If you’re wondering, “hmm do I actually need a radar detector on my bike?”  The answer is “no” – move on…you need to pay attention to the road, and save the speed for the track.

But…if for whatever reason (maybe the police are being used as revenue agents in your town) you’re going to do it anyway, and you have (or plan to buy) a Valentine 1 radar detector, then here’s a simple DIY option that works with the V1 and sportbikes…  And with a little adjustment can work with other radar detectors as well…

There are plenty of good mounting kits you can buy to mount a radar detector to your bars and they have plenty of advantages and will keep your radar detector safer from weather, and maybe even safer in a crash…

Another option for front-only radar is to remove the third light that many sportbikes have and install the radar detector on the fairing bracket (like this guy).  You’ll need a way to hear the audio warnings, or an external alert screen (like for the v1) – but you lose the ability to take your unit easily from car to bike – and on the V1 you lose rear radar detection…  Neither of these were options for me, so here’s my DIY solution:

All you need in addition to the (1) visor clip is a piece of (2) cork form a wine bottle that you can cut to shape, and a (3) piece of 3M dual lock fastener (the kind that comes with your EZPass).

The visor clip on the V1 is pretty large and flexible, but strong enough to handle the bumps. What you need to do is install the dual lock fastener on the inside of the visor clip (allow it to dry overnight to make sure it bonds well to the metal – otherwise the tape might lift off as you remove your unit). Then install a strip of dual lock on your windshield… and voila! You’re almost there.

You could actually ride off like this, but the dual locks can come loose over bumps, and the tension on the metal visor clip winds up working against making good contact. That’s where the cork piece comes in…
The cork helps keep the top of the visor clip flat against the windscreen, and allows the tension of the clip to keep the whole thing in place. You probably can’t glue the cork in place for long, so I run a piece of safety wire through it to make sure it doesn’t pop out. Make sure to test out your setup to see that it’s secure before you take off for any long trips…

Doesn’t this put the radar detector at an angle to the road?

Yes – and technically that should reduce the 4-mile (+) warning range of your Valentine 1 radar detector…  But when I experimented with more level positions, I found that I couldn’t see the alerts when I looked down.  But at the angle that you see it here, I don’t notice a difference in range compared to when I’m using it level in a car…  I’m not saying there’s no difference – just that it’s not a noticeable one in my experience so far…

Some tips on using a radar detector on a motorcycle…

You can’t hear the beeps when you’re on the highway…duh – but you can if you install a “screamer” device or wire up some headphones (which on the V1 requires an extra adapter kit).  But even so, the experience of using a radar detector on a bike is different from driving in a car…  For one, with most motorcycle setups, the radar alerts are not in your field of view: you have to intentionally look at the detector in order to get the visual information.  That means you have to “check” for radar at key points…

Thinking of passing those cars ahead of you after the next bend, but not sure if if highway patrol is on the prowl?  You can look down to make sure the bogey count (the V1 counts how many radar signals are present and tells you the direction it’s coming from) is clear.  If it is clear, you can ride within safe speeds corresponding to traffic – and pass the traffic ahead of you.  That’s the basic idea.

Why the Valentine 1?

This isn’t an ad or a review – but the main benefit of the V1 is that it tells you the direction the signal is coming from.  Get a radar signal from the rear and getting stronger, it’s probably highway patrol catching up somewhere behind you.  Get a radar signal from the front that increases in strength?  It can be highway patrol ahead of you parked on the road.  Or if you have a light radar warning from ahead that stops and falls silent, it could be instant-on radar up ahead, so now is not the time to make any passing moves in traffic.  Without this directional information there are too many radar signals around metropolitan areas for a radar device to be useful…

Safety first…

Although looking down at a radar detector takes the same amount of time as looking down at your speedo, or checking your mirrors – it’s a distraction nonetheless, so you really need to pick your moments with care.  Think of it as a little extra info that’s available to you to clue you in on what’s coming up ahead.

Related posts:

1. The lowdown on radar…
2. GoPro GPS mount hack
3. Best diy gps mount…

All the physical aspects of sport riding need to be practiced and drilled so that you do them subconsciously… This is why expert riders sometimes (too often) make horrible teachers – they’ve internalized their skills toolbox enough that it’s hard to teach people stuff that comes “natural” to them. Of course it didn’t always come natural to them. Even Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner had to really work on their body position (BP) at some point. Foot position is one of these things that you either get down to your subconscious skill set – or you will totally forget when you need it most… We think about our hands, but most people rarely think about how their feet are resting. The first two minutes of this video gives an excellent show and tell of foot position for sport riding.

