Newbie Page 
I love this pic! check the strip coming from the front tire! this is just how it was done back in the day!
This is the newbie page. I have added this page as sort of a catch all for tidbits that I come across that I want to chat about.And since any smart newbie should take rider training I will also give my take on some of the things that are being taught at motorcycle safety schools. I should add that this is all just my opinion, much of it is in direct opposition to what is taught in most riding schools and I only put it into cyberspace for you to think about. You must make all riding decisions for yourself (in a split second often enough) so don't trust anyone's opinion without question!
Calamari Safari. (My term for a Squid group ride) Most people sooner or later find themselves riding in a group. My advice would be to ride at the back until you learn whether you can trust each of the riders ahead of you. If you are at the back you have a good chance of reacting to the antics of the potential squids ahead of you. I remember hearing of a group that had 2 members feel the need to show off to a school bus that was in the next lane, the lead rider did a rolling stoppie at the very same time the last guy in the group did a wheelie and the three guys in the middle were the meat in the bike sandwich. Sure, if you are last on the latest and greatest bike the others may bug you about being slow on such a fast bike.If you can't handle that, then I would say you have a bigger problem.
If you are in the middle then you make yourself a target for the people behind you that may screw up the brakes or go in too hot for the turn and deposit you into the roadside rubbish. Plus, if someone goes down ahead of you or brakes super early, you may need to get a 2 for 1 bodywork repair price at a good shop. Keep in mind that sportriders are as a group, a fairly competitive bunch and every bike behind you may want to race for position.
If you can't be at the back, the front is the next place to be. If you want to go fast and have greater skills than the rest of the group, this is where you should be because you can just clear off. Other benefits of the lead rider position are the increased visability since there aren't any bike ahead of you to impede your line of sight, and the obvious fact that there aren't any crashing bikes ahead of you to ruin your day, and the bike in front sets the pace.
Group tips: Make sure everyone knows the route and that you will stop at any confusing turns on the route, put the faster people in front, have a set of rules (ie: no same lane passing, no stunting in the same lane as the group) and if you have time and a recognizable leader, have a little pep talk (this is where I try to say " I have more respect for a slow rider that is strong enough to ride at their own pace than I do for a fearless, faster rider that is desparate to keep up.")
When riding in a group don't look at the bike in front of you, look around it, past it, over it, through it, whatever. If you get fixated on that blindspot right in front of you you won't be able to see road hazards and you would most likely follow it into the ditch if the guy ahead of you gets it wrong. If you have to, just make more distance between yourself and the bike in front of you.
If you pass cars and have a bike (or more) behind you, keep on the gas for a few seconds after you make the pass to leave some space between you and the last car you passed for the other bike(s) to move back into the lane, otherwise your buddies are held out in the breeze until they either pass you as well as all of the cars, or they wait until you make enough of a gap so they can squeeze in (a long wait if 3 or more bikes start the pass at the same time)
Group signals: As cavemen we figured out a communication system to coordinate our hunting, before each race day you have a riders meeting to discuss the communications between yourself and other riders or track officials, same for riding in a group. Since many groups have many signals, I will tell you mine and then if anyone wants to add (group participation!) I will update this section.
If I raise my arm, then I am rolling off the throttle (not braking) I do this when I see something I don't like ahead or when I am closing in on a residential area and I want a gradual slowdown to the speed limits of these areas (please don't blast past someone's front yard! they could have kids out playing, dogs out roaming, plus it really looks bad for all of us).
If I point down and to the side and point at a spot in my lane and look at the spot beside me (and back to make sure the following rider has seen me) then I am changing where I want to be in my lane.
When I want the group to turn, I use my turn signal (I hate those tiny ones) and then I raise my arm in the universal turn hand signal. I do both because of 2 reasons: if the sun is behind me the following bikes may not see the signals, plus, if the guy right behind me doesn't put his signal on the bike right behind him won't get the signal to turn because he may not be able to see my bike but he will be able to see my arm.
The debris signal is the strange one. I have heard of some people taking their foot off the peg and pointing it at the problem. I have a problem with taking the feet off the pegs, I use them to do alot of bike control. I am not sure that I would change having both hands and one foot in control of a bike in a batch of crap for both feet and one hand in control. Plus, you really don't want to touch the ground with your foot (off of the peg) at 100kph. You should be going at a speed where debris should not surprise you and so if you feel you need to point at it you should be able to point at it before you get to it and miss it. I try not to flash my brake lights or do anything to distract my followers when they are just about to get into the crap, I would rather they be looking for what I just found than looking at me.
