Your Motorcycle CANNOT Fall Down(At any speed greater than 10 MPH)By: James R. Davis I have recently received a number of E-mails from new riders asking me to help them figure out how to deal with the fear they feel while riding at highway speeds and having to lean their bikes during turns. Invariably they tell me that they can't take those turns as fast as other riders do because they are afraid to lean [...]
How To Ride Over That Thing In The Road And survive the encounter By: James R. Davis Sooner or later you will find something in the road just ahead of you and you are going to hit it. Maybe a small animal. Possibly something that falls off of the vehicle in front of you. Maybe you have missed a curve and a curb is dead ahead. One of the exercises taught by the MSF includes [...]
Maiden Voyage Getting it home from the dealership By: James R. Davis I'd like to address the issue of what a newbie has to confront when he buys his first motorcycle and has no more experience than successfully completing the beginner's MSF class (if that!). What should he do to get that scoot home? Well, first, he should ask his dealer to deliver it. If that fails? If he has a friend who already rides, [...]
Fear Can Kill You Turn it into RESPECT By: James R. Davis Fear can kill you - it leads to riders freezing at their controls in an emergency and taking no corrective action whatever. It leads to doubts that are self-fulfilling. "I can't make that turn!" Finally, it leads to dangerous reactions such as 'grabbing a handful of brake lever' instead of doing a CONTROLLED panic stop.But we, ALL OF US, were afraid to begin [...]
By: James R. Davis You are out on the road and a headache begins. At the next stop you take some over-the-counter medicine to get rid of it. No problem with that, you think, especially because you're not taking any other medication nor have you been doing any drinking. An hour later you fail to negotiate a turn and end up hurt ... or dead. You have an abscessed tooth and your dentist prescribed a [...]
Running Late Take The CarBy: James R. Davis It's a beautiful day. Weather is perfect, traffic is light, you are home and need to get someplace ... soon. You are late. The bike is agile and you're sure you can get there faster on the bike than you can by taking the car. Don't. The last thing in the world you should consider doing is taking the bike in this scenario. That would be a [...]
Steering Your REAR wheel does it more often than not By: James R. Davis "Steer" - To direct the course of. When your motorcycle is stable in any course, whether in a straight line or in a curve, it is your rear wheel that is primarily responsible for maintaining that course and stability. Indeed, it's the job of your front wheel to DESTABILIZE the bike in order to change course. That is, your front wheel [...]
By: James R. Davis I was reflecting on an experience I had during my first MSF class (nearly 20 years ago) and remembered something that made a real difference for me - a time when I was not at all convinced that my (unfamiliar bike) would safely make an abrupt 90 degree turn at slow speed without dumping me to the ground. As a long term rider I didn't REALLY believe that the bike couldn't make it, it [...]
By: James R. Davis The other night I was discussing tires with a non-motorcyclist friend of mine. He is a bright attorney who is well schooled in physics and logic. Imagine my surprise when I learned that not only were a few tire facts not understood by him, but that most of my motorcyclist friends, whose lives depend in no small part on their knowledge of our sport, have the same blinders on. When I [...]
By: James R. Davis Throughout the set of articles I have written here there is a clear message, often repeated - you should practice, practice, practice. Having some confidence in the merits of the material that you have read here, I suspect that most of you accept the premise that practice is worthwhile because it tends to convert what is otherwise difficult to 'doable with some facility' (meaning that as a result of practice you [...]