Better Riding part two: confidence

From being comfortable on your machine to anticipating potential hazards, here's instalment two of our 10-part guide to being a smarter biker

Confidence. It’s what the top riders bemoan a lack of after a poor race performance or are brimming with after a heroic win. But confidence affects all of us every time we hop on a bike, wether we’re going for a lap of Oz or a skinny cappuccino. But there’s more to it than that, as confidence begins to builds well before we ride out onto the road.

Following on from the first Better Riding article, we now have a bike that suits us individually. The next step is to show the same care to ourselves.

KIT AND KABOODLE

The law says you have to wear a helmet that confirms to a certain standard. But is that all it does? You should be looking for the best home for the most important part of your body. Your type of bike and riding style will dictate what style of helmet – open or full-faced – that you end up with, but the old Bell helmets adage of “If you have a $10 head, wear a $10 helmet” still rings true.

If that $50 eBay German paratrooper piss-pot lights your fire then good luck to you – and you’ll need all that luck if the halfwit in the Mazda 2 pulls out on your fancy-dressing ass.

So take a look at your current helmet. Is it damaged, has the lining lost its comfort, does the visor look like an ice-skaters’ practice rink? Do you trust it 100 percent? If there’s any doubt, start looking for a new one now. A helmet might be the only legal clothing requirement, but common sense says that an armoured jacket, gloves and boots are a minimum for each ride.

Kevlar jeans – or leathers – are also a good idea but there’s a fine line between protection and over-heating on a summer’s day and losing concentration. In the UK, I only wore racing leathers for years (obviously only when I was on the bike!). Over here, a textile jacket has taken their place for most shortish journeys. It’s a personal risk exercise. After all, you can safely ride naked on every journey that you don’t have a crash on. Just watch ya dangly bits on that exhaust…

If you only ride on summer days, a tinted visor should be a must. Not only does it hide a wonky eye and your Nike-tick eyebrows, it’ll protect from glare and sudden changes in light. Clear visors and sunglasses means there’s always a danger of the glasses’ frame blocking a vital early-warning sign.

Earplugs are essential on long journeys so you can hear your family sing “Happy 80th birthday you old bugger” to you.

As far as bike clothing goes, it’s as important to be comfortable as protected. When that mix is right, the confidence flows in spades.

FEEDING THE MACHINE

With you ready for your fastest lap ever/trip to the café, it’s now time to make sure the bike’s ready to rip. Tyres have a nasty habit of loosing pressure without looking flat at a standstill. Just a couple of psi drop can change a sweet-handling bike into a chopper and have you second-guessing your ability to ride the thing. Uneven tyre wear always indicates a problem with wheels, frame, brakes or suspension. Don’t avoid these signs. If in doubt, ask someone who knows.

Look around the bike – any fluid leaks? Leaking petrol on the tyres will have you down faster than a toddler learning to walk. Oil leaks can do the same and wreck your engine just to add insult to gravel rash. Makes sure the chain’s lubed and has the correct slack, and check the brakes for pad thickness, fluid level and operation.

A good trick is to wheel your bike out of where you park it – that way you can hear the grating and grinding that the sound of the engine might otherwise mask. Then check you have enough fuel to get to the nearest servo.

Start the engine and let it warm up until it’s off choke. Check the engine oil level. All good? Then hop on, get comfortable and look forward to the ride. Because that’s where (after nearly 2000 words of preamble) we’re off to next. Bring it on!

BIO

It took 16 years for him to swing a lanky leg over a motorcycle but Martin ‘Wild’ Child’s been swinging a leg over ever since. After four UK club meets on a Kawasaki KR1, he quickly realised that his lofty ambition and lowly bank account were incompatible for his entry into MotoGP and became a professional stunt rider instead. He was spied at one of his shows and asked to do a spot of testing. This led to his gig as Road Test Editor on the UK’s No. 1 magazine, Bike, which in turn lead to him living the dream and sharing the track with Rossi and co (although in a support race on a BMW Boxer Cup bike).

He had one go at the Isle of Man TT races, lapping at 115mph on a bog-stock 2000 model year FireBlade and is still the fastest journalist around the 37.73-mile course. He also went to a little place called Australia and rode around a quaint track called Bathurst, partnering some bloke called Jamie Stauffer. Living in gridlocked Sydney, he chooses a bike over a car any day.

Throughout his career, he’s ridden hundreds of thousands of miles (and kilometres) over much of the globe on tarmac, dirt, snow and water. Not bad for someone just over 25!

Better Riding part one: in the shed

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Better Riding part two: confidence

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