10 Great Motorcycle Habits to Maximize Your Riding Enjoyment and Minimize Your Risk of Death

So, now that the gremlins lurking about the Triumph are all taken care of, perhaps I can spend a bit of time writing about things other than annoying oil leaks. I found a search for "great motorcycle habits" in my stats, and I thought that sounded like a good post to write. Here goes.

1. Ride Every Day - Riding every day keeps your skills honed. If you only ride once or twice a month, you're probably spending about as much time remembering how to operate the motorcycle as you are paying attention to traffic. Operating your motorcycle should be almost reflexive, so you can focus on avoiding dangerous situations.

2. Always Try Ride Better Than You Did Yesterday - Have you got five years of riding experience, or one month's worth repeated 60 times? Try to pick better lines. Break some of your bad habits. Work on being smooth.

3. Learn How To Sit At A Stoplight Without Blipping Your Throttle - Seriously. Quit playing with that thing.

4. Minimize Your Chicken Strips - In day to day riding, it's best to have a margin of safety, so you shouldn't be riding at the limits of your bike or ability. On the other hand, it is important to know how to handle your bike at extreme angles. You should be able to ride better than you usually need to so you can handle unusual circumstances. So find a safe place and wear down the edges of your tires now and then. It's fun.

5. Stay In The Power Band - Most people ride in a higher gear than they should. If your power band starts at 7,000 RPM, try to stay around there when you're cruising. When you need power, you'll be glad to have it right there waiting for you. You'll get used to the extra racket.

6. Unless You Have Loud Pipes - OK, maybe this is habit 5.1. Whatever. If you've got crazy loud pipes, consider getting rid of them. Or just leave the bike parked, since you probably don't ride it but twice a year. And if you're not going to follow that advice, then consider not being a douche in residential areas or out where people are walking around trying to live their lives. The only person who thinks your bike sounds awesome when you're causing hearing damage is you. (Also, the only accident loud pipes MIGHT prevent is getting rear-ended. Even that is unlikely.)

Yes, some asshat with loud pipes DID wake me up this weekend. Why?

7. All The Gear, All The Time - You're not going to crash on your epic road trip through Alaska five years from now. You're going to crash a mile from your house on your way home from the gas station. It's true. Embrace your inner warrior and put that gear on.

8. Pay Attention - Situational Awareness for bikers is defined as knowing what's going on around you so you don't get creamed by an SUV. Don't space out when you're on the bike.

9. Think Ahead - Pilots call it staying in front of the airplane. Know what you're going to do next. Act, don't react. You're a rider, not a passenger.

10. Remember that riding should be totally awesome - I don't think much of riding through rain, wind, cold, or heat, on the whole. All the same, it's important to remember that despite our cozy helmets, we are out in the elements and being exposed can still be dangerous in this day and age. So if you're thinking "this sucks," instead of, "this is totally awesome," get off the road for a while until the situation is back to being totally awesome.

How to Ride Through A Desert Summer and Not Die

I've been riding to work year round here in the desert for about five and a half years. One question I get, over and over, usually asked with a mix of awe and disbelief, is "Don't you get hot?"

Well, yes.

I'm lucky because I seem to be physiologically well-suited to cope with heat. I know some folks just get sick after a long time in the heat and would probably keel over if they tried riding through the heat I ride through.

That said, I try not to be the stupid macho guy. Exposure kills people.

So, here are a few tips and tricks for riding through a Phoenix summer.

Maintain a good attitude. I know this is really hard. I hate the cold and fight against it instead of accepting it and getting on with whatever I need to do. And I know some people fight against the heat the same way. If you can just accept that you're going to be hot, and be OK with that, it's a lot easier to deal with the heat. Hey, some folks pay good money to sit in a sauna, right?

Try not to ride when it's really hot. I leave for work around 6:00 a.m. because the temperature rises significantly as soon as the sun comes up. I do my best to stay indoors, or at least in shady areas, during the hottest part of the day. I don't ride in the early afternoon unless I absolutely can't avoid it.

