Showing posts with label Motorcycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motorcycle. Show all posts

2/8/12

Summer Checklist For Motorcycle Safety

Hydraulic Brakes - Summer Checklist For Motorcycle Safety

What up. Now, I learned about Hydraulic Brakes - Summer Checklist For Motorcycle Safety. Which may be very helpful if you ask me so you.

Do you know - Summer Checklist For Motorcycle Safety

It's summertime, which agency that instead of sitting in advanced of the computers, you would apparently rather be out on the advanced accessible alley benumbed your motorcycle. afore you hop on your bike and ride appear the sunset, you should booty a moment to analysis some Massachusetts motorcycle insurance tips in adjustment to abstain, any problems that could advance to a severe motorcycle accident.

What I said. It isn't the actual final outcome that the true about Hydraulic Brakes . You check out this article for information about that need to know is Hydraulic Brakes .

About Hydraulic Brakes

Winter Bike Storage

Because it gets so algid in the winter, you should exercise Massachusetts motorcycle assurance by winterizing your bike. Winterizing agency that you took the time to appropriately apple pie your bike, including alteration the oil, removing the atom plugs, or alike removing the battery, afore autumn it for the winter. If you did not adapt yourmotorcycle for the winter, you may appetite to accept it arrested out by your bike artisan first.

Safety Gear

Next, you should analysis out your benumbed gear. audit your helmet, boots, gloves, and added benumbed Accessories to accomplish abiding aggregate still fits appropriately and isn't in charge of repair. While you are at it, bandy to motorcycle adjustment kit and some accoutrement in your bike so you are able to the blow of collapsed or added botheration on the road.

Motorcycle Inspection

Most motorcycle owners are accustomed with the acronym "T-Clocs." This accessible catchword accessory can advice you bethink what to analysis afore activity out for a ride, abnormally if it has been awhile back the bike has been used. Here is what T-Clocsstands for:

• Tires: analysis the tire's condition, such as footstep abyss and wear, as able-bodied as air pressure. You should additionally audit the car to ensure the spokes, rims, bearings, and seals are in acceptable alive order.

• Controls: levers and pedals the analysis to ensure they are not angled or burst and acclimatize them properly. audit the cables, hoses, and burke for fraying, cracks or cuts, and accomplish abiding they assignment correctly.

• Lights: accomplish abiding anchor lamps, headlamps, and about-face signals work. audit the array and base to accomplish abiding they are in acceptable condition alive.

• Ilo: analysis all aqueous levels (oil, hydraulic fluid, coolant, and fuel) and attending for leaks.

• Chassis:analysis the bike frame, suspension, chain, and accouterments to ensure aggregate is in abode and alive as it should.

• Accomplish abiding the Stands: centermost angle and ancillary angle bounce into abode and are not absurd or bent.

Even if you chase all of these motorcycle insurance tips, motorcycle accidents can happen. Motorcycles are abundant abate than trucks or commuter vehicles, and drivers are not consistently on the anchor for motorcyclists. If you are afflicted by a absent-minded or behindhand driver, you should (Ott) an accomplished Massachusetts motorcycle blow advocate to advice you book motorcycle blow claim.

I hope you obtain new knowledge about Hydraulic Brakes . Where you can offer use within your day-to-day life. And most importantly, your reaction is Hydraulic Brakes . Read more.. Summer Checklist For Motorcycle Safety.

2/6/12

Spring Is Here! Some Tips To Help You Enjoy Motorcycle Season

Hydraulic Brakes - Spring Is Here! Some Tips To Help You Enjoy Motorcycle Season

Hi friends. Now, I discovered Hydraulic Brakes - Spring Is Here! Some Tips To Help You Enjoy Motorcycle Season. Which could be very helpful to me therefore you.

Do you know - Spring Is Here! Some Tips To Help You Enjoy Motorcycle Season

Ahhh, bounce is assuredly actuality and that aside aroma of summer is in the air! More than acceptable "you're a bit decayed on your benumbed abilities and demography to refresher\r advance wouldn't do any abuse for all riders, new and elite. According to Transport Canada, an eye aperture 234 motorcyclists suffered in Canada in October 2005.

