Born To Ride News

Here are a couple of questions I get asked over and over again. Since these questions are asked so much, I believe it’s worthwhile to answer them in this forum. 

Motorman, I’ve heard you say in some of your articles and your video never use the front brake while making tight, low speed turns. My bike has linked brakes, when I step on the rear brake; it also applies the front brake. Does that mean I can’t use the rear brake technique at low speeds?

Answer: As I’ve stated over and over again in my videos as well as my new book, linked brakes are designed to apply front brake pressure via the rear brake in emergency braking situations. In other words, when using a great deal of pressure on the rear brake, the linked brake system affects the front brake. The idea behind linking the rear brake with the front brake is to assist the rider that would normally try to perform maximum braking using just the rear brake. If you use light pressure on the rear brake, i.e., drag the rear brake during low speed maneuvers, it has little to no affect on the bike’s slow speed handling abilities. 

If you’re not familiar with the proper use of the rear brake while making low speed turns, what we’re discussing here is using a little rear brake pressure while putting power to the rear wheel with the clutch and throttle. By putting a little pressure on the rear brake and keeping power to the rear wheel, you will see how it aides in slow speed maneuverability. Combine those two techniques with the proper use of your head and eyes, i.e., look only where you want the bike to go, and low speed maneuvers will become extremely easy.

The second most asked question; Motorman, I just got a 2010 Road King and I can’t completely flatfoot the bike when stopped; how far can I safely lower the bike?

Answer: To answer your question directly, it would be safe to lower the rear of your motorcycle 1 inch. I say this because Harley-Davidson has 1 inch lower shocks as standard equipment on their Street Glide Model. Since your Road King is identical – suspension wise, I would say it would be safe to use the 1” lower shocks in the rear. Keep in mind, however, lowering the suspension even 1” will affect your lean angle. In other words, when you lean the bike at high or low speeds, hard parts such as the floorboard mount and the kickstand mount on the left side will now touch the ground much sooner. In addition, since your Road King only has 3 inches of suspension in the rear as it is, the shorter shocks will now limit travel to 2 inches. That’s not so bad if you ride solo, but if you frequently ride two up and with luggage your ride will deteriorate greatly. If you insist on having your feet flat on the ground when the bike is stopped, you’d be much better off narrowing your seat. You can do this by removing the seat cover and trimming the sides with an electric knife or have an upholstery shop perform this simple task for you. You’ll actually get your feet much closer to the ground than the lower shocks will. It will have no affect on your suspension, travel or lean angle and it probably costs about one third as much as one single shock absorber, let alone a pair of shocks. If you did it yourself, it wouldn’t cost you anything. 

Remember folks, cruisers were designed by the manufacturer to sit as low as possible while still maintaining a decent ride and cornering ability right from the factory. Hundreds of engineers had to spend thousands of hours coming up with the best compromise between ascetics, ride comfort and handling abilities. Do you really want to screw with something that so many professionals have spent countless hours and dollars perfecting? 

Here’s something you may aware of; the amount of rear end collisions has gone way up in the past 2 years. Rear end collision is defined as cars striking other cars in the rear, or cars striking motorcycles in the rear. While studies haven’t concluded why this is so, common sense tells me the reason for these rear end collisions are distracted drivers. I’m sure you’ve seen people texting as they’re driving, constantly talking on their cell phone, or doing both of those activities at the same time. Well someone has come up with a great innovative product to get drivers attention. No, it’s not a high caliper weapon, it’s a device called Safe Ride. Safe Ride is an LED light strip that mounts on the rear of the motorcycle or any vehicle for that matter, usually in the area of the license plate bracket. What’s different about this product is it doesn’t rely on your brake pedal to activate its flashing lights, but rather on the vehicle’s deceleration. This comes in especially handy on a motorcycle where many times you’re slowing down, sometimes quite rapidly using engine braking. This device works with any reduction of speed, such as, when downshifting or sudden throttle reduction. Of course, it also works when you apply your brakes. The LED strobes are extremely bright and will definitely get a drivers attention. I highly recommend this product and I personally use it. It installs in about 20 minutes. It’s simple, small and very effective. For more information on Safe Ride, log onto www.powersportinnovations.com 

Copyright 2010 Jerry Motorman Palladino
-Ride Safe… Ride Like a Pro Team
www.ridelikeapro.com

