Ride Forever Blog

Face the Facts

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:26:58 +0000

For those of us of a two-wheeled persuasion I suppose it was interesting enough. But one item really made an impression on me. They were interviewing a design engineer at Nolan helmets (also branded as X-Lite) and he was talking about the use of real-world crash data in development of the lids.

He advised that 80% of crash impacts are to the front of the helmet. The back takes 18% and the top only about 2%.

Still thinking of buying an open-face?

Funny Front Ends

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:04:19 +0000

But that’s not strictly true, is it? Alongside exotic race specials, there have been a fair few Bimota road bikes, the (admittedly rare) Yamaha GTS1000A and - most importantly - bucket loads of BMWs with ‘funny front ends’.

When you consider BMW’s R 1200 GS is reputedly the best selling big bike in the world, then add in all its stablemates sporting Telelever or Duolever front ends, it’s a lot of machinery.

I hop on and off all sorts of machines all the time, and I’ve done a lot of riding on big GS’s over the years. So adapting to different front-end set ups is pretty much second nature. But I have been asked how different these bikes feel and if you steer them differently. The short answer is, while there are differences in feel, there is no real difference to how you steer any bike, even those with a ‘funny front end’. You countersteer, or ‘push steer’ the inside bar to turn the bike in, then it settles into the line with the front wheel turned slightly into the direction of the corner. Towards the exit, you lift the bike up - usually by a combination of steering the opposite way to how you turned in and applying power.

With a ‘funny front end’ the principles are exactly the same. That’s because the steering you are doing is concerned with the wheels and their gyroscopic effect, not so much the way they are suspended from the frame.

That’s not to say there are no differences, however. Different motorcycles can have different steering characteristics, even amongst those with telescopic forks. I have heard some riders report that they find the BMW front end arrangement vague. Me? I actually feel really happy with the Telelever set up - I think, once you adjust to it, it gives excellent feedback. The Duolever a bit less so, but that could be the relative levels of familiarity.

Why do manufacturers bother with funny front ends? Because a telescopic fork is a very flawed engineering solution for steering and suspending a motorcycle. It dives and flexes, varying the geometry and balance of the bike. The thing is, we’ve all got used to a bit of that. And modern USD, big-piston forks with large-diameter, thin-wall stanchions are amazingly good.

Funny front ends are theoretically a better engineering solution because they are designed to separate the steering components from the suspending hardware. This should allow better separation and control of the different forces. And that should translate into a better ride, better feedback and better performance on the limit - trail braking, for example.

Since no major race team has swept the field with a funny front end, I think we can be sure that the performance edge is either not there or so fine that it doesn’t really matter. It’s always best to get your braking done in a straight line before corner entry and a funny front end isn’t going to save you from a low-side by pushing the front tyre too hard into a corner.

So if you get to jump on a bike with a different front end, don’t even think about it. Treat it as a motorcycle. And, like any unfamiliar bike, take a bit of time to understand its steering characteristics - does it want to sharpen its line or run wide off-throttle? Does power alone make it want to stand up, and how much do you need to pick it up on corner exit by pulling the inside bar (or pushing the outer one)? Getting the feel for a bike’s character is one of the skills and pleasures of riding, don’t you think?

Trigger Fingers

Wed, 09 May 2012 02:19:21 +0000

What do you do when your engine locks up? For those of a certain age, brought up on bikes with a RD, GT, KH badge on the side panel, this will bring back strange memories. Having a two-stroke engine seize was always a possibility. Many of us kept two fingers hovering on the clutch lever, just in case, and pride was taken in the ability to whip in the clutch lever faster than a gunfighter on the trigger.

To a large extent, it worked. I can remember having to do just such a thing trying to keep up with a Laverda Jota on a radically tuned RD400. Niiiiiiip. Big bang. Large amounts of aluminium all over the road but no accident. Just a rather peeved owner.

Nowadays, of course, two strokes are not that common. But what if your four stroke goes bang and locks up. Never happen? Well, my mate who has recently forked out for an immensely powerful European-brand superbike will be getting a recall notice about now. It covers a potential loosening of conrod bolts. The recall will fix it, of course, but what if your bike engine does lunch itself? What should you do?

That depends. In a straight line. it’s really not such a drama. A locked rear is something you can live with surprisingly well, so long as you maintain good balance and steer straight. So don’t panic. Squeeze the clutch in gradually and feel the rear wheel start to turn, then look for a safe place to stop. Use the front brake (gently). If a four stroke locks up, it usually means ‘game over’, so start the search for a recovery service...

If a lock-up happens in a corner, you have a whole heap more trouble. Straight away, the back will step out. And this is where the ‘spun-lowside/highside’ dilemma is a serious problem. Whipping in the clutch gunfighter-style can either save you, or launch you. If you’re only just turning in, disengaging the clutch won’t result in a highside but it may make you run wide. Remember to turn again, and hard.

If you’re well into the turn and leaned right over when the back slides out, you’ll be very lucky to save it. What you should try to do is squeeze the clutch just enough that the rear wheel starts to rotate again in a progressive way. But whipping the clutch in completely so the back freewheels will most likely highside you.

As always, it’s easy to think about this in your La-Z-boy and a whole lot harder when you’re half way round a corner and the back tyre starts overtaking you. And, also as always, smooth, progressive inputs are the best way to maintain stability.