Pick your fun spots. When traveling down a secluded road (the favorite riding spots) don't go fast down the unchallenging areas, here is why: if there happens to be a motorhome trundling down the road 10 kilometers ahead of you and you are going 60kph faster than it is you will find yourself waving at the kids through its back window in 10 minutes. Not a big deal unless it is just entering your favorite section which happens to be too tight to pass safely. If you would have only been going 30 kph faster through the boring stuff you would have had 5 more minutes to play in the good stuff (maybe enough to where the wheeled behemoth may be in a passable place)
The bobble head. I was told to do a shoulder check over both shoulders every time I stop. What do you get out of it? you get to know what killed you when you get to the pearly gates. Always check behind you BEFORE you hit your brakes! It saved my bacon more than once!
Following distance. DO NOT ride one second behind and to the side of another bike while riding in a staggered formation,(give at least 2 seconds, that is still plenty tight enough to hold cars out of your formation). This is what happens: the lead rider is on the front left of the group, he sees something (like an encroaching car) and hits his brakes and turns to the right to what would normally be a safe place, but now he is sitting on the second riders lap.Very basic common sense, yet people get hurt all the time by just not using their heads.
The red lines are the same length showing distance traveled in this split second,(with the braking making the hook more exaggerated) as you can see, they end up in the same spot. Don't do it!
Lane position. This can make the difference between a nice ride to the country or a fast ride to the hospital. I have been to a rider training school that teaches the exact opposite of what I am going to show here, like I said above, I am just going to give my opinion and my reasons, as always, it is up to you to make you own decisions.
Firstly, I want to address the falacy known to some as "lane domination" I would just like to say that that term is only meant for 18 wheelers and dump trucks! Some say to ride in such a way that the other (attentive) drivers will not move into your space from other lanes. While there is a small amount of truth in this, in my opinion, the very real danger that outweighs that minor inconvenience by 1000% comes from the wheeled metal boxes that are in your own lane! especially the one right behind you. If you are doing it the lane dominance way on a road with two lanes going the same way, you would be nearest the divider line. That puts you out of the main vision box of the driver behind you (meaning that area where the car driver's main attention and therefore where the drivers eyes spend the most time) The following driver may creep up and start tailgating you because he can see further unimpeded than he would normally when there is a vehicle ahead of him and may even partially forget that you are there and fixate on car in front of both of you if it slams on the brakes. For me, a driver changing lanes into my spot next to me isn't much of a problem (and it has only happened once in 17 years of riding in traffic) because I can move over a bit (if on a divided highway) and I can kick the car to let him know I'm there, plus it is a pretty slow moving event. Being Squished by the big pickup behind me however, is a very fast moving event and very bad for my old age plans!
Here the rider
is directly in the usual line of sight box for the following driver
Here the rider
is only in the peripheral vision of the drivers usual line of sight
Another strange bit from the "lane dominance" book is that it relies heavily on the other driver's good driving habits, once you ride for awhile, you learn that there AREN"T ANY OTHER GOOD DRIVER'S HABITS! Take checking the mirrors and the blindspots for example, how many 80 year old ladies check their blindspots by looking way over their shoulder? and everyone has heard the old "I didn't see him!" excuse. Your job as a motorcycle rider is to make up for all of the shortcomings of all of the drivers around you because if you let something happen,you will be the one that suffers.
