Sharpen Your Skills By Knowing Your Motorcycle Tires Limits!



Posted: Tuesday, July 14, 2009

by Pat Chamberlin II
mototiresonline

Many new riders when asked what their biggest problem  or concern was when riding was that they would lay down the bike when cornering over gravel, grease, oil, or some  other foreign road material. This is an issue of confidence.   The worst part of it is that the obstacles that catch out most riders in the end are the ones you can't see or don't see until it's too late.  Ignorance and lack of attention is what got me into my first and hopefully last serious accident.   I hit a deer late one evening driving home from work around 3:35 in the A.M.  Had I been a little bit more in tune with my bikes abilities and not so wrapped up in the weekend I may have seen the buck and hit the brakes fast enough to stop.  Instead I started to gingerly pull them back in a manner that a green newbie would do in their first day of nitroglycerin juggling class with the bomb disposal unit. Of course I was riding where it had rained recently and the road was a little damp in spots causing me to be concerned about my motorcycle tires available traction as well. Unfortunately this made me grab rather slowly at the brake lever while looking and thinking about the deer (no time for either) and allow him to jump right in front of me. Alas my down bringing?  Inexperience with my motorcycle and fear over traction slowed me down to the point where I was unable to avoid the accident!   

Mind you a ham fisted maneuver, stabbing at the throttle, or hard squeeze of the brakes can get you into trouble. The biggest factor is knowing how far you can go as soon as you start riding. We don't need to go out and get into accidents before we learn something or take a MSF course after the incident. It may help but knowing before you need the info is always better than finding out after the fact.  I was unfortunate enough to learn the hard way and after that I decided to learn how to pick the back of the bike up using only my two fingers of my right hand via the front  brake!     This is not what I do every time I think there is going to be an accident or ever in that context but it has taught me a great deal about how much traction is readily available from just the front brakes alone. The key is to learn where your limits may be and then progressively get closer to being able to reach those limits and do it without thought and hesitation.  Moments in life can be too short for thought and decision so being ready to act on reflex and that alone.   Increase your ability to respond to the situation tenfold by knowing what you are capable of. The old saying practice makes perfect works on almost all avenues!


By all means take a Motorcycle Riders Safety course and enjoy the lessons learning them the easy way. The instructors do a great job at giving you real world skills and can help in getting you your license as well. 


Another quick tip from Mototiresonline for keeping your abilities up is to always have good motorcycle tires on your bike! You only have two and rarely ever a spare so make sure to have them in good repair and ready for handling anything that comes your way.  Get your new motorcycle tires in sets and the handling will be balanced like it just rolled out of the factory door!
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