Born To Ride’s continuing sequence of movie reviews for your entertainment carries on this month with a segment I like to call “Hollywood goes Cable.” I am an aficionado of biker films, and if you will “Biker Exploitation” pieces. So when asked this month to review “SONS of ANARCHY” Season one, I was at first taken aback, secondarily confused, and finally resolved to try to explain the material that resided on the DVD issued to me for my perusal. You see, most of the time I am the reviewer of “B” movie (read typical) biker flicks that in some cases I find entertaining, but most of the time are a waste of Mylar. Overall movies are one thing and serial episodes are altogether something else. Kurt Sutter on the other hand, began something in between when he conceived the original Pilot and some subsequent thirty or more installments of Sons of Anarchy. Others have fallen into place as writers to keep the series going, but overall, the Sons of Anarchy  series is one of those ‘ongoing sagas’ that could have actually been a 2-hour feature film. Don’t be surprised when this “Modern Biker Exploitation” piece makes it to the big screen!

All that being said, and then immediately put aside, you as a viewer of this series must understand that this particular chain of episodes, which is based upon a hardcore or “One Percent Motorcycle Club” is strictly fantasy in many aspects. With modern technology in place, and current law enforcement tactics being considered, there is no way that an intelligent watcher of the program(s) could believe that in this day and time a group of thugs could simply go out and kill multitudes of people while being observed by some unscrupulous or otherwise ‘paid for silence’ law enforcement folks whom are already savvy to the gang’s illegal arms trade. Although entertaining and dramatic, Sons of Anarchy is not a realistic representation of the current day “Motorcycle club.” In reality however, the (real) LEO employees are probably enjoying the fact that the general public will watch these programs and they will amass more ‘fear’ for those motorcyclists that are involved with ‘patched’ clubs, thus insuring their future employment as “Gang Busters.”

In the first group of episodes, the club’s VP Jax Teller spends a good amount of time examining a manuscript written by (you would be compelled to assume) “Sam Crow.” In actuality, SAMCRO is simply an acronym for ‘Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original’ which is a club based in the fictitious town of Charming, California. Typically the protagonist, and as a newer member of the club Jax begins a several episode long secondary theme of questioning the basis of the club, and his role in it. Allegedly, the original manuscript was written by his deceased father John Teller, who with the help of “Piney” founded the club after returning from Vietnam in 1967.  

We will begin with the Pilot episode, in which a rival club breaks in, cleans out and then destroys the Sons of Anarchy’s warehouse where they store their illegal firearms, which by all sense of viewing is their main source of income. Led by Clay, and Jax, the club commences to wreak havoc on their enemies for the intrusion and theft, and as they retrieve their ill begotten firearms, the episode takes a fork in the road when family issues take center stage with a medical emergency involving Jax Teller’s newborn son. As we move on into the first installment, the club deals with the aftermath of their attack, and the Deputy Chief of Police poses a new threat to SAMCRO’s reign over Charming. Jax continues to worry about the fate of his prematurely born son and begins to question the club’s tough way of doing business. This theme will continue on in the progression of the series as the club seems to work together with the local authorities to quell the influx of other ‘street gangs’ who deal meth into Charming, but at the same time it seems that the club sells illegal weaponry to the very same gangs. This puts the Sons at odds with the white supremacist “Nords” gang, who are the major distributors of the meth in the area. Oddly enough the Sons appear to not be unnecessarily racially motivated due to their alliance with the African-American street gang the “One-Niners,” while on the other hand they are at ‘war’ with the “Mayans” a predominantly Hispanic Motorcycle club from neighboring Oakland. You will also see the Sons involved with the IRA who supply them the illegal Russian made weapons and even some members of the Chinese American Mafia! Sound’s confusing? No, not really. It’s a true Hollywood expose with high-octane action and drama. …

It’s a lot of chaos most of the time, but the entire 13 week series is all I could stand to review at one or two sittings. I’m sure that a lot of you have seen this series on FX, and if not, it’s available on DVD. The DVD version offers the usual behind the scenes stuff that you won’t get to see on FX. Although entertaining, I must once again submit that this is literally Hollywood, and the entire plot is not realistic in comparison to what most ‘club’ individuals do on a day-to-day basis. Overall, I don’t think you will be extremely disappointed while watching this program, but there’s a ton of drama and hype that only a fictional Hollywood piece could provide.  It’s not even a movie (yet) so I won’t issue the usual “Stars” points here, but I will suggest that you watch it yourself, and see just how much of this you find believable! So until next month, stay tuned for more real movie and book reviews here at Born To Ride magazine and television.