Street Rider's Guide E-Book

David L. Hough

• Herausgeber: CompanionHouse Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 179

Beschreibung

A completely revised and updated edition of David Hough's successful book Street Strategies, the all-new Street Rider's Guide spells out safety tactics for motorcycle riders looking to get the most out of their favorite hobby…for as long as possible. Covering topics from A to Z, Street Rider's Guide is the new go-to handbook for motorcyclists who want quick solutions to nearly 100 commonly encountered obstacles and road challenges, what safety experts like Hough call increasing a rider's "situational awareness." As Hough writes in the introduction, "…the most important way to avoiding crashes is to figure out what's happening." While many books exist on the market for riders looking to improve their ride or get better control of their bikes, no book out there is dedicated to helping riders develop their situational awareness, which is the most critical skill a rider can have.INSIDE STREET RIDER'S GUIDEAlphabetically arranged topics from "Alley Acumen" to "Zone Woes"Short descriptions of over 80 critical situations selected by the authorExpert tips about how to recognize oncoming hazards and how to avoid themEach entry accompanied by a color photograph to illustrate real-life situation

Leseprobe

Street Rider’s Guide

Project Team

Editor: Andrew DePrisco

Copy Editor: Joann Woy

Design: Mary Ann Kahn

i-5 PUBLISHING, LLCTM

Chief Executive Officer: Mark Harris

Chief Financial Officer: Nicole Fabian

Vice President, Chief Content Officer: June Kikuchi

General Manager, i-5 Press: Christopher Reggio

Art Director, i-5 Press: Mary Ann Kahn

Vice President, General Manager Digital: Jennifer Black

Production Director: Laurie Panaggio

Production Manager: Jessica Jaensch

Marketing Director: Lisa MacDonald

Copyright © 2014 by i-5 Publishing, LLCTM

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of I-5 PressTM, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hough, David L., 1937- author.

Street rider’s guide : street strategies for motorcylists / by David L. Hough.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-62008-132-7 (alk. paper)

1. Motorcycling--Safety measures. 2. Motorcycling accidents--Prevention. I. Title. II. Title: Street rider’s guide : street strategies for motorcyclists.

TL440.5.H67225 2014

629.28’475--dc23

2014015346

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62008-172-3

This book has been published with the intent to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter within. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the author and publisher expressly disclaim any responsibility for any errors, omissions, or adverse effects arising from the use or application of the information contained herein.

i-5 Publishing, LLC™

3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618

www.facebook.com/i5press

www.i5publishing.com

Foreword

Riding a motorcycle skillfully has been compared with the difficulty of piloting a helicopter; there are so many unique controls to master. For instance, braking typically requires the rider to use both a hand lever and a foot pedal, rather than simply stepping on a brake pedal as in a car. And to make matters more complicated, a motorcycle, with its relatively tiny tire contact patches, can transfer so much weight forward under hard braking that properly balancing the applied front and rear brake pressures can be very difficult under the best of circumstances, and can test the skills of the most experienced riders on slippery surfaces. Oh, and rolling on throttle and squeezing the front brake will often need to be combined smoothly when downshifting, another trick of manual dexterity and careful judgment to master.

The same goes for acceleration. As the average motorcycle has the power-to-weight ratio of a race car, but without the traction of four wide wheels, it’s also easy to overpower the rear wheel, causing a variety of unplanned events. With a manual clutch, taking off from a stop demands a balance of engine power and clutch slip to master smoothly. Additionally, starting off from a hill will require balancing the bike at a standstill with one foot while simultaneously engaging the rear brake—again a unique combination of skills—and both are a big part of why manual transmissions have nearly disappeared from automobiles.

With all that, the most difficult part of motorcycling to master is steering, or rather countersteering, the uniquely counterintuitive method by which a motorcycle is most efficiently directed through corners. The number of riders that never properly master this technique is probably very large, although it has never been measured to my knowledge. But the failure to negotiate a corner is given as the cause for a high percentage of motorcycle crashes.

Given this level of difficulty, those who do master these control skills to the degree that they can all be done in combination without conscious effort will often find motorcycling the most satisfying experience of their lives. Some even feel it has a mystical or spiritual aspect, as it seems to magically integrate the body and mind into a state of flowing movement.

