So You Want To Get A Motorcycle

This is meant to be an introduction to motorcycles for total beginners. Please share with all the noobs in your life who might want to get a motorcycle. And of course if you have any questions, corrections or ideas for inclusion, please post in the comment section or email clay@streetspiritcycles.com.

“What are you, out of your MIND? Didn’t I ever tell you about my cousin’s friend’s uncle who lost it on a patch of grass clippings and had to lay’er down? He’s got a metal plate in his head now and one leg’s six inches shorter than the other. Don’t you know those things are DANGEROUS?”

If you announce to your loved ones that you plan to buy a motorcycle, you will no doubt hear some variation of that – and for good reason! They care about you and they don’t want to see you messed up for life or worse. It’s been said that “motorcycling is not inherently dangerous. It is, however, extremely unforgiving of inattention, ignorance, incompetence, or stupidity.”

I think that somewhat undersells the sheer randomness of riding on the road. You can be fully in control of yourself, but other people may be out to lunch, piloting their multi-ton vehicles with no regard for your exposed squishy body. And there’s always the little devil sitting on your shoulder tempting you to give that right hand a little extra twist.

So is this even worth it? Heck yes. I promise we’ll get to the good stuff.

But First Some Stats

They say there are old riders and bold riders, but no old bold riders. With time, we all either get smart or exit the riding population in an ambulance.

Riding a motorcycle is roughly 30x more dangerous per mile than driving a car, which is already one of the more dangerous things humans do.

Your first couple months of riding are by far the most dangerous time, but there’s another blip at around 18 months, which looking back is about where I thought to myself “I’ve got this thing all figured out – time to get a faster bike and have some real fun.”

Assuming you survive the first couple of years, accident rates go way down.

It’s also worth noting that in about 40% of fatal motorcycle crashes, the rider isn’t wearing a helmet, and in about half, the rider is intoxicated.

Roughly a quarter are single vehicle crashes – the rider went too hot into a corner and found “the edge.”

Of the rest, a majority take place at intersections where cars are prone to pulling out in front of bikes that have the legal right of way.

It’s so common there’s even a name for this crash, the “SMIDSY” which stands for “Sorry man, I didn’t see you.” You can get a good summary of research on the subject of motorcycle crashes from the ironically named Hurt Report if you want to know more.

If you are going to take anything away from this article, it’s to ride sober, respect the learning curve, wear a helmet, and WATCH OUT FOR THE LEFT HOOK.

Learning How Not To Ride

Before you go down to your local Big Bob’s Bike Emporium and pick out a brand new crotch rocket, there’s some basic work you need to do. First of all, Youtube is a great resource, and I’m not just talking about the instructional videos – I’m talking about destruction.

I like to spend some time every now and then watching “crashes and close calls” compilations, of which there are many. They gives you a good sense of what to look out for on the road and how quickly things can go wrong:

Spend a couple of hours crawling through those videos, and not only will any testicles that you poses retract completely inside your body, you’ll begin tuning your risk detector. You will come away with a better feel for the pinch points, blind spots, and hidden trouble on the road. You will start to get it into your head that cars are not looking for and often cannot see you at all.

The next step is to find a local rider training organization. In the US, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation runs most of these group classes (often through local community colleges) but sometimes there are private classes or rider training events hosted by dealerships as well. They are usually 2-3 days, and cost around $300 including the bike rental. You’ll probably be expected to show up with a helmet, jacket, boots and gloves as well, though all but the helmet can be “regular clothes” – you won’t need to shell out for expensive riding gear just yet and we’ll talk more about gear below. In many jurisdictions, a certificate of completion is required to get a motorcycle endorsement on your license, and it’s good fun and good practice regardless.

If you don’t actually like riding or don’t have the knack for it, better to find out now before you’ve invested a lot more time and money into the endeavor.

Ok, so you did the little class, went down to the DMV, passed the written test and got your coveted “M Endorsement.” At this point you’ve mostly been taught what not to do. You’ll basically be able to operate the controls and exit a parking lot without embarrassing yourself, but now you have to go out in real traffic and climb the very steep learning curve.

This is the part where you’ll probably scare yourself a few times doing noob shit.