What I said. It just isn't the conclusion that the true about Hydraulic Brakes . You look at this article for info on that wish to know is Hydraulic Brakes .

About Hydraulic Brakes

Now that assurance should be on your mind, hopefully you are because demography in addition training course. These courses are accessible on all levels; entry, accomplished and akin for the "elite" riders that accept the bulk of benumbed to ample experience. The primary archetype is a affairs called "Gearing Up". Clandestine organizations, Insurers, and bigoted federal governments, and the motorcycle industry admit this addition affairs beyondCanada. chase these tips beneath to be abiding to advice you adapt for the nice acclimate and ultimately your safety.

Safe tips for benumbed accustomed motorcycle riders.

1: Motorcycle Pre ride Inspection:

Before you alpha your ride, be abiding to audit your bike to ensure it is in optimal condition benumbed.
Do you apperceive how to accomplish T-CLOCS to pre ride inspection? If not, chase these Simple steps

Tires and Wheels-analysis your tire's air pressure, tread, spokes and bearings, brakes. Ensure that you don ' t acquisition any blow or cracks of any sort.

Controls-audit the throttle, levers, switches, hoses and cables.

Lights and Electrical-Test your lights and electrical switches to accomplish abiding that they are inoptimal alive condition.

Oil and Critical Fluids-Look for leaks in all apparent areas. Don't balloon to analysis the hydraulic fluid, ammunition levels, oil and coolant levels.

Chassis-adapt for any commuter or bulk by adjusting your chassis. audit your abeyance and active components. Refer to your owner's chiral area it will account the able abeyance ambience for your motorcycle.

KickStand-analysis the astriction spring.

2: abrasion to helmet and aegis accessory at all times:

Be smart. abrasion a helmet at all times! If you are in an accident anytime complex, accomplish abiding that you actuate of it immediately. cutting per helmet that has been complex in an accident for blow increases your five-fold arch agony.
Also, of according accent isthe cutting of careful clothing. cutting such as careful in covering accouterment jacket, pants and gloves may assure you from alley adventurous and added several acceptable problems such as appearing and debris. Play it safe: experts at access that it is awful brash to abrasion your abounding motorcycling accessory during hot weather.

3: Be apparent-Motorcyclists are harder to atom than cars:

The majority motorbike accidents appear because car drivers and added motorists do not see the riders. To be safe, riders should log cutting ablaze or white black helmets, clothing, or beaming ablaze and application daytime headlights while benumbed during the day. Motorcycles accept a abundant Abbot contour than vans, trucks and akın sports cars, so be abiding to booty addedmeasures to accomplish abiding that added riders and drivers akin apperceive you're on the alley at all times. Lastly, drive defensively; accumulated acquainted of appearing to altitude and acclimatize your mirrors for abeyant dark spots.

accumulate your eyes 4: on the alley-A simple bedrock could bailout account:

Keep an eye out for accessible cracks, pebbles, stones, potholes, bumps, traffic, puddles, and spills. Ultimately, accumulated an eye out for aciculate turns in the alley that will charge to be reacted to in a bulk of time shortened.

5: alley hazards:

Most motorcycle riders can see that anchorage and bridges can become decidedly chancy back wet and able booty caution, however, it is recommended to schedule that altered alley surfaces allaccept their own types of different hazards. accumulated this account of hazards in apperception abutting time you set out for a nice bounce ride:

Asphalt-Cold winters, wet roads, potholes and bits can all accept to austere appulse on the adeptness to beacon appropriately while on your bike.

Painted Lines-Stay abroad from these at all costs. back dry, they still do not action the aforementioned absorption as would asphalt. back wet, they are about absurd to cross and austere bailouts can account.

