Springtime is coming!! Time to relearn......

Reading a different thread this morning where one of our members reported he had crashed reminded me of something. First, it takes a good bit of humility to admit that you’ve crashed; especially when it’s your own fault so kudos to Mirco for posting. His post reminded me that some of us aren’t used to performing a lot of the skills that we take for granted since we use them so often in a day to day riding.

Every spring, we (motorcyclists) have a huge increase in crashes. Some of them are minor as his was, some of them are deadly. Now we all know that we cannot eliminate all the reasons and causes for crashing but each of us also knows that the more we are able to minimize those causes, the brighter our future will be.

The point that I’m taking the long and winding road to get to is that a lot of riders do not ride year round. Come Springtime, they typically haven’t ridden in anywhere from three to 5 months, depending on how brutally cold and snowy your winters are where you live. I usually ride all year and own all the gear to ride in the winter. I usually get out several times a week during the winter for rides or trips anywhere from 5 miles to 100.

This year was different though so I’m in that same group. I thought of this last weekend as I started each of the bikes in the garage and checked each of their brakes, lubed cables and chains etc. to keep them ready……like many of us, I’m out of practice!!

It was very apparent when I moved a couple of them around to make some room for the turbo to come out of the shop and into the garage. Those bikes had all gained weight!! I suppose they could have been eating like pigs over the holidays or more likely, my muscles are simply not used to handling the weight of a motorcycle. Maybe some of the younger guys are different but I’d venture to guess that if anyone who hasn’t ridden for a couple of months goes out to their bike, knocks the side stand up and leans it over 30 degrees, is in for a surprise over how much weight their bike has gained too!

Yeah, I might have lots of grey hair and have ridden for zillions of miles, but the last time I really rode any miles was in November. I had planned to take a 400 mile trip when I took Christmas week off but I got so buried in bringing my turbo back to life that the trip got cancelled. Our skills erode without use. We can’t expect to be as comfortable flinging our 400-500 pound machines around when we haven’t lifted anything weighing over 100 pounds for 3 or more months.

Basically, I need to “practice time”, some saddle time practicing all the fundamental skills that have kept me alive till now. You know what I’m talking about, the skills that you don’t and can’t practice while driving a car. The most important ones for me are greasing my neck joints so I can keep my head on a swivel, reading the road, braking (low and high speed) and slow speed (walking pace) turning and of course, cornering.

I guess that his thread was a wakeup call to me since I’m usually not in the “haven’t ridden in a while” group…well this Spring I am, so I need to do some remedial riding to get up to speed before I get up to speed. I mean that literally, it’s best to practice these skills before you turn up the speed and find yourself in over your PRESENT skills.

Good luck and safe riding……

jeff

 

Good advice Jeff.

I'm fortunate that my shop (where the bike lives) is very near a riverside park that has 20 miles of a limited access road winding through it. I try and get my first couple rides in there to get the muscle memory back.

It needs to be done early though. Once it gets above 40 the lady joggers will overwork the neck swivel.

Also, lots of North American roads that normally don't have salt and sand on them this year. Gotta really watch out for that until there are a couple good rains.

On another forum someone posted a helmet cam video. Rider was on a dry road with melting snow on the sides. He came to a spot where some melt water was running across the road. Turned out that water had frozen with a not pretty result.

 

If you can remember, post the link. A good visual reminder can speak volumes compared to the written word.

 

Ask and ye shall receive.

The crash is at about 1:40.


Video

 

VERY good advice.

I always wait until I have a hundred or two "rural" miles under my belt in the spring before I'm ready to take on Detroit commuting.

 

I've having lunch today with a buddy a few blocks from the shop. I think I'll take the bike.

It'll be the first time I've been able to ride a snowmobile and a bike out the front door in the same week. Can't miss the opportunity.

 

Thanks for the link, really brings home the reality of "Enjoying" the sickness (motorcycle riding). It can happen to the best and the worst riders out there and goes to show that no matter how good you are, how long you've been riding, etc you will get a bite in the a$$ eventually.
Got to feel sorry for the guy though, just out for a ride and WHAM!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, it kinda made me sick... Luckily us californian's dont get those conditions very often where I'm at but definently will be aware when in area's with snow on the sides of the road.

Looking at that video... is there a correct way to approach that situations? Like, someone's waving at you saying "ICE ICE ICE" do you turn around? Try to cross slowly and straight?

I've only driven on snow twice in my life with a car, so on a bike I can honestly say I'm a snow/ice virgin... Hell, I just popped my rain cherry the other night

 

In a word, NO.
Just looking at the vid from the riders perspective, it looks just like melted snow running across the road and making what looks like a big wet patch.
The rider had no warning that there was ice there. Just one of those things that jump up and bite you, like a small or large animal running across the road, or people turning into your lane etc.
$hit happens and some times you walk away, other times you get a ride...

 

he had no idea what it was and he never even tried to slow down, either he wasn't paying attention or he wasn't thinking, at least he wasn't going fast
he's lucky

 

Hey ... that looked just like me the other morning!!!! Oh my gosh ... I can sure relate!! It happened to me just that fast and just that easy and I was just as happy-go-lucky as the Victory rider in the video just moments before the mishap. It's amazing how quickly your world can change!

If I could give you all my blessing, it would be that you would be safe and that you would never have a mishap while on your bikes. But God's ways are not our ways. We just never know what's in store for us.

It's just over a year since we lost Bill Schmidt. He had plenty of experience and was a seasoned veteran. Ride safe and trust in God!

 

That kind of ice is almost impossible to even walk on. The only reason it wouldn't be an issue for cagers is it's narrow enough to get traction before sliding off the road (assuming you didn't roll when you hit the dry pavement).

 

It looked to me like he must've hit the front brake to start the skid.
I've ridden over ice patches and as long as you keep the wheel straight and down make any evasive manuvers, you should go across without the bike sliding. I always have to go across a few patches of ice every spring time to get out to the main road here. I just keep it straight and go slow to ride across it.

 

Perfect timing Jeff. After one of the coldest winters here in a long time we finally get some temps near 70. Everyone seems to be taking advantage of it. Fortunately our local sherrifs departmant hasn't reported any serious mishaps yet. It's especially important for those of us who have the more powerful bikes (like TURBOs ) to get a little 'refamiliration' time. If we have more than one bike it's a good idea to start with the one that's more forgiving of our "not quite up to speed yet' skills. Then there's the cagers who for the past X weeks or months haven't given a thought to us being where they don't expect us to be (like they do anyway). And then there's the GRAVEL they put down here at the first hint of ice. When I lived in Anchorage AK they used real sand. In Redmond OR they used crushed lava rock. Here in GA it's more like pea gravel. That can put a hurt on ya real quick! They usually don't sweep it off when the weather gets better either. They just let the cars and rain beat it off to the side.