As soon as you start to get a bit confident and begin to explore your local “fun roads,” you’ll get to experience the exquisite horror of an overcooked turn, where you realize far too late that you should have been going 15 instead of 50 because the corner gets tighter past the apex or is strewn with gravel or a Kenworth is barreling toward you with 9 of its big black and chrome wheels on your side of the double yellow line.

But there are some more exotic ways to soil your pants as well.

“Whiskey throttle” is this thing where the weight transfer of the accelerating motorcycle throws you backward, and as you cling desperately to the bars, you give it way more gas than you intended before slamming into something or entering a terminal power wheelie known as a “loop.”

The opposite mistake is grabbing a handful of brake in a panic, at which point depending on the condition of the road and your front tire, the bike will either disappear out from under you or stand up on the front wheel and launch you over the bars like a meat missile.

And depending on the age and decrepitude of your motorcycle, there are a whole host of mechanical failures that could crop up.

Sudden tire blow outs are inconvenient in a car but disastrous on a motorcycle.

A drive chain that snaps under load is a terrifying thing – it can wrap around the swingarm and lock your back wheel instantly, or just flail around destroying everything in a 3ft radius.

Oil or gas leaks can cause a loss of traction, a vigorous fire between your legs, or both at once.

And then there’s the fun of taking off with the kickstand down and finding out in the middle of the first left turn.

You will also probably drop your motorcycle on the ground at least once just sitting in traffic or wheeling it around the garage.

But the biggest thing you have to get used when you start spending real time on the road is that many car drivers literally will not see you or be aware of your existence AT ALL. Loud pipes and bright colors can’t hurt, but you should still ride like you’re invisible. If you don’t expect the “cagers” to look up from their phones and see you, at least you won’t be surprised when one pulls out in front of you. Give yourself options. Move around in the lane, stand up on the pegs, duck down and look through cars that might be obstructing your view. Don’t assume they’re going to stop or wait for you to pass – take evasive action.

It’s probably going to be scary at first, but you will get the hang of it. If you keep practicing, you’ll learn to hang on with your knees, make your control inputs smooth and precise, anticipate danger, and properly judge your corner entry speed. You’ll go faster, brake harder and lean deeper than you ever thought possible. But it takes time in the saddle.

Big Fast Bikes

All of the mistakes above are 100x more expensive and painful if you are on a big, heavy, powerful, complicated, vintage or expensive motorcycle. Do not allow yourself to be seduced by the Ducati marketing department. You do not need a 200hp $30,000 first motorcycle. You do not need something that weighs 800 lbs. You should not buy a piece of motorcycle history or a bike you’ve coveted since childhood. You do not want to learn to ride on a “chopper” or any other kind of custom.

These are your 2nd, 3rd, 10th bikes. Remember, the correct number of motorcycles to own is n+1 motorcycles where n is the current number of motorcycles in your garage.

Many motorcycles on the market and available to purchase by anyone with a pulse are deadly serious machines, with supercar level acceleration and top speeds north of 200mph. But it wasn’t always this way.

From the earliest days of the motorcycle, it was considered totally normal for 16yo new riders to walk into the dealership and buy the fastest bike their budget would allow. The industry (particularly in the US market) quickly abandoned any pretense of building practical machines for everyday transportation because it was more profitable to sell the outlaw image of speed, freedom and badassery. They were marketing sex appeal, and your manhood was in question if you weren’t on the hot new machine. Racing was a big driver of sales, and the old adage at dealerships was “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.”

And this mostly worked out fine because the bikes were just so incredibly slow.

It was considered a major feat of daring and motorcycle tuning during the heyday of the British café racers to “do the ton” or cross the 100mph mark.

Everything changed around 1970 with the arrival of big 4 Japanese makers whose entry into the market kicked off a period known as the “horsepower wars.” Thanks to their competition and innovation, engine technology made a huge leap forward and suddenly everyone could afford an insanely fast bike. Now if you walked into a dealership and wanted to be the big man of your town, you were going home on something like the Kawasaki H2, a 750cc 2 stroke triple affectionately nicknamed “The Widowmaker” for its explosive power delivery, flexible chassis and crappy brakes.

