Motorcycle Riding Tip of the Week --
How to Drop Your Motorcycle Part I
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In this Issue:
1) Motorcycle Riding Tip of the Week
2) Related Articles
3) Recent Forum Posts
4) Forwarding this Tip and Signing Up
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Motorcycle Riding Tip of the Week --
How to Drop Your Motorcycle -- Part One
 If there's any subject where the request, Don't ask me how I know is more applicable, it escapes me. 
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-- Pete Tamblyn
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Like the bumper sticker declares, "It Happens."
There are only two occasions when "drop your bike" is the applicable term: stopped and low-speed maneuvers.
Any other time is a "crash."
Stopped, the mishap almost always involves the side stand in some fashion:
- You think the stand is down but it is, in fact, up.
- You think the stand is down, but it is, in fact, not fully extended (and locked, if your bike has this feature).
- You think the stand is on firm ground, but it sinks in (immediately, or slowly, as when parked on hot asphalt).
- You fail to leave the bike in gear, and the bike rolls forward off the stand.
- You're in the process of deploying the stand, but screw up and catch your boot heel (shoestring?) on something. Gravity wins.
- Improperly lifting the bike onto the center stand, or improper footing for this stand, can also award points to Gravity.
Ponder these techniques while awaiting next week's Tip: How To Drop Your Motorcycle during "Low Speed Maneuvers."
Pete Tamblyn
Senior Contributor
MotorcycleMentor.com™
MotorcycleMentor.com™ Recent Articles
Here is a recent article posted on the site.
4 Tips to Selecting the Right Motorcycle Riding Gear -- From One Woman's Perspective
Donn Brous
Many factors will influence your choice of motorcycle riding gear. Some of the most important are the type of riding you will be doing, the kind of weather conditions you'll be riding in and your budget. Here are some specific tips for considering the many choices that will face you. . . . Keep Reading
Recent MotorcycleMentor.com™ Forum Posts
The MotorcycleMentor.com™ Forum is a great place to ask questions. Here is a recent example...
Battery Questions...
Well, I just took a nice little ride today at lunch. Took the Triumph Sprint ST out for a little 2-hour spin. But before I could go, I had to get the bike started. The battery was basically dead even though I had it connected to my battery tender. She had been sitting in the garage for the last month with only one warm-up start....
Pete offers this: Mike, here are two battery tests to conduct to isolate the problems:
1. Disconnect the Battery Tender and use a voltmeter and read the battery voltage. You should read in the mid 12's. If not, you might suspect the tender, or the battery's ability to accept a charge. When you rode the bike yesterday, did it seem to charge up from the bike's alternator, and start readily once you had ridden a bit? If so, the tender simply might not be doing its job. A tender is cheaper than a battery!
2. Next test the charged battery under load, using a "toaster" battery tester -- the kind with the coils that glow red hot when you "short" the battery across the tester. This should give you an accurate picture. There are tables that will show how much load the battery can withstand. A toaster is the only way to tell if the battery has more "oomph" in it than what's referred to as a surface charge, where the battery shows a full 12 volts but doesn't have the amps to back it up.
Fred finds picture of old bike...
While looking through pictures, I came across an image of one of my favorite bikes that I owned. First bike I bought was a used Yamaha XS650D I think it was nomenclatured - a vertical twin patterned after the Brit Bikes. My first long ride. . .
To read the full forum post, click here:
http://www.motorcyclementor.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=1&ThreadID=54
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Until Next Week,
David Mixson
MotorcycleMentor.com™
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