After a period of heavy rain, a good strategy to adopt is to follow the tyre track of a leading car. The water expulsion ability of most car tyres far exceeds that of motorcycle tyres and this makes for safer riding. Also try to avoid the concrete section on which tram rails are laid. Water will tend to pool whereas it will lie slightly below the surface in the roughness of bitumen.And remember to extend your survival space on wet roads. You need a following distance of at least three seconds to give you adequate time to respond if the vehicle ahead acts unpredictably. Give yourself even more survival space if the vehicle ahead is a truck or bus, which is harder to see around. Keeping your lights running always helps with visibility.

The Ready Position

Well, this is the principle that when seated on a motorcycle you need to be ready to respond to circumstances outside your control.The ready position is where the rider has their left foot on the ground, right foot on the rear brake, the four fingers of the right hand around the throttle, the four fingers of the left hand pulling the clutch in, the motorcycle in first gear, the head up and eyes scanning (forward, left, right and mirrors).

Many times you will see a rider stopped at lights or an intersection with both feet down, hands on the tank or scratching something!! These riders are not taking any responsibility for their own safety and give away any control they could have.

So always use the ready position, keep scanning to see what is happening around and behind you. Then if there is the need to move quickly......YOU CAN.

Suspension Setup 2

My bike feels unstable, especially when entering turns. The bars seem to "twitch" excessively whenever a midcorner bump is encountered.....

TESSA

Problem: Tessa's bike feels unstable, especially when entering turns. The bars seem to "twitch" excessively whenever a midcorner bump is encountered. The bars often whip back and forth violently several times (or more) when Tessa is accelerating aggressively over bumps while coming out of a turn--in other words, a "tankslapper." The bike steers very easily, although a lack of traction is sometimes noticeable in the rear whenever he tries to accelerate at moderate lean angles. The bike also seems to have a dropped-down, "nose low, rear-end-high" attitude while riding..

Solution: The biggest distinguishing factor in this case is the "nose-low/rear-end-high" chassis attitude feeling. If Terry's bike definitely feels this way, then probably he has too much front end weight bias. This not only hinders traction at the rear, but also affects the steering geometry (steeper rake/less trail) and can cause the instability problems. As long as Terry has his suspension static sag levels set correctly, the first step is to try less rear spring preload and/or more front preload, to the point just before they begin to affect handling negatively; Terry should remember to adjust his rebound damping if necessary (in fact, he should check to see if decreasing the front rebound damping in small increments helps; the forks may be too stiff, hindering traction). If only partially successful, a more drastic step would be changing chassis ride height; this would involve raising the front end by dropping the fork tubes in the triple clamps (if there's enough material protruding above the top clamp, to ensure front fork structural integrity), and/or dropping the rear by shortening the rear shock (if possible).

Note: We've also seen a tankslapping tendency produced by too much rearward weight bias. Tessa might try working the opposite of the preceding paragraph solution, or check out the understeer/no front traction problem scenario for more suggestions.

MICHELLE

Problem: Although Michelle's bike has a very smooth ride while riding over potholes and such in the city, once she's out, her bike seems to "float" over the pavement like a luxury car, with little or no pavement feedback. When she starts to ride aggressively, the bike rocks back and forth excessively, especially during brake/throttle transitions, and the "floating" feeling becomes even more pronounced. Hard cornering makes the bike feel loose, almost as if it has a hinge in the middle. Michelle's tyres might begin to chatter midcorner when encountering bumps and accelerating over those bumps causes her bike to wallow or weave.

Solution: The problem here is generally not enough rebound damping. The ride is smooth and supple at low speeds, but higher speeds generate greater amounts of energy that can't be dissipated with the little damping available. As a general rule of thumb, if either end is pushed down firmly and quickly by hand, the suspension should return in a smooth, controlled manner without "rebounding" once or twice before settling down. Mike should try stiffening up the rebound damping in small steps, and remember to do the front and rear separately, not simultaneously; that way she can readily see if one or the other makes a difference. If Michele has the rebound damping cranked up to the maximum and her bike still feels soft and wallowy, she may need to have to get a rebuild of the suspension components.