If you’re piling into a bend too fast, a touch of rear brake will tighten your line
Riding skills: 10 top tips to stay alive
By MCN -
Riding Skills
12 June 2009 15:03
The MCN road test team rides thousands of miles a week, rain or shine, winter and summer, on every kind of bike. Here are ten of their not-so-obvious riding tips:
Tip 1. Suspect-looking car driver waiting to pull out from side road: move rapidly from the kerb to the centreline, or vice versa. It helps get you noticed.
Tip 2. If you’re scared, you’re going too fast.
Tip 3. Occasionally it helps to see further round, say, a left hander by pushing the bike away from you into the bend, motocross-style, and keeping your body more upright near the white line.
Tip 4. If you’re piling into a bend too fast, a touch of rear brake will tighten your line.
Tip 5. Give yourself more chances to overtake lorries – hang 50 yards further back than usual.
Tip 6. You can look around both sides of a lorry or van to plan a pass.
Tip 7. Approaching nasty bumps, ease up off the seat, grip the bars gently and put your weight through the footrests. It keeps the bike more stable.
Tip 8. You go where you look. So in a panic situation, look for the way out.
Tip 9. Tense shoulders, clenched teeth and a dropped field of vision mean you’re overloaded. Do yourself a favour and notice it.
Tip 10. Give your tyres an easier time: spend the rest of your life trying to get smoother. That means jerk-free braking, gear changing, throttle roll-on… and steering, too.
