2Wheeltips

My grandpa bestowed a few words of wisdom on me when I was a kid. 
He said “son, don’t get caught with your pants down; don’t wait to shit your pants before buying an extra pair of underwear and go tell grandma to iron my pants.”
I don’t know what his obsession with pants was all about but once, while in Prague, he traded his Levis for a car. Or was that just a commercial I saw?

What does this have to do with motorcycling? Glad you asked.
Turns out, everything.

Don’t Wait to Get Caught in the Rain

If you never rode in rainy conditions, perhaps you want to do a practice run on a drizzly Sunday afternoon. This will give you a chance to get the sense of tire traction under wet conditions, test your rain-proof boots and clothing, and get used to (as much as one can get used to such things) impaired visibility and general nastiness of a rainy day.

This will also have a great effect on your mental state both during the practice run and later when you get caught in rain.
The fact that you made a decision to get out there and test things out will put you at ease.
The fact that you later “got caught” in rain will have a diminished physiological impact since you’ve “been there, done that” already.

The reason I bring this up is that over 92% of accidents happen to people who are under some physiological strain (stress, panic or similar).
This is according to a study I made up for this article :-)

Better yet, do what motorcycle cops do. Don’t ride in the rain.
Many Police motorcycle squads have an unwritten rule to get off their bikes and wait 'til about half an hour after the rain stops to get back on the road.

The oil, dirt and rain mix together to create some nasty and slippery riding conditions, so it's best to give it a chance to settle before you mount your two-wheeled steed.


Don’t Wait Till Nightfall to Ride at Night

The other issue that comes up often, especially for new riders, is riding at night.

Impaired visibility (for both you and other drivers on the road), mixed with other adverse riding conditions (rain perhaps?) and stress of finding yourself in this situation for the first time, could result in panic and eventual accident.
So, follow the same rules as before for the same reasons (physiological advantage, etc.).

Get out there and do a test run at night and tell us how you did.

Few basic rules to keep in mind while riding at night:

• Don’t outrun your headlights.
• Slow down and make sure you can swerve or stop in case something comes your way (a pot hole, a tire, a road-kill, a car out of nowhere, etc.)
• Use other peoples' headlights as a reference.
• Observe the brake and rear-headlights of the car in front of you. If the car in front of you brakes, you brake.
• If the car in front of you swerves, you best believe you will need to swerve as well.
• If the rear-lights “shake”, that means the car has hit a bump or a pot hole. Be careful, slow down.

Beware: cars don’t have to avoid everything we have to avoid.
A car can easily run over a tire-remnant left by a 16 wheeler; bikes on the other hand, can not. These tire-remnants are known as road-gators (they clamp down as you run over them) and can be disastrous if encountered, so avoid them.

Another situation that warrants a test-run is when we find ourselves in the middle of an incline. No worries though, we already have an article that describes a few ways of roasting this particular chestnut. 

What other situations warrant a test-run?