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Tips and Tricks for Riders
An ongoing column of useful information for riders of all types of
motorcycles.
- Eye Ready - Is You? - If you're one on many riders
who wear contacts here's a tip from Ron W. In Oregon. Contacts
come in individual units with the complete prescription printed
on the tear off to open the container. Eye the right and left
ones and make a copy of them. Keep the copy in your tank bag so
in the event you lose one or damage one, you can find a
replacement. If you wear the disposable type, keep the most
recent discarded pair in a container and keep it with you on
long rides. Of course, it goes without saying, always pack a
pair of your prescription glasses as well.
- Group Riding Tip #47 - When riding with a group, the
lead can keep things moving by planning stops once an hour for
10 minutes each for restroom and gear change needs. When the
ride is stopped the lead can say "This is a 10 minute stop" and
be the one putting on a helmet and gloves at the end of the 10
minutes, which signals to the others it's time to get rolling,
without saying a word.
-
 Where's your wallet? - It's all too common. A
rider storing their wallet in the back left or right pocket of
their pants. Just ask them - "Do you ever get back trouble like
sciatica?" Almost every time the answer comes back "Oh Yeah!"
Guys, quite riding around tweaking your back, cause that's what
happens when you carry a wallet in the rear pocket. Your back is
compensating for the slight height difference and as a result
your spinal column is out of alignment. Hit a pot hole and guess
what the next thing is coming down the line? - excessive back
pain.
You can counter this from happening by learning to store your
wallet somewhere else like the front pocket, in your coat of in
the tank bag. And if you do it all the time, not just when you
ride, you'll experience an automatic decrease in stress to your
back. And you'll save millions of dollars and hours in needless
trips to a chiropractor.
Is your wallet too fat to store in the front pocket? Go thick to
thin by checking out the line of
Big
Skinny wallets that cut down how much wallet you're
actually packing.
Spare Keys - When you buy a new motorcycle, it's typical to get two
ignition keys with it. When you buy a used motorcycle two would be luck,
often enough you get just one. Consider having four. One for daily use, a
spare to keep in your riding jacket and two spares back at home. Over time
key's wear so one of those spares at home may become your next regular key.
 The S-Biner Key on the Coat Trick – How many times have you mounted
your bike and reached for your key, only to realize it’s stuffed away in
your pocket? You remove your gloves, attempt to stand over the seat and dig
around in your pants or jacket until you find it, stick it
in the ignition, don your gloves again and now you’re ready to ride. Your
own little Moto Ground Hog Day moment?
You can make your life easier by using a
Nite-Ize S-biner and clipping it
somewhere easy to get to, like your zipper pull or the plastic loop commonly
found on the waist line of many textile jackets. Even with thick gloves on
you can navigate your key out of the spring closed end and into your
ignition. Easy!
Contemplating Modifications? – Kevin, who rides a KLR, gets all the
mods to upgrade his 650 dual sport before taking a trip-of-a-lifetime to
Asia. He’s rejetted his carburetor, installed a hot cam and changed the
tail pipe. According to the dynamometer he’s getting another six horsepower out
of the beast. On day three of his supposed three month Asian adventure, the
motor essentially blows up, stranding him and the bike in the middle of the
Gobi desert. End of trip.
Before modifying a stock bike, consider the ramifications of what you want
to do. Your manufacturer designed and tested it stock for hundreds of hours
before releasing it to the public for sale. But they never tested it with
the modified parts you’re planning to install, and the consequences can be
unpleasant.
Meds Changes – There’s an ugly drug addiction going on amongst
primarily older riders. Prescription drugs. How many is any one person on?
How does changing one change the effect of the others? Why is this ugly?
Brendan, who recently crashed his Buell, did it when his blood sugar went wooky during a ride after a recent change in his insulin prescription.
If you’re taking prescription meds and have one or more added, changed or
removed from your intake, do not ride your motorcycle for several days until
you’re certain your body is as stable for riding as it was before the
changeover.
Compartmentalize with Zip Locs? – I recall a dual sport ride back in
2005 across the Capitol Forest. At one point we stopped, and my riding
partner opened up his saddle bag to expose a number of Zip Loc freezer
bags with all his gear subdivided amongst them. Now, for keeping gear dry
and/or sorted, there are many options beyond Zip Locs including dry bags,
stuff sacks, see through pouches and totes and kit bags. Each of these tends
to occupy a good amount of space all on their own, much more than a Zip Loc
freezer bag. But you get what you pay for. The other options may take
up a bit more space, but they are considerably more durable and less likely
to fail. If you’re a dual sport rider enjoying hours of riding
off-pavement, Zip Locs won’t cut it simply because all that beating will
cause them to wear and fall apart. However, were you planning a short day or
multi-day trip on a street bike, and space was a consideration? (when is it
not?) Utilizing Zip Locs for lighter weight items might just be the ticket.