Line of sight. Since motorcycles don't have much of a offense that can be used as a deterrent, we have to use defense, and the best defense is to know the other guy's plan, that is best done on a bike by positioning yourself for a good line of sight. There are tons of examples, but I want to use a classic "lane dominance" vs. common sense argument. Here is the scenario: a long line of cars is stacked up behind the guy waiting to turn left and the right lane is empty except for Jess on his bike. If jess used the "lane domination" theory and felt confident that his headlight would reflect in everyone's mirror (assuming that they had a properly adjusted mirror and the sun wasn't on Jess's back) and they would see him, and stayed on the left side of his lane, he would not be able to see any clues of intentions by the guy in the pickup that is late for work (such as a turned front wheel, driver shoulderchecking,) that has forgotten to put on his signal (or it has burned out, or you can't see it clearly because the sunset/rise). The truck pulls out into the right lane ahead of Jess, If Jess can avoid hitting the truck given such short warning, he will have to turn at such an angle that he would not be able to return in time to stay on the pavement and will hit the ditch or barricade a a bad angle. But not Today! thankfully, Jess likes to think on his own and did the opposite of what he was told and stayed on the right side of the lane so he was not relying on the other drivers. He sees the front wheel of the truck start to turn towards his lane (the driver had a stiff neck,no mirror,and was drunk so he didn't put the signal on) "no problem" says Jess and just puts his brakes on, but oops! the brakes somehow fail! and Jess can't stop in time and the truck rolls in front of jess,"Crap" says jess and he moves over to the furthest right of the pavement, easily on a car free line, but wait! the drunken pickup keeps working its way to the right ditch! luckily, jess still has the option of going into the ditch /dismounting over the barricade and so in the end, Jess still got a small tumble and some scratched plastic because even through all that he didn't hit the truck!
v
The one one the right is the "lane dominance" way. The pink line is the intended happy line before the truck spoiled the party. Notice the guy on the right can also see past the cars to the left, handy if you are coming up on an intersection.
Let me let you in on a little secret: street sportriding has more to do with how much the rider is willing to risk than skill ( 80% risk acceptance, 20% skill level) I have seen plenty of riders going "fast" by cutting corners, doing stupid passes, riding well beyond what they can see, using as much throttle as they possibly can everywhere, etc. Basically, they are rolling the dice with their lives to go faster than the next guy. The shame is that newer riders think these guys are really fast and have alot of skill so they sometimes idolize these chumps. Don't bother, it isn't worth it.
Countersteering and centrifugal force. Countersteering is the only way to quickly turn your bike. There are some who say otherwise, and there are lots of other ways to help your bike turn, but in my opinion, countersteering is the engine behind it all. Some physics first: centrifugal force, it is used by some in the know to describe some aspects of centripetal force. Centripetal force goes back to good 'ol Newton's law theory "a object in motion will continue in the same direction unless otherwise acted upon by an outside force" think about it for a second, if centrifugal force is present than if you ran over some mud on your bike and it stuck to your tire for a split second.With centripetal force, the mud only stays on until the force of the stickiness gets overcome by the centripetal force, once the bond is broken the mud flies away in a straight line. With bikes, if you lose traction from the front wheel you go straight (That gets you heart pumpin every time!)
as opposed to the mud being pushed out from the center:
I plucked this from Wikipedia:
Centrifugal force (from Latin centrum "center" and
fugere "to flee") is a term which may refer to two different forces
which are related to rotation. Both of them are oriented away from the axis
of rotation, but the object on which they are exerted differs. Force which
is oriented toward the axis of rotation is called a centripetal force.
* A real or "reactive" centrifugal force occurs in reaction to a centripetal acceleration acting on a mass. This centrifugal force is equal in magnitude to the centripetal force, directed away from the center of rotation, and is exerted by the rotating object upon the object which imposes the centripetal acceleration in accordance with Newton's Third Law of Motion. Although this sense was used by Isaac Newton,[1] it is only occasionally used in modern discussions.[2][3][4][5]
* A pseudo or "fictitious" centrifugal force appears when a rotating reference frame is used for analysis. The (true) frame acceleration is substituted by a (fictitious) centrifugal force that is exerted on all objects, and directed away from the axis of rotation.
Both of the above can be easily observed in action for a passenger riding in a car. If a car swerves around a corner, a passenger's body seems to move towards the outer edge of the car and then pushes against the door.
In the reference frame that is rotating together with the car (a model which those inside the car will often find natural), it looks as if a force is pushing the passenger away from the center of the bend. This is a fictitious force—not an actual force exerted by any other object. The effect occurs when the reference frame is the car, because that ignores the car's acceleration. A number of physicists treat it much as if it were a real force, as they find that it makes calculations simpler and gives correct results.
However, the force with which the passenger pushes against the door is real. That force is called a reaction force because it results from passive interaction with the car which actively pushes against the body. As it is directed outward, it is a centrifugal force. Note that this real centrifugal force does not appear until the person touches the body of the car (ignoring any force exerted by the seat on the person's body, etc). The car also exerts an equal but opposite force on the person, called a "centripetal force".