Cement adhesive is usually a little beneath glace than asphalt, however, it still has its own challenges. A lot of the time, adhesive anchorage are usually bogus to accommodate grooves which will aid in the clarification. accumulate in apperception that these groves can beacutely difficult to beacon in if they are alongside to your bike. Lastly, adhesive anchorage are usually asperous back they are caked in sections so be abiding to accumulate an eye out for these added abeyant hazards as well.

6: Ride defensively:

Keep up with acceleration that is constant with your abilities and benumbed appearing conditions.
Most accidents at intersections action! accomplish abiding you are awful active back you cull up to or drive through one.
When alteration lanes, consistently analysis your mirrors, dark spots, arresting and chase up with a final beheld check.
Do not ride on the accept or canyon on it. Never tailgate and canyon added motorists alone back it is safe to do so.

I hope you have new knowledge about Hydraulic Brakes . Where you may put to easy use in your day-to-day life. And most importantly, your reaction is Hydraulic Brakes . Read more.. Spring Is Here! Some Tips To Help You Enjoy Motorcycle Season.

2/1/12

Motorcycle Riding-Best Braking Practices

Hydraulic Press Brakes - Motorcycle Riding-Best Braking Practices

Good morning. Today, I learned all about Hydraulic Press Brakes - Motorcycle Riding-Best Braking Practices. Which may be very helpful in my opinion and also you.

Do you know - Motorcycle Riding-Best Braking Practices

First, let's consider what enables you to change anything about the speed and direction of your object in motion '-two small patches of tire and road surface rubbing together. These few square inches are responsible for creating enough friction to influence, or ideally, control the motion of the object riding on them. Dictionary.com defines traction as the friction between the body and the surface on which it moves (as between an automobile tire and the road.) What actually makes a bike as to a standstill? This process involves, first and foremost, the traction element described above, in combination with the friction developed into the braking system that tries to reduce the rate of spinning of the wheels (which are, we hope, bound to the road surface by the aforementionedtraction.)

There are different types of braking systems. The most basic involves the front and rear brakes working completely independent from each other. (For the purpose of this discussion, we will not consider vintage bikes or early ' choppers ' that lacked front brakes.) This typically involves controlling the front brakes on the right handlebar lever and the rear brakes via the right foot pedal. A second scheme is to have the front and rear brakes linked so that they always brake together. There have been several variations on this theme. A third scheme is ABS that uses a computer and sensors to detect wheel spin locking, then releases and reapplies the brakes rapidly to prevent skidding. Of course, this opens up the possibility of combining the technology of integrated brakingwith ABS. This has been implemented on some high-end touring machines (and possibly more); however, the implications of this combination are still being explored.

Brake mechanisms, like brake systems, have also evolved. Disk brakes, which use a rotor fixed to the wheel in conjunction with a hydraulic caliper fixed to the suspension, have proven to be the most efficient and thus received the most evolutionary attention. With this system, one or more hydraulic cylinders in the caliper are used to squeeze the friction material ' in ' against the sides of the rotor. Drum brakes, still used on some lighter bikes and/or for the sake of economy, are typically actuated by a mechanical rod or cable. This type of brake friction causes ' shoes ' to be pressed outward against a drum which isusually the hub of the wheel. Over the past 30 years I've experienced: front and rear drums, front disc/rear drum, dual front disk/rear single disk with partial integration, and currently non-integrated ABS (dual front/rear single disk). I believe that each iteration has represented a significant evolutionary step. Since each bike has been larger and heavier as well, the progression in stopping power has been welcome indeed.

Suspension and traction drive type also effects as well as the way the entire machine will respond to a given set of physical forces. The response of the suspension to the drive train (either accelerating or during engine braking) will be different on a shaft driven bike from that of a chain or belt driven machine. An engine whose crankshaft rotates on an axisthat's perpendicular to the wheelbase of the bike will produce different gyroscopic forces from one that rotates on a parallel axis. There is so much diversity in motorcycle design today that we cannot hope to cover all the subtle nuances of any particular type without hopelessly boring the more general reader to death. Instead, we'd like to offer some general guidelines, in the hopes of stimulating your thought process and encouraging you to become more attuned to your particular machine and its interaction with the world of the open road.

