A great friend, gentleman, stellar rider, coach, and mechanic in MotoGP, Dakar, and SBK, was on his off-season break. I had managed to save some money and was hoping he’d agree to build me a track bike.
His response to my asking him was: “I care for you too much as a friend to take your money. If you want to improve your riding, forget buying bikes. Use your money for courses, equipment, tires, gas, and do everything you can to get better with what you have.”
It’s been years since, and this easily remains one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been gifted.
How to (kick) start? Seek courses, track days with instructors, enduro training days, pit biking lessons, downhill mountain-bike initiation, etc. After acquiring some knowledge and proper understanding of techniques, figure out where you need to keep perfecting. Any action cam is a brilliant tool. Get a buddy to record you riding. Have a look and see what you’re doing vs. what you think you’re doing – they’re rarely the same. Never watch accidents – it’s negative reinforcement. Forget any video content featuring bad or dangerous riding. There are studies that prove that watching training videos tangibly affects one’s techniques. Much learning can be done watching good quality training vids.
Don’t be a one-trick-steel-pony. Cross-train motorcycling genres and sub-genres, expanding your experience to include enduro, supermotos, dirt-track, trial, adventure on/off road or touring, trail, racing, cruising, pit biking on/off road, and even, dare I say it, bicycle riding. In fact, a competent rider I’m friends with, went as far as buying a unicycle – much more common than one would think – as balancing practice for motorcycling. If offered the chance, try your friends’ bikes and/or any and all test bikes you can. You’re guaranteed to be surprised and learn valuable info.
Want more? Work on flexibility, relaxation, yoga, pilates, physical and mental conditioning, as it will yield better results than upgrading bikes or buying titanium and carbon for your bike. Meditate, or breathe, or learn to be more ‘self-aware’. Improve your entire ride day by helping your mind and body benefit from proper breathing. I’m not a big yoga fan, but there are a number of yoga derived stretches that allow more mobility on the bike, better balance, and substantial and concrete improvement of endurance and concentration. If asked, you don’t need to admit it’s yoga (it could harm your cred). It could however be the solution for aches and pains a bike causes.
These stretches and breathing improvements facilitate recuperation too, helping with sleep. Perhaps the hardest thing to actually do as a rider, yet ultimately a most significant and influential factor to your riding. The excitement often reduces proper sleep the night(s) before/between/after a ride. It’s very easy to get addicted to the stress that comes with being tired and the extra release of adrenaline and cortisol. Most people overdo the length of their rides because the ‘high’ is masking their fatigue. Some specifically seek this feeling and the hormones released, but it certainly doesn’t improve riding. Need organic help sleeping? Just reread the last two paragraphs over and over.
Fatigue can be mitigated by considering comfort. Look at what’s hindering the bike from seamlessly being an extension of the body. Adjust levers, bars, foot pegs, switches, mirrors, seat, optimize wind protection. Have a look at your equipment/gear. Another friend found an excellent deal on some good gloves. He was shocked to discover they were so much better than any he’d owned in 40 years of riding, they offered him feedback and comfort that transformed his ride.
In respect to tangible improvements, explore tire brands and pressures (usually only soft-carcass tires). Stick to motorbike manufacturer recommended pressure, and just adjust minimally to suit feedback, temperature, road, preference, and wear. If you really feel you need to adjust more, perhaps look at changing brands or type of tire. Be a tire connoisseur!
Next or perhaps better before, dial in your suspension settings**, as this will ‘change the bike’ completely. As with tire pressures, take notes. Without notes, all adjustments are nothing more than a shot in the dark. You, like every other motorcyclist before you, believes you’ll remember the ‘new settings’. You won’t. Plus, just think how cool you’ll look when you pull out your little notepad and start reading out settings.
Can you improve visibility, both what the bike provides as well as your own? Change a bulb, get some glasses, clean/change your visor, add some extra homologated lights, done. How many have bought a new bike because the newer version has better lighting? It doesn’t take much marketing to convince people spending money is THE solution.
Many are already sold on buying a new bike. They have their excuses or justifications well rehearsed, and parents/spouses/lovers pretend to fall for most of them. For the rest of us, it’s ultimately a great way to keep our industry alive and stimulate our collective passion, but let’s not go encouraging the common misconception that it takes a new bike to improve riding.
**worth properly, deeply exploring and learning the topic
Writer:
Peter ‘Safety Bear’ Bokor