Why care about foot position? Not only is good foot position necessary to keep from grinding your toes on the pavement at sharp lean angles – it’s the foundation for the rest of your body position… Get this right and everything else about correct BP gets easier. Get this wrong, and there’s not way your BP can be correct on fast corners. When you have trouble with BP, check out where your feet are on the pegs and chances are it’s part of the problem.

Now it’s hard to work on anything BP related during winter riding. I’m not leaning over far enough to worry about scraping my boots. I feel like the Michelin man in my gear, so it’s hard to even move very much… But foot position is something you CAN work on during those slow and chilly winter rides around town… Learn to position your foot on the balls of your toes (everyone chuckles when guys start talking about riding “on their balls”), and closer to the end of the peg…until that becomes second nature.

Have something to share about learning to ride (ahem) on your balls?  Share the wealth.  Or don’t.  In the comments section.  Cheers!

Related posts:

1. Body Position: Staying in-line with the bike…
2. Riding Tips: Finding the right Position
3. Get in position first…

Lots of people have mixed feelings about using electronic devices while riding; but if you’re to actually get places – at some point you’ll need GPS directions.  And actually, I think audio GPS directions are less of a distraction than the ‘paper directions taped to my arm’ that I used to use…  The nice thing about using your smartphone for directions is – a) it’s the most up to date map out there… b) it’s free if you already own a smartphone and data plan, and c) it’s hands free – and eyes free.  I use an iPhone with MapQuest for turn-by-turn directions…  I disable the auto-shutoff timer, shut off the screen, and put the phone in my pocket.  Most of the time I ignore the directions until I get to the last couple of miles of my destination – and the MapQuest voice just keeps me company chattering suggested directions for my route.  The question is: how are you going to be able to hear the voice directions from your phone?  You can use your headphones in your helmet, but mine were way too uncomfortable to wear for more than a few minutes.  For $15-$35, you can rig up most helmets with speakers that you can hear through your ear plugs…

[pardon the crappy photo!]

I used a $15 headphone speaker kit I bought off Amazon (it’s no longer available, but this is from the same company).  It came with adhesive that you stick onto your helmet, with Velcro so that you can position the speakers once you’ve attached the adhesive.  It also came with a headphone extension… so that the speaker jack can be short enough to tuck into the helmet liner when not in use.

The problem is that it’s just barely loud enough over the sound of wind and engine noise to hear directions.  It helps to position the speakers directly over your ears inside the helmet (it took lots of trial and error).  Now I can hear the directions from my phone when I’m going under 30-ish… Which is fine for me, I only need local directions most of the time.  For less than $15 I have a feasible motorcycle GPS solution.

But if that’s not good enough for you, or your bike is louder than mine, or you need to be able to hear directions at highway speeds as well – then you can get a headphone signal amplifier (like this one) that can substantially increase the volume (along with distortion) in your helmet.

Related posts:

1. How to keep your iPhone handy…
2. iPhone lap timing…
3. Riding Tips: Which Leg?

Along with the earthquake this week and the other horsemen of the apocalypse, we might have a hurricane coming to the East coast this weekend. I always feel torn during storms when I see scooters with covers on knocked being blown over by the wind. Unless I know the person, I don’t feel like I should remove the cover for them (to make it less likely to get blown over). And once it is blown over I don’t know whether I should pick it up (because it might just get knocked down again). You can solve my moral dilemma by planning ahead and parking your bike safely during the storm. Here are some useful tips…

Park near a solid wall with the kickstand on the other side. If you don’t like risking a ticket with sidewalk parking – this might be a good day to risk it, and park alongside your building (depending on your neighborhood – maybe you can’t do this all day and night in mid-town, but anywhere else there are buildings where this would be fine).

If you cover your bike (and I think you should), bungee or tie it down so that the loose parts of the cover don’t act like sails picking up the wind to lift your bike of its stand. 50 mph gusts of wind might not knock your bike of its stand – but it WILL if you have a cover on it acting like a sail. Bungee cords work, but some twine from the hardware store will work fine. If nothing else, packing tape works also and isn’t too hard to remove.

Before you cover your bike, throw some old thick blankets over the tank and tail. If your bike DOES get knocked over in the wind, it doesn’t have to get actual damage. Things like the tank, the front lower fairing, the exhaust, the side of the tail section (on some bikes) easily get scratched up if they hit the ground. So it’s a good idea to prepare for the worst when preparing for a hurricane. I always thought someone should make a foam padded bike cover for just such a purpose (feel free to take the idea and run with it – just give me a discount, I’ll take two).