A series of increasingly ludicrous motorcycles hit the showroom floors over the next 20 years, but it took a long time for the culture to catch up to the change. The motorcycle buying public hadn’t gotten the memo that it was no longer wise for learners to purchase the fastest bikes available, and as a result, a whole generation of riders were scared off or literally killed. Bikes got a bad reputation, ridership dropped off, and much of the industry was in dire financial condition.

More recently, the industry has been on an upswing again. There are still fast bikes, but the chassis, tires, brakes, suspension and computer controls have gotten much better so you’re more likely to keep them on the road. Helmets have improved, and more people wear them. Motorcycling has internalized a healthy dose of the safetyism swirling around in mainstream culture, and manufacturers have begun producing so called “beginner bikes,” friendly, cheap, low displacement machines meant to be ridden for a season or two and passed on to the next newbie.

Shopping For Your First

You want a boring first motorcycle. Something small and light. Probably a 250. You don’t “need” any more power than that to go legal highway speeds and beyond unless you weigh more than the bike. I’ve ridden thousands of miles, over mountains, on highways, on racetracks, sometimes with a passenger on the back of various 250s. And aside from the extra work of mashing through the gears constantly, the engine was never a limiting factor. The secret is: small bikes are really fun! It truly is better to “ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow.”

If you are the type of person for whom money is no object, by all means walk into the dealership and plunk down the cash for a factory fresh motorcycle. The warranty and dealer support with maintenance and registration will certainly save some headaches. But in my view, if you can’t afford to pay cash, you can’t afford a new bike. Financing can be a good deal or not depending on your situation and the dealer’s terms, but don’t let them play the “low monthly payment” game. Too many people end up underwater on their loans, meaning they can’t sell for what’s left on the note even if the bike doesn’t suit them anymore.

I hesitate to mention it because you’ll probably end up buying way more bike than you need to learn on, but there are 2 features that would tilt me toward a new motorcycle for a first time rider. The first is antilock brakes (ABS), and the second is traction control. Combined, these systems can protect you from yourself by detecting situations when your throttle or brake inputs might cause a crash. The computer will simply override your sloppy inputs. You can arguably get away with buying a bike with a bigger engine and keeping it in “Rain Mode” or whatever the manufacturer’s most restrictive traction control setting is for the first season or two. You can expect to spend $4k for something basic, and $6k or more for something with all the electronic bells and whistles.

If you aren’t blessed with a surplus of legal tender, a used bike will do you just fine. In most areas $1-2k will buy you a decent running machine, but at the low end it might not be pretty. Budget for new tires immediately, especially if they are visibly worn down, cracked from dry rot, or more than about 5 years old. And don’t just take the lying previous owner’s word for it either – the DOT mandates the date of manufacture be stamped somewhere on the sidewall of every tire.

Ideally have the bike checked over and test ridden by somebody who knows what they’re doing, but failing that, you’ll want to go in armed with a bit of knowledge about the common issues with the bike you’re looking at (model specific forums are great) and a comprehensive used bike checklist like this one. If your state requires safety inspections, that can be a cheap and easy way to get the bike looked at, plus you’ll be less likely to discover expensive repairs as soon as you bring the bike home.

In terms of finding a used bike, Facebook Marketplace and Offerup seem to be the most active markets these days, but Craigslist or some other classified site might be more lively in your area. Most sellers still seem to want to deal in cash, so be smart about where you agree to meet up.

You’ll also want to make sure to take a hard look at the title, make sure the VIN matches the bike, that it isn’t branded Salvage or Rebuilt, and that there aren’t any liens listed. The seller will need to fill in the appropriate spots and sign to complete the transfer. You may also need a signed bill of sale to prove how much you paid so the state can collect the right amount of sales tax.

And just to make matters more difficult, some states (notably California) require the buyer to pay “back fees” if the previous owner allowed the registration to expire and didn’t list the vehicle as non-operational. These can rack up for years and sometimes the only option is to sell to someone from out of state. So check for weird local rules.

