Spring Tune Up

[OTB]

Weather was nice the other day, got to go off and shake the cobwebs off. I did what I have done for the better part of 30 some-odd years of riding; did a check out of the bike (tire pressures, pulled on the brakes to make sure they were attached to something, took a couple of wrenches and did a walk-around to make certain important things were still screwed on tight, checked chain tension and condition, ect.) . Then I went out to my "shakedown" route.

My shakedown route is a stretch of semi-residential-semi rural streets/roads a couple miles from my house. It's really nothing more than about a two-mile loop of a mixed bag of right and left hand right angle turns with a couple of low-speed (under 30 mph) sweepers thrown in. If you live in Florida or North Dakota, yours might be a couple of seldom-traveled suburban streets and an off-ramp or two. As long as it has some non-heavily trafficked rights and lefts with a moderate-speed sweeper or two thrown in.

The purpose of the "shakedown route" is for me to reacquaint myself in a non-threatening environment with the basics of motorcycle control and to reorient my brain to the four dimensional aspects (up and down, left/right, bankleft/right, and speed/time) of my beloved avocation, so that I don't spend my spring picking gravel out of my hide and mending busted bikes.

My tactic is to take a very gentle (read SLOW) tour of my loop....both to get comfortable and to scout the road surface for changes/hazads/gravel. I then make several circuits of the loop, slowly increasing velocity, but more importantly, increasing precision. I talk NOTHING like a fast pace; from slow to legal speeds....the purpose is not to set timed laps; the purpose is to get me into the zone, where braking, shifting leaning and throttle control are automatic; and I do it in my boring loop so that errors and bobbles stand out like a sore thumb. I can't concentrate on my technique if I'm concentrating on what shape the road is in around the next blind/unfamiliar turn.

It's kinda boring, but after a few laps, it becomes challenging to get smoother and more precise.

Which will pay off everyday on the street or track.


Just a suggestion on something passed on to me.

Happy riding.