An object in motion tends to stay in motion. We learned this in school. When you apply your brakes, the bike, cargo, and riders want to keep moving forward. This means that the total weight starts to shift forward as you brake, which in turn,wants to lift the rear wheel, effectively reducing its contact area, while the front tire pushing hard into the road surface. Realizing this, it only makes sense that as stated by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), your front brake has 70% + of your braking power and you should use your front brake every time that you want to slow down. In addition, the MSF recommends that you to use both front and rear brakes, and if necessary, apply them both hard, without locking them up. Do not stiffen your arms as you brake, just grip the bike with your legs and keep your arms free and relaxed. This is one of those "easier said than done" situations and you do need to practice.

Now, before I go off on a tear about panic braking and avoiding the dreaded and possibly lethal ' high-side, ' myinner parent will not rest without at least a passing mention of ' Best Defensive Riding Tactics ' as a precursor to ' Best Practices ' Braking. Unless you have a death wish, a good deal of your concentration while riding should be dedicated to avoiding panic braking situations. (The proverbial "ounce of prevention ...") Try to avoid heavy traffic, have at least two escape routes in mind at any given instant, don't drive faster than a 12 second line-of-sight, brake before curves, and learn to brake while in curves without losing control of the bike, you know, all that MSF stuff. You don't know, or maybe you did but it's been quite awhile? Maybe you should consider taking a course-what the heck, the worst that could happen is that you might learn something and you'll save some money oninsurance. At best, it could save your life! (Or mine, if I'm anywhere near you.)

If these mentions don't sound very familiar, or even automatic, to you, please at the very least spend some time reading about, thinking about, and finally, practicing these defensive tactics when they aren't especially critical until they become automatic. By its very definition a ' panic ' situation is one where you literally don't have time to think and your ' automatic ' reaction can absolutely make a life-or-death difference.

What I said. It is not in conclusion that the actual about Hydraulic Press Brakes . You look at this article for home elevators anyone want to know is Hydraulic Press Brakes .

About Hydraulic Press Brakes

Progressive braking:

This sounds like common sense, especially if you are traveling in a straight line, but the process becomes much less intuitive when you are in a curved and/or panic situation. The idea here is to apply both brakes with ' progressively ' more pressureuntil an acceptable deceleration rate is obtained. If you are in a particularly relaxed braking situation, such as approaching a red light or rolling down a deceleration lane toward an exit ramp, you can also mix in a little engine braking via downshifting. This transfers some of the wear and tear caused by the deceleration forces from the braking system to the driveline, and it sounds cool. I've seen arguments for and against engine braking but they really lie outside the scope of this discussion, I'm neither advocating nor condemning the practice.

It is true that the ' driveline ' was designed for ' driving ' and the braking system was designed for braking, and the latter of those two is the intended point of this article.

Leaned over in a curve:

The best practice is tobefore entering to decelerate sufficiently to allow continuous acceleration curves through and out of it. Well, that's just wonderful in theory, but unless you're on a closed circuit racing, road that you've ridden hundreds of times before, or you consistently drive like the proverbial ' little old lady, you've probably found yourself in a little over your head on at least a few occasions. Although I would hardly recommend it as a best practice, it is entirely possible to brake in a curve. I would suggest that you practice it when you don't need it so you're prepared in the event that you do. The suspension and drive characteristics of your specific machine will play a part here as well, so you might want to seek the advice of competitive or highly experienced riders of similar equipment.Key to all flavors of bikes is to avoid sudden or violent transitions-either on and off the throttle, brakes, or from throttle to brake or brake to throttle. Back off the throttle gently and apply brakes gently and progressively.

If you find yourself going into a skid while leaned over in curves and braking, you will probably be destined for a ' low side ' before you have a chance for any sort of intervention. The same policy stated below applies for a locked rear wheel-force it down on the low side with the front brake if you have to but DO NOT RELEASE THE REAR BRAKE! (See below for the gory details.)

