Advanced Motorcycling

Tip of the Day 3 - Comfort Braking

2007-05-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

How many times have you dabbed your brakes just before a bend, shed perhaps 2 miles an hour at most, then realised that it wasn’t actually necessary. It makes you feel better, that little squeeze, but analysed, it wasn’t needed. Fight the desire to “comfort brake”.

Tiredness and riding

2007-05-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Longer distances, higher speeds and heat all take their toll on bikers. Last Saturday evening, returning to Ypres after a long day, I could feel that happening. In my case (and others have confirmed the feeling), the feeling is one of being "insulated" from everything a bit - hard to know how else to describe it. The dangerous part is that the feeling is not really in synch with the symptoms - so watch out for it and stop! Often, a few minutes out of the saddle is enough, but sometimes it needs a long break, a snooze, water, coffee etc.

Riding in France

2007-05-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a useful article on real-world issues when riding in France
http://www.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/ridingInFrance.htm

Tip of the Day 2 - hang back!

2007-04-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Restraint
If you ever have to crane your neck to see around the vehicle in front, you're too close! Fall back and it will allow you to overtake earlier by allowing you to read the road and the hazards on it and also to spot an opportunity. The back of the truck you are following will never tell you anything about the road ahead!

Your view is your greatest asset- retain it, don't lose it unless essential.

2 essential pieces of kit for touring

2007-04-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

A puncture in the middle of nowhere is a pain is the ass! It screws up your day.

But with the Tire Plugger (compact version), a quick repair takes minutes. It's reliable and doesn't need any skill. Usual Health & Safety warnings of course-otherwise use your commonsense.

To reinflate, have one of these babies as well- this one is from Slime, but obviously any 12V compact compressor will do the job. If you're really tight on space, strip all the casing etc away and you will find the actual working parts take up almost no space.

Changing my own tyres- instructions link

2007-04-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

With tyre changes every 4K approx, I'm toying with changing my own tyres in future. I use Bridgestones 020's (hopefully 021s by next change) on my R1200RT. I have the bead breaker, and a friend has supplied these instructions.

I should save about £60 a pair on each change so it's tempting.

For info, I have found the 020s to be vastly superior, especially in the wet, to all other makes I have tried over the years. In fact, I specified my R1200RT to come with Bridgestones. The dealer actually got the bike in with another brand on and switched them over prior to delivery.

EuroTunnel & Bikes

2007-04-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

I see that EuroTunnel have now got their act together a little bit. They will now normally amend bookings at no cost, and will allow normally allow a 2 hour window so that you can arrive late and not be 'fined' £30 as in the past.

It's still the best way to travel cross Channel in my opinion - quick and informal, no tying down bikes etc.

Tip of the day 1- Overtaking

2007-04-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

Bring some precision to your decison!

Should I go or not?

An easy way to be sure, at normal road speeds is as follows:

Estimate where you will pull back in after the overtake - if you do it now. Then check that you have twice as much clear distance again beyond that point to the next hazard - whatever that is - a bend, an oncoming car or whatever. Do not go unless you have that amount of space. In other words, the distance needed for the overtake should be 1/3 of the overall clear distance. This takes account of your speed, the speed of the vehicle being overtaken and the next hazard. Do not break this rule! Ever! Practice judging the distance to pulling in and do a quick dink dink with your eyes to see that you have twice as much again clear.

Off to France tomorrow

2007-04-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

I'll be heading to Northern France tomorrow until Sunday with a bunch of friends. We are doing a tour of the World War 1 sites and will be based in Ypres. I've done this trip before, the roads are interesting if not overly challenging. More when I get back...

Bends - Phase 3 - Gears

2007-04-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Having got to the right speed, now consider whether you are in the right gear to take you through the bend without needing to upchange or down shift during the corner. The correct gear will be able to give you responsive throttle, flexibility and eventual acceleration.

Bends- Phase 2- Speed

2007-04-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

When we are in the right position we should we think about our speed. We need to sort out the speed long before we think of cranking the bike over, so that we address the bend at a speed that allows us to be comfortable, open the throttle to drive positively around the bend.

Remember that an open throttle is required because a mix of forces will combine to scrub off speed - these include friction, reduced wheel diameter and centrifugal force.

A bike at rest has say 45% of its weight over the front wheel, 55% over the rear wheel. Ideally we want to maintain that relationship so that the bike is balanced and we are not asking too much of either tyre. If we are braking as we turn, the front wheel will be too heavy, steering will feel heavy and we risk a front wheel side. If we accelerate too much we are lightening the steering too much and unbalancing the bike. Imagine this 45%, 55% relationship as you turn into the bend and remember we want a reasonable open throttle to maintain that balance and keep our speed steady until we can see the exit. An open throttle also has the benefit that we are biased to acceleration when the opportunity arises. So how do we adjust speed into the bend? 3 possible ways, 2 of which are acceptable, 1 of which is not generally used. These are 1) Throttle 2) brakes and 3) gear change. Normally, closing the throttle will deliver a degree of engine braking, the lower the gear you are in, the greater the amount of engine braking. If that is not enough to reduce your speed, supplement it with braking. Do not drop gears to reduce speed. If you find that you always have to use brakes to supplement your engine braking, it may be that you are running in too high a gear - check that out. Each bike model varies in the amount of engine braking it delivers. There is nothing wrong with using your brakes, just as long as they are used before cranking over for the corner, not in the corner!

Bends - Phase 1- Positioning

2007-04-26T03:49:00.000-07:00

Positioning: This describes our 2D position on the road. Our position left to right and back to front.

We need firstly to approach a bend in the right position on the road. That position should be adopted early as possible and chosen for safety, be on a good grippy part of the road and a position that gives us the best possible view of what lies ahead. Is it a curve, or a hairpin? What comes after bend 1 - another left bend or a switchback to the right? What is the right position? Generally speaking, it's to be as much as possible to the left going into a right hander, and as far to the right as is safe and possible going into a left hander. Clearly, no position should be adopted if it is unsafe (e.g. due to oncoming traffic or takes you close to a driveway or entrance or side junction) or unstable (potholes or debris). Thee is little point in getting a great view if you are about to be hit by what you see, or if the bike will slip or skid! Remeber the "Super Sonic Vehicle" (SSV) - Safety-Stability-View.

Why do we do bends so badly?

2007-04-26T02:38:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday morning, I did a talk based on the UK Police System of Motorcycle Control to a group of about 40 bikers getting ready for their RoSPA Advanced Riding Test. It was interesting to hear the various reasons why the riders had signed up for this 6 Sunday morning course. Naturally, 'being safer', 'more confident', 'more in control' topped the bill, but one girl's comment caught my attention. She said rather exasperatedly that she wanted to 'crack' bends and corners. It sounded like she really had tried everything and was getting nowhere. This got me thinking. What is it that stops people doing corners well or better? Is it fear, lack of method or lack of confidence?

I think lots of people jump on a bike and expect everything to just happen. It's probably to do with the fact that we all rode bikes as kids and expect it all to be natural. We wouldn't take off in an aircraft though, or take over its controls mid-flight without being certain that we had a thorough knowledge of how to land, how to deal with fog, an oncoming aircraft etc etc. Taking on a 120+bhp bike with 200 mph capability is not just like my aircraft example, it's worse! We are now, in aircraft terms, at the controls of a Tornado or an F-16 fighter jet. Yet we expect our childhood pedal-bike abilities to help us do complicated high-speed manoeuvres on powerful machines.

There is a method to cornering which needs to be applied rigorously. That's what I will cover next time broken down by Position, Speed, Gear and Acceleration.