Sports Cycle

Forget any idea of "one size fits all". Your bike has to fit you just right if you want to have precision control. To change down smoothly under braking, your front brake and clutch levers must be positioned right. For smooth starts and slick changes the clutch bite point needs to be set right. A badly set gear-shifter can make you wobble and your changes slow up or down the box. Little things do matter. Even two people the same size may need to set a bike differently to fit differences in arm, leg and trunk lengths as well as riding style and personal preference.



Adjusting the controls "spot on" gives you optimum control with maximum comfort. Each control action does its own job without disturbing balance or weight distribution, in an emergency that can be the difference between staying in control and coming off.

So let’s look at how to do it.

Set that Front Brake

- We want instant braking

- Good "feel"

- Easy throttle blipping for smooth down changes


OK, in your normal ‘at speed’ body posture, reach out for the brake. It needs to be angled so that it "falls to hand". Try it eyes closed. If the lever is too high your wrist will bend up uncomfortably and it will be even worse as you lean back into your braking posture. If the lever is too low, it might feel OK in your sit up braking posture but it won’t fall naturally to hand at speed.

Once you have found the small range of rotation of the lever that feels right for just braking, work on braking and blipping the throttle at the same time. Most times you do this, you will be in sit up posture under firm braking, slowing for a curve, but just occasionally you will want to brake and downshift while maintaining your ‘at speed’ posture. (I find this happens when aborting a passing maneuver and getting ready for the next chance).

Riding with 2 fingers covering the brake is a recommended technique – but it may require a different setting.

Perfect blipping is most critical when under heavy braking because that’s when rear tire is lightly loaded you are most likely to break traction with a bad downshift, so bias your final setting to favor this situation.

Set the Clutch

Easier than setting the brake lever because your left hand only has one job. For me precision clutch control is most demanding when maneuvering at walking pace, so I want the angle set for that.

The other thing to adjust is the clutch biting point. Two things are important here: low speed maneuvering and quick downshifts at speed. To get quick shifts, I want the clutch disengaged with only a part squeeze on the lever, not have to pull it up to the grip. For maneuvering and stopstart city traffic, you want the ‘just engaging’ point of the travel at the most comfortable and controllable amount of squeeze. Bikes with a heavy clutch or a long, draggy action can be a pain! One thing is for sure, you’ll always ride better with your best compromise setting than the way it came. And if it is still a pain, maybe you should see if there are any upgrades or modifications available for your model.

Set the Rear Brake

If you thought adjusting hand controls was fiddly, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

The rear brake is the third control that needs ‘feel’ and feedback to the rider. Motorcycles vary in the pedal pressure and travel that’s needed. You only need enough pressure to squeal, not lock(!), the rear tire at 70mph. The brake may be capable of more than this but you won’t ever be able to use it, even with a failed front brake. If you have the confidence and control to rear tire squeal from 70mph down to 20mph, I congratulate you. You truly are a rear brake maestro. If not, please don’t start practising at 70 mph unless you are feeling suicidal!

Unless you are a maestro already, set your brake for maximum comfort and control when using it fairly gently for low speed work and slippery conditions.

The correct way to make adjustments may not be obvious, check out the manufacturer’s instructions in the manual. Make adjustments a little at a time. Remember that a pedal set too low could reduce ground clearance and the available lean angle. Look what other settings (peg position for example) are available on your model.

Set the Gear Shift

There is probably more variation in travel, weight, feel, crispness and adjustment in gearshifts than in any other motorcycle control. Just be glad you are not forced to use hand gear selection that was popular in the old days. Read the manual to see how to make adjustments. Aim to be able to make quick, clean shifts both up and down without repositioning your foot or straining your ankle. Be aware of possible ground clearance issues.

When you reckon you have got the right setting just do a quick check to make sure selecting first at standstill with your other foot down still feels OK. This move is different because you are unbalanced and out of the normal body position. Sports bikes can be a bit awkward and tiring to ride in the city unless you get it right.

I hope you have got your bike set up to suit you now. I promise it will make a major improvement to your comfort and control. As you get familiar with the new feel, give yourself a little time to settle in, but don’t be afraid to make further minor adjustments that get the total package working in harmony.

Setting the bike for precision control is groundwork advanced riding.

Your choice of a bike can determine how much maintenance you’ll need to do. Sometimes engineers design motorcycles with certain high-maintenance features to increase the performance of a bike, but more often than not, features that make a motorcycle easier (and cheaper) to maintain are excluded just to save production costs.



If you’re after extremely high performance, you’ll have to accept the fact that you’ll have to spend more money on maintenance, but if you’re willing to accept a slightly lower level of performance, there are features you can look for and riding habits you can practice that will help you keep maintenance costs down.

Three elements in particular will affect your maintenance costs : the shaft drive, the centerstand, and the valves.


Read More : Buying Your First Motorcycle : Where to Buy Your Bike ?

Getting Shafted

Select a bike with a shaft drive. Chain maintenance is the most frequent procedure you’ll need to perform on your bike. It’s also the dirtiest.

Sporty bikes will usually have a chain, since chains tend to disrupt handling less than shafts. If you want such a bike, you’ll usually have to accept a chain as part of the package. But there has been a trend in recent years to use chains on types of bikes that, by nature, aren’t the best in handling, such as mid-sized cruisers. This is purely a cost-cutting measure on the part of the manufacturers. If you want to buy a mid-sized Japanese cruiser, my advice is to get an older, used one, since these usually have shaft drives.

Another option is to select a bike with a belt-drive system. These can be a good compromise between the handling benefits of a chain and the maintenance benefits of a shaft. Belt-drive systems, like the one used by Harley-Davidson, require less maintenance than chains, but more than shafts. The main drawback of Harley’s belt-drive system is that fixing one can be an expensive proposition.


