“Keep The Rubber Side Down”

Attempting to keep up with the Joneses is never a good idea, especially if the Joneses are riding sport bikes!

All of us have encountered riding with more skilled, more experienced, and flat out better riders than ourselves.  And from time to time, all of us have faced the pressure of riding at a faster pace than we deemed comfortable, to simply keep up with the pack, or to avoid the appearance that we can’t cut it.

I am convinced this pressure, whether exerted by the pack, or self inflicted, has been the sole source of many motorcycle mishaps.  Face it, none of us desire to look inept in front of a group of our buddies.  So what can be done?

First the long term…

1.  Face reality!  Someone will always ride better than you!  So what?

2.  Practice!  Get alone in an out of the way area, and learn your limits, learn your bikes limits.

3.  Learn! Take a safety class with qualified instructors.  Or find a good rider and ask for some help.

4.  Limit group riding!  Don’t put yourself in situations where you feel that peer pressure.

Short term… “Before the ride!”

1.  Discuss!  Most ride leaders are sensitive to less skilled riders and should take that into consideration.

2.  Designate!  Select a place to meet after the ride.  Takes some pressure off.

3.  Self talk!  Remember it’s not a race, this is supposed to be fun!

4.  Monitor your gut! Ride within your limits.

I believe all riders should continually strive to be more skilled, and more educated cyclist’s. Yet each of us have to know, and ride within, our current riding limits.  Keeping up with the Joneses is never a good idea, especially if their riding sport bikes!

Keep The Rubber Side Down!

Tags: , MSF, sport bikes

Recently the MSF was asked…  “When riding two up, who should be responsible for the hand signals, the operator or the co-rider?”

MSF response… 

 ”Only the operator should make the hand signals.”  “It is the operator’s responsibility!” 

Reasons

1.   “A passenger cannot always anticipate what the operator will do that would require a hand signal.”
2.   “If the operator had to tell  the passenger to to give a particular signal, valuable time could be lost or the operator could lose attention to riding.”

Check out more signals here!

Tags: AMA, hand signals, MSF