “I, Claudius”, well now here’s the British Superbike equivalent. Since there are no British MotoGP riders this season, some thoughtful filmmakers decided to make a feature movie out of a BSB racing season. With three top American riders in MotoGP, we probably won’t be seeing an AMA version any time soon (although that would be interesting too) – but I bet we will see another Faster/Kentucky Kid type film following Spies or Lorenzo at some point in the near future. It might look a little cheesy, but if it actually plays at a theater in NY, I plan to go see it. I like cheese.

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1. Holiday Gift Ideas for Bikers…
2. Longing for the big screen…
3. Getting Your Fix

There were a couple of tragic deaths in the motorcycle world this week.  Peter Lenz, the thirteen year old motorcycle phenom during the 250 GP at Indianapolis this past weekend.  The other is Matthew Dieckmann, the founder of the company that took third place in this year’s TTXGP.  These remind us that there are real risks to riding motorcycles.  At the same time, we need to remember that it’s up to you to calculate the risks at any point.  Racers don’t crash in the pit area, riders often don’t even bother wearing helmets or gear on pit bikes… because that’s an area where they don’t take risks; they do however crash during actual races because that’s when they take the most risks, and wear the most gear.  So for riders on the city street and highways, it’s up to the rider whether you’re going to treat that street you’re on more like a pit lane or a race track…

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1. Crash Analysis
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3. Safety & Style…

On the video he asks if you can spot the small error the student makes around the 3minute mark… I’m not sure, but my guess is that it’s the #1 mistake most riders make: turning in too early and winding up wide at the exit.

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1. Riding Skills: An Exit Strategy
2. Where to Look in a Turn
3. Inexpensive Onboard Video