So, on to my personal theory of countersteering: when you push the right bar you turn right because the wheel rolls out from under the bike in the left direction and the bike falls over to the right, the reason the bike doesn't fall all the way over is because with the traction from your tires you create an arc (the arc can be any size, so if it is a gentle sweeper you are making, the center of the arc may be miles away, but it is still an arc) but your bike wants to go straight so the bike wants to rotate over your tires (the force that is allowing you to venture from the straight line) and away from the center of your arc, this is what I feel holds you up. Some proof of this is that when you are taking a high G-force corner your tires push up (or you bike pushes down) harder so your suspension sags more, and when you highside, the bike rotates over the tires' contact patch. You could ask "what about lowsides? it falls away from your mythical force holding me up!" well, with a lowside there is a loss of traction (and therefore your centripetal/centrifugal force) and all your bike wants to do is go straight, gravity just kicks in and down is your new direction.
Here you are going straight, then you push the right bar, the traction from the tires gives you the force shown here with the red arrows, if you lose the red arrows, you will go straight again.
Spencer(19) and Lawson(21) at it on 1000+cc AMA superbikes
Gyroscopic force. Most everyone has spun a bicycle wheel and felt Gyroscopic force, Y'know, the weird way the wheel moves when you move the axle. You may have even seen someone sit on a swivel stool and move themselves around just by playing with the spinning bicycle wheel, but does it really explain anything about how a motorcycle steers? .You would probably come up with questions like: motorcycles have two wheels, one pivoting and one fixed, does it still work? if gyroscopic force is the engine behind turning a motorcycle, wouldn't a heavier wheel make more steering power than a lighter wheel? and why is it then that a lighter wheel actually makes a bike easier to turn? and why is it that a 20lb front wheel can overpower the gyro force of the larger rear wheel and especially all the heavy spinning stuff inside the motor? and if gyro force is the main culprit in turning, why is it so hard to ride on ice? Basically, the gyro force provides something you can push against to move yourself around on the chair, you see, a gyro likes to stay put, happily spinning in place and doesn't really like to move on its axis (try moving that spinning bicycle wheel back and forth along its axle line)
Gyro force does have a real place in motorcycling: the lighter the wheel, the lighter it steers, if you find your self needing to turn while in a wheelie, turn the bars toward the outside of the turn, a smaller engine changes direction faster while at high revs than a bigger engine (all things being equal), and allot of other things I can't come up with at the moment. BUT, IF YOU LOSE TRACTION, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR LINE! Sure you may not go down and you may even tighten your line if you do it right, but as far as countersteering goes, the Gyro force does not regain any of your steering needs. This is where I stand by what I said above about countersteering and centripetal force.
This is the NR500, the oval piston,
32 valve, four stroke,500cc GP bike.
Spencer was the only guy to give it a try in real racing.
Four fingered braking :my first question would be: why? any modern bike should be easily capable of locking the front tire with the force of 2 fingers on the lever. In my experience, having my outer 2 fingers wrapped around the bar and braking with the index and middle fingers only, I can downshift and control the bike far better. I have heard using that four finger braking gives more gradual braking. When you think about the leverage ratios between all four fingers and the way the the lever curls away from the bar the further toward the end it goes, this is a very backward way of thinking. Your little finger has a huge mechanical advantage on your index finger, so not only does your pinky have more available braking power, but it also has to move further. Think about it, each finger has to move a different amount to have each finger give the same braking pressure, what is gradual about that? In contrast, the middle finger is longer than the index finger, and coincidentally, the lever is about the same amount further from the bar. When you curl your fingers, the index and middle both curl around the lever evenly.
as you can see,only the first two fingers go with the curve of the lever.
Dog Dodge. When a dog comes running out from the side of the road and looks like he wants to warm himself with your header pipes, here is what you can do: keep a steady speed, then chop the throttle, the dog will tighten his line to compensate, then you throttle up and he will go behind you. It seems that a dog can't change his attack angle that many times so quickly.
Loud pipes save lives, but kill deer.
