CYCLE WISDOM
1. A 'good' ride is
one you can walk away from. A 'great'
ride is one you can walk away from and still be able to
use the bike again.
2. Every ride is optional.
3. If you push the bars
left, the bike goes left. If you push
the bars right, the bike goes right. That is, unless you continue pushing the bars
all the way, then the bike will go down.
4. Riding a motorcycle
isn't dangerous. Crashing one is.
5. It's always better
to be on the sidelines wishing you were on the track than on
the track wishing you were on the sidelines.
6. The only time you
have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
7. The rear wheel is
just a big fan on back of the bike used to keep the rider
cool and his/her butt relaxed. Going into
a corner too fast and slamming on the rear brake causes the "fan"
to abruptly stop. When this happens
you can actually see the rider start sweating and his/her butt become
tense.
8. When in doubt slow
down. No one has ever hit anything too
slowly.
9. Always learn from
the mistakes of others. You won't live
long enough to make them all yourself.
10. You'll know you've
left the side stand down when all left turn are Bat-turns
and you'll know you've left the center stand down when you're in 1st
gear at 4000 rpm, going nowhere.
11. Never let a motorcycle
take you somewhere your brain didn't get to at least
three seconds earlier.
12. Always try to keep
the number of times you put your side stand down equal to the
number of times you put the side stand up.
13. There are two simple
rules for riding smoothly and fast in snow and on ice. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.
14. You start with a
bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience
before you empty the bag of luck.
15. If all you can see
in your mirrors is sparks and all you can hear is screaming
from your passenger, things may not be as they should be.
16. In the ongoing battle
between objects made of metal, rubber and fiberglass
going 100+ miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour,
the ground has yet to lose. (Same goes
for cars, large trucks, and animals taller than you. Draws don't count.)
17. Good judgment comes
from experience. Unfortunately, experience
usually comes from bad judgment.
18. Keep looking around.
There's always something you've missed.
19. Remember, gravity
and centrifugal force are not just good ideas.
They're laws and are not subject to appeal.
20. The two most useless
things to a rider are the braking distance behind you and
nine-tenths of a second ago.