More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

259 Pages·2003·50.84 MB·English

by  David L. Hough

$24.95 in lJ.S.
S.Q.9:' in Canada
From Motorcl'cle Consumer News
MORE Proficient Motorcycling
MASTERING THE RIDE
by David L. I-Iough
It's no wonder that Proficient Motorcycling
has become such a smash hit, defining as it
does the technical intricacies of operating a
motorcycle better than any other text in his­
tory. But now, David Hough has surpassed
even his own landmark work. In More
Proficient Motorcycling, we learn more of the
human equation: how our mental processes
and physical limitations affect our riding,
and how to train ourselves to take maximum
advantage of our abilities.
- Fred Rau, senior editor
Motorcycle Consumer News
Following in the tracks of Proficient
Motorcycling's tremendous success, comes
More Proficient Motorcycling. Offering new
situations, entertaining anecdotes, practical
instruction, and fresh photographs and dia­
grams, More Proficient Motorcycling teaches
you how to keep yourself-and your bike­
safe from hidden risks and potentially harmful
situations. Author David Hough helps you
negotiate the road better than you ever have
before by covering a wider variety of motor­
cycling topics, from fine-tuning your skills to
traveling tactics to safe motorcycle mainte­
nance. He also details ways to control your
machine as well as emphasizes how mental
preparation can help you control the situa­
tion around you.
Without taking the pleasure and freedom
out of biking, David's experience, talent,
dedication, and plain talk make this one of
the most accessible and practical guides
available. Whether you are a novice or a sea­
soned campaigner, reading this book will
kick-start your quest of mastering the ride.
BowTie Press®

A Division of nowTil', 1111.'.

J Burroughs

Irvine, CA t)2fJlS
Ruth Strother, Project manager
Nick Clemente, Special consultant
Karla Austin, Editor
Michelle Martinez, Assistant editor
Cover and book design by Bocu & Bocu
Gloria Klein, Indexer
Copyright © 2003 by BowTie Press®
Photographs and diagrams copyright © 2003 David Hough
Photograph on page 182 copyright © Dave Searle
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of BowTie Press®, except for the inclusion of brief quotations
in an acknowledged review.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hough, David L., 1937­
More proficient motorcycling: mastering the ride / by David L. Hough.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-931993-03-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Motorcycling. I. Road rider. II. Motorcycle consumer news. III.
Title.
TL440.5.H652002
629.28'475--dc21
2002011174
BowTie Press®

A DIVISION OF BOWTIE, INC.

3 Burroughs

Irvine, California 92618

Printed anel bound in Singapore

109876543
Dedication

--------
his book is dedicated
to all the magazine
editors I've worked
with over the years.
The editors are the ones who do all
the hard work to make each issue
seem fresh and interesting. Editors
are the ones who remind contributors
to get their work in, so they can
sweat an issue together in time to
ship to the printer. And the editors are
the ones who take all the flak from
readers when they read something
they don't like.
I've learned a great deal from
every editor I've worked with, but
I'm especially indebted to Fred Rau,
Senior Editor of Motorcycle
Consumer News. Over the years,
Fred has continued to encourage me
to keep writing my skills columns
long after I felt I should back out of
the picture. Without his SUppOlt and
friendly persuasion, the "Proficient
Motorcycling" column would have disappeared from Motorcycle Consumer News, and
books such as Proficient Motorcycling, Street Strategies, and More Proficient Motorcycling
might never have been published.

Contents
--------
Foreword 8

Preface 10

Introduction 13

Chapter n
p
Bilcer Bill's Last Hide .15

Hm,\( to BeGome a Better Hider 19

Chapter f):"h I

IVlotor(:~(:ling as a Combat lVIission 29

Wimp-o-phobia .36

m:
Chapter oa I

To Speed or Not to Speed 45

AIGohol
60
Chapter 9: I
it e
Navigating the Hoad
67
ConstrllGtion Ahead
74
Avoiding the Elephant
83
Chapter~: u it 9 up
OU" <II
Spring Training
91
The Slow Hide
98
Move It or Lose It
106
QuiGIc, Stop .109

m:
Chapter idin i t I \AI".,·t,..

