What's that phrase and what does it mean?.

[Welsh Al]

Winter Hack.

A bike that you can ride through the winter.

Winter riding does awful things to bikes. For a start, there's almost as much rain as during the average British summer, so the bike doesn't get a rest.

After spending twice as long as usual getting home because it gets dark at 4pm and your visor mists up and the rain makes all the lights look like multi-coloured daffodils through the plastic and you're scared of all the slitppery surfaces, sorry roads, the last thing you want to do is wash all the mud and crud and road salt off the poor machine.
So the salt corrodes even more of the good looks away.

Some bikes make good winter hacks because they can do the job of getting you there and back, they start in all weathers, they don't break down and they have servicing schedules like Ukrainian tractors.

Some bikes make good winter hacks because they are cheap and regardless of how they perform you could bin them in April and you'd not lose as much money as re-chroming your Harley.

Some bikes make good winter hacks because they are solid and dependable but also big and comfortable for you in your 25 layers, they take big luggage and handle the extra charge of higher powered headlights and heated grips in their stride, oh and they have shaft drive and hoooooj fairings so you get less wind and rain in the first place.

Some people like crusty rusty old 125s for winter, because when you drop them, they bounce. And you can pick them up. Easily.

Some like tall bikes with mini fairings like TDMs or Tigers or R80/100 GS-PDs or KLE500s or Transalps. The adventure bikes. Mainly becuse you get a better view of the road, they have bigger engines and so can take the extra load of heated kit, and the upright stance on the bike is easier when you're dolled up like the Michelin Man (whose name is Bibendum btw, like the wine merchant )

Mostly, though, a winter hack is to save your sunshine-gal from the salt, the rain, the mud, the drops and the extra mileage.

[Welsh Al]

A scottoiler.

A Scottoiler is one of the, now numerous, products available to lube your chain as you  ride.
By attaching a small device to the bike and running a tube from a reservoir to the chain, small amounts of oil are dripped onto the chain as you ride.

Normal lubing of the chain can result in a lot of waste as the lube gets thrown off, and not a lot of success as the lube can't be garanteed to have reached all the bits.

That said, if you lube every night, you'll probably get the same results.

Benefits include longer chain life and greater confidence in chain integrity.
Disadvantages include cost of purchase and fitting (unless you DIY).

Most often used by those who do mucho mileage but don't want to transfer to shaft-drive.

[Plewsy]

A grand posting Welsh Al Don't forget the motorcycle is a machine and should be well oiled
I love the old army saying "if it don't move paint it!!, if it do move oil it!!"

[Welsh Al]

Final Drive - Shafties, belts, chains and sprockets.

This might be a bit obvious, so I apologise if it's patronising.

The final drive of a bike can be made in one of three ways.

The shaft drive option is similar to a car, in that from the end of the gearbox shaft, you get a metal shaft running along the bike to the back wheel.

Some manufacturers like BMW have made this shaft substitute for the swingarm. See how there's nothing on this side of the rear wheel?.

That's because it's all on the otherside; the swingarm and the shaft drive are combined.


Some bikes hide the shaft drive, as can be seen with this Kawasaki GTR1000


The benefits of shaft drive include zero maintenance (you can top up the grease via grease nipples, but don't need to do it anywhere near as often as chains need lubricating) and the consequent drop in mess (no oil being clung around under the bike) and increase in reliability.
The disadvantages include increased costs (which means they are usually to be found on relatively-expensive tourers) and weight (which means the bikes don't handle as well as those with lighter solutions).

Belt drive has been around for a while. The ubiquitous Honda C90 Cub, for years the UK's best-selling bike, was belt driven.
This Buell uses a toothed belt, like most Harleys.


The benefit of a toothed belt (and that las pic is not of a bike's sprockets, which have walls on the side to prevent slide) is that it's stronger than a chain and lighter and doesn't need to be lubricated. Also, the sprockets wear better, and so need changing less often, and the belts don't stretch as chains can, and don't slip.
A good bit on a Buell and a side-article can be found here at mtoorcyclestoday.com

Chains and sprockets are the norm for motorcycles.


They can be supplied in one continuous loop or with a link missing.


When you buy a chain, it'll probably come in a box wiht a link missing.


There are two different ways of installing the missing link.


Sorry.


This is a split link. The C shaped outer spring finds grooves in the link that's inserted through to two ends of the chain.
This is an easy way to join a chain, but it's not going to last very long and won't stand up to massive strain, so isn't recommended for bikes over 400cc or sports bikes over 250cc.