Finally, when it comes to modern motorcycles, I wouldn’t worry too much about the mileage. Most bikes die from sitting outside in the rain or being crashed, relatively few are worn out from riding. It’s also very easy to fake by swapping odometers, so I wouldn’t pay a big premium for a low mileage machine unless it’s obviously in pristine condition. You’ll usually have less trouble buying a well maintained bike with 100k miles on the clock than a bike showing 1000 miles that’s been parked in someone’s yard for a decade. Engine internals rust from condensation if the oil isn’t circulated, old gas turns to varnish in the fuel system, mice build nests in the wiring, and rubber seals degrade and disintegrate.

Beware of the old “ran when parked, just needs a new battery” story – you’re likely signing up for an expensive project, especially if you can’t do the overhaul yourself. It’s also a good idea to have the owner fire the bike up from dead cold in your presence (you can touch an exhaust pipe first) as many issues like worn engine internals or clogged fuel systems can be concealed by warming things up first. A bike with a bit of road rash or crash damage can be a good deal but make damn sure the frame and forks aren’t bent and price out any parts required to make it whole before you buy it. Sometimes fairings and other seemingly minor parts can cost shocking sums of money.

Now that you’ve found a bike and the money has changed hands, you’ve got to get it home. Dealers will obviously set you up with temporary tags, and some more trusting sellers will let you ride off into the sunset with their plates, but others may not be comfortable risking it. Plus, you may not yet feel confident enough for a long crosstown ride on a new bike. This is where the experienced buddy with a pickup truck can be very helpful, but there are other options.

If you already pay for AAA, they’ll actually tow the bike back to your house no questions asked, and around DC there are a variety of “guy with trailer” type bike towing services that usually aren’t too expensive. Renting a U-haul truck or trailer yourself is another option, but you’re going to need to shell out for a sturdy ramp and some ratchet straps. If you already own a vehicle with a Class 3 hitch, you can get a carrier like this for a little over $100 this that will let you strap it to the back.

There’s also a bit of an art to loading these things without killing yourself or destroying the bike, but it gets easier after the first few rounds. The key is to create tension from both sides and front to back with multiple straps so the suspension is a bit compressed and the bike is immobilized in all directions. It can be tough to get a strap through the forks and down to the hard points on your truck or trailer if the bike has a big fairing in the way, but these handlebar strappy things can simplify loading somewhat, and there are a variety of “trailer restraint systems” and on the market that lock onto the front wheel or foot pegs and make it really hard to screw up.

At various times I have paid sellers a bit extra for delivery, sweet talked my way into use of a Boy Scout troop’s trailer, stuffed a motorcycle sideways into the back of a friend’s Suburban, and pushed a bike home up the street, so where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Protecting Your Investment

Now that you have your license and your bike, you’re ready to ride. But wait! In most jurisdictions you need to bring proof of insurance to the DMV at the time of registration. If you financed a new fast bike even though I TOLD you not to, be prepared for an expensive shock. Full coverage is going to be required by the financing company, and for a new rider on a SuperSport, insurance is likely to be a couple thousand dollars a year depending on where you live. By contrast, if you have a cheap beginner bike, you might be able to get state-minimum “liability only” coverage for around $100 a year. Of course it’s also your problem if you wreck it or the bike disappears one night, but at least you’ll still have some money left to buy a new ride.

As for insurance companies, it makes sense to shop around as I’ve seen pricing for basically the same coverage differ by 500% or more from one carrier to the next. Don’t just assume it will be cheaper to bundle with your existing auto insurance either. For whatever reason, Geico is especially terrible in my market even though I’ve used them on my car for years. I’ve heard good things from friends about Markel, State Farm, Dairy Land and Allstate.

It’s also probably a good idea to insure yourself. If you’re an American I don’t need to tell you about the insane medical system, but I personally know people who have incurred 6 figure hospital bills after relatively minor riding accidents. Plus you might not be able to work if you’re recovering from an injury, so disability coverage can help pay the bills.

But really, if you have a family, get a term life policy. Especially if you’re young, the premiums are surprisingly cheap. Nothing can fill the hole when you’re gone, but a million dollar tax free check to your loved ones can certainly take the edge off the bad news.