Cover up. You know what cowboys wear? Boots, jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves and a broad hat. Bedouins wear long robes and head coverings. Staying covered up serves two purposes.

First, it keeps the sun off of you. The sun is ridiculously intense here and anything left exposed in the sun, including you, will heat up very quickly. You can get sunburned in a very short time, even if you tan easily. Sunburn reduces your body's ability to cool itself.

Second, staying covered keeps your sweat from evaporating. Between the wind and the lack of humidity, it's possible you won't even notice you're sweating because your perspiration evaporates so quickly. Staying covered up slows down evaporation, which means your sweat can do it's job.

So don't be one of those dummies out there in shorts and a t-shirt.

Wear cotton. The desert during the summer months is the one place where cotton is actually a good fabric to wear outdoors. It stays wet, and keeps you cool. That would be bad in the winter, but it's a very nice thing indeed in the heat of summer. (Incidentally, synthetic underwear that wicks moisture away from your skin is just about the best thing ever when you're spending a lot of time on a hot motorcycle.)

I have heard that wetting a bandanna and tying it around your neck will help you stay cool. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm going to. I have also heard that soaking your t-shirt in water and wearing it while riding is almost heavenly.

Stay hydrated. It's extremely easy to become dehydrated in the desert. Drink tons of water. Drink enough water to "piss clear." When you think "Man, I don't want to drink any more water," have some water. If you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. If you're riding a long ways, stop every hour and have a bunch of water and a salty snack like peanuts or pretzels.

The pavement in summer around here can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to give you a third degree burn. Scary, huh? You're more or less riding around over a hot stove. You are going to sweat quarts of water. Keep drinking.

Also, carry water with you. Should you break down or otherwise end up stranded, you're going to need it, and water is scarce in the desert.

Keep your bike maintained. Once again, you're riding around over a hot stove. Extreme conditions are hard on mechanical things. Watch your tire pressure and tire condition. Blowouts suck. Check your oil and coolant levels regularly. Overheating also sucks.

Ride every day. Getting somewhat acclimated makes a huge difference in your comfort level. If you've been living in air-conditioned comfort all summer, and decide to go for a ride at 1:00 in the afternoon in August, you're going to have a miserable time. On the other hand, if you ride in the heat every day, well, riding at the hottest time of day in August is still going to suck, but it won't be nearly as traumatic if you're somewhat used to heat.

I have no doubt there are some things I'm forgetting, but I think this will get you on your way to surviving a desert summer on your motorcycle.

No-Fail Solution for Helmet Hair

Clippers, number one guard. Hair that's 1/8 of an inch long means your helmet just can't mess it up. Looks good on men and women, although I have to admit it's still sort of a daring hairstyle for women, in some circles.

But the benefits are numerous: no time-consuming shampooing, styling, bad hair days, problems finding hats that fit...

And it feels freakin' great in the summer.

Helmet hair, believe it or not, is a big factor in whether or not some folks will ride to work. So, stop worrying about it. Cut it all off.

Why, what do you do?

Watch Your Ass

Last I heard, 4 of the 8 bikers hit by a dump truck the other day are dead. I've been thinking about that wreck quite a bit recently. I have no doubt that lots of the other bikers in Phoenix are watching their mirrors with as much anxiety as I am.

A few years back, I was in a friend's car and we were rear-ended when a couple cars ahead of us slammed on their brakes. My friend stopped in time, but the car behind us didn't even notice traffic had slowed. There were no squealing tires, or horns. We came to a fast stop, and then were hit from behind by some guy going at least 45 mph.

Incredibly enough, apart from a ruined pair of pants and a big mess in the car (my coffee spilled everywhere, what were you thinking?), we were OK.

But for the next 6 months, I got extremely nervous any time I was in a car coming to a quick stop. I always expected a neck-snapping jolt and hot coffee in my lap.

