Ride Missouri

Riding as part of a group is much different than riding alone. You have to be concerned with the safety of the other riders in your group, not just your own. There are rules, etiquette and guidelines for riding in a group that need to be followed.

This article is the first in a series of articles pertaining to riding safely and intelligently in a group setting so that everyone involved has both a safe ride plus an enjoyable ride. Over the next few months additional articles will cover a wide range of topics from how to ride, to hand signals, to how to run your own ride and much, much more.

For this article, we are going to start at the beginning - Preparing Your Bike For a Ride.

The first thing you need to do is to clean your bike thoroughly. Wash your frame, the engine, the hoses and cables, seats, bags, windshield, wheels, tires, everything. When you are done cleaning and drying your bike let it sit for a little while then look for any leaks of any kind, oil, gasoline, brake fluid, anything. If you find any leaks, fix them. If you don't have the knowledge to do this yourself find a friend who does or take the bike to a shop and get it repaired. You don't want to have your bike break down while you are in the middle of a 200 mile ride and riding with a group of others that will be delayed or stopped becasue of your bike. I realize that things can go wrong with anything mechanical at any time, but if you can prevent the problem it is better for everyone involved.

Next, check you tires. Are they properly inflated? Do they have adequate tread for the ride and road conditions you are about to encounter? Next check your wheels. Are they in good condition? Any broken or bent spokes? Any cracks? These are all important things to look for and get fixed before a ride.

I am not going to go through everything here that you should be checking on your bikes before a ride. There is a checklist that you can print out provided by The Motorcycle Safety Foundation. The form is called T-CLOCS Inspection Checklist and you can download it here for free. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to print this form. If you need the Acrobat Reader (it is free) just click here and you will be taken to the download page.

For those that are interested, T-CLOCS stand for:

• T - Tires
• C - Controls
• L - Lights
• O - Oil
• C - Chassis
• S - Side Stand

You don't want to break down on your bike 100 miles from home, or even 5 miles from home for that matter. You also don't want to be the one person on a group ride that breaks down and causes the group to delay or have to leave you and another rider behind because you didn't do some simple maintenance. Also, properly maintaining your bike will both improve its performance and also make it last longer, giving you additional safe years of riding.

Victor H. Schlosser is a photographer, writer, and Web Site Designer/Consultant. He writes about Photography, Motorcycles, Marketing, and the Internet, with articles being published both online and in print.