Of course a completely lunched engine is a very uncommon occurrence nowadays. And if you have a slipper clutch, it should, in theory, come to the rescue. But if you haven’t had your brand new German Superbike in for the recall fix yet, remember the above just in case.

Winter Warner

Wed, 02 May 2012 02:17:32 +0000

This year it’s on 2nd June and if you’re planning to go make sure you don’t underestimate what you might face.

The biggest challenge for some will be the distance. Riders descend on Oturehua in Central Otago from all over the country, and riding long distance in winter weather is markedly different to summer ride-outs at the weekend. Whatever you do, don’t over-reach yourself in the distance you ride in a day. Far better to enjoy the riding and stop somewhere cosy than press on in the cold and dark.

And if you haven’t had the winter gear out of the cupboard in a while, check it all over carefully. Definitely take a decent ride in it beforehand to check weather-tightness. There’s some sound advice on gear right here.

The joys of relaxation

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:13:57 +0000

In order to address what you can do, it’s essential to understand exactly why being relaxed on a motorcycle is so important. And, conversely, why tensing up can cause all manner of problems. Here’s some words of advice from three-time British Superbike champion and Grand Prix racer Niall Mackenzie:

"If you ride tense you're not balanced, you can't react quickly and the bike feels all wrong. Instead, if you relax to a point where your body is flexible and your knees and arms are bent, letting the bike move fluidly underneath you, you'll use the least amount of effort to achieve the best possible result."

(That was taken from an article at Visordown on the benefits of off-road riding. You can read the whole lot here. It’s well worth it.)

Alongside Mackenzie’s words there’s some other sage advice by journo and racer Harriet Ridley, quoting an expert off-road rider:

“[T]tense up and the bike's chassis will transmit every movement and jolt to you and your input becomes jerky; you're fighting the bike and you're not in control. "You can see how the problem is magnified off-road with ruts and rugged terrain to contend with," says KTM Adventure Tours' Jeff Philp. "A tense off-road rider will have a hell of a job staying balanced as the bike crashes him around, he'll catch the ruts and he'll wear himself out.”

While the context here is off-road riding, it’s being used to - as Jeff Philp puts it - ‘magnify’ the problem. The extreme movements experienced in off-road riding show exactly how a tense rider ends up absorbing the jolts, thereby providing jerky inputs, gets tired and finds it hard to maintain balance.

Balance is something we often don’t think about beyond maneuvering at walking pace. But that’s a mistake. The gyroscopic effect of the wheels might afford us more stability as we move faster, but a really smooth, skilled rider will never forget the underlying need to maintain balance and control.

Tensing up on the bike has a number of other untoward effects and, worse still, they all tend to compound one another. You’ll tire more easily and the muscle fatigue makes it harder to feel and control what’s going on. You’ll grip harder, and more vibration will be transmitted to your body, producing numbness and a lack of sensitivity. Shifting from one state or body position to another is slower, takes more effort and makes it harder to stay balanced. Perhaps most tellingly of all, you’ll know you’re not riding that well or enjoying it so much, which can make you tenser still.

So what can you do if you recognise that you are becoming tense? Just because you know, or have been told, that you should relax doesn’t mean you can magically switch states. But there are some things that can help:

Slow down. Or stop. A common reason for tensing up is because you’re riding out of your comfort zone and a big part of that is speed. It’s a classic vicious circle. Say you’re trying to keep up with some mates. Normally, you’d have no problem, but for some reason you start to slip behind. So you try harder, but it doesn’t seem to work: you’re already slipping into a cycle of tension affecting your riding, which increases the tension...

You need to break the cycle and the best way to do that is to drop your speed right back until you feel everything is supremely easy. Don’t try to keep up. You’ll catch your mates at the next stop and, if they have any sense, they’ll know the difference between feeling ‘on it’ and not. And they should respect the decision to not push on when you don’t feel relaxed.

A short stop and break can also work wonders. It gives you a chance to ‘reset’ and you often feel entirely different when you hop back on. And, if you don’t, just accept that it’s one of those days when you’re not going to feel at your peak.

Don’t forget to breathe. This is one I noticed most in racing, but it happens in road riding too: we get so focused we can end up holding our breath for short periods. In fact, in some of the racing I did on four wheels it was essential as part of bracing against ‘G’ in certain corners, crests and dips; straights were used to pump lungs full of oxygen. On a bike, on track, there are places where you might be fighting some G, but it’s pretty rare. On road, the aim should be for deep, regular breathing. Holding your breath or taking short, shallow ones can increase fatigue and tension. So, if you feel tension getting its grip on you, slow down and devote some attention to smooth, regular and deep breathing.

Do the funky chicken. This is a worthwhile exercise in its own right. As you are riding along, without affecting throttle or steering inputs, flap your elbows in an attempt at recreating that great dancefloor move of early 70s disco. It’s something they get you to do at California Superbike School to ensure your upper body is relaxed as you ride. just doing it occasionally is a great reminder for your body to remain relaxed.