This is a rivet link. The open ends are finished in a softer metal which will deform when a special tool is used.


You can do it the old fashioned way and bash the offending ends with a succession of pin punches, but it's not advised.

Rivet-linked chains are much stronger, and so can stand up to large reansfers of energy, so suiting powerful engines, and have a greater tolerance of user-neglect.

All chains need to be lubricated, or lubed

so that the little bits of metal and rubber don't wear out too quickly and seize the link.

You can use oil or scottoilers(other products are available) or you can use a lubricant spray.


Aerosolised sprays are very popular, but there are other options. It puts a thick goo onto the chain which should coat the links and protect the rubber rings. The more flexible a chain is, the more efficiently it will transmit the power, and the longer it will last.

The less often a chain is lubricated, the more likely a link will seize. Seized links are bad, m'kay?. They can break, and then the chain can ruin your day. Broken chains can smash engines apart. They can smash legs apart. They can lock wheels and cause a crash, m'kay, so let's lube, m'kay?.

The American website www.canyonchasers.net has some good stuff on this.

Chains and sprockets must be regularly checked for wear.


A badly worn sprocket can have a chain jump off, locking the rear wheel and that's just going to ruin your trousers.

Chains need to be adjusted by lengthening the distance between the rear wheel and the gearbox sprocket.

This is done at the end of the swingarm, where can usually be found the chain adjusters.

Some are like this where you move the bolt to move the rear wheel spindle, and so the rear wheel.




Some are like this, eccentric adjusters.


Aftermarket options are available

[Welsh Al]

A good addage, Plewsy.

I forgot to post that the inspiration for this idea was www.dansmc.com a great website telling you how to do the stuff you can read about in a Haynes manual.

[tomfgd]

A scottoiler.

A Scottoiler is one of the, now numerous, products available to lube your chain as you  ride.
By attaching a small device to the bike and running a tube from a reservoir to the chain, small amounts of oil are dripped onto the chain as you ride.

Normal lubing of the chain can result in a lot of waste as the lube gets thrown off, and not a lot of success as the lube can't be garanteed to have reached all the bits.

That said, if you lube every night, you'll probably get the same results.

Benefits include longer chain life and greater confidence in chain integrity.
Disadvantages include cost of purchase and fitting (unless you DIY).

Most often used by those who do mucho mileage but don't want to transfer to shaft-drive.

 Lubetronic,

 Same as above but is wired into your electrical sytem rather than hacked into your vacume pipe (a la scottoiler) & so dosnt invalidate your warrenty if you do it yourself.

[Welsh Al]

Imports.

Not all bikes made in the world are available around the world as a matter of course.
Japanese manufacturers in particular are want to make smaller versions of bikes we only see as 600/750/1000cc models.
You might find it strange that there would be both a 600cc and a 1000cc version of the Honda Hornet, but a 400cc and a 250cc version too?.

This is because in Japan the licensing laws dictate that you be limited to bikes of specific engine size, and so in trying to encourage brand loyalty, the manufacturers are convinced that they can keep you on the same model, despite the changes in size.

We do see quite a lot of imports in terms of 400cc bikes, as their low seat-height and weight make them most suitable for learners, ladies and the vertically challenged.
They also make good race bikes and handy road tools for learning about corners without the extra weight or cost of a 600cc bike or bigger.

There are three types of imported bike, Official, Grey and Parallel.

Officially imported bikes are covered by manufacturer warranties, dealer servicing, an official parts service and integrated compatibility with our type approval laws (which bikes need to pass to be road legal).

Parallel imports are the same models, ie a Z750 from Belgium, but not an official UK model.
The advantage is usually only one of price. Bikes are not the same price everywhere, indeed some bikes in the USA are the same price there as they are here, only it's in Dollars not Sterling so they are in effect half price (ignoring the vagaries of international money market exchange rates and domestic taxation). You might be able to get the bike into the country via customs, shipping and taxes and still come out ahead of the game.
The bikes will be mechanically almost identical. In this day and age of electrickery, you don't even have to change the speedometer or stick an MPH sticker on top, you just reset the instruments to MPH from KPH.

The downside is that the manufacturer does not have to honour the warranty, so if anything goes wrong or if there's a model recall, you'll have to pay for the repairs or changes.
Dealers may refuse to work on the bike; although this is rare, it can happen.
The second hand price should be consequently lower, but only if the buyer finds out that the bike is a parallel import.