Sigl,t DistanGe .125

I:xpert I:~(eballs 132

Being Seen in All the Hight PlaGes .142

Chapter
The "Trencll' Delal,ecl Apex Line" .151

lVIastering the Throttle 160

Goming Ungluecl .166

Gountersteering vs. l3ocll,steering .173

Feeling the 13i1(e .179

Chapter :: . I

Bicling Systems .187

Positioning .195

Passing 201

Chapter (;1: I

The Flagstaff Travel S<:hool 211

IVloto-Psy<:hology 216

When in I~ome 224

Know When to Folcl 'I:m 230

Chapter Em:
Ten Til)S That Gan Save Your Life 237

l3etween I~icles 243

Resources 250

Glossary 252

Index 254

8
anl t
Foreword

-------
get on a plane and listen to the flight attendant drone on about emergency
exits and flotation devices. and I sincerely hope I never have an occasion
to make actual use of this information. In my checkered motorcycling
career, however, I have put helmets, jackets, pants, boots, and gloves to the
test, mostly because nobody ever taught me how to ride a motorcycle. Back in those "I
Like ike" days, we pretty much taught ourselves. And the lucky survived.
My riding days began when I was fifteen, when my equally underage friend Dick
bought a Harley 125. The owner delivered it to Dick's house, which, fortunately,
backed onto woods and a river. Dick's father, a Corvette-driving doctor, returned home,
saw the little motorcycle, muttered, Decah machine, and never mentioned it again. Dick
and I went down into the woods and learned the mdiments of riding all by ourselves.
This was simple "woodsing," poking along the dirt paths, learning how not to stall the
engine and not much else.
I passed my sixteenth birthday and paid a high school chum $10 to go down to the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with me and let me get my license on his
Whizzer. After giving me the written test, which I barely passed, the DMV inspector
came out to the steps of the building and said, Okay. Co around the block and ifyou 're
back in five minutes, you get your license. Done.
My parents said I could have a motorcycle if I earned the money to buy one; which
I did, whereupon they presented me with a helmet and the warning that if I were ever
seen on the bike without the crash hat on my head, it would be the end of my motor­
cycling days. Pretty smart.
But had I learned to ride a motorcycle properly? Not a chance. I had mastered the
rudiments of a motorcycle's controls, but insofar as knowing what to do when some­
thing unexpected happened on the road: of that I was entirely ignorant. So I went out
on my used NSU 250 Max and had a series of minor accidents, all part of the learning
process of the 1950s.
I thought the front brake was something to be used when waiting at a traffic light
on a hill, and in my first panic stop, I locked up the rear wheel and fell down. Dam!
Why did that happen? And I found that train tracks were very slippery in the rain, espe­
cially if approached at an acute angle.
Leaming by experience can be painful, but that is the way it was done in those years
before the advent of safety consciousness and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF).
A dealer thought nothing of selling a neophyte a bike, showing him where the clutch and
gas and brakes were, watching him do two loops in the parking lot, and sending him on
the road. More experienced riding friends would offer advice, but there was really
nowhere that I knew of that I could go to acquire this knowledge beforehand.
In the late 1970s, I began reading Road Rider magazine and soon came across the
writing of Dave Hough, who regularly wrote about motorcycle safety. Heck, after
twenty-some years of riding, I knew it all. Or thought I did, until I arrived at a sort of
minor epiphany: I could become a better rider if I paid attention to what people like
Dave had to teach me. There is no final exam when it comes to motorcycle safety, no
point at which a rider can say, I've done it all; there is nothing else to leam. Riding
safely requires constant attention, and the learning process is equally constant.
These days, I read Dave's books, I take the MSF's Experienced RiderCourse
(ERC) every few years, and I listen when my riding buddies tell me that I sometimes
tend to be less than overly cautious when overtaking. I intend to lead a long and happy
r
life, riding well until I am fourscore and something. don't like to fall down. And
maybe some little bit of knowledge imparted tlu-ough Hough's experience will save me
from myself.
If a single thought from this book helps you avoid a spill. it is definitely worth the
small money you spent on it. A simple low-speed low-side in a sand-strewn corner
will cost you a great deal more in terms of repairing fiberglass and flesh-plus the
substantial damage to ego, which MasterCard does not cover. Safety cannot be over­
valued. Yes, it can be boring, it can be tedious, it can even be overdone, but it cannot
be valued too highly.
-Clement Salvadori
Clement Salvadori is a motorcyclejournalist and world travela Clement writes many
different columns and articles for motorcycle publications in the USA but is best known
for the "On Touring" column in Rider magazine.
8
Foreword