Move around. There should be seven to nine points where you are in touch with the bike - soles of feet, calves, thighs/knees, seat and handlebars. That gives you plenty of options for staying in touch while you move your weight around. Staying sat in one position for long periods is not only uncomfortable, it’s a great builder of tension: a bit like sitting put in front of your computer for hours. So weight the pegs and lift your bum occasionally. Use your feet and knees to keep locked in and your legs to lift the weight, not your arms on the bars. This is how racers shift across the bike to hang off for corners, always maintaining their lock-in to the bike with at least one knee and foot. For road riding, it allows you to move around on the machine while maintaining stability. Try moving your upper body in and down in corners - it adds steering effect without changing the bar position and is another way to add movement.

Jaw dropping. Tension often shows itself in a clenched jaw, and this is part of the breathing issue outlined above. Every so often, take a deep breath, then drop your jaw and move it around while exhaling through your mouth.

Adjust the controls. A lot of riders have never adjusted the control levers since they bought the bike. But many are simply in the wrong position. If you find your wrists hurt or are stiff after a ride, it’s likely the levers are set too high - another cause of tension in your body. Loosen the clamp bolts and shift the brake or clutch lever down a few degrees and see if it makes a difference.

Are the handlebars a stretch away, or too close? Don’t just put up with it. Bars can be rotated even if only by a few degrees. Some bikes have even more adjustment - peg height, foot brake lever height, gear shift lever height, even seat height. And don’t forget the suspension. A lot of riders harden up the suspension because it’s meant to be more ‘racy’. But a bone-jarring ride is not going to help you relax and ride well.

Ear plugs. The combination of wind and engine noise is not only potentially harmful to your hearing, it’s exhausting. Ear plugs defend against both, and that’s got to be more relaxing.

Fitness. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. And too many of them are not going to improve your riding or your enjoyment of it. Maintaining a good degree of fitness has all sorts of benefits for riding, especially with regard to stamina. The main things you need are a decent level of aerobic fitness, suppleness and good lower body strength. If you are fit, you won’t tire so easily. If you are supple, you’ll naturally move around on the bike more. Good lower body strength will help you lock into the motorcycle correctly, so you won’t be tempted to rely on the handlebars for support. All in all, you’ll feel more energised and in control, so you’ll stay more relaxed for longer.

Train. The list of benefits from advanced motorcycle training is a mile long and it definitely includes relaxation. Training itself helps you relax because you know you are in control, with more advanced skills. Depending on the training, it can also teach you how to recognise when you are tensing up, and give your skills and strategies that will allow you to relax.

Got any other tips on staying relaxed on the bike or shedding tension? Then please share them in the comments section. Ta!

WHY YOU WON'T GET ARM PUMP

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:28:04 +0000

So what is arm pump? What causes it and how does it square with the advice to grip the bars as lightly as possible? Simply put, arm pump is a repetitive strain injury (RSI) that means your forearm muscles feel like they are blowing out to the size of Popeye’s. Your ability to grip and feel diminish, so controlling the brakes and throttle, and even pushing the clip-on to steer, become a nightmare.

It’s caused by a number of factors coming together in the heat of a race. Foremost is the amount of braking you do on a circuit: heavy, heavy braking for lots of corners, one after another, lap after lap. If you haven’t done a lot of track riding or racing, it’s hard to understand the difference to road riding, where you might have to the odd bit of heavy braking once in a while. On track you are are hard on the brakes many times within a 1 to 2 minute lap. Sometimes you might have to scrub off 200km/h for a corner. The strain this puts on you is immense.

So, while the ideal is to not put any pressure on the bars except for your steering input, this is simply not possible in racing. You will have to brace your upper body against the bars to some extent. Sure, you grip the tank with your knees or lock in with your inner thigh, but relying on that and your back muscles alone when you brake a Moto GP bike on the world’s stickiest slicks is simply not possible.

This bracing, combined with squeezing the front brake really hard, is what mostly causes arm pump. It can also be exacerbated by front end chatter which transmits forces to the rider’s arms. (Funnily enough, Stoner said the small amount of chatter he was experiencing gave him some moments of relief - like a vibro massage!) Having the front wheel flapping about is common in Motocross, so it’s not uncommon for off-road racers to get arm pump too.

Arm pump, like any RSI, makes you more susceptible to it over time. Some racers have to undergo wrist operations to relieve it, but that means time off and, potentially, lost points.

For road riding, it should never be an issue. If it is, you are almost certainly gripping the bars too tight. Relax that grip, brace with your lower body and back as much as possible, and enjoy the fact that only racers have to worry about wrist ops.

NZ joins planet earth, shock!

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:08:49 +0000

Basically, we will be joining the rest of the world and abandoning the stupid, perverse and counterintuitive rule that means you have to give way to right-turning traffic when you are turning left. Also gone is the ‘letting someone turning out of a side road when you are turning right into it’ madness. (Although, it has to be said, in all the time I have driven on New Zealand roads I have never seen anyone obey the latter.)

If you find the new rules confusing check out the NZTA advice at http://www.giveway.co.nz/interactive.

From the 25th onwards, turning off a road to the left becomes much easier. You just do it - having checked behind and indicated, of course. This is as it should be because we drive on the left, so keeping left or going left is moving to your ‘safe’ side. Equally sane is turning off a main road to the right worrying only about oncoming traffic (with a quick lifesaver to check for overtaking nutters). The very idea of the old rule - sitting there, waiting shy of the junction on your right for someone to make their way out of it and join a major road - was bonkers.