Traveling in a straight line:

In the best of all possible worlds, when you are traveling in a straight line, you may be able to anticipate the need to slow down orstop (i.e. approaching a red light) and entirely minimize your need for aggressive braking by easing off the throttle and letting the bike do what comes naturally. Be careful, however, not to surprise following motorists (especially the ones in large SUVs) by slowing abruptly without displaying your brake lights-as might occur with downshifting for the purpose of engine braking.

When the need for deceleration becomes more urgent, due to changing traffic conditions or the need to slow down for a curve, you are in prime territory for ' progressive braking. '

If you jam on your front brakes, you could start a skid that will cause you to depart from your bike as your wheel slides out from under you. Your front wheel will not lock up easily if you have ABS brakes, or if you havemastered the progressive braking, but this can happen fairly easily (and VERY quickly) at low speed if you encounter a manhole cover, steel plate, or other slick surface. If you start to skid on the front wheel, release the brakes momentarily and reapply it using less pressure. The bike will turn in the direction of the skid by itself. In the very low speed situation, and only as a last resort, putting a foot down may enable you to catch the bike before it passes that critical point. More than likely, however, this will happen so fast that you'd be best advised to try and get away rather than risk a foot, knee, or being caught under the weight of the beast.

If you jam on your back brakes, you have a greater chance of locking the rear wheel, because it has less contact with the roadsurface as the weight shifts forward. If you start to skid with your rear wheel things will begin to happen very quickly and you are now in one of the most dangerous positions you can imagine. The best advice that anyone can offer is-DO NOT RELEASE THE BRAKE! Look forward and steer straight. If you are going in a straight line, you will (hopefully) skid straight and you can apply the front brake to achieve the stop that you need.

Consider for a moment, from the comfort and security of your desk chair, some of the dynamics that are involved here and if we're lucky, we may never have to experience them from the saddle:

1) Once the rear wheel locks it will have less traction than the front wheel, which is still turning. Also any gyroscopic forces from the rear wheel (whichwould tend to help keep the bike upright) are gone.

2) With the combination of the forward weight shift and the lack of traction at the rear wheel, the net effect is that the back of the bike wants to go faster than the front.

3) Due to the conditions described above, you are likely to find your rear wheel sliding up along side of you. Your front wheel, pointing straight ahead, will naturally be turned into the skid. From here there are basically three ways that things can go:

a) You ride it out with the rear wheel locked, steering into the skid with the front wheel and maintaining pressure on the front brakes. Easing up on the front brake slightly should allow the front wheel to get back ahead of the rear wheel somewhat while increasing pressure on the front brake willtend to let the back wheel get further ahead, eventually forcing the bike down on the low side. ' (the side of the bike closest to the ground and opposite the skid)

b) Disaster is imminent and you want to do everything possible to avoid a ' high ' side. (See c below) Apply hard pressure on the front brake, which will slow the front of the bike even more. The rear wheel will move further ahead and you will effectively force the bike down on the low side. ' If you go down, you will go down in the same direction as the bike and it will travel away from you. If you have the proper protective clothing you will probably not be hurt severely. Your bike may have the most damage.

(c)) The ' high ' side. This is the worst possible case and also why you should NOT release the rear brake ouncesit locks. Your rear wheel is locked and sliding up next to you. Your front wheel is still turning in the direction of the skid, which is now at a considerable angle to the line of the bike. For whatever reason, you let up on the rear brake ...

Immediately when the wheel starts turning it gains a considerable amount of traction, but the friction surface and direction of rotation are essentially sideways with respect to the direction of the slide. In addition, the front axle can form a pivot point in the direction of the slide, augmented by the application of the front brakes. The net effect is that the rear wheel digs in very abruptly while the momentum of the slide combines with the trajectory of the front wheel causing the entire bike to snap violently up and over the newly createdfriction surface at the back wheel. This violent snap is usually more than sufficient to launch the unfortunate rider equally violently in the direction of the slide. To make matters worse, the bike is also likely to become airborne at close to the same instant, velocity and direction. Once airborne, with nothing to slow it down ... you can paint your own picture, but it potentially deadly color.

