PHIL FROGS BIKING TIPS OR HOW TO STAY ALIVE A LITTLE LONGER AND KEEP YOUR BIKE

PHIL FROGS BIKING TIPS

OR

HOW TO STAY ALIVE A LITTLE LONGER AND KEEP YOUR BIKE SAFE.

( Disclaimer, these tips are taken from my own riding experience, and I’m still alive, so they worked for me, take notice or ignore them, your choice, your life ).

( Photo 1 ) . This is not how to use your front brake correctly

Tip 1.

SECURITY MEASURES

Security Measure are very important and should not be neglected, there are some very skillful thieves out there hiding in the shadows and are very determined to obtain your bike in one way or another, motorbikes nowa days are worth a lot of money as a unit or as spare parts, there are also the opportunist bottom feeders that if the bike is not locked up securely, would take you bike for a joy ride and leave it as a burnt lump of scrap when they have finished having their fun with it.

Some new bikers are so naïve that they think that the factory fitted steering lock will prevent the bike being stolen, which in reality, the steering lock is as useless as a ( Chocolate Kettle ) and would take seconds for the lock to be broken with minimal amount of brute force, and the bike ridden or wheeled silently away, never to be seen again.

Having your bike stolen is very inconvenient for the rider, and upsetting, and looking at the bigger picture, bike thefts increase the insurance premiums for everyone else.

A couple of cheap and effective security measures are Disc locks and two or more ground anchors with some heavy-duty chains, it will not prevent the skilled thief from cutting the chains with a bolt cutter, but it would discourage the opportunist thief.

If you can afford it, invest in a bike alarm, it may piss your neighbours off if the alarm goes now and again, but the alarm may save your bike from being nicked.

Always try and remember you have a disc lock fitted to your bike, or you may end up doing the dying fly on your back with the bike laying on its side, it's easy to forget, I know this from experience, I once forgot I had the disc lock fitted and tried to ride off in front of around two hundred of my fellow Sony workers after a 12-hour shift, embarrassing is not the word for it.

I did have a bright yellow plastic coil looped around my handle bars and then down to the disc lock, somehow I missed the yellow warning that the coil was there for, even though it was wrapped around my throttle, it is possible to damage the caliper and maybe damage the bike a little, if you forget to remove the lock, the embarrassment is easily fixed, don’t take your helmet off nobody will see you cringing behind the helmets visor.

Tip 2.

TAKE YOUR TIME

If you are riding in a group, ride at your own pace, a pace that you feel comfortable with, you may see other riders disappearing into the distance,, and laying their bike over hard in a bend like they do on the race tack, that’s them not you, if you don’t want to ride fast take your time, if the others won't wait for you, their not your friends anyway, and let them ride away, A and B roads are not race tracks.

In the past I have kept up with others in a group, but I had enough commonsense to ride to my ability, and not past it, we are not all skilled riders of the likes of Barry Sheen.

( Photo 2 ) . Some alarms work better than others.

Tip 3.

USE YOUR BRAKES Correctly.

The internet is bursting at the seams with idiots going arse over tit, by applying their front brake at the wrong time and places, and to forcibly for the speed that they are travelling at, never try using your front brake while you are banking or leaning over into a corner, or as you approach a road junction, if you spot there is a large amount of road gravel scattered across a junction, do not use your front brake, using your front brake at these times will only spell disaster.

Over my forty odd years of riding experience, I found that being aware of where you are on the road and reading the road ahead of you tells you when to brake safely, I always apply my back brake and throttle off at the same time and only use my front brake to control a slow stop, this has always worked for me, judging distance is important especially on a large cc bike.

Emergency stops, they different, if you got to stop, you got to stop, slower the better, just try not to hit anything hard.

In any circumstances never grab the front brake hard, squeeze it slowly to help you slow down, don’t forget you have two sets of brakes and engine stopping, drop down through the gears when your speed drops and your engine does not protest, doing this with a closed throttle will help enormously and it may give you that edge in a dangerous braking situation, stay in control.

Tip 4.

WINTER RIDING.

Riding in winter is uncomfortable, difficult and dangerous, forty, even twenty years ago there were only two items of clothing that did a reasonable of job of keeping the wet and cold out, and these two essential winter clothes were a wax cotton jacket, and workman’s yellow plastic leggings, both these items did the job of keeping the rain and road spray from soaking you to the skin, keeping warm was another story, a collection of thick jumpers worn on top of each other, a body warmer like Mcfly wore in the Back to the Future Films, again worn under the jacket, and in real cold conditions a hot water bottle, it kept you warm for a short while.

I have never found a pair of gloves that have lived up to the ( warm and waterproof ) label, maybe modern gloves are an improvement on the old ones, there have been great strides in winter biking gear over the years, heated handle bars, heated gloves and heated body warms to name just a few, nowa days I believe Gore-Tex clothing have sorted the staying dry issue.

Weather and road conditions in the winter are treacherous and your riding style as to change to suit the conditions, longer braking distances, avoiding white lines and man-hole covers is a must, and if your late going somewhere, be late, its better than not getting there at all.

Tip 6.

Have they seen you.

Always make eye contact with another road users if possible, just because you can see them, it does not mean they can see you, always be cautious of children on the pavements, you never know when they decide to cross over the road.

Junctions, these are major hazard areas for bikers, if you can’t see a car diver looking at you while he is waiting to pull out on the main road, never assume he or she has seen you, check your speed a little and sound your horn if necessary to draw the driver's attention to you, if you hit him it's you taking a ride in the ambulance not the car driver.

Some bikers wear a Hi-Vis jackets to be seen by other road users, on a busy street you are invisible to most road users, there could be many reasons for this, blind spots in their mirrors, too much traffic, generally a driver is not looking out for bikers, or they are distracted by their hands-free phone call, or listening to their favorite song on the radio, or have a shed full of kids in car, they are all distractions to the road, always assume they can't see you, you may live a little longer.

( Photo 3 ) . The reality of a motorcycle accident.