Vagabond Rider: Spring training

A short list of ways to prepare for the riding season

By Mark Keating

I’m sitting here, staring out the window as the fog and rain roll by in waves. Only just last weekend, I buttoned up the bike after a long winter picking at all my maintenance projects. In recent weeks, there were small pockets of warm weather that made me think maybe we will have an early spring. But the wet and cold have returned.

I’m biding my time finishing off my schedule for the riding season – planning the last details for my big trip, and plugging in ideas for day trips and weekend getaways. Once the salt is cleared from the roads and I can finally get the bike out of hibernation, I’m ready to ride.

Well, almost. First, I plan to invest some time shaking off the winter rust with a little spring training. After talking to a few riding buddies about their spring rituals, I came up with a short checklist we seem to have in common.

Check your machine

First is making sure the bike is in good working order. Maybe you did nothing more than plug your bike in at the end of the season to keep the battery topped off. Or maybe you spent the entire winter pulling it apart to inspect and replace maintenance items. Either way, it’s a good idea to give your bike a solid once over before putting it back on the road. At the very least, check tire pressure and adjust accordingly. Better yet, give your bike a good hand washing – and in doing so touch and inspect it from end to end to look and feel for loose fasteners, signs of leaking seals, cracks or cuts in your tires, etc.

Fix whatever you come across, or if you’re unable to do those things yourself, make a list and ensure you get them professionally sorted.

Self-refresher

Next is to shake the dust off yourself. The bare minimum is to find an empty parking lot or quiet country road and practise emergency braking and manoeuvres. For anyone wondering what that might entail, it’s pretty simple. Accelerate to 50 km/h and practise heavy, progressive breaking using both front and rear brakes together, while pulling in the clutch completely and tapping your shifter down multiple times to ensure you’re back in first gear by the time you stop. Once stopped, check your mirrors (to simulate looking for a potential vehicle behind you that didn’t manage to get stopped), then immediately accelerate away with authority. Add in some emergency collision avoidance (counter-steering swerves) and you should be good to go!

Get your mind ready

A final recommendation is to consciously practise situational awareness while riding. Keeping our heads on a swivel and constantly scanning our surroundings is the best way to ensure we stay safe. A couple of my buddies are current or former motorcycle instructors. They’ve relayed to me a number of different “riding systems,” all of which share common elements:

Keep your focus 10 to 15 seconds down the road, not on the vehicle immediately in front of you.
Be situationally aware, including what might be behind you.
Never let yourself get boxed in. Always have at least one avenue of escape from the position you’re in on the road.
Make sure other drivers see you. Never assume.

If you spend the first few rides of the year genuinely focused on rebuilding these riding skills, they’ll become instinctual (again) in no time.

Lifetime HOG^® member Mark Keating (IG: @markwkeating) has explored (almost) every corner of North America on his Harley-Davidson^® motorcycles. As winner of two HOG^® Canada ABCs of Touring challenges and holder of 53 Iron Butt Association (IBA) certificates – including four “first-ever” – Mark has officially found his happy place with a proverbial full tank.