Bass sound travels faster
through the forest than treble, so if you are riding along making lots of
noise in a wooded area, the deer will hear the loud noise behind him and jump
onto the road right ahead of you. Deer whistles do work, they don't scare
the deer away (probably the reason most people think they don't work) but
they let them know that you are coming so they stop by the side of the road
(more often anyway)
As far as loud pipes and humans, there is a very noticeable difference when riding in traffic while having a slightly loader exhaust system (not like the stupidly loud straight pipes used by so many Harley riders, they seem to forget that an old lady in a Tercel has far more destructive power than a 300 pound hairy fat guy on a HD,even if he is wearing chaps and a HD belt buckle, so they don't think about what could happen if they piss off the wrong people) but please people, think about how much noise you are making!
Spencer and Lawson still at it in AMA superbike
Low speed trick: If you find yourself surrounded by cones and there is boiling acid on the road so you cannot touch the ground, set your rpms to about 2500rpm, just let a little bit of power through your clutch and use the rear brake to control your speed. The engine gyroscopics will help to hold you up. I showed this technique to a local riding school in 1999, they decided against teaching it then because they thought about the consequences of having the clutch cable break at that moment (!?!). I have found out since, that they have started teaching that very technique ( I am happy that it did end up being taught after all!)
Blip the throttle. When downshifting, bring the engine revs up to the revs that the engine will find itself at when you engage the lower gear. IE: if your in 5th at 3000rpms and you want to go to 4th, but your bike will be doing 4000rpms when you let go af the clutch since you are still doing the same road speed but in a lower gear. How do you keep the back tire from chirping? just blip the engine up to 4000rpms before you let out the clutch so the engine is already doing the right speed. Smoooth
Don't ride with your highbeams on. This one is contraversial, but I was noticing one day while watching my buddy ride directly toward me that I couldn't see him, all that I saw was a light coming closer. My mind didn't really pick up that it was a bike or that it was coming nearer because it was just too bright. When you ride with the low beam on the other drivers get to make out your shape and can get further clues if you are wearing a bright helmet. Your brain can tell distance by comparing an objects size to the sizes of surrounding objects, if the other driver can't tell your real size because you are behind a wall of light they can't tell your distance either. This only applies if you have a bright high beam, for those classics out there, light it up!
Buy a beater. Lots of newish riders are buying big bikes that are wrapped in expensive shiny plastic. If you are going to get caught out by a surprise, it will happen when you are new to bikes. With experience you will get to know where trouble spots may come from and you will have a better chance of keeping it rubber side down, so scratch up a cheap bike and save your money for another day. As for the size of the engine, if you have only been riding sportbikes a few years, don't bother with anything over 600cc. A 600cc modern sportbike is astonishingly fast in the right hands, just look at the 600cc vs 1000cc racing lap times. Riding a 1000 can be less exiting than a 600 because you do less shifting and you can even get a bit lazy and still go fast.The biggest advantage of riding a 1000cc sportbike comes at the coffee shop! Anybody who tells you that they ride a 1000cc sportbike anywhere near its limits, quote the champ: Eddie Lawson, 4 time world 500cc Grand Prix champion, AMA superbike champion,2 time daytona winner, and suzuka 8 hour winner said "There may be someone out there that can ride a modern literbike to the limit on the street, but it isn't me!"
Buy a good, full face helmet. Once you are moving, your head becomes heavy with enertia, when you crash your head is too heavy to keep from smacking the ground. There is no way to keep your face from getting crushed/smeared off without protecting it first! I have heard some stupid things said about the usefullness of helmets: "if you're going over 30 mph your dead anyway." "helmets break your neck" "you cant see or hear as well so you don't know what's coming up on you" are a couple of my faves. You can survive quite a smack to the head while wearing a helmet and have no ill effects (I saw a racer come off a motogp bike at 210mph and only get a sprained thumb because he was wearing good gear) you can hear better because the helmet filters out white noise, leaving only the important noises. You can see better because there is no wind/bugs/rain in you eyes and all the good helmets have wide eye slots that have a wider field of view than your eyes do. And helmets haven't bounced since the early days, now they deform and actually deaden the bounce, plus, if you hit your head that hard with a good helmet that you broke your neck, you would be long dead anyway. I have heard face shields only last a year, bullsnot! I have had faceshields that have lasted 8 years+ you just have to take care of them. The helmets however should be replaced after a few years of constant riding because the protective foam lining packs down and loses some of its protective quality.