However, even at this level of mastery, a rider is not yet safe on the road. Even proper riding gear is no insurance against injury in a collision between a motorcyclist and heavy steel vehicles or hard stationary objects. Sharing the road with cars and trucks, a motorcycle is fragile and hard to see, even when drivers are not distracted or otherwise impaired. And conspicuity, the art of making oneself highly visible to other road users, is not enough, either.

The final key to safety is an encyclopedic knowledge of potential road hazards and a full-time situational awareness of how common traffic situations can harbor hidden traps for a motorcyclist. This is the gift that David Hough’s latest book is meant to deliver—brief insights into the most common safety hazards and how to avoid them, bite-sized and easy to digest.

As the Editor-in-Chief of Motorcycle Consumer News for almost 15 years, America’s only 100% subscriber-supported, advertising-free, nationwide monthly motorcycle magazine, the opportunity to communicate with so many committed enthusiasts has been my greatest enjoyment. And when I’d get a letter that shared how one of David’s “Proficient Motorcycling” or “Street Strategies” columns had literally saved a reader’s life that day, nothing could be more gratifying.

Take these stories to heart and re-read them occasionally. Keep them fresh, in the forefront of your riding decisions, and while you may never be inspired to write a note of thanks for their lessons, I can’t imagine that you won’t be a better, safer rider for having read this book.

Cheers,

Dave Searle,

Editor-in-Chief, Motorcycle Consumer News

Introduction

Your Road to a Million Crash-free Miles

I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to help street riders manage the risks of motorcycling. It doesn’t take very long riding in traffic to understand that survival on a motorcycle is going to require a big bag of riding skills. With more than a million miles of riding in North America and on other continents over the past five decades, I’ve experienced a lot of different conditions and hazards that have caused serious motorcycle crashes. And I’ve seen many more that I recognize could cause a crash to an inattentive rider. When possible, I’ll stop and take a photo of a hazard so that I can better illustrate the problem. Based on my riding experiences, I’ve generated hundreds of safety columns for various motorcycle magazines and written several books, most notably Proficient Motorcycling. Since Street Rider’s Guide is intended to help you survive the ride, I want to introduce it with an explanation. It’s going to be a bit of a bumpy ride, so hang with me here. Take a break if you need to and then come back.

If you took a basic rider training course, you may have thought that you got a decent introduction to motorcycling, but it’s a fantasy to believe that anyone can learn how to ride a bike and survive traffic and surface hazards in two short days. Lots of new riders get their licenses after just one weekend of riding around a parking lot on a training bike. It should be no surprise that lots of new riders have nasty crashes out on public roads.

The first lesson about motorcycling is that it’s a lot more dangerous than you might have realized. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2001 and 2008 in the United States, more than 1.2 million motorcyclists were treated in hospitals for serious injuries, and more than 34,000 died. In the same time frame, crash-related deaths involving cars and light trucks dropped to an all-time low. Motorcycles are only about 4 percent of vehicles on the road, but we rack up about 30 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities.

So, why hasn’t rider training had an effect on bringing down the fatality and injury numbers? Rider training was set up in the early 1980s to help new motorcyclists get a quick introduction to the sport. Training seems like a commonsense way to make motorcycling safer, and it did work until around 1997. But, since then, training has morphed from learning to ride a bike skillfully into an easy way to get a motorcycle license. The focus in rider training today is on getting more riders licensed as quickly and as easily as possible. The result of hundreds of thousands of people getting trained and licensed every year is that fatalities have risen to frighteningly high levels, and the fatality rate for motorcyclists is much higher than the rate for other motor vehicle operators.

If you’re an average motorcyclist, you are right around 30 times more likely to die when you are riding a motorcycle than when you are driving a car. That’s not 30 percent higher, that’s 30 times more dangerous!

That’s the dark side of rider training in the United States. Training introduces lots of people to motorcycling, including too many motorcyclist “wannabes” who just aren’t motivated to absorb what they need to survive. It’s very hard for instructors and rider coaches to accept the results. When you are putting your heart and soul into rider training, it’s heartbreaking to come to the awareness that you might be hurting more than you’re helping.

We call this field “motorcycle safety,” but we should really call it “motorcycle danger.” What I try to do is counsel riders to reduce their personal dangers as much as possible. And I know that, with serious attention, it’s possible to manage the dangers very well. One of my BMW friends, Voni Glaves, has ridden more than a million miles—without a single crash. I wish I could say the same. Most of us experience one or more injurious crashes during our riding career.

