Here’s 7 Quick Riding Tips To Help The Beginner Sportbike Rider Be Safer & Ride With More Confidence..
by Rod on January 7, 2010
1 - Keep upper body lose and lower body tight
What does this mean? It means that you squeeze your thighs together enough so you are gripping the tank, now this doesn’t mean to continuously press inward with force to the point where you can’t put your legs down when you stop because your cramped up. Just be aware of your body position keeping your lower body tucked close to your bike.
This will keep you very stable and attached to the bike should you happen to hit a bump or have to make an evasive maneuver..
While being strong and stable on the lower half of your body you want to keep your upper body loose and ready to move. Although you want to have a firm grip on your handlebars, (again not squeezing), you want to keep your arms loose and relaxed. Many new riders tend to have a “death grip” on the handlebars to the point of not being able to control the bike well in turns. The point is to stay comfortable but confident enough to be ready to react quickly. If you are tight on bottom and loose on top you will really feel a better sense of control.
2 - Take turns outside-inside-outside
In a car you don’t have to worry about lean angle, and less about entry speed, or not being able to brake in the middle of the turn. The general rule for taking turns on a motorcycle is to line it up so you enter the turn on the outside, traverse the turn through the inside, and then exit on the outside. Basically your trying to continue in a straight line as possible.This allows you look farther through the turn for possible danger and lessens your lean angle so you can take the corner faster and safer. Practice taking almost every turn this way, even low speed turns.
3 - Don’t brake in a turn / Accelerate through it
Braking during a turn is never a good idea. If you are leaned over in a corner and hit the brakes the bike will start to straighten up immediately. That’s if you haven’t caused it to slide out from under you. I’ve made the mistake of misjudging a turn and braking 1/2 way through it. It caused my rear tire to slide then suddenly grab traction and throw me off. This is called top-siding and it’s not fun! This incident, we’ll call it, forever etched into my mind the importance of not braking in a turn.
Slow down BEFORE you enter the turn and then once you’re leaned over in the turn, gradually roll on the throttle and accelerate through it.
4 - Look through turns
Do not form the bad habit of only looking in front of you in a turn. It seems like a no brainer, but people will do this without realizing. Look as far ahead as you can, and if you can see beyond the turn, pay attention to what is there, whether it be traffic, objects in the road, animals running out, (or people for that matter) etc. Be aware and be ready.
5 - Protect your eyes and face
How do you think a rock to the face or worse, the eye is gonna feel at 65 mph!! Even a little bug can cause you serious grief. You should always wear a helmet and eye protection when riding a motorcycle. A full faced helmet with a visor is my choice, just keep the visor down when your moving! A hornet inside my helmet is not something I want to experience again. I can laugh now about how silly I looked freakin out and throwing my helmet off.. Luckily I was only doing about 35 mph so I could stop fast. It still almost made me wreck though. Just keep that in mind :)
6 - Ride like you’re invisible
You’ve probably heard this before, but just in case you haven’t, when you are riding a motorcycle just assume you are invisible. To a lot of people you are. I’ve had people look right at me, make eye contact, and then continue to pull right out in front of me or continue their lane change like I wasn’t even there. This is were the power of your bike can come in handy to quickly accelerate ahead of them if you cant slow down in time.
7 - Keep your head and eyes moving.. Have an escape plan
After many close calls with people on cell phones and inattentive drivers I have made it a habit to always have an escape plan when riding.
It’s a good idea to continuously scan the area around and ahead of you.
- Check your mirrors often and look over your shoulders.
- Expect people to do stupid things.
- Look ahead at least 8-12 seconds
- Don’t get in a fixed stare
- Leave enough distance between you and other vehicles to have time to react.
- Avoid riding next to other vehicles on multi-lane roads as much as you can. One crank of their steering wheel and your down. Accelerate past them or slow down enough to be behind them so if they do suddenly come over they’re not gonna take you out.
I don’t like to focus on the negative, but as you know, there are a lot of stupid, ignorant people out there that are all in a hurry. To even the most experienced rider the road can be dangerous place. This just makes it that much more important to take every precaution possible.
If you have an escape plan and be attentive you will be much less likely to get in an accident.
Ride Safe… Ride Smart… Ride Sane…
Rod
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