Any other ideas?  Share the wealth in the comments section!

Related posts:

1. How to Park Your Motorcycle on the Street, in NY
2. Why people park on the sidewalk…
3. Great Ideas Yet to Be Invented

I know track day wizards who change their chain and sprocket for different tracks – but I’m more of a ‘leave it till it’s worn out’ sort of guy. And although this is something many riders leave to their shop to do, if you’re mechanical enough to change your own oil, then it’s really something you can do yourself in a couple of hours… So to give me a little review and refresher as I look up torque numebrs and gather my tools, I found this excellent video from YouTuber VVTheDuckVV. But if you want a slightly more indepth, less goofy how-to, check out the videos after the jump.

Part 1 – Every bike is a little different. For instance my 600rr doesn’t have the clutch in the way of the front sprocket cover. And I’ve actually ditched the front sprocket cover long ago because it traps goo – and it gets in the way of my modified shift linkage… But otherwise all the basics are the same.

Part 2

Cheers!

Related posts:

1. What to do when you have battery trouble…
2. The Low Down on Seat Height
3. How To Clean and Lube the Chain

Non-riders often think, “It must be nice to ride a motorcycle on a hot day.”  But with my cold riding gear, I’d take a 12 degree day to a 112 degree day, any day!  When your body temperature rises your body pushes more of your blood to the surface of your skin for cooling.  That means slightly less blood flows through your brains and muscles than normal, which causes most people to make mistakes in judgement and coordination.  So what can you do other than take it easy on HOT days?  Here are some tips starting with the most basic…

• Stay hydrated. That means you need both water AND electrolytes (fancy word for salt).  Potato chips and Poland Spring work fine for this.
• Keep covered. You don’t see people walking around the Middle East wearing tank tops and flip flops… Even US soldiers keep covered from head to toe.  Because keeping the sun off your skin keeps you cooler than being uncovered (!).  The best is to have loose fitting breathable clothes as an outer layer.  It doesn’t even matter what color the outer layer is (although lighter is better), even dark loose clothing will keep you cooler than being uncovered.
• Moisture wicking base layer.  Like Under Armour, or any of the competing products.  Cotton feels cool against your skin, but once your sweat gets into it, wet cotton actually traps in body heat.
• Gel packs from the freezer.  Gel packs stay colder longer than ice, and they don’t melt or leak all over your clothes.  You can buy them in any drug store…and depending on how many you use, they can keep you comfortable for 1-5 hours.  Find a loose fitting jacket with lots of pockets (like a military style jacket or vest) and pack them with frozen gel packs.  Or better yet, sew some simple pockets on the inside (and along the backside) to fit gel packs in. Also one easy option is to take one of those thin drawstring gym bags and sew some pockets on the inside to turn it into a cooling backpack…
• Cooling vest. There are high tech options that pump cool water (but need a separate unit to hold the ice and water), and also lower tech versions that use the gel-pack idea.  The latter should work and are reasonably affordable – and can give you that Jack Bauer look riding down the street…

But what about safety gear?  Other than a helmet is there anything you have to wear?

Some of the readers here are ATGATT (all the gear all the time) people, and I’m with you in spirit…  But probably none of you commute in the stop and go traffic of Manhattan during the day ATGATT.  So I’m more of a “wear as much gear as you can” person when it comes to riding around the city.  So if I were to make a list of safety equipment, from Must-Have (#1), to more “optional” for a local ride on a HOT day… here it is:

1. Gloves. You should always wear gloves because there’s so little cooling advantage to not-wearing gloves, and they can offer a lot of protection in small crashes (where you throw your hands out to break your fall), and keep the pebbles and cigarette butts from your hands while in motion (since you need to be able to keep your hands on the controls).

2. Elbow pads (if you’re not wearing a jacket). I see people wearing the back/chest protectors and nothing else…but they got it backwards.  In light local-traffic mishaps, elbow protection is the difference between a broken arm and just getting up and riding away.

3. Boots. Mainly for the protection it gives your ankles from the motorcycle’s parts (like the exhaust and chain!) and in the event of a minor crash – there’s not much skin on your ankles, and if you lose it, that skin heals slowly…

4. Technical motorcycle jacket.  You know, the kind with armor in the elbows shoulders and back.  You can still wear a jacket in 90 degree weather (in Manhattan) as long as it’s well perforated or mesh… A must-have if you’re riding out of the city…

5. Bungee net. If you’re riding through a congested part of the city to get to Jersey or Long Island, you need your highway gear, but it’s too much for the parking lot that is called the West Side, then you need a way to carry your gear while you’re local – then pull over before you get on the bridge to wherever you’re going…

Anyways – that’s MY opinion…  You can give us YOURS in the comments.  Cheers!