If you’re not really serious about motorcycling, consider giving it up. I’m not joking about this. Motorcycling requires full and complete attention. If you’re not willing to commit to lifelong study and practice, maybe some other activity would be just as much fun without all the danger. I know, you’ve seen lots of people riding motorcycles who don’t appear to be very concerned about the danger. But then, there are lots of ex-motorcyclists limping around with permanent injuries, not to mention the many who are no longer with us.

If you think you have the right attitude to become a proficient motorcyclist, it’s going to be hard work from here on out. You need to continually practice control skills until you can put the bike exactly where you want it to go without any wasted time or thought. Then you must learn how to spot trouble developing so you can get out of the way.

Let’s follow a fictitious rider we’ll call “Biker Bob.” Biker Bob may be fictitious, but he exhibits a lot of traits shared by many real-life riders. Bob started riding a couple of years ago, but hasn’t really done anything to improve his skills or knowledge. He just goes riding and assumes that he’ll eventually figure it out. One day, Bob rounds a blind corner at 40 mph and is shocked to realize that the pavement is tightening up into a decreasing radius. Bob tries to lean the bike further but just can’t stay with the pavement. The bike sails off the road and smacks into a big rock. While Bob is healing and his bike is being repaired, he decides he should take a track course to jack up his cornering skills.

Back on the road again after the track school, Bob marvels at how much easier it is to corner once you master a few skills such as countersteering, following “bike” cornering lines, and sneaking on the throttle during the turn-in. Six months later, Bob is zipping smartly around a blind turn at 60 mph and is startled to see a truck on its side, blocking both lanes. Before Bob can get the bike slowed, he crashes into the truck. What went wrong here? Why didn’t increased cornering skill translate into avoiding the second crash?

The answer is that Bob’s crashes were mostly a result of poor mental skills, not inadequate control skills. Training Bob to corner faster helped him to have more fun, but his basic problem was poor situational awareness. He just didn’t know how to look ahead, how to think about what’s not yet in view, or how to link speed to sight distance.

It’s essential that a motorcyclist learn the physical skills to control such things as balancing, turning, shifting, and braking. There are more than a few riders around who demonstrate their embarrassing lack of skill by dragging their boots on the pavement or paddle walking the bike around in a U-turn in a desperate attempt to keep the bike from falling. I’ve seen lots of riders banging down repeatedly on the shift lever because they don’t know how to shift smoothly and quietly. Lots of riders follow a “car” line through corners, wasting traction. But poor control skills don’t necessarily result in more frequent crashes, especially those that are a result of poor situational awareness. The important message is that you need to figure out how to control the situation as well as the bike.

One big part of controlling the situation is to learn how to look. You need to get your eyes up and reaching out well ahead of the bike, like a fly fisherman casting a line way out into the river and reeling it back in. For a motorcyclist, it’s not simply a matter of casting focus out and back, but of scrutinizing the situation for specific hazards, such as loose gravel, an oncoming car that could turn left across your path, or a bicyclist who might cause a driver to swerve across the centerline. The farther ahead you can spot a problem, the more time you have to deal with it. There is no point in looking down at the ground a few feet in front of the bike because that’s already history. No one can react instantly. When you’re riding along at 60 mph, you’re covering 88 feet per second. It takes a second or so to react to what you see, so there’s really nothing you can do about the next 88 feet. Successful riders learn to scrutinize the situation way ahead of the bike.

It’s not just a matter of a hazard being in front of the bike, but anything around you that could cause you harm. That includes vehicles changing lanes or coming up behind you. The story goes that a motorcyclist was riding home from work and stopped for a red light. A car driver was going the same way, several seconds behind the motorcyclist. The car driver failed to notice the red light or the stopped motorcycle and smashed into the bike without slowing. The motorcyclist died. The woman driving the car was found to have been painting her nails while driving. The lesson here is that, even if you are obeying the laws and not even moving, you can’t afford to turn off your “mental radar.”

Likewise, you need to comprehend trouble spots even when you can’t see another vehicle intruding. For example, alleyways are almost as dangerous as intersections and more likely to result in fatal collisions. You need to be motivated to think about what might happen if a car zooms out of a narrow alley into your path. Maybe it would help to ease on a little front brake to slow down or to move over to the left side of your lane. Nine times out of ten, there won’t be a car emerging from an alley. But if a car does appear, you’ll be ready.

