Tune Up Yourself and Your Motorcycle Before The First Ride of the Season
It has been a long winter. Way too long! You haven't been able to get out on any of your motorcycles in what seems like two lifetimes. Finally the weather is clearing and getting warm, the roads are actually passable, and it's time to ride. There is nothing to do but gear up and go!
Well, not so fast. Sure you feel like you're ready, but are you really? And just as importantly, is your bike?
Riding well and safely is a skill. And like all skills, it takes practice to stay in top form. If you had a brain surgeon getting ready to open your skull and dig around in that super-important goop up there, would it concern you to hear that, gosh, he hadn't done anything like this in six months. You'd feel a little better if he had practiced, wouldn't you? Well, when you go out on your motorcycle your life is just as much in your hands as it would be in that surgeon's hands, so maybe you should do some practicing as well.
It doesn't matter if you're riding a little Star V-Star 250 or a fully dressed Royal Star Venture S, you ought to scrape some of the rust off before you hit the road.
So what should you do? Take a short cruise to a good-sized parking lot where you know there will room to run around without a lot of traffic or obstacles. You want to practice two things in the parking lot before you head out onto the street: turning and stopping, with the overall goal simply to re-accustom yourself to handling the machine.
Start out just taking some wide sweeps around the lot. Take left turns and right turns and gradually tighten in to make sharper and sharper turns. Run imaginary slalom courses, back and forth, back and forth. All of this should be done at slow speeds.
Next, practice braking. Pick a starting point and a braking point about 40 feet away. Accelerate briskly until you hit the stopping point and then brake sharply to a stop, following a straight line the entire way. Do this a number of times to get a good feel for how hard you need to apply the brakes and how quickly the machine responds.
Now combine the two. Again, set a start point and then a swerve point, with the idea that you are approaching a hazard and need to quickly steer around it. Accelerate to a good speed and when you hit the swerve point, do not brake, but sharply swerve either left or right to go around the "object." And then stop quickly once you have come out of your swerve and have the bike completely upright again.
Put in maybe 45 minutes or an hour just refreshing your skills using these exercises and you'll be much better prepared both mentally and in your reflexes to head out into hazardous zones.
So, how do I prepare my motorcycle? For those who live in more temperate climates, bringing the motorcycle out of winter storage is not an issue because it never goes into storage. For everyone else, riding is a seasonal activity and there is a period each year where the bike just sits.
Motorcycles don't like to sit. They like to run. First you need to determine whether your battery is going to work. If you had it on a trickle charge all winter you're probably good to go. Otherwise, you may need to put it on a charge, or even buy a new battery.
If you didn't change your oil when you put the bike into storage, now is a good time to do so.
If you put it away properly in the fall you either drained the gas tank or added stabilizer to the gas. If you didn't do either you may be looking at considerable cost to get your carburetors cleaned.
Check your other fluid levels and look for any leaks. Make sure all is well. How are your tires? Do they have good tread? Be sure to check air pressure. Check all your lights, gauges, turn signals and other controls. Once everything checks out, you're now truly ready to ride.
For New York Motorcycles, visit Island Powersports at http://www.IslandPowersports.com or call 516-795-4400. We have rock bottom pricing, outstanding customer service, and knowledgeable staff to satisfy your thirst for fun. Schedule an appointment today to get out and ride!
04 Aug, 2011
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Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6462512
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