Tolar Stroll - August 1, 2021 @ 7:30 AM
Hello
May is Motorcycle Awareness Month
While everyone should be looking out for motorcyclists, May is the "official" month for Motorcycle Awareness. Click the button below to read some additional safety tips and guidance as well as finding opportunities to improve your riding skills...for free!
Tools of the Trade...or the Open Road
The day started off like any other. Kris and I were meeting a friend to go out for a nice relaxing ride around the area. With the route planned and laid out on my Rever (you know me and how often I get lost even with GPS and maps!), we set out. Around Bear Creek Road, I looked down and saw my battery light on. "Oh great..." I thought. Easing into a corner, rolling off the throttle, the bike died.
Pulling over to as safe a spot as we could find at the time, it was then that I realized...I left ALL of my normal tools back in the other bike (we were on our Heritages). So, this would be a good lesson in the importance of carrying tools with you! What you see above is typically what we carry with us at all times; this assortment can pretty much help you mechanically for all sorts of issues and, with some creative thinking, even allow you to make quick repairs on the fly to at least get you back somewhere to get the real work done. So, what do we normally carry?
Left to Right
- Ratchet and Sockets - 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 and, of course, a 10mm
- Torx and Allen Wrenches - T20, T25, T27, and 5/16 and 7/16
- Crescent Wrenches - Large and small
- Allen Wrench set (for anything else the above won't fit or helping someone on a metric)
- Kickstand Spring - Note: I've removed my kickstand spring and have replaced with Neodymium Bar Magnets.
- Wrenches - 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 and, of course, a 10mm
- Kickstand Spring Puller (between wrenches and channel locks)
- Channel locks - Interestingly, you can use these as a makeshift shift lever or clutch lever!
- Ratcheting screwdriver set
- Pass-thru Ratchet - for working on the clutch basket
- Zip ties - never leave home without them!
Other Tools
- You can also pick up something like the min-set shown here. It contains pretty much all of the small tools you would need to tighten loose things or loosen tight things.
- Battery Jumper - There's ALL brands out there. This one I picked up on Amazon for around $40. I now carry a heavy-duty NOCO Boost (around $100 on Amazon)
- Portable Air Inflator (pictured in main image, far right) - This plugs right into your "pig tail" off your battery and provides a quick means to throw some air into your or your buddie's tires.
Safe Riding
Blind Spots
Braking Distance
Braking Distance
Common blind spots in a car.
Temperature Safety Tips
Clothing/Layering
Clothing/Layering
Clothing/Layering
- Check the forecast. Sounds silly, but knowing what’s ahead as far as weather is concerned will help you dress appropriately.
- Dress in layers, especially when the mornings are cool (or downright COLD) and the afternoons warm up. We’ve seen 40 degree temperature variations over a normal ride!
- Pack your rain gear. While rain gear is designed to protect you from rain, it can also act as another layer of protection and warmth.
- Keep your hands and feet warm and dry!
Tires
Clothing/Layering
Clothing/Layering
- Every 10 degrees in temperature change results in about a 1 pound change in your tire’s pressure. When it cools down, you will lose pressure; when it heats up, you will actually gain pressure. Even checking your pressure one afternoon and coming out the next morning can result in a 3-5 lb loss.
- Also, your tires lose pressure over time. Every 30 days, you can expect to see, in average temperatures, a loss of about 1-2 lbs in your tires.
- Underinflated tires result in poor handling as well as excessive damage to the tires themselves.
- Overinflated tires result in hard rides and decreases the tire’s ability to withstand road impacts.
Batteries
Clothing/Layering
Batteries
- The ideal temperature for your batteries operation is 80 degrees F.
- Cold weather affects the chemical reactions in your battery causing a “sluggish” performance. That’s why we look for batteries with a high Cold Cranking Amp (CCA) output.
- You also lose about 0.5-1.0% of the batteries overall charge every day they sit “idle” (not being used). If you have advanced electronics like alarms or accessories, they will drain even faster. If you have a trickle charger, put it on and keep it on if you ride your bike less than once per week.
Lighting
"I didn't see them!"
How often have those words been uttered after a motorcycle-car incident? How often have you been riding down the road at night and not seen something in the road, or have something "pop" up on you from the sides?
One of the most important things you can easily do yourself is upgrade your lights. The image above shows a general comparison between stock lighting (on the right) and LED lighting (on the left).
In the past, this upgrade could get quite costly, especially for touring bikes with auxiliary or passing lights. Replacing all three front lights could cost you over $800...in the past. With recent advancements and mass production (due to increased demand), this upgrade is now a LOT more reasonable and you can easily pick up all three for under $150. And the majority of these setups are a plug-and-play installation.
I can attest to the effectiveness of these. Coming back from a trip to Austin, and riding at night, Kris and I went thru some iffy roads, including hitting a pothole - a LARGE pothole - that "snuck" up me because I couldn't see it with the stock lights. It was at that point that I decided to upgrade our lights, no matter the cost. And we've never been disappointed. As a matter of fact, the first thing we have done on all of the bikes in our garage is to buy LED headlights and passing lamps (if needed).
The difference is literally night and day, and the LEDs punch through the dark as well as providing excellent visibility during the day and the tricky sunrise/sunset situations.
- James