2Wheeltips

By Dino Dogan

First time I rode a motorcycle I knew 3 things. Don’t eat the yellow snow, don’t piss against the wind and don’t up-chuck while wearing a full-faced helmet . Only one of these pertained to motorcycling.

My high school girlfriend got a brand new motorcycle for her birthday. I am pretty sure I’ve spent more time on that thing –the bike, not the girl- than she did. I believe it was an Italian-made step-up from a scooter that was good on the gas and soft on the ass.

I was unconscious-incompetent when it came to riding a motorcycle. In other words, I had no idea what I didn’t know and how much there was to know; but I managed to get around town and even survived to tell about it. Later, I rode on my friend’s 150cc Suzuki and 400cc Honda. Yup, schooldays were fun but then it came time to focus on career and leave this motorcycling nonsense behind. Yeah right.

In my twenties, I kept going back to the idea of actually getting my own bike for once; my procrastinating nature and the high entry cost kept derailing me but I didn’t give up. However, I had to wait a good 10 years before I would actually sit on my own bike...but I’m jumping ahead.

The “high entry cost” is something that many new riders don’t consider. You might put aside a few grand for the bike, but there are a slew of other

In Part 1 of the Motorcycle Accidents guide (must be read with a dose of sarcasm for full effect :-p ) we’ve examined things we can do to make sure we get into an accident. In this article, I will share a few pointers regarding the best way to “act” during an accident as related to me by a few motorcycle experts. So, without further ado, let’s crash.

Disclaimer:
While this article contains – in the opinion of the author – valid and useful information, it’s meant for entertainment purposes only.
In other words, be responsible for your own actions and don’t try this at home. Moreover; if you do try it at home, don’t blame anyone but yourself if you break your ass.

On with the show.

We will divide motorcycle accidents into three different types. You can suggest additional types in the comments section if you can think of any.

Type 1: Didn’t cause it; couldn’t prevent it.
The kind of accident where there was nothing you could do to prevent it and there was nothing you did to cause it. You are sitting at an intersection and a drunk driver rams you from behind. A total freak

The previous article was written entirely from memory; so I decided to open up Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell and re-read the chapter on airplane accidents and once again I was amazed at how similar the accident-factors of a plane crash are to the accident-factors of a motorcycle crash. So with that in mind, let’s pin few additional tails on this donkey.

Profile of the captain:
The captain of the Flight 801 had been employed by Korean Air for four years. Prior to that, he was a pilot in the Korean Air Force with a combined flight time of 89,000 hours, including thirty-two hundred hours of experience in jumbo jets. A few months earlier, he had been given a flight safety award by his airline for successfully handling a jumbo jet engine failure at low altitude.

In other words, he was an experienced and seasoned operator with years

In his 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell recounts the story of (South) Korean Air Flight 801 which tragically crashed due to multitude of factors.
What is even more unfortunate is that this could have been a story of many Korean Air flights during this time (1980s) which also resulted in a tragic demise. The problem was so great that Korean Air was about to lose it’s federally granted flight license and came very close to going out of business entirely.

What I found fascinating is how similar flying and riding is in terms of accident-probability. The author suggests that accident-probability is related not to a single factor – say bad weather for example - instead it’s

...so there I was. Airborne. Flying upside-down and looking back at the bike I was sitting on only a fraction of a second earlier. The bike had made a dead stop.

When a motorcycle meets a cement guardrail at 60mph, who wins?

Taken From Ride Like a Pro DVD Vol. 5 - A MUST HAVE


Embeded video not working; will be fixed soon. In the meantime watch the video directly on youtube

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

Did you know?

The closer the contact patch is to the Center of Mass, the quicker and easier the machine will steer.

Taken from groundbraking work by Keith Code in his book A Twist of the Wrist 2: The Basics of High-Performance Motorcycle Riding

 

When it comes to riding in the correct mini-lane (single car lane is divided into left, right and middle “mini-lane” for us, two-wheeled demons), any two motorcyclists can agree on one thing. The third motorcyclist’s opinion is wrong :-p

So what is THE BEST lane position?

The best position within a car-lane is constantly changing depending on traffic conditions.

Here are some considerations that could possibly affect your choice of lane position:

• Always aim to increase your ability to see more. This needs no explanation I hope
• Always try to increase your visibility to other motorists. 
  • Next time you’re in your car, pay attention to motorcyclists around you. Notice how they tend to disappear in your side-view mirrors depending on the lane positioning behind you. 
  • Also, while you’re in relative safety of your car, observe correct or incorrect riding habits of others. Considering traffic conditions, would you do something different?
• Change lane position to stay out of blind spots. 
• Sometimes you may need to protect your lane and will position yourself accordingly. Car drivers will “sneak-into” your spot and run you off the road is you let them, so beware. 
• Change mini-lane position to communicate your intentions. Perhaps you are taking the next exit on the right and you are riding on the left hand side of the far-left lane. Moving towards the middle and then right side of the mini-lane should indicate to other motorists that you are about to change (car) lanes.
• Change mini-lanes to avoid windblast from other vehicles
• Always aim to have three escape routes out of any situation. Adjust mini-lanes accordingly.
• Negotiating turns. The old outside-inside-outside trajectory.