The point here is that it’s not enough to be on high alert waiting for something bad to happen and then reacting to the emergency. You need to use your brainpower to predict what might happen, so that you can position yourself to avoid possible hazards, whether it’s a car behind you zooming out of a parking lot, a diesel oil spill, or a missing manhole cover.

I’ve offered a number of “unbelievable” scenarios at different seminars and training courses over the years, and none of them ever turned out to be as fictional as I had imagined. A few years ago, I was giving a presentation at a big motorcycle event in Minneapolis. My topic was deciding on emergency actions to avoid hazards. “Here you are, riding down the freeway near Minneapolis, when suddenly you spot an elephant escaped from the zoo and lumbering across the highway. What would you do? Brake? Swerve? Accelerate? Open a bag of peanuts?”

I thought I was offering a ridiculous situation that might stimulate some dialogue about the different evasive tactics we might use, with a little humor thrown in to entertain the audience. After the seminar, a rider came up to talk with me.“Dave, you’re not going to believe this, but last year an elephant did escape from the zoo and tried to cross the freeway.”

I eventually learned that there is such a wide array of hazards lurking out there that you must keep your mental radar looking for anything. I can assure you that there is no limit to the hazards you will find out in motorcycle land once you start looking and thinking. Whatever the situation, you must figure out what’s happening and avoid getting caught up in the problem.

To help you on your journey toward getting really observant about the riding situation, I’ve assembled some common crash scenarios into this handbook. Don’t feel that you have to read this in any specific order. Take it along with you on your rides, and pop it open to any page while you’re taking a break. You’ll probably encounter some of these dangers regularly, but don’t be surprised when one of the less likely scenarios happens right in front of you. And you can chuckle to yourself, “Dave, you’re not going to believe this, but…”

Remembering some of these strategies might just save you from a nasty crash. I hope that thinking about the scenarios in this handbook will help you on your quest to spot hazards for yourself. Maybe you can top a million crash-free miles!

David L. Hough

Alien Asphalt

The best clue about surface hazards is a change in color or texture.

You’re out for a ride with some buddies and, at the moment, you’re leading the group. The weather has been sunny and warm, and you’re pleased that there’s almost no traffic on the back roads you’re following. You see what appears to be new paving ahead, but there aren’t any orange construction signs warning you of a serious hazard. Something about the situation spooks you a bit, but you don’t want to be seen as overly cautious, so you maintain speed.

But just as your front tire rolls onto the darker surface, steering gets funny and the bike starts plowing from side to side. You realize the new asphalt is very soft, allowing your tires to sink in. You roll off the throttle and stab at the rear brake pedal to warn the riders behind you, but it’s too late. Your front tire digs into the berm of soft asphalt at the center of the lane, and the bike veers toward the ditch. You barely manage to stop in the deep gravel at the side of the new paving without dropping the bike. The next rider isn’t so lucky. His bike wiggles around and then muddles into the gravel berm and crashes on its side. The next rider in line attempts to brake quickly enough to stop short of the soft pavement but is rear-ended and knocked down. It’s a disaster.

Road maintenance doesn’t always work out as planned. Sometimes the asphalt mix comes out very soft or oily and doesn’t bond together well enough to roll down firm and smooth. In this situation, the asphalt might eventually pack down under the weight of passing vehicles, but at the moment, it’s like soft gravel coated with slippery black oil. If you had looked a bit more carefully, you might have noticed the loose gravel pushed to the sides of the wheel tracks, hinting that perhaps the surface is not as firm as it may appear. You might want to blame the road crew for leaving such a mess, but a big part of your job is to maintain your awareness of the situation and not be surprised by surface hazards.

You know what the surface is like under your tires at the moment because you can feel it. When you see a change in the color or texture of the surface ahead, be suspicious and reduce your speed until you can determine the feel and makeup of the new surface.

Alley Acumen

Alleys are intersections, too.

You’re riding home from the hardware store with some fasteners you need to complete a project. You know about the danger of intersections, where other drivers often make sudden turns. You just passed through a busy intersection without incident, so you’re mentally relaxing until you get to the next intersection and mulling over your purchase of the 10 mm stainless steel bolts, hoping they are the right length.

Just as the car ahead of you passes an alley, an SUV suddenly begins to pull out. You’re startled, but manage to swerve left and avoid a crash. Now you’re shaking from the near collision, wondering what you might have done better to avoid the scare.