We Don’t Own Bikes, We Rent Them From Thieves

If you live in a dense urban area without a secure locking garage, there’s a pretty good chance someone will try to steal your motorcycle eventually. You have to give some serious thought to theft deterrence. The sad truth is that if somebody decides to target your bike, there’s not much you can do about it. The built-in steering locks on most motorcycles are easily defeated, and the ignitions can be hotwired in seconds. Cheap battery powered angle grinders mean that the best locks will only slow down a determined attacker. And the real pros will just pick the thing up and throw it in the back of a van.

However, you can deter, frustrate and occasionally track down bike thieves with a few simple tricks. The first is a cover, just to hide what you’ve got from eyes on the street. The second is surveillance – ideally, your long term parking spot should be in a place where you or a friendly building owner has camera coverage. Next, a brake disc lock or a stout chain though the wheel (ideally attaching the bike to something immovable) can only help your chances. Finally, there are all sorts of electronic motion alarms that can at least raise a bit of a racket and sometimes include an immobilizer that prevents the bike from being started and thus ridden away.

The real trump card in the last few years is the arrival of cheap GPS trackers. They can be wired into the bike’s battery, but keep in mind that this may drain it flat fairly quickly. The best have their own internal lithium batteries and can transmit the coordinates back to your phone or send you a push notification if your bike is moved. I had high hopes for the new Apple Airtags, but it turns out they have incorporated an anti-stalking feature that notifies the thief with a text that they’re being tracked and thus allows them to remove or destroy your device. Not ideal.

Note that there are two basic species of bike thieves. The far more numerous are dumb kids who want a joyride and will often dump it in an alley near your house or try to sell it for cheap when they’re done. Then there are real professional crews who’ll have your bike on a container ship to Columbia or chopped up for parts before you even notice it’s gone.

If you are lucky enough to encounter the former and you’re able to track down your bike, either with GPS or because the idiot listed it for sale on the local classified site, the police might actually help you get it back. Otherwise, you’re pretty much S.O.L. Best not to get too attached.

Dress For The Slide

Clothing style is very personal subject, but if you spend any time in the motorcycle scene, you will encounter an “ATGATT Uncle,” typically clad in a hi-viz yellow bodysuit and riding a large touring bike, who will lecture you at length on the inadequacy of your protective gear. You will want to back away slowly and keep a careful watch on your bike, because he may attempt to affix reflective tape to it while you are not paying attention.

“ATGATT” is an acronym for “All The Gear, All The Time,” and despite the dorkiness of its most fervent adherents, it is basically sound advice. You should cover any body parts you’d like to keep with leather, Kevlar fabric or hard armor.

The most common motorcycle injury in an unplanned dismount is “road rash,” which sounds sort of minor until you imagine hot asphalt grinding one of your ass cheeks off.

You will also encounter riders for whom enhancing the danger of the motorcycle is the main goal. They will tell you all about the salutary effects of wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth. They may mock your stifling “brain bucket” or call you a pussy as they finish chugging their beer and mount up in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt. Or my personal favorite, flip-flops and shorts.

Then there are fashion bikers who treat the motorcycle like an element of their cosplay or an expensive accessory to their outfit. They often wear clothes that sort of resemble motorcycle gear without any of the protective value, or mix street clothes with proper pieces of kit for dramatic effect.

The bottom line is that there are always trade-offs in life, and the safest gear is the stuff you’ll actually want to wear. Go for maximum protection and you’ll end up with a suit of armor that is so uncomfortable, ridiculous looking and difficult to put on and take off that you’ll dread going for a ride. On the other hand, if you skimp out or skip the protective gear entirely, eventually you won’t be able to ride.

Invest in well made gear that fits properly, and it will be a pleasure to use for many years.

Motorcycle gear is also highly specialized depending on the type of riding you are doing. Understated minimalist gear for low speed city work, skintight leather suits with inflatable airbags for the track, warm rain-proof adventure touring suits, perforated leather or nylon mesh for summer, and plastic chest protectors for offroad.

If you stick with the sport, you’ll build a collection of pieces that are appropriate for every situation, but for now you just need the basics.