While what happens at 5.00am on the 25th is undoubtedly a change for the better, don’t rely on it going smoothly. Expect general muppetry, not just on the day but for some time after.

Until June, at least, I’ll be viewing anyone negotiating a junction at the same time as me as an accident waiting to happen. One slip of the memory is all it takes. Assume nothing.

Wet, wet, wet

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:30:38 +0000

The crash in question happened on a motorway - usually the safest roads to travel on, if rather boring on a motorbike. But it just shows how, even on a straight road with little to hit, it’s possible to lose control and pay a terrible price.

Riding in the wet comes with its own challenges. And my advice would be, in really terrible conditions, don’t do it.

Light rain, a short shower or slightly damp roads aren’t much to worry about, so long as everything else is in order - your riding gear and tyre tread depth, primarily. But torrential downpours cruelly expose the fundamental differences in safety margins between riding a bike and driving a car.

Bikes are inherently unstable for a start. All we have to rely on is the gyroscopic stability caused by two rotating wheels, and control of the machine is then dependent on the tyres’ two tiny contact patches. In the dry, the grip they offer is usually sufficient to get away with mistakes. Unless it’s covered in slippery stuff - loose chips, diesel and sand are just three examples.

In the wet, even small mistakes can be punished severely. And when it all goes wrong, you’re going to travel a longer distance at speed before coming to a halt, because of less friction. Not that this will do much to reduce your gravel rash: I speak from painful experience having slung a GPZ600R up the road in the wet some time ago.

That accident served up several lessons. So learn from my pain.

Like many calamities, when you analyse it, the accident was the result of a chain of circumstances rather than one, simple cause. In my defence, I have to say the actual loss of control was something I could not avoid. A truck has lost a load of metal plates that scattered across the road surface. The road itself was in a terrible state - a patchwork of shiny repairs and over-banding - so the plates were perfectly camouflaged to look just like the rest of the surface. In streaming wet, part way around a corner, the front tyre touched a plate which offered all the grip of sheet ice. Front tucks and down we go.

Partly because I was young and stupid, and partly because the weather forecast was wrong, I was wearing jeans not proper waterproofs. Luckily, in the absence of armour, I didn’t damage my knees or pelvis. Instead, my ar*e was in shreds. I still get night sweats recalling the moment the antiseptic-laden swab touched bare flesh...

It wasn’t just the painful consequences that should have been avoided: so should the accident. I took the weather forecast at face value and ignored the reality of worsening conditions. Although on my way, I could have turned back. The road I took was direct, twisty and enjoyable in the dry. But it was also patchy and spotted with loads of typical wet-weather hazards like road markings, poor repairs and manhole covers. I could have taken a less challenging, and safer, alternative in the wet.

Ultimately, the only safe course of action that day would have been to leave the bike and take the car, but I had plans for the weekend on the bike. It’s easy to get sucked in to riding in marginal conditions (“it won’t last long/I’ll miss out on riding/the weather will clear tomorrow/Man up!”) but it’s just not worth it.

It doesn’t matter how staunch you are, torrential rain and motorbikes don’t mix. From Moto GP to the Isle of Man, that’s why the red flags come out in a downpour. And why riding gods like Rossi and Stoner then select a different set of wheels: the motor home.

Braking. The Rules

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:05:16 +0000

It seems to me there’s plenty of advice out there - from reliable sources, not GixxaNutter on your favourite message board - that makes it plain what you should do. But what I also know is that not everyone is following it.

I was chatting with a bike dealer the other day and somehow we got on to the topic of braking. He was shaking his head at the number of riders he encountered who were reluctant to use their front brake. Now this is frankly worrying, because as any fule kno it’s the front brake you should be relying upon most. Especially in an emergency.

Of course, like so many techniques and skills in riding motorcycles, there are many subtleties within, and exceptions to, this general rule. And that was made apparent when I picked up my last test bike: a cruiser.

Most bikes tend to have the weight pretty evenly balanced front-to-rear. Some sportsbikes are front weighted. But many cruisers have a slight bias to the back and, combined with a low centre of gravity, this means you can make good use of the back brake to slow you down. And with a single front disc, that might be wholly necessary...8-[

It still doesn’t nullify the laws of physics, however. Especially:

Because the weight of bike and rider pitches forward when you slow down, this weights the front tyre. This extra weight increases the available grip, just as downforce increases a race car’s grip in corners.
Progressively increasing the brake pressure on the front tyre squashes it out, loads the tyre and offers progressively more grip. Even on a cruiser, you can mash that tyre into the tarmac under braking. BUT
If you snatch at the front brake, on any bike, the front tyre will not be so heavily loaded and its carcass won’t have spread out to offer a greater footprint. It’s therefore easy to overload the limited available grip before the tyre has had time to ‘catch up’ with the additional forces. Result: locked front wheel and underwear mishap.
This effect is more pronounced on cruisers with their low centre of gravity - rather than rotate around the front wheel spindle and down into the forks, the weight tends to ‘push’ forwards through the front contact patch. Therefore, you need to be more steadily progressive in building the downforce on the front tyre.

On dry, well-surfaced tarmac, it’s amazing how much braking force you can put onto the front tyre of even something like a cruiser. But being progressive is the key: sque-e-e-e-e-ze that lever, taking about a second to get to the maximum pressure you dare.

