Motorcycle Training Forum

[yorkie 1200]

Found this on another forum and thought it might be helpfull.

Prepare your bike
Prepare yourself

-The Bike-

Brakes: Check the brakes while rolling the bike, stationary they can seemed to work when pushed with them on but it’s a different story with a little speed. Check when pulling away and also check the rear as you do this.

Lights: They go together with the battery obviously, a blown headlamp bulb in the middle of no where is not funny, you could carry a spare if you know your bike is prone to eating them up, or just carry a spare under the seat, in your backpack or panniers if you have them.
Clean the lenses of all of them, the road can be very dirty in winter, I carry a multi purpose cloth in my bike jacket pocket. The headlamp especially can deteriorate quickly on a long journey, a regular stop to clean should stop you squinting for the road ahead.

Tyres: Again, you don’t want to be caught out with this one, you cant replace them in the street.
Before a ride, go over the tyres (with gloves on) with your hand, you’re looking for deep cuts and foreign objects, while brushing off any pieces of glass or stones you might find.
Search the net or pop down to your local bike shop to find the latest products for helping you out with punctures.

Steering: Riders can jump on, start her up and shoot of down the road not realising the steering is catching some wiring or the tank bag they just put on causes a problem with turning, have a test of it before you set off. Ice, rain etc is not fun with less than 100% turning ability.

Fuel: Might sound daft but most lack of fuel incidents happen on the motorways, in winter this is a very very dangerous place to be when the conditions are foggy, icy or in heavy rain.
Make sure you’ve got enough in the tank to make it to the garage, don’t take chances.
Letting your bike warm up is good for a few reasons, one is you wont have to let off the choke while riding, and you will get better response from the bike straight away.

Coolant: Some guys I know have been caught out because they’ve been putting water in the rad’s during summer and forgot about it when it gets into minus temperatures. Make sure you’ve got enough anti-freeze in there because the temperatures can change radically from day to day in the UK.

Battery: It is a good Idea to check or purchase a new battery for the winter months, they do tend to last around 2 years but you have to take into account the winter puts a lot of strain on the battery. It gets dark quickly soon, so you don’t want to be caught out.

Oil: No need to explain why, just check it and put the right stuff in there.

Mechanical: I know it’s obvious but really, don’t mess about now, it is going to be worse for you if those little jobs you know about aren’t put right. You can’t sit in your nice warm car waiting for the recovery man.

-The Rider-

Attitude: Your attitude to riding in the winter will change naturally (I hope), but you have to make some things a priority.
One good tip I heard in the past is “Cagers don’t expect to see bikes out there in winter”, true, so you have to expect the unexpected, all the time.

Clothing: This will vary as the journeys you take are going to be either a long journey or a short commute.
I have never worn leather jacket and leather trousers before but I have been told they are the best for protection and tarmac surfing, the downside to this set up is the wet and the cold, from others experiences the leather can get cold and wet which will disturb you’re riding.
Remember that in temperature ranging from 5-10 degrees when you are travelling a mere 40mph the chill factor can bring it down considerably wearing leathers so you have to consider for yourself what gear is best in the conditions you’re going to be facing.
‘Goretex’ is what I find best for all year round wear, cool in the summer (removable liner), keeps you warmer in the winter without the hassle of carrying water proof outers. This must be said for the gloves to
When purchasing clothing it is an idea not to purchase things like trousers, jackets and leathers over the net as you can’t try the item on, you might be a 42 in Alpine gear but be uncomfortable with Hein Gericke.
This in turn means less concentration on the road and the appeal of wearing the kit will become a problem.

Layers of clothing help an awful lot as it traps your body heat between them, If it is pretty cold out I tend to wear a t-shirt, jumper and my bike jacket (with liner). A pair of jeans with the ‘goretex’ trousers over the top, boots with thick socks and Hein Gericke gloves and a scarf.
As you might know the neck area can get painful if there isn’t anything stopping the wind.
Cheap gloves also have a tendancy to let in cold air because of crap stitching, don’t spare the cash on what is really needed.
I have a small walk down the road to my lock up, if it is cold I will put the gear on indoors, and walk to the lock up, the heat generated while doing this helps a great deal.
I’m not too familiar with electrics but for the rider who is a little less daring you can look at products from ‘Gerbing’ and ‘Widder’ for example, there are electric vests with gloves and also heated grips. The vest are attached to gloves via a length of wire, they connect to the battery and a thermostat so you don’t cook yourself.
Find them on EBay or at a decent bike shop.

-Riding-

As said before your attitude should change in winter months when riding, most importantly is know your bike and your personal limits, it’s not a race and you shouldn’t push your self.
People’s endurance levels for the cold vary, don’t make yourself push through the pain like Rocky, make regular stops if you have to, get some blood circulating, it happens pretty fast.
Plan your journey and give yourself plenty of time.
As a rider with experience I can judge the weather for the day pretty well most of the year round, but during the winter as we are just a little island in the sea this changes very quickly so there is no excuse really for not checking Teletext or the news for an up to date weather forecast.
Frosty, also icy conditions are created over night, it maybe sunny the next day, but remember that the conditions in shaded areas are there for a longer period of time throughout the day.
With November creeping up, leaves will fall, add a bit of rain and you have something almost as bad as ice, I like to see it in the simplest way…..Tyre’s need contact with the road, put something between those and you’ve created a layer, watch out for country roads and tree-lined roads in town.
Gritting trucks also create this layer, they do a decent job for cagers but make the roads pretty slippy if there haven’t been a lot of vehicles on the road or if there hasn’t been a considerable amount of rain to wash it away.

I’m sure I’ve covered all the main points here, I know there is more to the riding technique’s but with this list you can go far wrong, the more prepared you are for the harness of British weather anything less will not be a problem!

Safe riding

[kitty paws]

Thanks for all those tips . Very useful, since this week was the first time I've been out and experienced the frosty cold. It was very very cold especially with an open face helmet. My hands were frozen after the four mile journey to Congleton. Have now bought myself those thermal insulated gloves but would need something for my face.

Why do my mirrors fog up after a mile or two on the road (couldn't see a thing at all)? They were fine when I set off.

[yorkie 1200]

mirrors fog up because the cold air moving over them warms
up
bit like when you breathe on a mirror

a trick you could try is rubbing some washing up liquid on the mirror
with a cloth only use a drop and rub it on the glass till you can see no smears then use a paper towel to give it a wipe after

this also works on the inside of visors to stop them misting up

[kitty paws]

Thanks, I' try that then. You're such a forum sage.

[yorkie 1200]

why thank you
am pleased to be of service