Little Things that Make a Big Difference in your Motorcycle Ride
There are many factors that you have to take into effect when you get on a motorcycle to ride. Safety is always the most important. You are riding a machine that based on the power to weight ratio, is more powerful than most of the cars on the road. You are riding this machine without all of the safety features that you have in an automobile. One of the main reasons that people ride, the feeling of the open road and freedom, is also the exact same thing that can kill or seriously harm them.
Everyone knows the major issues involved in riding a motorcycle. What about the smaller things that may slip your mind? These are little things that can be the difference between a great ride and a very bad trip to the hospital, or worse, the morgue.
Like most things involving motorcycles, many of these have to do with safety. Looking cool is important to many people that ride. These are usually “fair weather” riders. They only ride when the weather is perfect, a few months out of the year. There isn't anything wrong with this, and the people that fall into this category usually have beautiful bikes.
The problem with these people, as opposed to people that ride all the time and have much more experience, is they are more likely to overlook small things on the motorcycle. It may only be a minor issue but can cause major problems. If you ride all the time, you are more likely to notice these small problems a lot faster.
The purpose of this article is to bring a few of these seemingly small problems to light for all riders that may overlook them. It is the authors hope that if you get used to looking to the few small things that are mentioned, it will become a habit to look for others as well. Once it is a habit, it will delay your ride for 5, maybe 10 minutes at most (unless you find a problem, then you may not want to ride that day).
Before you even get on the bike, do a quick walk around. Does everything look OK? Do the tires have enough tread? Does one of them look like it needs air? If it does, get out the tire gauge and check them both. It will only take a few seconds to do this. If you don’t have enough air in a tire, it will completely change the way that the motorcycle rides.
Remember that you are much smaller than the other vehicles on the road, especially with the amount of SUVs that are on the roads today. Check all of your lights. Headlight, taillight, blinkers (both right and left, front and back) and especially the brake light. Uncountable riders have been hurt or killed because they were stopped at a light or stop sign and a car doesn't notice them and literally rolls over them. Remember that both your foot pedal (for the rear) and the right hand lever (for the front) should activate the brake light.
If you have an older bike, the smell of gasoline may be a constant (sometimes on newer bikes as well). If you smell gasoline, check for a leak. Motorcycles are not like cars with fuel lines that run everywhere. Your tank sits right above the carburetors. There is a very real chance that you will have less than 8 total inches of fuel line and 4 connection points. This is not that much to check. It is worth the time to make sure you don’t run out of fuel or worse, burst into flames.
Give the drive mechanism a quick check. If it is a chain, does it have the correct tension? Are any of the links damaged, for that matter are either of the sprockets worn or damaged? If you have a belt driven bike, is the rubber on the belt in good repair? Are there any indications that it may fail? Tears, cracks, fraying, and splitting are all indicators that you may need a new one. If either of these happen to break at highway speeds, even if you have a guard in place, it can do serious damage to you. If you have a shaft driven bike, there is not a lot to look for. It is a sealed system. The best you can do is make sure that there are no leaks at the ends of it. You may not see actual lubricant but you may see “mud” from road dust mixing with the lubricant.
If everything checks out OK so far, go ahead and start the bike. Make sure that all of your “dashboard” lights are functioning as well as the head light and tail light and they come on the way that they are supposed to. Is the bike idling the way that it should? Other than a mechanic, you would know better than anyone. You are the one that rides it all the time. If something doesn't sound correct, there is some sort of mechanical problem. It might be minor and work for years or you may blow the engine taking off from the first stop light. It is important to listen to the engine before you speed off.
Speaking of taking off, before you gun the throttle like you are drag racing, take of slow and carefully. Don’t wind the motor out to the red line before you shift. Go through the gear box smoothly. Is it shifting correctly? If it doesn't (and you are using hand/foot coordination with the clutch and shift lever) then you could have issues with either the clutch or the transmission. It may be as simple as a clutch cable or as complicated as needing to have the transmission rebuilt. If you are trying to win the Grand Prix out of your driveway you may not notice the problem before it is too late.
There are also the same things that all riders hear a million times. Make sure you are wearing the proper clothing. Wear a helmet. Make sure that you gloves both protect your hands but give you freedom of movement. It is a good idea (and the law in some places including military bases) to wear a high visibility vest whenever you ride. While it may not be cool, the vest may save your life.
These are just a few small things that will take almost no time out of your ride but will give you a heads up to something more serious. Get into the habit of checking these before every ride, especially if it has been more than a few weeks since the last ride. As you get these checks down to a science, you will find other small things that you may want to check as well. As an example, the engine oil and brake fluid. All of these things take very little time but will ease your mind. Knowing that your bike is safe lets you concentrate and therefore enjoy the ride much more.
Stay alert, stay safe, and stay alive. There is always another day that you will want to ride. Being in the hospital, dead, or having a bike with a blown engine will prevent this from happening. These checks are a simple thing, yet it can stop major issues from happening when you least expect them.