If you’re a bit wary of using the front brake, get some practice in. Choose an empty stretch of dry, grippy tarmac without any camber, check thoroughly all around to ensure there’s no traffic, and practice building and building that front brake pressure through your braking. Leave the rear alone for now, so you get a feel just for the front. If you hear a chirp from the front tyre just as you come to a stop, that’s perfect - ultimate braking. If you hear it at any other time, or feel the bars go light, let the front brake off smoothly and quickly with the wheel pointing dead straight, until you feel it’s all under control again. Then you can build the pressure once more. Usually, you only need to let a slight bit of pressure off to stop any imminent lock-up.

If you feel in any way worried about your braking or unsure about practicing an emergency stop, book yourself in for a bit of one-on-one with an instructor. Because braking is the one skill in riding that really can save your skin.

ROSSI & THE GP12

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:56:11 +0000

I have a mate who writes for a European Moto mag. He Facebooked me with a piece on Rossi’s testing at Sepang. As you may know, Ducati have thrown away the carbon-fibre airbox-cum-monocoque chassis that seemed to scare anyone who rode it into touring around, except Casey Stoner.

The new chassis seems to have more than a hint of Yamaha Deltabox about it. Perhaps they’ve installed an EXUP FZR1000 lump as well :-).

Vale has tweeted a pic showing some of the structure:

Stoner, once he got over his back problems, blitzed this first test session in Malaysia: the only rider sub-two minutes and 0.591 ahead of Lorenzo. Rossi was twice as far back.

So, ladies and gents, what do we reckon to The Doctor’s chances this year?

Back seat rider (Part 2)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:00 +0000

There’s also a very useful video clip from Australia on pillion riding, right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_W0_wboaJE

As described from the pillion rider’s perspective in Part 1, the journey commences before you even touch the machine. First off, your pillion’s safety is in your hands. The mental approach to this is extremely important. You don’t need me to tell you riding a bike can be dangerous. Sometimes we tend to put that fact to the back of our minds, and that’s fine if you have otherwise taken care of the risk factors, i,e, wearing proper gear, acquiring a sound set of skills and training, ensuring your bike is safe and well maintained, riding to conditions etc.

However, if your pillion is less experienced or hasn’t ridden with you much or at all, chances are they are mildly terrified. Even if they are disguising it as excited anticipation! It’s your job to turn fear into fun, and that starts with a sound briefing on how to ride as a pillion, including getting on and off the bike and how to communicate with each other (see Part 1).

You should also prepare the bike if you are going to take a pillion. Usually this will involve increasing the rear spring preload. If damping is adjustable I would add a click or two of compression damping, too. (And if you’re a flash git with something like a TTX shock at the rear, that would be low-speed compression; you can usually leave high-speed compression alone.) Nowadays, most manufacturers specify the same pressures for pillion riding as solo riding but now IS the time to check those pressures. You might need to adjust mirrors, too.

The other key responsibility, before allowing anyone on your machine, is protective gear. Their safety is in your hands and in my book that means ensuring the pillion is at least as well-dressed in protective kit as you are.

You also need to check their gear before setting off:

1. Check their helmet actually fits and cannot roll off their head in accident. Get them to try the ‘roll-off’ test and check the helmet is a snug, comfortable fit all around their head

2. Ensure the chinstrap is done up properly - tight without strangling! - and that D-rings are properly looped or push-fit fasteners are fully engaged

3. Check gloves are on properly, including wrist straps

4. Check zips and any buttons on jackets are fully done up - no half-closed zips

Impress on your passenger that you are in control of the machine at all times and they need to follow your instructions. Ensure they know how (and when, i.e. only on your say-so) to get on and off. And point out the exhaust pipe(s) as potential dangers when hot.

Once your pillion is aboard and says they are comfy, this is your chance to assess how you feel. If the pillion is sitting too far forward they can easily obstruct your ability to control the bike. Make sure they sit far enough back that you can move your upper body across the machine, countersteer effectively and your wrists aren’t cramped when operating the controls. Conversely, if they are sitting on the tail piece and the bike wants to wheelie at a standstill, you might encourage them further forward!

First impressions count, including when you ride. So how you set off can set the tone for the whole journey. A smooth, slow getaway and gentle first few turns will let your passenger get used to things and build confidence. A quick enquiry or two if they are okay, while travelling at low speed or stopped will also help.

Once you sense the passenger is relaxed and enjoying things, you can concentrate entirely on riding. But this is riding with a difference.

Even with a good, experienced pillion on board, the machine will behave differently. And you also need to factor in that your pillion can be surprised by events and their reaction can be slow or even unhelpful.

The key is to build an even greater margin for error into your riding - especially other people’s errors. Where you might be happy to mash the front tyre into the ground under hard braking, this is probably going to result in your pillion becoming an unwanted rucksack. You can brake hard, if your pillion has anticipated it and braced themselves, but the way to do it is to build up the braking force progressively and steadily.

Hard acceleration with a pillion is another way to make them feel really uncomfortable, unsafe and to upset the bike’s stability. In the higher gears, you can apply lots of throttle. But in lower gears - especially pulling away - gently does it is the secret. As you feed in each gear you can open the throttle harder, because it will have less accelerative effect. Plus your pillion should be braced against the forces. Quick getaways from the traffic lights - usually a staple of motorcycle riding - cannot be relied upon. So you need to adjust your riding and how you handle traffic accordingly.