In addition, you can transfer all your dry snacks, like nuts, dried fruits
and beef sticks, into Zip Locs rather than using the original clunky packing
they came in.
Replace your face shield—OFTEN – The thrifty
rider may be damaging their eyes just by being thrifty. A rider came to me once and asked if I
could remove scratches from his face shield. We gave it a go using Novus 2
polish and an orbital buffer. No go. Deep scratches simply don’t come out of
face shields like we want them to. And riding around season after season
only makes matters worse. as deep scratches can cause astigmatism in the eyes by
forcing the eye to try and focus in two places ride after rider.
Bottom line, plan and budget to replace your face shield every season you
ride, particularly if you spend hours off-pavement with others or ride in
the rain a lot. You’ll see much better as you roll along on your
adventures.
Painter's tape to save your paint – Various luggage options, like soft
saddle bags, tail packs and even tank bags, can wreak havoc on your bike's
precious paint job. Your gear rubs back and forth, nature makes a little
rain and before you know it you’ve got a layer of grit between your gear and
the bike that’s eating away at your paint, one layer at a time.
The solution is to invest in a roll of blue painter's tape. It goes on and
peels off easily, providing a barrier between the gear and your bike. It
may not look pretty, but considering it’s probably not even visible with
your bags on, who cares. When you unload the bags for good, peel the tape
off. Keep in mind, it will bond more with your paint as time goes on, but
just keeping it on for a few weeks won’t cause a problem.
Simplifying which gloves to buy and pack – On a recent ride, one of
our party revealed he was packing no less than eight pairs of gloves. I had to
know why. "In case it rains," was the response. Wow.
Experience has taught me I only need two pair of gloves when I’m travelling.
The first is a waterproof, heated set of winter leather or textile gloves
with a Gortex liner built in. No other supposedly waterproof barrier has ever
proved to me it works over miles and mile of touring. When it’s cold (50
degrees and below), I plug them in and get all the heat I need on my hands to
stay warm (although a set of heated grips offers an added creature comfort
element). Without the added heat, I stay fairly comfortable with just the
glove's insulation between 50 and 70 degrees).
My second set of gloves are leather with re-enforced palms and armor over
the knuckles. I’ve worn these gloves in 117 degree temperatures and wondered
why I didn’t overheat. Turns out, at about 80 degrees my hands begin to
sweat, and the water layer allows the glove to wick excess heat. They
do a good job insulating my hands when the winter gloves are too much warmth
(70-80 degrees). For water repellency, I treat them with
Nikwax glove proof
to shed excess water during heavy rainfall.
Advice from the locals – Have you ever asked a local for advice or
directions only to find yourself off the track? One such scenario ended a
weekend of riding for a friend on a Friday afternoon, when he was told a
connector road he wanted to ride wasn’t paved. He turned around and rode his
Sportbike back home, missing out on a dynamite weekend of riding tertiary
roads.
Plan your route in advance and use the internet to research road conditions and closures. We made this an easier task by placing links to all
the road conditions in the Northwest accessible from your home page on Sound
RIDER!
When a local provides advice, ask them when the last time they went down
that road was. You’ll be surprised at some of the answers, which will get
you closer to validating the reality of the advice.
Dry Snacks – At a checkpoint along a fun run once, we asked riders
to break out what they had on hand for snacks. Someone said they already ate
theirs, others insisted they weren’t necessary. The reality is that you
never when you might get stranded along a route, and having some dry snacks
on board is a welcome relief as you struggle through whatever situation
you're in.
A healthy assortment of dry snacks is simple to pack and carry, and won't
suck up a lot of cargo space. Toting a few servings of nuts, dried
fruits and beef sticks or jerky can be the difference between getting lunch,
or going without. Many riders like to carry trail mix or granola. Just keep
in mind that if it includes chocolate you might wind up with a gloopy mess if temps
rise.
Almonds provide an excellent source of protein and carbs and break down
slowly, so you can avoid a sugar rush and the after-crash associated with
refined sugar items like candy bars, power bars and refined flour items like
many non-whole grain cookies, chips and crackers.
Got a tip or trick to share. Email it to us at
SReditor@soundrider.com. If we use
it we'll slip a copy of the
Sound RIDER! guide to Packing Light/Packing Right.
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