Getting rear-ended on a bike, I've heard, is no laughing matter. There's no telling where you might end up because someone else didn't understand basic physics. Personally, I'd prefer not to experience such things.

As such, I keep an eye on my mirrors at stop-lights, watching for rapidly approaching vehicles. I'll flash my brake light a few times if they're moving too quickly for my liking. Usually, that slows them down (Why does that work? Does anyone know?). I also stay in gear at intersections. Maybe it's more superstition than effective plan, but I'd rather have the slim chance of noticing I'm about to be hit and getting out of the way than the alternative.

Ask Lucky: How Big Should My Next Bike Be?

In the comments, Noam Sayin' asked a question with an answer too big to be left buried in the comments of some other post. So, I figured I'd bring it out in the open.

Noam says: I'm thinking of buying a motorcycle this year. One question I need to answer is whether or not I'll be happy on something around 900cc or should I jump to something in the 1100 - 1300 range. I'm thinking for a touring or sport-touring bike; something on which I can kick around Northern MN & WI and eventually maybe a trip out to the PCH.

Ah, the old dilemma: how much bike is enough?

The first part of this question is: Are you getting a Harley? If so, get the big motor. A Harley is still essentially a tractor from the early 1900's, so you might as well get one that can pull stumps and tow a hay baler..

Assuming you're not getting a Harley, it doesn't take much bike at all to do what you want. Dealers will tell you you need a liter bike. This is because they make more money if you buy a bigger bike.

In reality, though, most of the modern motorcycle manufacturers can make 100 horsepower with a rubber band and two paperclips. The Triumph Speed Four, for example, has a 600cc motor making 98 horsepower. I can cruise at 90mph for 6 hours carrying enough gear for a couple days. So don't let anyone tell you that you "need" a bigger motor.

A smaller bike is lighter, which means it will be easier to maneuver and handle. Coming from a scooter you're going to be kind of shocked at how much work it is to handle a bigger bike.

Smaller bikes get better gas mileage and cheaper insurance too.

So, why get a liter bike? Because you want to go really fast in a straight line. If you're going to carry a passenger every single time you get on the bike you might also want a liter bike for the extra room. Otherwise, you're never even going to touch the capabilities of the machine during normal use.

Now, I am a little biased towards small bikes, because I think it's far more fun to push a machine to it's limits than to never really dig in to a bigger machine.

OK. So, what do I think you should look at?

Well, first off, BMW is right out because of their tendency to break in expensive ways at 12,000 miles.

The Suzuki SV-650 is a very capable and friendly machine. It's also cheap. There is a big aftermarket full of performance and touring bits for this bike. I'd totally add one to my garage.

The Suzuki V-Strom is the fire-road-capable version of the SV. Totally decent from what I hear.

The Yamaha FZ6 is comfy and capable.

Don't get a Honda. You'll meet nice people on it.

Don't get a Kawasaki because it's generally agreed that they're for assholes.

You can't go wrong with a Triumph, though I'm very biased.

A few more things to consider:

How are you going to ride 90% of the time? I want to ride the PCH too, but most of the time I'm here in Phoenix battling traffic. My stripped-down machine suits me perfectly 90% of the time. The three hours of nothing between here and California does kind of suck, but I don't do that ride very often.

What's your budget? European bikes are more expensive to own than Japanese bikes. Of course, when you get the Euro bug, you don't care.

Finally, which bike gives you the biggest, dumbest grin? Get that one. Motorcycles are not appliances like, ugh, cars. Reason has very very little to do with what bike you get.* The Big Dumb Grin is reason enough. So if a 1300cc Sport-Touring bike makes you jump up and down clapping your hands and giggling, then you've got your answer already.

So, that wraps up this edition of Ask Lucky. You keep sending me questions, and I'll keep providing responses which might or might not actually answer your question.


*A note to newbie riders: You really ought to get something small and used for your first bike. We want you to survive long enough to get your dream bike.