The first item on your shopping list is a quality full face helmet. Helmets without a face shield are ok for summer use as long as they have a chin bar if you prefer to wear prescription glasses or shades. The helmet should have DOT or ideally the more stringent SNELL or ECE certifications. This is the one item that should never be purchased secondhand as time and routine use can cause the protective material to deteriorate and cracks can form that invisibly weaken the shell so that it fails in a crash. It also needs to fit your unique head size and shape. This is probably something to buy in person at a shop, but revzilla.com and other online retailers have decent fitment guides. The bike you’re riding also matters more than you might imagine, as the location of the eye opening is higher on helmets made for road racing so that you can still see from a full tuck with your chin on the gastank.

Expect to spend $200-600 here. High end helmets have flashy graphics, softer more durable linings, better ventilation, scratch and fog resistant lenses, are quieter, smaller and lighter, and may have more durable composite shells instead of injection molded plastic. You should plan to replace it every 5 years or after any serious crash or impact to the helmet.

The next critical piece of gear is going to be the boots. You might be tempted to ride in a pair you already own, but consider that foot and ankle injuries are some of the most common. Regular boots aren’t constructed with high speed slides or impacts in mind. You also need to be able to operate the shifter and rear brake pedals and generally anchor yourself to the bike with your feet. Street shoes will be painful, unstable and clumsy. You’ll also find they’re quickly destroyed by routine use.

You want to look for moto specific boots that have reinforcement at the main bike contact points, a secure fastening system that keeps them on your feet without laces to get caught in the spinny bits, plus armor on the toes, heel and outside of the ankle bone. Serious road racing boots often have replaceable sliders and soles, and a rigid hinge structure that prevents twisting and hyperextensions. Off-road boots have a bit of extra padding and come up higher on the calf as dirt riders are crashing more often and bashing into logs and rocks constantly. All will be quite stiff and not great for walking around in, but they sure feel good on the bike. You can pick up a pair that meets all the requirements for around $100, but again, you can spend more for comfort, protection or style.

Next up are the gloves, and once again there is a bewildering array of options. Look for heavy material, a sturdy strap at the wrist, and ideally a bit of armor on the knuckles. Gauntlet style racing gloves offer the best protection, but if they feature perforated leather they are for fair weather riding only. It’s incredible how quickly the wind sucks the heat out of you in the wet or cold, and beyond a certain point it can become a real safety hazard as you will be unable to hold onto the bars. I’ve spent a few miserable rides with one hand down on the hot cylinder head just so I could warm up enough to work the clutch. For real winter riding, nothing beats heated gloves that plug into the bike or a battery pack in your pocket. You can also also save some cash and just get heated grips, but they don’t work very well. You can get a pair of basic leather mitts for about $50 but gloves with armor, insulation or heating can run up to $150 or more.

For the rest of your body, your main choice is going to be between a full suit (either a one-piece or zip together) or separate riding pants and a jacket.

No question that full suits offer better protection – there’s no gap at your waist, and they can’t get pulled out of position in a tumble. But they can be hot and cumbersome, especially if you you are using your bike for transportation and not just for fun. They do make adventure suits that are built like coveralls so you can wear them over your regular clothes, but more sport focused suits will be skin tight. They are also cut to be comfortable tucked in on a sportbike, not walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant. In theory a 2-piece zip together suit should be a good compromise, but it’s either going to fit so tight that you can’t wear street clothes underneath, or be so baggy you won’t want to wear it by itself. The wrong one can end up being the worst of both worlds. Try before you buy.

For urban riding where speeds are lower, many people give up a bit of protection in favor of separate pants and a jacket. You can now get specially lined pants with light knee armor that looks like a normal pair of jeans, but regular denim is totally useless in a crash. Might as well be naked.

Up on top, a good motorcycle jacket will be made of heavyweight leather (Kangaroo is excellent by the way) or Kevlar/Aramid reinforced textile, and will usually have at least elbow armor if not shoulder pads and a spine plate. Beware of “fashion leather” jackets from your local mall as they rarely use full thickness cowhide and certainly don’t have armor.

Both tops and bottoms will often include a zip out insulated liner that you can use in winter, but the pro move is to invest in an electrically heated vest and longjohns so the riding season never has to end.

