Most Important Things to Know For a Motorcycling n00b.

Fronm the above link:

Look as far down the road as possible. This is a corollary to the previous paragraph. The best riders don’t want to be surprised, so they anticipate. They see a truck on an entrance ramp and move left long before the truck merges. They see cars waiting at an intersection, so they slow down and put the first two fingers of their right hand on the front brake lever so they can reduce reaction time if they have to get on the brakes. They ride a little faster than average traffic to stay out of blind spots. In short, they anticipate the dumb things a driver might do and position themselves to avoid the consequences if the driver does, indeed, do that dumb thing. The best riders are the smoothest riders, constantly moving their machines to the least risky place.

Props to daq7 for correctly identifying the moment of inertia as the actual mechanism to be managed. Of course in this case the bike / rider systems moment of inertia is closely related to the values and relative locations of the centers of mass of bike and rider (which in turn is related to the more commonly understood "center-of-gravity"). On this surface of this planet - "center of mass" and "center of gravity" are essentially the same thing measured in different ways.

Props to darfibulax for the comment about "decoupling" of the "centers-of-mass" which in turn affects the bike's (and rider's) "moment of inertia". Bonus points for the sea kayaking analogy. Clearly this is a man that understands his "gravity sports".

With regards to a practical example of the benefit of "decoupling the masses" of the bike from rider: The video of supercross whoops is obvious to those that are dirt fans. For street riders imagine riding over very rough pavement where standing on the pegs slightly (not enough to raise the body obviously but enough to get your weight off the saddle) allows the bike to bounce around the pavement while the rider's body moves in a smooth path. It's much like a race horse jockey that holds his body slightly above the horse - so that both can work towards maximum efficiency without interfering with the other.

By decoupling the mass of rider from the bike it is possible to move the bike around the rider more quickly and with greater control. This, ultimately, is the point of "standing on the pegs". It's less about how tall you stand and more about manipulating the rider's center of mass relative to the bike's center of mass (moment of inertia). Despite what some may think - these are valuable things for new riders to know - since this is how experienced / advanced riders ride.

Back to your regularly scheduled discussions . .

Jumping back to a sea kayaking example (this one's for darfibulax) - kayak guides refer to this as "hazard avoidance". The idea is as DAKEZ describes - to anticipate potential problems before they materialize. Manage your risk. Move from a "place of safety" to another "place of safety". There is no such thing as an accident - there are only unanticipated consequences of risky behavior. Learn to minimize the kinds of things that can fuck you up and you can ride safely for a very long time. Ignore the kinds of things that can fuck you up and you'll quickly join the ranks of the statistics.

cheers,

Glad you think so.

My bike's my only transport atm, so I ride often enough, just trying to keep it safe.

riding off road (or on gravel roads).

when riding over rocky/rough/loose terrain, you want to let the bike move around under you. standing up and decoupling your body from the bike allows you to let the bike jump/skip around without your body going with it--which would throw you out of control very quickly. by letting the bike "float" under you, you can cover rocky/rough/loose terrain much more quickly and safely.

oh, and it's really fun--feels a little like flying.

I'll take a stab at it...

Being run off the road or having a blow-out.

And, instantly changing road conditions i.e crest over and it's loose gravel.

And there's the occasional cutting the corner at an intersection across park lands too, but we won't get into that rightnow...


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=old+h...bBYDSAzE1woDQ31wGJo3Wg&cbp=12,275.76,,0,10.64


And yes, I did have a spark arrestor at the time...

Proof that chickens make excellent riders

clicky

if you find yourself riding behind a car with a bicycle on the back, a pick-up truck with 'stuff' in the back, white-vans with stuff sticking out the back etc ... overtake as soon as possible - you don't want to be in their line of traffic when the shit falls of ... happened to me ... I was driving the car, mind you



Overtake now! It will fall of / out...

I normally place myself in the outside lane (we normally have only two lanes), but close to the center-line.

Don't be in the middle of the lane: thats where most of the diesel and other stuff dripping out of cars gather and ... it gives you no room to maneuver. By riding closer to the center-line you can shoot between the cars if they come to a sudden stop.

Use the clutch more for throttle/traction control up difficult climbs.

bugs damn bugs hitting you at 100 kms/h that really hurts

great post!!

I just keep coming back to this thread. It encouraged me to try a few things out I never would have thought of as practice and helps me think about what I'm doing while riding. A great thread on a great forum.

Thanks

IDK. I always use two. I have two fingers on the brake and clutch levers at all times. For me it's uncomfortable to not always have my fingers there. I don't need muscle memory for reaching, I'm already there.

I use one finger on some bikes and two on others. (never four)

The key is to practice and get good at it no matter how many fingers you use.

+1

That's what she said

Great thread. Lots of solid advice. I always rode dirtbikes and I'm comfortable on the trail but road riding sketches me out sometimes people are just way too unpredictable.

Another important noob thing to know is that a lot of the stuff people tell you is not true.