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Cold Riding Tips
2. C-c-c-cold weather riding…
3. Riding in the Heat

I think it’s happened to almost everyone at SOME point…  You go in for a turn at a moderate speed – maybe you’re following someone’s lead – and half way through you realize you’re not going to make it.  So instead of turning the bike more you stand it up, get on the brakes… then afterwards you look down at your bike as though you’re saying “why did you do that?”  I saw one older rider get off and kick his tires once.  Here’s the good news: it’s not your bike.  The bad news is: it’s you.  And me.  And everyone seems to go through this at some point.

Now everything turned out okay for this rider – and probably for you in the past (if you’re reading this).  But it COULD have turned a bit worse.  So how can we avoid the can’t-turn-syndrome?

Here are some random tips, and maybe you can suggest a few of your own…

1. Get in position first. Your bike is not a car.  If your body is not ready for the turn, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to make it.  Your body will freak out at the sudden change in lean angle (even though your bike is more than capable of pulling off the turn – like this one was).  So get your body leaned over first, butt off the seat, head all the way to the left (for a left hand turn), right arm stretched over the tank, and get ready for the turn, head-first.
2. Keep track of your speed visually. If you have this problem, you’re probably not so good at estimating your speed (without looking at the speedo).  Practice.  And gradually increase speed as you get more comfortable with cornerspeed…
3. Know when you can push it. What made this moment dangerous for this rider was not the speed.  You can watch hundreds of other riders take that same corner at much higher speeds.  What made this moment dangerous was that he was pushing his personal limit – but he was doing it in the wrong place.  Push your limit at the track where you have a hundred yards of runoff space around the corners… Don’t push your limits on a turn of a scenic overpass where you can tumble down the mountain…

Got any more tips? Share the wealth in the comments section!

Related posts:

1. Where to Look in a Turn
2. Riding Tips: “Can’t Turn Right”
3. Crashing on Turn-In

Most people think their batteries have a tougher time in the cold weather…but it’s really during the summer that most batteries lose their life.  The high heat plus the outrageous amounts of heat generated from your bike in traffic (scooter excluded on this one) strain your battery and prevent it from charging normally during your ride.  And when the battery’s charge is reduced, the electrical system on your bike is only able to recharge it back to that (lower than FULL) set point. Then…you get home, park it, and two days later the bike won’t start. Or more likely, your battery goes through many cycles of degradation through heat, and then one day, after a really hot one, dies.

So here’s the tip: Even if your battery is brand new.  After a long hot day of riding, pull the battery out when you get home.  Be careful.  Let it cool.  And put it on a trickle charger overnight.  That will help keep your battery from degrading (every hot day takes some life out of your system). Or if you ride every day through the heat, trickle charge the battery every week or so, so you know you’re getting a full charge. The trickle charge works like a reset button (almost) that helps your bike fully charge the battery once again. [Also, if you have an older style motorcycle, chances are you have to top off the liquids in your battery. The video covers that a bit... but for newer bike models (less than 15 years old), sportbikes, and most standards, you don't have to worry about those things. Sealed batteries means you just trickle charge to full capacity and you're ready to go].

If you park in a private garage, charging the batter is as easy rolling up to your spot and plugging in the charger. But if you live in an apartment, like me, you need to take two minutes to pull out the battery.  If you’re not used to pulling your battery out, it might seem like a huge ordeal at first – but it’s really something very basic.  And the two minutes you spend will save you hundreds in new batteries.

What kind of charger do I need? There are 2-step chargers from around $30, and 4-step chargers from around $60.  I don’t know anyone’s ever noticed a difference in battery life between these two – but it would make sense that the slightly more expensive 4-step charger would help maintain your battery better.  But if cost is an issue, buy the cheaper ones, they’ll do fine.  I’ve never heard any complaints or recommendations about brands of chargers – this “Battery Tender” brand that I linked to is pretty standard, but there are other brands too that will be fine.  Just make sure that it’s a charger for 12V motorcycle batteries.