Filtering through traffic needs careful thinking about with a pillion. Their knees are usually sticking out more than the bike’s width.

Cornering with a pillion has the same issues as braking and acceleration. It can still be fun, but flicking the bike in hard is liable to upset the passenger because they probably won’t anticipate it. Your turn-in can still be fairly quick, just build the forces progressively. Followed by a smooth, predictable arc through the corner, chances are the pillion will be enjoying the experience as much as you are.

The secret to enjoyable pillion riding is actually the secret to good, skilled riding in general: smoothness. What is smoothness? I had it described to me as the seamless, progressive transference of forces. In other words, the forces can be very high, but the transfer between states needs to build up and fall off in a perfectly progressive way. If you are a pillion and a rider is doing that, you will feel perfectly happy. Just as I did on the back of a GSX-R putting in a respectable lap time around Hampton Downs.

On the other hand, if the ride is jerky it can only be down to one thing: the rider is a jerk.

Back seat rider (Part 1)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:43:07 +0000

Hat tip to Rachel for the suggestion to write something on pillion riding. Since there’s a lot to consider in pillion riding - from the rider’s and the passenger’s perspectives - I’ve decided to break this blog topic into two. This piece is a general intro and then looks at what a pillion can do. Part 2 is from a rider’s point of view.

Some of the most memorable rides of my life were shared with a pillion. And one where I WAS the pillion: a handful of laps of Hampton Downs on the back of a GSX-R1000 piloted by Steve Brouggy. I have to say, I was probably ‘dared’ into taking that ride but I ended up loving it. The machine had a pillion ‘grab rail’ on the fuel tank - pretty much essential for a track session on a slick-shod litre sportsbike. It was an eye-opener, and a privilege to be on the same machine as a really skilled rider negotiating a race track. The overriding impression was smoothness: it wasn’t a violent or scary ride at all, even though we were passing loads of other bikes. Okay, the front wheel wasn’t on the ground much coming out of low-speed corners but that’s what happens when you shove 90kg over the back wheel and unleash 165 horsepower.

That might be pillion riding ‘in extremis’ but it has lessons for the road, Firstly, the fact that Mr B was able to lap other riders with yours truly on the back showed that I was not affecting the machine’s stability too much. And with the tank-mounted grab rail, that was easy. How so? Well, I was firmly locked on to the machine. Stretching round the rider and holding the grips meant I didn’t move at all. All I had to be aware of was allowing sufficient lateral room for the rider to move his body around for fine control.

You can see the the grab rail set up in action, here.

The lesson for any pillion is that you need to behave like you are part of the machine. The advice I’ve given when briefing pillions before a ride is to ‘make like a top box’. A good pillion will have no more effect on the machine than that.

So, if you ride pillion, your key objective is to keep the machine stable by effectively becoming a part of it. Let the rider control the machine. There’s all manner of rubbish advice about this out there on the interweb but trust me: you do NOT ‘help’ steer the machine. You just go with it when the bike leans into corners. The opposite - that you do not try to counter the lean or stay bolt upright - is pretty widely known. See the video link in Part 2 for an illustration.

As for looking ahead, if you can’t see over the rider it’s okay to look over and around the rider’s shoulder. It’s even okay to shift your view from one shoulder to the other as the road curves, but do not shift your weight to do this. Just gently incline your neck and shoulders around the back of the rider’s helmet to view ahead.

Different bikes pose different challenges in all of this of course. Ideally, you’ll have a wide and long seat that will allow you to steady yourself with your upper legs and knees, while staying out of the way of the rider. Grab handles are a real bonus - especially if they are down near your hips and easy to reach. Handles behind you are often less comfortable (and push your weight balance backwards, which reduces the weight over the front wheel) but they’re better than nothing. Foot pegs, and how you use them, are important too. With your feet well braced, you can use your back muscles and stomach muscles to adjust to the braking and accelerative forces.

Of course, if your rider has any sense and consideration, they will keep those forces down and ride in a way that you can anticipate them coming. As a pillion in such circumstances, I can usually ride ‘hands free’ with my gloves resting in my thighs, locked in with my lower body and bracing my upper body as needed. It’s relaxed, comfortable and enjoyable - the way every pillion ride should be (we’ll talk about the rider’s role and responsibilities in that next.)

One last tip about riding position, if you are on a bike without a grab rail. Should you anticipate that the rider is going to have to brake really hard, and you can do so quickly and without obstructing the rider, you can slip your hands around to brace yourself against the fuel tank. This is usually only necessary on sports bikes with no grab rail, in which case the rider is usually crouching forward anyway and you tend to do similar. It’s not as good as the tank-mounted grab rail seen above but it has the same benefit.

Meanwhile, let’s just take a few steps backwards and deal with the basics, which start before you even turn a wheel.

First off, you are riding on a motorcycle. So you need all the protection that a rider would wear, in the shape of proper armoured and abrasion-resistant motorcycle gear. If you’re thinking about hopping on the back in normal street wear, forget it.