Taxation shouldn't be affected, but imsurance may be higher, depending on the company and the bike. Most insurance companies make no distinction, as the mechanical risk is unchanged.

Grey imports are bikes which were never meant to come to this country.

They include bikes of irrelevant engine sizes or styles or models which conflict with existing brand models or domestic laws.

There is a significant market for rare bikes and as such odd models can be sought after for their individuality or for their performance issues.

In some cases, domestic emissions laws prevent the official importation of bikes, ie two stroke engines are banned in California (which is why there's no 125 and 250cc GP racing at Laguna Seca when MotoGP goes there).
Most Japanese bikes that are made for Japan are not type-approved for the UK, which is not to say that they are dodgy, but that the tests simply haven't been undertaken. We don't buy enough bikes for, say, Honda to bring 5 different 250cc bikes, 8 400cc bikes and the usual 600cc, 750cc and 1000cc models over.

These bikes, being meant for other countries, often have little or no English language support. The most popular bikes, like Honda's  400cc bikes, can become so popular that such support becomes viable. Some are so popular that the manufacturers take the plunge and officially import the bikes for a while to test the waters.

Often, though, parts and experience are rare. Prices are independent of the domestic market, with generalised prices dependent on past sales more than economic factors, but supply and demand often create more extreme variations.

It is more often the Japanese bikes that are most different, and with the Chinese markets notwithstanding, the main source of grey imports. They offer some truly fascinating options, especially if the height of official bikes is a problem. Average body build in Japan is growing but is still not as tall or heavy as our own, so every type of bike from cruisers to sports bikes to motocrossers have low seat height options, even if this involves smaller capacity engines.

Again, taxation is unchanged, although the smaller engines have meant the lower tax bands apply.
Insurance is difficult to compare as the very nature of a grey import means that there are less comparisons to be made to UK bikes.
The very rare and valuable or performance orientated bikes might command quite a premium, but the lower engine capacity of most choices mitigates the rise.
Some grey imports, like the 400cc sports bikes, are so well-known and common (some were officially imported for a while, and most have a considerable fanbase) that insurance prices are unremarkable.

But by heck, can those bikes be fun 

[Welsh Al]

A Tank Slapper.

A tank slapper is the unloved phenomenon of the front of the bike oscillating violently from side to side, making the handle bars slap the tank.

This is usually only a problem for sports bikes with sharp steering geometry and weight over the front for reasons of handling.

The 'sharp steering geometry' refers to the angle of the forks; steeper angles as found on sports bikes will give more responsive steering, whereas less corner-focussed bikes like choppers tend to have a greater angle, so making the forks look like they are leaning back further.

Ripples or bumps in the surface of the road, chassis geometry, suspension settings or weight transfer under acceleration can create a tanks slapper or make it worse, but it's seldom found on any bike but race reps.

[Welsh Al]

Stoppies, Wheelies, skids, slides and burnouts.


There's a whole world of stunts out there and a whole world of stunt riders. If you get the chance to Youtube for them, I'd give it a go. One of the GhostRider DVDs has a Finnish stunt competition at the end, and it's ace.

In the real world though, you're only likely to encounter the above just before you start swearing. None of them do you any good unless you account for the pleasure of the soul. Until you start racing.

Stoppies are wheelies in reverse, in every sense.



You need good front suspension and sharp brakes do this, as you have to move your weight forward and brake heavily to overcome the weight at the back of the bike.
It's very dangerous, as you have to have an excellent sense of balance to stop the back end stepping out.

A rolling stoppie is just that, a stoppie with the bike still rolling forward.

But then they can go awfully wrong.

Everyone knows what a wheelie is.


There are two different ways of getting the front up; power and guile.

Some bikes are so powerful that you twist the throttle and the engine puts out more power than the weight of the bike can counter, and the front lifts up.

The second involves guile, or tricking the bike into lofting the front.
You can try bouncing the front up off a bump and twisting the throttle, you can try flicking the clutch briefly but in a controlled way and twisting the throttle, or you can move your weight back on the bike, pull violently and twist the throttle.


Again, things can go awfully wrong with this too.


Skids you know about. Brake hard, the tyre loses traction with the road and you leave the rubber on the ground.

Drifting or power-sliding is a tactic that was moved from speedway or American dirt track to the Grand Prix bike racing by Kenny Roberts in the 70s to counter the appalling handling of the bikes of the day. Instead of trying to get the machines to turn on their wobbly suspension and pitiful tyres with the all-or-nothing engines threatening nuclear obliteration of the apex and a resulting high-side, a speedway-esque slide was initiated, allowing a rally-car like drift to iron out the problems in the technology-application interface.