Basic gear starts around $200 online, but in a store where you can actually try things on, you’re likely to pay twice that or more for really well made stuff. There are also a few companies offering integrated airbags built right into their suits, but they need to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair and refilling if they are ever deployed. You can also get airbag vests that are worn on the outside and are nearly as good and quite a bit cheaper. Not dumb if you plan to push your limits.

If money is really tight and you’re willing to take a bit of a gamble, Pakistan has a huge leatherworking industry, and affordable but well made jackets and pants are sold through a variety of importers (leatherup.com for example). You can also have a custom fitted suit made there for less than you might expect.

Zen And The Art Of Smashing Up Your Knuckles

I can’t cover everything you need to know about motorcycle maintenance, and will follow up with more posts on the subject. Just a few thoughts to share so that you won’t feel completely helpless with your new bike. Motorcycles have shorter service intervals than cars, there are some quirks to owning anything carbureted, and they need to be checked for safety before every ride.

Your preflight checklist is simple. Make sure your tires have the right amount of air, your chain is lubed and has correct slack, you aren’t leaking any fluids, the brakes work, and nothing is loose and about to fall off.

Get a service manual (not just the owner’s manual) for your make and model, they are readily available online and provide fairly idiot-proof instructions for fixing everything on your bike. The manual will tell you important details like how often to change your oil and what weight to use. Note that wet clutch motorcycles (that is most of them besides some older Ducatis and Moto Guzzis) require a specific grade of oil that doesn’t include the “friction modifiers” found in modern car engine oil.

If you do have a carbed bike (i.e. not fuel injected) be aware that it will need to be drained or started every couple of weeks because the gas in the float bowls will evaporate, leaving behind a sticky varnish that clogs up the fuel system. If this happens to you, a squirt of starting fluid down the intake and some carb cleaner solvent in the gas tank may get you back on the road, but if the bike sat for a long time (like over the winter), it may need a carb rebuild. Injected bikes are sealed from the atmosphere so don’t have this issue and can generally sit much longer without being ridden before varnish becomes a problem. See my winterization guide here.

Finally, start a small tool kit. Many bikes come with the basics, but if not, a set of Allen wrenches, sockets, a few screw drivers, crescent wrenches, and the handful of specialty tools that might be required on your bike (to handle weird axle nuts, Torx bolts and other unusual fasteners) shouldn’t cost more than $100 or so if you buy carefully. Add in a digital multimeter, some spare fuses, and a “battery tender” charger or jump box, and you’ll be ready for 90% of the routine tasks you might encounter.

Eventually you might want to invest in stands or jacks to lift your bike, an impact driver, a torque wrench, feeler gauges, tire spoons and other more specialized equipment, but if you make friends in the riding scene these items can usually be borrowed for a token offering of beer.

Beyond the Basics

Once you’ve spent your first season on your own or with a couple of buddies learning to control your bike, the best way to accelerate your progress is to get around some other more advanced riders.

It can be great to join up with well organized road rides and rallies, but the wildly different experience levels and expectations can often cause problems. It’s important to ride your own ride, create space between yourself and other bikes, and be aware that some people are just reckless assholes. Watch out for “bike nights” that are mainly drinking events or big “takeover” type rides if you want to keep your license. You might be riding like an absolute saint, but if you’re with a hundred guys doing wheelies on the highway and they all “drop a gear and disappear” when the cops show up, the ones who didn’t run might be spending the night in jail.

Look for opportunities for more structured practice and training. This may mean paying for some coaching or group instruction. You should strongly consider doing a track day on a road race course even if you have no interest in racing – it is simply the best way to push your limits safely. Riding dirt bikes is another great way to build confidence and control because you get to experience loss of traction over and over again at relatively low speeds.

Both will make you a better, safer street rider, but you wont be thinking about that because flogging a motorcycle as fast as you can around a racetrack or down a pristine mountain trail is without question the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

The Moto Scene

While the motorcycle community is a generally pretty welcoming and most folks are ready to lend a hand to a rider in need, shoot the shit on the side of the road, or just throw up “the wave” as you go past regardless of what bike you’re riding, the scene can also be surprisingly tribal.