Getting on a motorbike has its own clear protocol. Before doing so, the rider should check that you have the right gear on, have your helmet chinstrap done up properly and that you understand what‘s been discussed above. Between you, you should agree on a means to attract each other’s attention if something is wrong and you perhaps need to stop - I suggest a tap on the rider’s upper arm and a tap on the pillion’s knee. If the rider doesn’t go through this with you, I would question whether you should go any further. But you can prompt them to do so.

Only when this is out of the way should you get on, and you should never, ever do so until the rider says they are ready for you. It should go without saying that you do not get on the bike before the rider, but I have seen someone attempt to do this. Luckily, they were screamed at before lifting their weight off the ground and almost certainly bringing the bike crashing to the floor.

To mount the bike, make sure the rider knows which side you are approaching from. Let’s assume this will be from the left, the kerb side:

1. Put your left foot on the left-hand footpeg

2. Steady yourself if necessary with your left hand on the rider’s left shoulder or both hands on both shoulders and stand up on the peg

3. Swing your right leg steadily behind you and over the seat. You should then be able to see the right footpeg, and

4. Place your right foot on it

5. Gently lower your weight onto the seat. Adjust your position to get comfy, then let the rider know when you are ready to pull away.

From here on, until the ride is over, DO NOT take your feet off the pegs. Whenever the rider stops at a junction or traffic lights, never attempt to put your feet down. Only when the rider has completed the ride do you dismount.

When the rider has pulled over for you both to get off, you should only start dismounting when the rider has said they want you to do so. The process is a simple reverse of mounting:

1. Steady yourself on the rider’s shoulder or shoulders with your hands

2. Raise your weight out of the seat

3. Lift your right boot off the right-hand footpeg and swing your leg up and behind you

4. Twist your body around and down to place your right boot on the ground

5. Left foot off the foot peg, et voila! The rider will be able to put the bike on the stand and get off.

Pillion riding should be a pleasure and the more experienced you get at it, the more you will relax and enjoy it.

Riding in wind (not just for Wellingtonians)

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:35:14 +0000

Fat chance. Pretty much the entire country has been beset by high and sometimes gusty winds all summer. If you’ve wanted to ride, you will have had to cope with it. And let’s face it: if you live in Wellington and left the bike parked every time the wind was over 50km/h, you wouldn’t be doing much riding. So here are a few tips on riding in windy weather:

Watch out for debris on the road, including branches, patches of leaves and rubbish blowing around. Don’t get target-fixated by it - ride around it on the upwind side if it’s safe.

Don’t tense up on the bike. Keep your lower body locked in, your upper body relaxed and, in crosswinds, apply a gentle push (countersteer) on the bar on the windward side
Keeping your body low helps avoid a little wind pressure but make sure your upper body remains free to move into the wind to help balance
Things like rucksacks, topboxes and tall tailpacks act like sails. To a lesser extent so do tank bags and panniers. Leave them at home if you can
Look out for gusts in the gaps between buildings, hedges and other traffic (especially large vehicles like trucks and busses). Anticipate the blast when you hit the gap.
Gusts can push your bike into a slide in a corner (I’ve had the front tyre push over a metre out of line on track before now). Don’t tense up, sit up or chop the throttle: you’re more likely to have an off. Just stay steering where you want to go, keeping a gently positive throttle and body relaxed, and wait for the bike to correct itself. Rule#1: maintain stability at all times.

All the above will help but, if the wind is really severe, it can be a real hazard. Just like a boat, a bike is best left at home when a strong wind advisory is in force.

Gloves, FFS

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:36:18 +0000

It was much the same on my old Raleigh Chopper, especially if we were off to race downhill like loons or practice some mad stunts - I wore a pair of leather driving gloves. And when the inevitable came, they actually did enough to keep the skin on my hands.

When I see people riding motorbikes and scooters around, with bare hands, I physically shudder. The other day I gave the nod to a guy coming the other way on a Ninja 250R, only to start shaking my head when I saw he had no gloves on. Proper jacket and helmet, but no gloves.

In my book, that’s just stupid. And I don’t expect many comments from riders who don’t wear gloves. Because, if that’s you, you probably can’t type much with two bloody stumps on the ends of your arms. It’s going to happen to you eventually.

Wear gloves!!

(DON’T) GET A GRIP

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:35:51 +0000

I noticed on one corner his outside knee didn’t appear to be ‘locked-in’ to the bike.

Because he wasn’t doing much passing, he was still directly ahead of me when we slowed to a crawl in a queue. Then I saw him shaking his throttle hand, as though it was numb. He did it again when he stopped (showing poor balance). Why would he be getting tingling or numb hands, especially on something as smooth as a ZZR1100?

That told me everything I needed to know: he was gripping the bars.

Inexperienced and under-trained riders often tense up and grip the bars. Problem is, it disturbs the stability of the bike, reduces feedback and control, and that erodes confidence.

Isn’t that just going to make you more tense? It’s a vicious circle.

The bars really don’t need gripping at all, except under hard braking (there’s only so much you can go about that). Your hands should be there to push (so as to countersteer the bike) and operate the hand controls - brake, throttle, clutch and switchgear. That’s it. No squeeze on the bars required.

Griping the bars creates a handful of untoward effects. Number 1, it usually means you’re not properly locked-in to the bike with your lower body. That is, using your foot, calf and knee to hold yourself on the bike. Locking your lower body in like this leaves your upper body free to control the machine without destabilising it. Gripping on the bars to steady yourself instead means you’re heading for a whole mess of trouble.