Gary McCoy is an Aussie rider famous for it, but also in the  MotoGP era also famous for discovering that spinning the rear wheel through the corner didn't actually destroy the tyre, it just wore the top layer a bit more. Add more layers and it became not only a viable technique, but a valuable skill and selling point.
It's not dead in lower formulae though, as it's quite an indispensable tactic for Supermoto, and can still be seen when WSB boys have to make do without the autopilot.

A burnout is like a skid, but you don't go anywhere. A handful of revs, dump the throttle and off you go.

A rolling burnout is in between a burnout and power-sliding or drifting, in that it's not used for direction change, just for the aesthetic. High-sides are common, and the melted rubber flung from the tyre can be very hard to clean off...

[Welsh Al]

Highsides and Lowsides.

There are two ways of losing traction in otherwise perfect conditions, and more often than not they are caused by the perfect conditions; some riders don't know their limits.

The highside flips you off the bike, high into the air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cV0J2qFnbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzsScCnW9AA&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KREIjnk6jTI&mode=related&search=

Usually caused by too much throttle on a cold tyre or a slippery road, you go into a corner and get past the apex just fine, but with either too much throttle or applying the throttle in a harsh and uncontrolled way, the rear tyre breaks traction enough to slide sideways a bit, but then finds traction and in biting the road again spits you off.
Sometimes, you don't get thrown completely off, but it's luck and you shouldn't try to hold on; it's not advised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNHx0U2CPrE&mode=related&search=


You don't have to be on a Fireblade for this to happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njmX7IGO8rQ&mode=related&search=


Originally, the term lowside described the loss of traction at the back of the bike that didn't result in a highside, you just went down, but today it is usually used to describe losing the front or the back.
If you pile into a corner, you'll load the front suspension and tyre. Then turning adds its little twist of the knife and you can go down hard.
Other than that, if you lose the back on the throttle whilst sideways but the tyre does not regain grip, you can wash out that way too.

[Welsh Al]

Tram-lining.

Have you ever had the disconcerting feeling that although you'd like to be in control of where you're going and how, the aspiration isn't met with application?.

Sometimes our roads are less than perfect, and there can be longitudinal as well as latitudinal ridges that conspire to provide a minor rut which your front wheel, being narrower and having a more angular profile than the rear, will find it harder to leave than to follow.

Sometimes white lines can do the same, but in general, Tram Lining is the phenomenon whereby the bike feels like it's stuck in tram lines and you can't get it out.

Don't worry though, a bit of counter steering does the trick.

Leaning won't, so if you're worried when it happens, that's probably because you're trying to lean to move and that doesn't work and you assume that more lean is needed but leaning didn't work this time so you need more lean and if that doesn't work then you're going to be leaning too far and you'll fall over and 'have an off', or crash.
Don't panic, it'll be fine, you'll cope and be back in time for X Factor.

[Welsh Al]

Getting your knee down.



There are online guides to getting your knee down and videos which show it being done all over the place.

Jarno Saarinen was attributed the originator of the knee-down strategy, followed by King Kenny Roberts, who looked at everything and tried to make it better.

It was born of improvements in tyre and suspension technology, allowing for more grip and better energy management in corners.

As can be seen from the above picture, getting your knee down involves moving your bum off the side of the seat.

Corners mean leaning the bike over, and with you on top of the bike, that's a lot of weight that has to be moved from side to side. It's also a lot of weight for the suspension to have to deal with.

By moving your weight to the inside of the bike, you lower the combined center of gravity and by adding the weight to the side of the bike rather than the top, you allow the bike to stay more upright than it would otherwise be able to cope with. In this way, the suspension has an easier time dealing with the undulations of the tarmac, the bike has a larger contact area of tyre working on the tarmac and you are a now a hero for leaving bits of plastic on the apex.

Knee sliders


go on the knees of your leathers.


More often than not they have a velcro backing so that you can change them either for a different aesthetic or when they wear out.

They are not only there to stop you getting hurt. The material you use for a slider is relative to the style of your riding and the tarmac you're on.

That picture is a slider made of Titanium, which as well as being light is very hard. This means that it's not likely to create much friction, and will skate over the tarmac like a member of the dPVA (de Puniet Victim's Association).
This means that if you want to use your knee to hold the bike upright in a corner, like Rossi saving a slide at Donnington in the wet, the slider does just that and doesn't grip like a brake pad.

