Archive for the ‘Amateur Tips’ Category

Commuter Tips for Motorcycles

Posted on: December 21st, 2014 by chadman No Comments

How to get to work in one piece!

  1. Obey the golden driving rule: Ride and/or drive unto others as you’d have them drive around you!
    So, if you don’t like having that BMW cut across the doubles in between the bikes in your wolfpack, don’t do the same thing to all the Audis trying to get to work on time on the 405 during rush hour.
  2. Get a tall ADV bike so you can see over traffic, or
  3. Get a loud Harley bike, because people actually like Harleys and will make room for you when you split traffic
  4. Add aux lighting to your bike so you stand out more. Just don’t blind people with them
  5. Get an aftermarket horn. Sometimes you’ll need it and most OEM horns are worthless
  6. Don’t ride in a hurry. That’s how you go too fast and get yourself in trouble
  7. If you’re in California or, well, in any other country besides the US, lane-share smart. Follow the CHP (or your local) guidelines
  8. Have enough gas to get where you’re going
  9. Reflective stuff helps at night. Dayglow may or may not help. Some people think it turns you into a target fixation item
  10. Please don’t run your hi-beams during the day or night. Pissed off cagers will be out to get us – except maybe when you’re lane sharing
  11. If you’re stuck in traffic or lane sharing and get pinched off, just wait. An opening in traffic always comes. Better to wait a few moments than to crack a few mirrors
  12. If you’re going to listen to something during your commute, make it something calming so you’re not encouraged to speed
  13. …and don’t listen to audio too loud because you want to hear what’s going on around you
  14. Watch out for cabbies and commercial vehicles. Their passengers are more important than you, the driver has no idea where he’s going, and he’ll suddenly dart across 3 lanes (and your bike) while reading Waze on his phone. Be warned

Motorcycle tips nobody will tell you

Posted on: October 3rd, 2011 by Twistypedia No Comments

Trim your eyebrows.
Nothing is worse than tilting your head down to block the sun with the top of your helmet and having to look through your bushy eyebrows to see where you’re going.

Practice good parking mojo.
Don’t invite cars into your parking space by hiding all the way at the front of the space. Park with the back of your bike even with the ends of the cars in the row so prospective parkers can see that the space is filled.

Baby wipes are the bomb
If you’re going on any kind of “adventure” ride baby wipes makes a great and easy to pack universal cleaning tool.

Tuck in your laces
If you’re wearing street shoes or boots, tuck the laces into the top of the boot so they don’t get snagged on the foot controls or pegs as you go to put your feet down.

Can you see me now?

Posted on: September 28th, 2011 by chadman No Comments

In an attempt to be more conspicuous, I changed out the headlight bulbs on the FZR. The fuzzer runs some old style H4 35/35 bulbs, which barely any motorcycles use anymore, but the bulbs are popular with European scooters, so they’re not too hard to find on eBay. If I was planning on doing much riding at night, I’d probably just stick with the stock bulbs – they seem to be brighter – but since most, if not all, of my riding will be done during the day, I’m hoping the different color temperatures of the new bulbs will help me stick up to oncoming drivers just a bit more.

Here's the standard 35/35 bulbs

And here's the hyper white on the left and hyper purple on the right