Faceshield tips: Tinted visors are great for sunny days, but don't wear them at night, as well as just making common sense, if something happens it will be your fault.
If you do get a tinted visor, get a light smoke. A darker visor will make it harder to see in shaded areas (especially right after a bright area) and the yellow ones, for me anyways, seem to hide sand
You can put a strip of black tape over the upper edge of the visor to work like a baseball hat and keep the sun out of your eyes, this is mainly an evening, spring or fall trick when the sun is lower over the horizon.
You can buy anti fog films to go on the inside of your faceshield to keep it from fogging on high moisture days, or you can rub on some liquid dishwashing detergent to do the same job temporarily.
Common sense says never to wipe your faceshield without wetting it thoroughly, and never wipe it when it's dirty. And replace it if it does get scratched.
When are you a newbie no more? Distance travelled, bikes ridden, years in the saddle don't really mean that much. A smart newbie is better to ride with than a stupid guy with years of experience in being lucky. I would say that after a couple of years you could say that you aren't a newbie, but after 5 years I would still say that your still aren't "experienced". I have met people who understand the bike pretty well after only a couple of years and I have met people that have ridden for over 20 years that still don't get it. Experience can be what you make of it: if you just ride on sunny days at the speed limit on open roads, then you are just doing the same thing for hours on end. If you are pushing yourself and your machine down challenging, changing roads in changing conditions you will get far more experience in one year than you would in 20 years of highway droning. think of it this way: just because a flight attendant does the same amount of air miles as the pilot doesn't mean she can land the plane!
Squid. The term! legend has it the term "squid" comes from california residents watching "sqiurrely kids" racing their bikes in the canyons and the name was shortened to squid. I like the squid acronym "stupidly quick, underdressed, imminently dead" because it seems to fit the vision of a squid better. There are plenty of debates on what makes a squid: riding in a T shirt and shorts, passing in blind corners, wheelieing through school zones, etc. To me, all of those would give you squid cred. Basically, if you are taking undue risks without any preparation for consequences, you are a squid.
Learning too fast? The scary thing with new bikes is how easily they can be ridden. The old bikes took a new rider a few years to really get to be decently quick, the new stuff kinda gets rid of all the middle learning stuff and just lets you tap into the fast stuff right away. The problem is that if something bad happens it happens quickly. If the rider gets rattled for a split second all is lost. Calmness under immediate doom takes some getting used to. It used to be that the few years of learning on wobbling bikes got you prepared for this by a graduated scary scale as the speed unlocked new deficiencies in the bike, now you just go from the showroom to hero.
If you are tense at that speed and something happens you may not have the mental reserves to handle it. It may be an idea to step it back a notch until you are totally comfortable (a good way to tell is if you can ride down a great twisty road and still be able to sing a song at the same time) then just work on technique. The speed will just come by itself.
My favorite suggestion would be to try just riding down some twisty road in one gear without using the brakes. This works on technique as well as building up your mental reserves gradually. ( the mental thing doesn't reflect your intelligence, just that the brain works differently when something is trying to kill you)
It's not about the speed for street riding, if you get into the groove of just doing 120kph (75-80 mph) and really riding the road well you should be on the road to a great riding future.
Just a funny thing I heard at a new riders school: "motorcycle clutches don't work like car clutches, they need oil to help them slip" - basically, for decades, the only country that made wet clutch bikes was Japan, everyone else used dry clutches that worked exactly as car clutches (many had multi plate setups, but their action is the same) and why wouldn't they? you have to slip the clutch on your car too don't you? Want some examples of modern bikes with dry clutches? Ducati & BMW. I don't know why I tossed this in here, just to get it off my chest I guess.(it's my party)
Freddie Spencer was Honda's darling rider in the early 80s. Multi time daytona winner and AMA champion, Freddie Spencer won the 83 500cc world championship and followed it up in 85 to be the only rider to win both the 250cc and the 500cc world GP championships in the same year. After 85 however, Spencer had some medical ailments and retired from roadracing. He did have a comeback, starting on the Erion RC30 and moving into the 500cc GPs on a yamaha, but did not have very good results, he then returned to ride a Ducati in the AMA series and finally retired again to run the Freddie Spencer racing school.