Quality Time

I think I may be about to say something a little more off-kilter than usual: spending some quality time in the parking lot with your bike can sometimes be more fun than hitting the twisties.

I know, I know, you're just going in circles and not getting anywhere. But, you are getting in some valuable practice and honing those skills in an environment you are less likely to run into anything unpleasant. Though we did see a few deer running around the lot. Obviously, the first order of business is to find an empty lot to play in. One the local wildlife (deer or neighbors) won't bother you in. My wife and I chose the Law School parking lot. She got her Buell out while I played with my camera. Here is the fruit of our labor (and my unsolicited tips).

On a hot day, take a break and relax a little, just like you would on a distance ride.

Just because you're in an empty lot doesn't mean you should skimp on your gear. Besides, you needed to ride it there, right?

Remember, when turning: look where you want to go.

And I do mean Look.

Finally, throw in a few quick stops. Especially if you're headed at your photographer.

I think that's it for now. Get out and ride. Have fun, in a parking lot or on the road, just stay smart about it.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

One thing that needs to be done after a period of inactivity in any sport is mentally and physically prepping yourself to go full swing again. With running it would be talking walks interspersed with stints of running. For soccer it would be a few hours kicking the ball around and doing some practice drills with some friends. With motorcycling it can include parking lot practice to get some of the kinks worked out or taking some short rides on sedate and lightly traveled roads.

Now, short ride has a different definition for each rider. For some it would be a few minutes riding around the neighborhood, others would go meet some friends for dinner at a local restaurant, for my wife and I it meant riding down to the International Horse Park in Conyers and swinging by her barn so I could see where she rides horses. There and back could be a simple 40 mile loop, done in about an hour. Somehow we turned it into 60 miles and about two and a half hours.

We had started out going to a parking lot close to us to warm up, but we both were feeling a little uneasy with our practice and decided to just start out and go slowly. We could always turn around and go home if things felt out of whack. Turns out what we needed to feel comfortable again was to get out and just ride. Sometimes, the mental preparation you need is just going out and reminding yourself you can do it, after all.

Preparation: Experience

I see Philip's already covered the basics of gear to get when you start riding. So now I'm going to cover one point I've alluded to a couple times, but never really gone over in detail. This one is about building up experience. I wouldn't recommend going straight from an MSF class to riding 40 miles to work for a straight month. In the MSF class, you've been riding around in an empty parking lot in broad daylight, and usually in dry weather (although the classes are held rain or shine). On your commute, you'll have to deal with darkness, bad weather, bad drivers, and more.

So after the class, you'll want to build up experience. At first you'll want to just practice what you've done in the MSF class, either on side streets or parking lots. Then you can start adding more challenges - riding in somewhat heavier traffic, then maybe in the rain or night. Eventually you'll work your way up to longer rides, heavy traffic, the Interstate, and more. But don't bite off more of a challenge then you're comfortable with, and just try a little at a time - for example, you might want to make your first Interstate ride between two exits a few miles apart.

If you're wondering how much experience I have, it's about two years and 10,000 miles at this point.

Preparation: Training

If you're learning to drive a car, you usually get a learner's permit and practice with one of your parents riding around in the passenger seat and giving you instructions. Carrying an instructor around on a motorcycle obviously isn't practical. In most US states, you could just get a learner's permit and practice riding a bike on your own, with certain restrictions such as no riding at night, no carrying a passenger, and no interstates. But the problems with that are obvious - you're starting riding a bike without any experience, and out on public roads unless you have a big empty parking lot next to your house or can trailer your bike to one.

So the option I'd recommend is motorcycle school. These are usually run by the state or by private companies (some Harley-Davidson dealers, for example, put on a class called Rider's Edge). Both state-run and private classes often follow a curiculum developed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, althouth sometimes you'll see other programs from state governments or ABATE as well. Usually these classes take a Friday night and a complete weekend (There are exceptions: Rider's Edge is a four day class - thanks, Philip!), and the school will provide the bike. In some states, the class is nearly free from the state instructors. In Georgia, they aren't subsidized and cost $250. Private lessons can cost a little more, but not by much.

These classes start with instruction in a classroom. Usually it's not quite as disreputable looking as this classroom, which was in a wing of a high school slated for demolition. (They'd given the students free reign with cans of Krylon after the school let out for the summer since it was geing torn down anyway.) They cover the basics of how a motorcycle works on the first night. Then on Saturday morning the instructors lead you though exercises in the parking lot. It starts off with how to work the clutch and moves up through weaving, hard braking, and some courses even have you hopping the bike over 2 x 4's by the end of the class.

Along the way, you'll also learn a lot of defensive driving skills, and much of the generic "Stuff every rider should know." You generally won't be ready for commuting through rush hour traffic by the end of the class, but you should leave the class knowing enough about how to get on a bike on a lightly traveled road without hurting yourself. Then you'll be ready to start practicing on the road and building up your skills. As Philip noted, you'll want more experience before you take on riding in heavy traffic and all weather. More about that next...

Getting the bike out of hibernation

Yesterday was a reasonably warm day, so I decided to fire up my bike. Since it's sat for a while, I first made sure the cables were OK and the brakes were holding pressure, and lubricated a couple of the points the factory service manual says need periodic oiling. I also made sure to check the tire pressure and the general condition of the tires. This is pretty important on a bike, since having a tire go flat on a bike can be a much worse disaster than on a car. The rear tire is showing enough signs of wear that I'll probably need to replace it after April.

Then I primed it up (you have to let the gas flow for a while on a carbureted bike if it's been sitting for a while), turned the choke on, and hit the button. Much to my relief, it fired right up. (It's possible for carbs to get rather gunky if they sit too long.) Took a while for it to warm up.

While I was getting the bike ready, I noticed my next door neighbor Mike was getting his Harley prepared too. He asked me if I'd like to go for a trip, so we rode down to Jackson Lake and back. It was a nearly traffic-free ride, which was definitely a good thing as I wanted to get back into practice before taking on rush hour traffic. If you haven't ridden for a while, both your bike and your skills may need a little checking out before trying something too demanding.

Looks like everything's working on my bike and other than the note about the tires and needing an oil change, it'll be ready for April.

Preparation

One of the problems with using a motorcycle for commuting is that you can't just decide one day that you're going to be a motorcyclist and ride every day to work, go down to your local Kawasaki dealer and buy just any bike there, and start riding to work the next day. Motorcycle commuting takes a bit of preparation and equipment. So in the month leading up to April, I'm going to be going over the things you need to do, and that for the most part I've already done, in preparation for a commute. Here's some of the areas I will cover.

First, my motorcycle has been sitting for a couple months as I haven't really figured out how to beat the cold just yet. So I'm going to go over it and make sure it is safe to ride before I hit the streets. Since this is something I'll be doing very soon, this will probably be the first thing I'll write about, even if it may not be the first thing someone looking to get into motorcycling will need to do.

Motorcycling also takes training, and you're best off both getting some lessons from a pro and doing some practice in safe, low-traffic areas before you try a 40 mile ride to work. So I'll go over what is involved in training and practice.

The other area of perparation is, of course, shopping. So I'm going to cover what makes a good first bike, what sort of safety gear will protect you on the ride, and various items that are helpful for comfort and carrying things for your commute.

Oh, and one other thing - you may notice there's a second blogger on this blog now. I'll let him introduce himself.