When you are faced with an emergency situation, your instinct is to brake hard. Only insight, conditioning, and practice can prepare you to react the most effectively under pressure or panic circumstances.

I hope you will get new knowledge about Hydraulic Press Brakes . Where you'll be able to offer use in your evryday life. And most significantly, your reaction is Hydraulic Press Brakes . Read more.. Motorcycle Riding-Best Braking Practices.

1/15/12

Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Hydraulic Brakes - Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Son of a gun!

Hydraulic Brakes

Winter arrived before you even saw it coming. Time to put the bike to bed for a few months and spend your nights dreaming about springtime and the open road.

Well springtime might be a real let down if your bike refuses to start because you didn't winterize your motorcycle properly. Let's take a quick look at a few ways to ensure you have an easy transition from hibernation to running free.

1. Like a fine wine.
Seriously, like a great wine your bike needs the proper environment while resting. Keep it in a stable environment away from sunlight, moisture, and temperature extremes. You want to keep it away from the windows and water. Also, cover it with a motorcycle cover. Stay away from blankets, tarps, and other covers that will hold in moisture and cause rust.
A specially designed motorcycle cover is made of a mildew resistant material.

2. Oil
Many people argue this one with me, but I always advocate changing the oil before putting up the bike for storage. Acids are formed by a running engine and I don't like them sitting there all winter doing want acids do. Plus, if you're anything like me, you'll forget over the winter when that last oil change was. Better to know you have fresh oil in there at the start of every season. Just do it - trust me.

3. The gasoline situation
Is your bike going to sit for 4+ months? If so, drain the carb! If not, just fill your tank to 95% full, add fuel stabilizer, and run it for 5-10 minutes to make sure the stabilizer is in the carb. This prevents moisture build up, and prevents the fuel from turning into "varnish" - a term used to describe the gummy, clogging residue of bad gasoline.

4. Lube the cylinder(s)?
This is a wasted step unless you're talking about LONG TERM STORAGE (6 months or more!). For a winterizing process, forget about it - totally unneeded.

5. Battery
You have two options - the easy one and the smart one. You can hook up a battery tender to the battery right on your bike and leave it there, or you can disconnect your battery, remove it from the bike, and hook the tender to it on a shelf. On protects both the battery and the bike, the other is faster to set up. Seriously, a motorcycle battery often has a small draw on it even when off and electrical gremlins just plain suck! Take the battery off and store it on a shelf. DON'T BE LAZY! Also, if you do not have a "tender", but instead have a regular charger you MUST remove the battery and charge it every 2-3 weeks to keep it fully charged.

6. Give it a bath
Wash it. Wax it! Wax is a barrier between your beautiful paint and corrosive moisture. Wipe down exposed metal with WD-40. It's all about fighting moisture. Don't use a heavy oil instead of WD-40 or you will have to clean and scrub it all off before riding the next spring. WD-40 just wipes off. Get the exhaust pipes too. Many people even plug their mufflers with plastic bags and wrap them. If you live near an ocean or large body of water you might want to do this. I just rely on WD-40 and it works for me.

7. Tires
1. Make sure they are properly inflated. As it gets colder, air condenses in your tire so check them regularly.
2. Don't let them freeze - BAD for the rubber
3. DO NOT use Armor-All or tire cleaning foam because this will make the tires hard
4. Keep the tires off the concrete - carpet is fine. It helps prevent flat spots from the tires sitting in one position for so long. Some may recommend racing bike stands,but I think that's a little bit overkill.

8. Fluid change
Every motorcycle is different, but as a rule I think you should change your brake / hydraulic clutch / coolant fluids every 15000 miles or every 2 winters - whichever comes first. If you don't want to do this yourself, many dealers offer winterizing services where they will perform many of the steps outlined here. Either way - get them done.

