Anton Swanepoel - Motorcycles: A Guide Book To Long Distance And Adventure Riding

Motorcycles

A Guide Book To longDistance

and AdventureRiding

By AntonSwanepoel

Copyright 2015 Anton Swanepoel

All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system,without the prior written permission of the author.

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Through the dawn of time, there have alwaysbeen road warriors. Sometimes they ride as a group, but often theyride alone.

During the ages they were clad in metal,leather and bamboo armor, Knights, Cowboys and Samurai of the road,legends and myth following them. Through time, they have changedtheir metal and bamboo armor for leather and Kevlar, their horsesfor metal beasts, but they are still Knights, Cowboys and Samurai,and they take on the road, two wheels at a time.

Traveling by motorcycle is far differentthan any other means of transport. In a car, you are always apassenger, seeing a movie of the road going by. On a bike, youbecome one with it, the road and your surroundings are no longer amovie, its a part of you. For you feel every corner, every bump,and your body flexes in harmony with the bike's suspension. Yousmell the flowers, earth and rain, feel the wind and hear birds asyou go. You are alive.

This book was originally written in May 2011and was largely based on travelling on larger motorbikes and eitherin developed countries or total off-roading. After spending morethan a year in Southeast Asia, motorbiking all over Cambodia,Vietnam, mostly on smaller 100 to 125cc scooters, I decided torewrite the book. The book now also includes information formotorbiking in Southeast Asia, both on larger and smallermotorbikes.

This book now also forms a companion for mybook, MotorbikingCambodia & Vietnam . Although the two are differentin that the motorbiking book gives details about the roads found inCambodia and Vietnam, with trip planning, buying and sellingadvice, as well as budget and accommodation, there are some thingsthat overlap in the two books.

When things do overlap, this book will focuson a more general approach where the motorbiking Cambodia &Vietnam book will focus more on relevance to being in Cambodia& Vietnam.

This book is more aimed at the new rider, orsomeone that has not done long distance rides, be it a weekend tripto the next town, or a two-month trek along the mountains ofVietnam on the notorious Ho Chi Minh road and North Vietnam. Thisbook will help you prepare for your adventure and help you out whenthings go wrong. Note, this book is not a manual on how to rideyour bike (hard and fast) but a guide to make you a thinking riderout of you with practical advice for non-common problems on theroad.

Newby rider, old-timer, weekend worrier,long distance rider, the cruiser or super biker, you are part of anelite, as old as time. Road warriors.

Image by Adalberto Tostes, freeimages.

Being a biker is not just about the bike youride, its whats in your blood! Its how you live your life,free.

Antons humor and straight to the pointwriting is refreshing and exciting, together with his years ofexperience and knowledge on bikes, this book will be of great valueto you.

Note: This book is written by a bikerfor bikers. Although the book is not full of F and S words, thebook is aimed at people that like to live free, bend the rules abit, and have an open mind to new suggestions but still like tothink for themselves.

You may find some strange humor in the book;the next picture is case in point. Now lets go burn some rubberand scrape some foot pegs!

Youve got your helmet, jacket, boots andpocketknife, cool. Oops, almost forgot your wallet and gloves.Travelling by motorbike has some unique problems not normally aconcern when you travel by motorcar. These problems need to beaddressed when you plan your trip, or they can derail your entiretrip.

If you aretravelling in a group, you need to agree on who is leading and atwhat pace (speed) you will ride. Remember that you need to ride atthe pace of the least experienced rider, including agreement fromyour pillion rider (passenger sitting on the back seat).

Agree on a signal system for both riders andpillion riders. Between riders you can use your indicators tosignal pulling over, when the lead bike activates his indicator,the group pulls over. If any member wants the group to pull over hecan either flash his headlights, or if it is a slow ride, thenovertake the leader and activate his indicator signaling for thegroup to pull over.

Use touch commands between pillion and riderto communicate unless you are using a communication system in thehelmets. A squeeze on your thigh might mean a need to stop for aquick break and two squeezes may mean, lets stop here for food, asingle squeeze back may mean agreement.

The leader needs to inform all riders on howthe ride is going to be conducted and what he expects from everyrider. Sometimes on long straits it may be accepted for fasterbikes to pull away from the group and do a little hard run, thenwait up ahead for the group to catch up.

Selecting a leader may seem trivial, and maynot be such a big issue for a short breakfast run on maybe aweekend away. However, and a month or two trip out in themountains, you need someone to lead, and people to follow. Ridingday in and day out from sunup to sunset, for more than a few daysat a time, is grueling, and soon the group can start to experiencefriction and possible break up.

I have met parts of groups that had split upbecause small disagreements was left until it turned into a bigargument.

Tip for the leader: Plan the rideaccording to the least experience, slowest rider or bike, shortestfuel range, and the weakest pillion rider. As new riders get moreexperience, the pace may be picked up later in the trip.

If your pillion is new to motorbiking or long distanceriding, then you need to go through what you expect of them whenyou bank for a turn or overtake other cars, especially if youovertake on the line between cars as this can scare the blood outof many pillion riders.

Make sure your pillion rider wears properprotection gear. It is always interesting to see pillions withoutgloves, boots and a good jacket, while the rider in front wearsevery protection item the local store has to sell.

Always make sure your pillion rider isholding on properly when you pull away, especially from a trafficlight or overtaking cars. They may have loosened their grip and arenot aware that you are going to pull away hard, overtake, or pop awheelie. Many a pillion rider has fallen off (even at speed)because of this. Revving your bike a bit before you take off mayalert your pillion rider to get ready, and for overtaking cars youcan give them one long squeeze on the leg to tell them to get readyand keep holding on as you will be taking a gap to overtake a caras soon as one comes up.