I tend to ride in the middle mini-lane. This makes me (more) visible to other vehicles and gives some room for maneuvering (to the left or right) if need be. There are of course exceptions. If the middle mini-lane is drenched with oil, coolant or diesel fuel (you’ll know it when you smell it), I will stay away from the center.

The highest accumulation of oil occurs at intersection, so, as a general rule, you want to stay to the left or the right.


hth

Salute

What does it take to get into an accident while riding?

Part 1 will explore conditions that result in a rubber-side-up effect.
A facetious list of do’s to make sure we have a really bad time while riding

Part 2 will take on a more serious look at accident-survival and reflect on the best ways to have an accident.

So, what do you have to do around here to get into an accident?

1.    Make sure you ride intoxicated.
2.    Make sure your attention is elsewhere. This happens when you ride irritated, pissed off, upset over god knows what, etc.
3.    Make sure your focus is on the guy who cut you off. For every guy that cuts you off there are 10 more waiting to plow right into you. Instead, consider it a great opportunity to practice control over your emotions and maintain an indifferent state of mind.
4.    Make sure you ride stiff on the bike. Squeeze the handlebars as tightly as possible and make sure your forearms fatigue quickly and are useless for when you need them the most.
5.    Make sure you ride in people’s blind spots. Also, assume everyone can see you.
6.    Make sure you ride beyond your capabilities.
7.    Make sure you ride beyond your bike’s capabilities.
8.    Make sure you never inspect your bike. (T-CLOCS anyone?)
9.    Relax, what can happen 2 miles away from your house while picking up a loaf of bread? Turns out, everything. Most accidents happen on short rides, 5 minutes away from the rider’s house.
10.    Make sure you do not adjust for changing riding conditions. This could be anything; here are some examples: Time of day (daytime into nighttime), change in weather patterns (sunny to rain), traffic congestion (mid-day into rush hour), surface conditions (asphalt to gravel, dry to slippery, etc.) and so on.

I think we have all done at least one of these at one point or another. Is your bad habit on the list? Do share, you are amongst friends.

Next up, we will discuss the best ways of going into an accident.
I was fortunate enough to hear a few experts on this topic discuss it at some length. The panel was comprised of motorcycle racers and Hollywood stunt-men; amongst others.
I think they shared some invaluable information that I hope none of us ever need to use.

You arrive at a red light only to realize that you are about to stop your bike on an incline. When that light turns green, cars behind you will expect you to start moving forward; besides, isn’t that what you want as well?

First things first.
Don’t panic. If it helped I would whole heartedly recommend that you do panic but panic never got anyone anyplace good. So, don’t panic.

Second.
Make sure you practice an uphill start before you find yourself in this situation.

Third.
Here are 3 basic methods of moving your bike forward from a stopped position on an incline.

Method 1 – Keep your right hand strong.
Both feet on the ground- right hand squeezing the front brake. Once you are ready to move, you will work the front brake and the throttle simultaneously. This may sound impossible or at least awkward at first but in no time this will be a piece of cake. The idea is to give it enough power to break inertia, work the friction zone to engage the forward motion and once you feel the bike pulling forward slowly release the front brake.

Method 2 – Keep you foot on the ground.
The idea here is to do exactly what we did in the previous method except this time we will work the rear brake. One foot on the ground the other on the rear brake. Once ready to move, engage the throttle and slowly release the clutch (work that friction zone). When you feel the bike moving forward slowly lift your foot off the rear brake and off you go.

Method 3 – Don’t stop
This method is a great way of really feeling and working the friction zone. The idea is to stay in gear and work the throttle and friction zone to give it enough gas to almost create forward momentum but not enough to actually move. The incline and gravity will be pulling you back while the bike (throttle and friction zone) are trying to move you forward thereby creating a kind of equilibrium between these two opposing forces.
Once ready to move, simply lay off the friction zone slightly and give it more gas and off you go.


Side notes.

Don’t shut-off your bike while waiting on lights to change. It’s a bad idea and it makes you a static target. Always be ready to move at a moments notice.

When on flat ground, it’s ok to put your bike in neutral and take a little breather; however, this would be a bad idea on an incline. Basically, whenever possible make sure you are in-gear and ready to move at all times (whenever at an intersection or a light).

Salute