Motorcycle Riding Tips — Ride Relaxed
You’ve heard all the benefits:
1. Better control of the bike (immediate).
2. Less fatigue during the ride (today).
3. Prevention of damage to your body (tomorrow).
Yet, still, when you do a posture check, you discover your elbows locked, your hands tight on the grips and your shoulders up around your ears.
Why can’t you remember to ’stay loose on the bike’?
You know that for some reason the bike’s handling instantly improves with a slight bend in the elbows and an intentional decrease in tension.
Make a habit of consciously relaxing as you encounter any road conditions which seem to make you tense: poor road surface, a sharp turn, steep downhill. You can do it when you are aware you will become tense, and learn to predict when it is most severe (and most disadvantageous).
See a steep, downhill gravel section coming up?
You have three options:
…grit it out with a death grip on the bars, arms straight
…relax and ease through the section, keeping your eyes far ahead
…turn around.
Your choice partner.
Pete Tamblyn
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Re–Riding Relaxed–You’re right…I am a new woman rider (licensed-60 yrs old) still practicing on a 250 Nighthawk and find my neck sticking out and my shoulders hunched like an old buzzard. Part of it is the size of the bike as I am taller (5′8″)–and part is just being tense!!
I feel also, speaking on another subject, exactly what the instructors always say….that women have to deal with (over?) solicitiousness and a slightly condescending attitude that their boyfriend, husband, brother, etc, might have if they are teaching. I find it makes me very selfconscious when riding and almost wish I could just go on my own…that will be soon. It’s not my bike (too poor ) so I have had no choice. Soon I will be able to afford my own…
I didn’t have the chance (and probably never will) to learn from a professional but I feel that it is the best road for a woman to take when at all possible. ..if not, be prepared to feel a little inadequate at times. Just persevere !