Number 2, gripping the bars tight and tensing up often means you ‘fight yourself’ when you try to turn the bike. You push the inside bar but your other arm holds the opposite bar strongly. You’re pushing against yourself, making turning harder.

Number 3, a hard grip reduces the sensitivity of your hands. If you’re relaxed, with a feather-light grip of the bars, you sense more about what’s going on with the front end, the brakes and even the clutch

Number 4, if you do get numb hands, your sensitivity is going to be even less.

And number 5: have you ever seen those crashes in bike racing where the rider gets spat off then the bike trundles merrily away? Usually after a tank slapper? What’s happened is the rider has gripped the bars like a mad thing when it starts to slap, imitating a steering damper. The problem is, the rider then channels the oscillation of the front wheel into the whole machine, creating a feedback loop. And, voila! Highside here we come.

So, don’t get a grip. Use your legs and lower body to get locked into the bike, caress the bars and feel the difference. Better still, get some advanced training at a riding school.

The vision thing

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:45:58 +0000

I was having a chat with Darren Sweetman of California Superbike School recently, partly because I’ve booked my Level 4 for February and I wondered how the ‘personalised’ aspect of it worked. Turns out, you start by filling in a questionnaire on what you want to get out of it. Anyway, Darren was relaying how, almost always, the answer to what a rider is looking for has already been covered in Levels 1 to 3. A frequent one is riders want to be able to turn in faster, and the issue is nearly always one of visual reference. If you’re not confident on the visual side of things, and using your vision the right way, you won’t be able to turn in fast.

This kind of made sense to me (and I’ll try to get Darren to do a posting some time). And then I reflected on something I saw in the UK’s Bike magazine a while ago. They got all their road testers together at Bruntingthorpe test facility, blindfolded them, then let them loose.

The results were extraordinary. Bear in mind a lot of these guys are no slouches on two wheels - people like Bruce Dunn and Pete Boast are successful racers and track instructors. The distances they could go without stopping and putting their feet down were miserably short. Most topped-out at about 25 km/h. And their paths looked like those of a drunken bluebottle.

The point is, without clear visual reference, even a gifted racer can hardly ride a motorcycle at all. And this is often the cause of bad accidents, when riders fail to take a corner. How so? Somewhere, the rider lost sight of a visual clue. Then, usually, they lack the confidence (and training) to either quickly make up a new one or ride through it.

At a minimum, you need three clear reference points (RPs) for a corner: turn-in point, apex and exit. You could argue it’s four - you need a braking point, too - but then we don’t always have to brake for a corner.

Visual training for riding motorcycles teaches you not just how to find these RPs but how to use them, shifting from one onto another before you reach them, aided by your peripheral vision. At first, this is a series of emphatic steps but, as you get better at it, you add more RPs through the corner and connect them into a ‘Visual Flow’. When you first realise you are doing this, it’s a revelation.

So, next time you are out for a ride, think about identifying those reference points and sweeping your vision from one onto the next (before you arrive at each point) in a seamless flow. Let me know how you go.

Bike in a boxx

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:30:17 +0000

Range, from 20 miles (32km) up to - golly gosh - maximum 80 miles in ‘Eco’ mode.

Despite the suitcase looks, no, you won’t be carrying this around on the train. It weighs 55kg. Anybody out there fancy one? Try here.

Feedback wanted

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:10:17 +0000

The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), MOTO NZ, local road authorities, and ACC, have developed the motorcycling safety guide, Safer Journeys for Motorcycling. This focuses on safer roads and roadsides, and identifies ways that local authorities can make our roads safer for motorcycling, among other improvements.

They'd like to hear from everyone that has an interest in improving motorcycling safety, so take a look at the draft version of document to let them know what you think. Feedback is open until Friday 27th January. To download a copy of Safer Journeys for Motorcycling, go to:

www.nzta.govt.nz/consultation/draft-safer-journeys-for-motorcycling-guide

Safer Journeys for Motorcycling

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:16:29 +0000

The draft motorcycling safety guide, Safer Journeys for Motorcycling, focuses on safer roads and roadsides, and identifies ways that local authorities can make our roads safer for motorcycling, among other improvements.

But to help ensure success, they need to hear from everyone that has an interest in improving motorcycling safety. Take a look at the draft version of Safer Journeys for Motorcycling and them know what you think. For more information and to download a copy of Safer Journeys for Motorcycling, go to:

www.nzta.govt.nz/consultation/draft-safer-journeys-for-motorcycling-guide/

The world’s best motorcycle ride? It’s right here

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:35:31 +0000

I was glad I did. Despite his grating delivery, what shone through was our own fair land and its people. Cole was clearly smitten, not just hamming up the golly-goshness for the camera. And boy, did Godzone look good. In the end, I even warmed to ‘Enery Cole because he seemed to lap up exactly what NZ has to offer.

Underpinning it all, of course, was just how brilliant a place this is to ride a motorcycle. Not rushing through it: enjoying everything that surrounds us. The programme made me see New Zealand again through fresh eyes. So much so, I made a point of watching the second episode. Here’s an excerpt:

http://www.travelchanneltv.co.nz/series-info.asp?series=World%27s%20Greatest%20Motorcycle%20Rides&ID=1488#.Trh-OnFNwy4

Mario