Related posts:

1. What to do when you have battery trouble…
2. Winter Storage
3. Five tips to beat the heat…on long rides.

Have you ever been stuck behind another bike or car or truck – when you knew you were going at a generally faster pace, but you just couldn’t find a safe way to get past it?  There’s an art to passing, and it’s probably the most valuable advanced skill you can develop. If you look at the best racers in each class, they’re often not the ones with the fastest qualifying times… instead the Mladins and Rossis are the ones who can pass other bikes with ease…  Meanwhile there are plenty of fast riders who have trouble finding a safe route around slower riders. I think this is especially true on the street.  The riders who get loads of miles under their belt without incident are the ones who can pass other vehicles whenever they want – who can control their position in traffic instead of getting stuck in dangerous traffic patterns.

So what do you need to know to learn to pass better?

Here are three really basic tips: [You future Matt Mladins and Rossis' out there - feel free to give us some more advanced tips, and ways to improve in the comments section!]

Tip #1, it’s almost impossible to safely pass a slower vehicle if you’re following too closely behind it.  Most people notice a pass right at the point of passing. But if you look carefully at the bikes in the video, they leave a few bike lengths between one another. It’s not because they “can’t catch up” – it because you need a couple of bike lengths to pull off a good pass.

Just the way a basketball player can’t (usually) dunk a ball if he’s standing waiting directly below the net – and just the way a volleyball player can’t (usually) spike a ball effectively if he’s standing too close to the net — instead both need to be a couple of steps back…  In the same way, the trick to passing is, you need to follow from a few steps behind the vehicle (at least a couple of bike lengths) you’re trying to pass.  This is true for passing anything, but especially important on the road when you’re trying to pass a car or truck (because you can’t see enough of the road when you’re too close to a car or truck).  So tip #1 is stay back a few steps.

Tip #2 is, “it’s all about timing.”  Just the way when you spike a volleyball, or go for a slam dunk, you need to be in the right place to *time* your jump – the art of passing is all about timing.  So you stay back a few steps and time your pass so that you speed up and get the momentum to pass safely at just the right time.

Tip #3 is, you have to find the right time and place to pass.  Not all corners are good places to pass, and not all straight are good to pass either.  You have to find the right moment when you have plenty of visibility, a safe line, and plenty of escape routes should the vehicle you’re passing decide to do something unexpected… (That’s a whole post in itself…)

Now the only way to really learn this is: practice practice practice. People who aspire to professional auto racing usually spend a lot of time going slower than full race pace, just working on passing maneuvers – going around slower cars safely. But a lot of riders are too busy just trying to find fast lines – then they wonder why they bump into things on the track…

Related posts:

1. Why you can’t throttle to pass…
2. Where to put your EZ-Pass?
3. Moto-Myths 3: You are going to Crash

It’s impossible to ride around the city without eventually picking up a nail or screw in your tire.  There must be convoys of gremlins driving around dropping nails and screws out of salt spreaders – because this Spring I’ve seen someone get a flat tire at least once or twice every week.  Some types of tires seem to pick up nails more often too – especially the super sticky sport compounds.  Anyway, the good news is that most nails don’t ruin your ride or commute (right away anyway), and instead leave you with a slow air leak…  Now the best thing to do is to either replace the tire, or (second-best) go to a repair shop where they can take the tire off the rim and patch it from the inside…  But if you ride as a means of transportation like I do, you don’t always have the luxury of doing either right away.  In which case the best thing you can do is plug the tire yourself temporarily…

Plugging a tire yourself is fairly easy the traditional way (as in the video above) – and although it is highly recommended that you get the tires patched properly (from the inside) when you get a chance – many people ride on tires plugged this way (for thousands of miles) and then just get new ones when they wear out.  People even do track days on plugged tires without problems…  But it really depends on the size and severity of the puncture.  However, the rule of thumb is that even if a tire is plugged well, you don’t want more than one plug in any quarter of the wheel: so if you have more than one plug within ten inches or so of each other – better get a new tire asap.

Now I’ve always plugged tires the way described in the video – however, for some tires and bikes (and cars) it’s not so easy.  If there is a lot of body work around the wheel so that you can’t get a good angle to exert force, or with certain tire compounds, and certain smaller puntures – it can be difficult to push the plug into the hole without losing all the air…

If you want quick and easy tire plugging system that requires very little hand strength to apply, then the “Stop and Go Tire Plugger” system is for you!  The main benefit is that you don’t need the strength to force the plug into the hole – instead you push the stem into the hole using a sharp probe, then insert a mushroom shaped plug by turning the allen wrench…  Personally I couldn’t see how this system could be better – until I had a hole that I couldn’t plug the traditional way, and gave this a try…  Amazing!  It even comes with a laminated instruction card so that you can follow the steps when the time comes.  

Related posts:

1. DIY: fix a flat tire…
2. How to install new tires…(in your living room)
3. Cold Tires