Some prefer to use leather sliders for a more 'grabby' feel. I don't know why. Ask them. It probably smells nice.

Plastic is the more usual material, as it's cheaper to produce and easier to fashion in different shapes, patterns and colours.


You can drill small holes in the sliders and insert cigarette lighter flints to create sparks when your slider touches down. There are kits specifically made for this.
The Police might not like it, so you have been warned, but it does look good.

Some riders like getting the bike so far over that they need sliders on their boots to protect the toes.



Some go so far that they need sliders on their elbows.


It is a good photo, but it could be argued that getting a bike that leant-over detracts from the corner speed and so is more for show than for go.
It's quite a badge to have on your jumper though.

As is getting your knee down on a 125. Two-up...

[Bird]

Sorry for dragging up an 18 month old thread (it is a sticky though ), but could somebody explain what two stroke and four stroke means? I looked on Wiki but you'd need an engineering degree to understand it, and I wanted more of what the characteristics of both were, as well as an overall general technical explanation...

Thanks 

[motobiker]

in essence 2 stroke means the engine is lubed by oil thats added to the fuel and burnt.

4 stroke.. the oil flows around the engine lubeing and cooling it. very little if any gets burnt.


aside from that a 2 stroke does all the work in 2 movements (one produces power - the other doesn't).. whereas a 4 stroke needs 4. (one - power 3 that don't)  so in the real world this means a 2 stroke produces more motive power than a 4 stroke.. (which makes 3 movements with no 'power' involved.)

does that make sense?

[Captain Hook]

2 strokes are also lighter and can be built smaller than a 4-stroke which is why you see them on the smallest bikes, lawn mowers and model airplanes.

[Mr Mandy]

Also, 2-stroke engines have a power to weight ratio of about 3-4 times the equivalent capacity 4 stroke engine

[Frevrod]

4 stroke cycle=
Compress fuel mixture in barrel as piston moves up
Expansion as mixture is ignited (power stroke)
Exhaust gasses forced out as piston moves up again
Piston down movement sucks fresh fuel/air mix into chamber ready for next compression stroke

If I remember right during a 2 stroke cycle :-
Fuel mix is sucked in below the piston during compression stroke while the exhaust gasses are expelled during the power stroke.

I'm ready to stand corrected though.

[Bird]

Good grief 

Thanks guys, although it makes my head hurt.

I hear people talking fondly of the whiff of two-stroke and wondered what I was missing 

[jonfp]

Here you go.


a 2 stroke at work.

Poetry in motion and a giggle to ride.

[Wheelspin]

I hear people talking fondly of the whiff of two-stroke and wondered what I was missing 

The "whiff" comes from the un-burnt fuel/air mix escaping from the exhaust as you can see in Jon's little animation.

[jonfp]

I hear people talking fondly of the whiff of two-stroke and wondered what I was missing 

The "whiff" comes from the un-burnt fuel/air mix escaping from the exhaust as you can see in Jon's little animation.

Add the smell of the two stroke oil. Castrol-R is my favourite, I have heard that someone is adding strawberry and vanilla essences into the oil. I'd love to try that out.

[tomfgd]

SMIDSY = Sorry Mate I Didnt See You, the phrase often quoted by the car driver who has just pulled out in front of you from a junction.

SNOD = Sidways Nod, used by the posers among us (me included) who think the normal biker nod is a bit to passe.

[Booski]

lol me and my wifey do a "dual nod" as we have comms we both nod at same time...

Well makes us laugh anyhows.

[Matt 82]

Chicken strips?

[pjas1969]

Chicken strips?

I think that's when most of the tyre wear occurs on the central strip of the tyre only (in other words - and by implication, you're not brave enough to lean the bike through the corners).

Paul

[Grumble]

Small pieces of chicken breast coated in either batter or breadcrumbs then deep fried. Often served with some form of dipping sauce.

[Grumble]

Oh, those chicken strips.

[supZ]

I think that's when most of the tyre wear occurs on the central strip of the tyre only (in other words - and by implication, you're not brave enough to lean the bike through the corners).

Paul

well thats certainly not the clearest explaination i've ever read

chicken strips are the 'strips' of unused tyre edge. indicating the rider is too 'chicken' to lean right over to the edges of the tyres.

[pjas1969]

well thats certainly not the clearest explaination i've ever read

Don't know why you had a difficulty - I covered exactly the same points you did, but gave a bit more depth to the response.

[Matt 82]

Yeah I understood you Paul.  Cheers mate.