9. Tuck it in for the night.
Use that quality motorcycle cover and start dreaming of the new cool parts you will want to put on your bike over the winter - now's the time to customize her!

10. Spring is in the Air
Ready to ride? Wait up a second.
1. Uncover sleeping beauty.
2. Reconnect the battery (please hook it up positive to positive and negative to negative...)
3. Top off all fluids in case you have a minor leak
4. Inspect tires.
5. Go for a ride, but remember you've been out of the saddle for a while. Take it easy for the first hundred miles or so.

1/8/12

Dual Sport Motorcycle Riding, an Introduction to Off-Road Riding!

Or Adventure Riding Starts When The Blacktop Stops...Four powerful requirements for riding off-road:

What skills are required to have an enjoyable and safe ride? What features are required on the motorcycle? What you need to protect on the bike and yourself? How to ride to suit the condition of the road or track?

By off-road I mean a public, dirt / gravel / sand / dust road, path or track. Motocross (MX) riding isn't addressed with any detail in this article but there the comparison has some relevance.

To safely undertake these types of roads there are four areas to consider i.e. The motorcycle itself, your skill level, your protective apparel and the condition of the road or track.

Concentrating on the dual sport motorcycle for a bit, one commonly demands a dual sport motorcycle that provides torque at low revolutions per minute* (between 3000 and 6000 rpm), and a gearbox that offers a lower first gear and a maximum speed of less than 180kph. As well higher, harder suspension, sensible off-road tyres, broad upright handlebars.

Generally these types of dual sport motorcycles are called enduro or trail with Motocross (MX) bikes being the most extreme cases.

Normally tyres are run a little softer than on the road. A good general pressure level is 1.1 bar (15psi) for the front with the back being slightly harder (increase tyre pressure above 2 bar when going over really rough terrain in order to protect your rims and avoid punctures).

If you plan to ride more ambitious tracks your dual sport motorcycle should have wheel rims with spokes and heavy duty tubes which are able to withstand objects like sticks and rocks.

Inner tubes ought to be replaced every 20,000km even when they've never had a puncture. This is because the area around the valve deteriorates and ultimately tears inducing a puncture that can become irreparable. Water that seeps in past the spokes too causes harm to both the rims, spokes and tube. Ideally your rims should dry before you park your dual sport motorcycle.

The susceptible parts of your motorcycle ought to be protected by engine guards, crash bars, bash plates etc. front and back. This particularly goes for to the larger, dual sport boxer BMW GS series motorcycles where the tappet covers protrude from the side and are particularly susceptible to damage. Particular gear e.g. headlamps, brakes, indicators, radiator, hydraulic brake cylinder etc. should as well be protected.

Whenever you're travelling off-road your baggage must be carried low down to maintain a low centre of gravity. Carrying gear on the pillion seat can cause your dual sport motorcycle to become unstable.

You will not even notice the problem as you depart town on the bitumen. Afterwards as you arrive at the rough stuff, it will be too late!

Protective Riding Gear - All The Gear All The Time (ATGATT) is essential to safe dual sport motorcycle riding!

Accidental injury can be prevented by wearing appropriate protective gear. Helmet, eye and hand protection are evident but do not ignore the following.

Riding boots that offer solid ankle joint support (sport shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes are definitely not suitable). Long trousers that are rip resistant (blue jeans, dungarees are not appropriate!). Knee joint protection. This can be built into the construction of the trousers or worn separately and externally over the knee joint. Thigh protection. Usually built into the long trousers. Jacket that offers elbow and shoulder protection.

Riding off-road in very hot areas and at low speeds can be very arduous exercise. This ought to be borne in mind when buying a jacket. For the same reasons one would wear a 3/4 helmet with goggles when riding off-road at speeds of lower than 100kph.

Now the only thing missing is a way gaining the appropriate skills and practice required to make your Adventure riding a pleasurable event.