If you ride a motorcycle, and you ride it daily, you make a deal with the world: come what may, you ride through it. You take whatever conditions come along, and you figure it out. So, this is what I have learned about riding in ‘weather’. Because I ride dual-sports by choice, the techniques I use may not apply to road bikes every time, but I still reckon this is kinda universal. It works for me. Weather Condition # 1: heat. I was in Outdshoorn a couple of years ago, over December, and arrived to a stinking, dry 43 degrees. This is pretty hot. You have to close your visor, against your natural instincts, because the hot dry air pulls the very breath from your body. You can’t breathe. You want to breathe, you close your visor. Deal with the heat. Here is the main thing: on a long road, stop every 50kms and drink water. Dehydration is a killer. It saps your energy, makes you lethargic, and your concentration/reaction times are gonna suffer. Weather Condition # 2: cold. So I was in Sutherland in August a year ago, where the weather ranges from cold, through pain, to sweet-holy-crap-what-the-hell-is-THIS?!? Cold, like heat, saps your strength. Cold fingers are not your friend. So flex them often. Remove your hand from the bars, one at a time, and shake ‘em out periodically. Also, dress warmly, but no overkill please. The more you wear the more you sweat; the more you sweat, the more surface moisture you have, and the cold and wind chill simply freezes it for you. Rule of thumb: the more you wear, the colder you get. Be comfy. Protect the neck, protect the hands, protect the legs, especially the knees. Moisture will be sucked out of you, and believe it or not, dehydration is a real possibility. So, like in the heat, drink a lot of water. Weather Condition # 4: rain. Rain is no great shakes when you’re in a straight line. A product called C-Thru works for me, available in most hardware stores for around 40 bucks. Coat the outside and inside of your visor in a light sheen, applied with tissue paper. Wait for a few minutes then lightly buff with another dry tissue. Helps prevent fogging, but more importantly, it doesn’t allow droplets to combine on the outside. They slide off. Turn your head to the left, droplets slide off. Turn your head to the right, droplets slide off. No more wiping needed. That said, you’re not always going to travel in a straight line, and gradual turns on long roads are still considered a straight line. It is the tight corners and 90-degree turns that matter. Reduce speed a good while before you hit that corner. Select the appropriate gear. Be at the speed you want to be when making the turn, and above all, do NOT brake during a turn. In dry and wet, but especially wet, you brake in a straight line. Stay a bit to the outside of your turn, and do not hug the corner as you would in normal conditions. Why not? Because the roads generally slant to the inside, so all of the muck, grease, oil and what-have-you is in the inside. Stay to the outside, look through the turn for those tell-tale rainbow sheens indicating diesel or oil, stay as upright as possible, and go through the turn under power. Not on your clutch. Gently power up at the apex and move on through. And stay away from painted lines. I shouldn’t need to tell you this. Condition # 4: wind. Here’s a Murphy’s Law of biking I have learned. Wind does not blow from the front, cooling you nicely on a hot day. Wind does not blow from behind, giving you a favourable and fuel-saving tail wind. No. The bastard gods of wind have decreed that, if there is to be heavy wind, it will bloody well blow in gusts from the side. Even if you turn 90 degrees, the wind follows you. You know what I mean. Riding between Knysna and Somerset West one year we had some wind. The kind that forces cages off the road. Not fun, but the experience taught me a thing or to. Most heavy wind I now consider merely annoying, which makes me a bit of a masochist, I know. But here’s what I do: Firstly, if the bike is going to want to blow around a little bit, let it. Relax your hands, because white-knucklin’ ain’t bringin’ you home any easier. Drop the shoulders, bring the elbows in, and let the bike drift. As long as you are in your own lane, no worries. When the bastard gods of wind want to blow you into another lane, then take some action. For me, it means shifting weight in the direction I want to go, and gently coaxing the bars over. A little extra throttle is your friend here, not less. Secondly, get a knee out, I mean REALLY out, into the direction the wind is coming from. And it’s easy to determine: if your bike is leaning to the right, then the wind is coming in from the right. You lean into the wind, not away from it. So stick a knee out in the direction the wind is coming from. You may look a little odd, but this creates drag on that side of the bike and brings the bike up to a more upright position. Thirdly, weight is good. Square boxes are not. If you’re travelling a long way and can get away with it, try strap your stuff rather than use a topbox. Side boxes and no big deal, but the wind catches the hell out of a topbox, expecially the square ones. That’s it from me. If anyone has anything to add, by way of additional tips or ideas, please go right ahead. Unless you’re a bastard god of wind.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 08:18:36 +0000
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