How do you do it???

[DesertRider]

In mid-December I suffered a minor injury that kept me from riding for 5 weeks. I took my first ride yesterday, a short (12 - 15 mile) ride mostly on neighborhood streets. Even though I kept it to easy riding, I was surprised how "shaky" I felt after being off only a month or so. I hadn't forgotten how to ride :-), but I definitely didn't feel on top of the game -- reactions were slow, my traffic awareness was lacking (had several cars sneak up on me), I had to think consciously about things that used to be fully automatic, and more than once I had to catch myself to keep from making dumb mistakes.

Toward the end of the short ride I was getting back the feel, and in a few days I expect I'll be back to 100% again, but it got me to wondering: What would my skills be like if I'd been off the bike for much longer, say, 4 or 5 months? I've never lived in snow country, but I know that for folks in winter country being off the bike for months at a time is a yearly occurrence. How do you handle it? How do you feel when you get back on the bike in the spring? How do you compensate for rusty skills, and how do you go about getting them back each spring?

[Gizmo]

Hi Desert Rider,

This is one of the many reasons I feel blessed to be in Arizona. It allows me to keep my skills at a higher level and to continually develop. But life was not always good I lived in the Midwest and on the east coast for many years. I tried to ride through the winter on day's when temps were above freezing and there was no snow or ice on the ground, still there were long periods of time when riding was not practical or wise. So after long layoffs, I went out to empty parking lots, to refresh and retrain myself on basic skills, and when on the road I took it very easy to work out the rust. In addition re reading the various books on motorcycle skills and safety at the "start of the season" helped me to re-focus.

[MCMXCIVRS]

Near the end of winter, I get busy doing all my annual maintenance tasks. New oil anmd filter, fresh fluids throughout, adjust, lube tweak and tune. This gets me thinking about riding again, getting my head back in the game. When the day finally comes that I can escape the glacier bound garage, I'm all ready mentally prepared for riding. Of course late winter/early spring roads are still layered with plenty of gravel and sand. The awareness of this hazard keeps me slowed and cautious in turns and intersections. I try to find an empty parking lot to use for some slow speed skill refreshing. By the time the spring has fully arrived and the streets are clear of most of the debris of winter, I've been out enough to have shaken the mental and physical rust loose. Now all that is left to do is ride as much as possible before winter comes along again to corrode my skills.

[R100RS]

I just keep riding. I try and ride at least once or twice per week, even if it's just to work and back.

The weather is so variable here on the front range, that so far, I've been able to do just that.

[mleir]

You be very very aware that you have not been on a bike in three months and that you are rusty. Be very aware taht you need to be hyper sensitive and its not, at least for a couple of weeks, reaction but a thought process.

[DesertRider]

Too bad someone doesn't make a good motorcycle simulator. Riding a motorcycle is in many ways a lot like flying an aiplane, and in aviation a good simulator can go a long ways toward keeping you sharp for real flying, particularly instrument flying. Maybe with the advances in gaming technology someone could come up with a good bike simulator that would not only be useful but a lot of fun as well.

[lorazepam]

I just grab the grips as hard as I can, close my eyes and hope I don't hit anything. When that first bug slaps off my helmet, I come to my senses and everything is right with the world.

[kbasa]

When I was at the Isle of Man in '99, Honda was there with a pretty cool motorcycle simulator. It felt just like a real bike and if you didn't lean it over it didn't turn.

Quite eerie, actually.

[srb]

I was really concerned about this very problem. Due to financial shortcomings and unforseen problems my airhead was recently down for 6 months! I thought I would have problems readjusting to riding, but I didn't. Getting on the cycle was like the old saw, you never forget how to ride a bike. Everything fell right into place and it was like I had missed no time at all. I did have to readjust to how I rode with traffic. Lane positioning, eye contact with potential left turners and the like was the biggest thing to relearn for me.

[Cliffy777]

in the ice on the road. Michigan weather is wierd. Today it got to a high of 16 and there is ice all over the place. But 2 weeks ago it was in the mid to upper 40's which gave me a couple of days of riding.
My point being that I don't "winterize" the bike. In fact, I am waiting for GR BMW to bring it back to me after the 6k tune up. It will be ready to ride on those days when we get a break. Last year I had it out a least a couple three times in Jan and Feb. And I start riding a lot in March.
I don't push it at all when I haven't ridden in a couple of weeks, just take it easy and warm up with the motor.