Posts Tagged ‘motorcycling tips’

Tips From The Motorcycle Safety Foundation

Thursday, February 27th, 2014
Cushman looking like a Harley

Yeah, even if you're riding one of these babies you can learn something that will be helpful.

I got an email the other day from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) announcing the release of their latest tip sheet and I thought, “Oh good, I can do a blog post about this.”

I don’t know, maybe when you’ve been riding for a lot of years it’s just hard for anything new to come your way. I went and looked at this “Pretend You Are Invisible” tip sheet and while it’s all good information, there wasn’t anything on it I hadn’t seen before.

You know, wear bright clothing, have your headlight on, pretend you’re invisible. That last one isn’t hard to do because effectively we are invisible out there. If you don’t ride like you’re invisible you’re just asking for it.

So that was kind of a disappointment, but the email also noted that the MSF has previously released various other tip sheets so I figured I’d go check them out. There was one in particular, “Preventing Motorcycle Theft,” that I found kind of surprising in how many tips in so many situations that they offered. The tips ranged from “If traveling with other riders, lock motorcycles together when not in use,” to “Be careful about giving out private information on where you live, work, or play.” But more than that, they also had tips on what to do when you’re pulling the bike on a trailer and guarding against theft when you’re selling the bike. This was more the kind of thing I was hoping to see in the first one.

So what else do they have? Well, here’s the list, with links:
“Should You Ride A Motorcycle?”
“If You Ride A Motorcycle”
“T-CLOCS” Pre-Ride Inspection Checklist
“Ten Things All Car & Truck Drivers Should Know About Motorcycles”
“Riding With A Passenger”
“Group Riding”
“Alcohol Awareness”

Hopefully everyone can find something relevant in among those tips sheets. You know, if you ever stop learning you might as well be dead.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride like you want to get up and do it again tomorrow.

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Posted in Motorcycle Safety | No Comments »

AMA Staff Put Heads Together, Offer Their Experience

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

bikers at Yosemite

Most of us have learned a lot of lessons in motorcycling by doing things that make us say, “Oops, I guess I won’t do that again.” It’s called experience.

Well, the folks who work for the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) have between them an awful lot of experience. And somebody got the idea for them all to collect the tips they have picked up along the way and offer their wisdom to all riders. The result is the Rider Resources page on the AMA website. It’s worth a look.

The page has three sections, Riding, Wrenching, and Learning. Each section offers a variety of articles on different topics. For instance, under Riding they offer “33 Secrets for Smart Touring,” “Tips for Crossing the Border,” and “Keeping Warm.” Under Wrenching the topics include such as “Used-Bike Buying Checklist” and “The Bike Stopped. Now What?” “Books We Love to Read” and “Riding With Disabilities” are two of the topics under Learning.

A lot of the info is sure to be stuff most of us already know, though newbies will find it very helpful. A lot is not such common knowledge. For instance, among the 33 touring tips are some jewels like this: If you’re nearing the end of your riding day and want to set yourself up for a quick getaway in the morning, consider riding to the far side of the next city you reach before you stop for the night, eliminating urban traffic the next morning.

At the same time, I find it amusing that the piece on what to do if the bike stops on you doesn’t mention what is probably one of the biggest reasons for this sort of occurrence: the kill switch. Who among us hasn’t had the experience of the bike either dying or failing to start and after beating our heads against the wall for . . . how long? . . . realizing it was just the kill switch. It happened to me one time when I reached over to engage my throttle lock and inadvertently hit that switch. I was stopped there by the side of the road for 15 minutes before it dawned on me.

That shortcoming aside, however, a whole bunch of riders offering their best advice has to have something of value for just about any rider. Take a look and see what you can learn.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you crash your bicycle when you lock up the tire because you were trying to use the brake as a clutch lever.


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Posted in American Motorcyclist Association, Motorcycle Safety, motorcycle touring, motorcycle training, New riders | No Comments »