By far the most visible group of motorcyclists in America are the Harley Leather Daddies, though they actually come in two flavors – the Normal Guy Cosplay Outlaws, and the Actual Outlaw Outlaws. Once you understand the signals, you can identify the honest to goodness gang members pretty easily. And yes, in some parts of the country these are still real criminal organizations with initiations and territories they claim. They usually keep to themselves, but there are simmering bad relations between MCs and they occasionally turn up to events looking to start trouble.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you wear patches indicating status you haven’t earned or membership in a club you don’t belong to. Basically, it’s not safe in some places to walk around dressed up like Jax from Sons of Anarchy displaying your replica 1%er gear and pretending to be a member of the Hells Angels or Mongols.

The polar opposite end of the motorcycle community is the organized and AMA sanctioned racing scene, which includes everything from the big-league Pro Superbike, Motocross, and Flat Track you might see on TV to the grass roots Scrambles, Enduros, and Hill Climbs run by local groups all over the country.

In between are countless other cliques, clubs, and crews that host events (rallies, poker runs, ride outs, meet ups, takeovers, dual sports and adventure rides) all with their own membership criteria, hierarchies, and rules. Some like the BMW Touring Dentists and the Beard Wax Café Racers are relatively law abiding. Others like the Moped Crustpunks and Dirtbike Hooligans are less so.

In many American cities you will also run across seriously insane street racing and stunt groups that like to do extremely dangerous things on public roads. They often show up in large numbers, shut down streets and actively taunt the police who can’t do much to stop them. They also tend to ride stolen or unregistered bikes to prevent being tracked down if they need to flee a crash.

I understand that some of these guys feel they are doing nothing wrong, that they lack other outlets to have fun, and that this kind of riding is a basically wholesome alternative to whatever other gang activity young people might get involved with in their communities. But they also have a tendency to run over bystanders, piss people off, and generally strain relations between motorcyclists and the police. Probably best to steer clear.

Wait, So Why Am I Doing This Again?

If none of this scared you off and you don’t have enough expensive addictions in your life, you’re ready to get started. But you might reasonably ask why you would go through all this hassle for a mere hobby.

Well, this is where it gets weird.

It turns out that heart of the thing is almost never discussed even by those who know and understand, and so I’m actually a bit nervous to write it down here in black and white. On the one hand, I’m reluctant to oversell an experience that might only come a handful of times in your life. On the other, it is so obviously important, so powerful, subtle and unspeakable, I feel like being that kid who’s just taken his first trip, insufferably telling everyone who’ll listen “You gotta try it, man.”

So.

It is one of the strange facts of human existence that there is a hidden holy space that is accessible by many paths – prayer and fasting, dancing and music, drugs and conversation, meditation and breathwork, sports and artistic performance.

I have visited many times and I count each visit as one of the peak moments of my life, infused with inexplicable meaning, surrounded by synchronicity, overflowing with beauty, and burned forever in my memory.

But the holy place – or rather the holy state of mind – is somewhere you will struggle to stay and that writers with far more talent have deemed impossible to describe.

The tao that can be told is not the Eternal Tao.

Each path has it’s own jargon and practices seemingly designed to obscure from outsiders the true nature of the activity, but I’m going to break all the rules and let you in on the secret right now: motorcycles are powerful magical objects. If you are lucky and diligent and persistent and skillful, you can use one to enter a state I usually hear discussed in reverent whispers as “The Zone.” A state of total focused attention, ecstatic release of the ego, effortless control, and superhuman ability.

You may never get a factory sponsorship or stand at the top of a MotoGP podium, but you can absolutely enter The Zone and partake in the holy sacrament of speed.

When you get to the end of a proper run and are cooling off in the parking lot with your buddies, you might try to talk about it, but all that will come out of your mouths will be absurd understatements like “Whew, that was fun.” But look for the subtle signs – the dilated pupils, the subtle flush of color in the face, the blissed out half smile – and you’ll know. They went there too.

See you out there and keep the rubber side down.

Further Reading

Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide To Riding Well, by David Hough

Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques, by Lee Parks

Twist of the Wrist: The Motorcycle Roadracers Handbook, by Keith Code

The Art of Trailriding, by Paul Clipper

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance, by Mark Zimmerman