Read More : Buying Your First Motorcycle : What to Look For ?

The Benefits of a Centerstand

Make certain your bike comes equipped with a centerstand. Until recently, all Japanese bikes came with centerstands - it was one of the things that set them apart from Harley-Davidsons, which have never been equipped with modern centerstands.

In the 1980s, Japanese manufacturers began excluding centerstands from ultra-highperformance sportbikes, because the designs of the exhaust systems used in those bikes prohibited the mounting of centerstands, and also because centerstands hindered cornering clearance.

But in the past few years, they’ve also begun excluding them from bikes that already have limited cornering clearance, like cruisers. This is another cost-cutting measure. Combine lack of a centerstand with a chain drive, and I guarantee you will create new expletives while maintaining your bike.


Read More : Buying Your First Motorcycle : What’s It Worth ?

Hydraulically Adjusted Valves

One of the costliest aspects of maintaining a motorcycle is adjusting the amount the valves move up and down.

This is a critical (and often neglected) part of motorcycle maintenance, because if the valve doesn’t move down far enough during the combustion cycle, it can get bent and destroy the valve train. If the valve moves down too far, it can hit the top of the piston, destroying the entire top end.

It is also an expensive part of motorcycle maintenance. On most modern motorcycles, valve adjustment is too complex a job for an inexperienced mechanic to tackle alone. Most riders take their bikes into shops to have the procedure performed. If the motorcycle has any body work which the mechanic has to remove to gain access to the valves, or if the motorcycle is constructed in a way that requires the mechanic to go to heroic lengths to gain access to the valves, the mechanic will also have to spend even more time adjusting the valves.

And to a mechanic, time is money. Shops often charge $50 per hour for a mechanic’s time. On a multi-cylinder bike with body work, a mechanic can take several hours to adjust the valves. Valve adjustments seldom cost less then $100, and on certain complex machines, can run as high as $250. Remember, this is a procedure you’ll have to have performed at least once every year (even more, if you ride a lot). But there is a way to avoid this expensive bit of maintenance. Back in the early 1980s, Honda introduced several motorcycle models that had overhead-cam engines with hydraulically adjusted valves. Suzuki and Kawasaki followed suit, introducing cruisers with similar systems. All new Harleys come with hydraulically adjusted valves.

While such systems slightly limited the performance of the motorcycles using them, they also completely eliminated the costs associated with valve adjustments. And for most motorcyclists, the performance limitations of hydraulically operated valves were academic, coming into play only at extremely high RPMs. In the real world, motorcyclists seldom ride at such extreme speeds. If at all possible, select a bike with maintenancefree, hydraulically adjusted valves. This will decrease performance a bit, but that will only be an issue on bikes that demand ultrahigh performance. On cruisers and standards, the difference won’t be noticeable, and you’ll save hundreds of dollars each year on maintenance costs.

You’ve found the bike of your dreams, it’s mechanically and cosmetically perfect, and you already have visions of yourself roaming the highways on the beast. Now you have to figure out how much the bike is worth.



There’s not much to negotiating the price of a new bike. Your best bet is to call every dealer within reasonable driving distance (remember, you will probably have to return to that dealer for warranty work) and find out what each one is charging for the model you’re interested in. Once you have the best price, you might want to go to the nearest dealer you trust and give them an opportunity to match it. Even if they can’t match it exactly, if they can even come close, it might be worth a few extra dollars to buy from someone you trust, someone who is located nearby.


When shopping for a new motorcycle, you can save a lot of money by remaining flexible about which make and model to buy. Say you’ve decided to purchase a midsized cruiser, like Kawasaki’s Vulcan 800 Classic. While searching for such a bike, you find a decade-old Honda 800 Shadow in mint condition at one-third the price of the Kawasaki.

While the Kawasaki is a fine motorcycle, the Shadow is capable of providing every bit as much enjoyment, and with its shaft drive and hydraulically-adjusted valves, the Honda will save you hundreds of dollars per year in maintenance costs over the Kawasaki. You can pocket the money saved and use it to finance a cross-country motorcycle trip.

You can also save a lot of money by watching for carryover models. While shopping for the best deal on a Honda 750 Shadow, you might run across a brand-new last year’s model Kawasaki 800 Vulcan for $1,500 less. In this case, maintenance costs will be roughly equal, since both bikes have manually adjusted valves and chain drives, so if you keep an open mind, that will be an extra $1,500 in your pocket.

Buying a used bike is where the process most diverges from buying a car. Because motorcycle prices can fluctuate widely from region to region, depending on how large a market an area has, accurate price guides are difficult to compile.

Further complicating the creation of useful price guides is the wide variation in the condition of each motorcycle. One seller’s Yamaha 1100 Special can be in mint condition at 60,000 miles, while the next guy’s can be a hunk of junk at 10,000 miles. When deciding how much a bike is worth, a guidebook’s value assessment is only part of the equation. In addition to things such as condition and completeness, you have to look at routine wear and tear. Keeping a motorcycle in tip-top running condition is an expensive proposition. A bike with a fresh tune-up is definitely worth more than a bike needing a tune-up.

Another item that increases a bike’s value is fresh tires. You should be able to tell by looking whether the tires have low miles: Check the depth of the tread at the edges of the tire compared to the depth of the tread at the center. A good pair of quality tires can run you well over $300, with mounting and balancing, so factor that into your price determination.

On the other hand, new tires of low quality actually detract from the value of a bike, at least in my personal equation. If a bike has a pair of bargain-brand tires, I have to either make the decision to drive on tires I consider unsafe, or toss out a nearly new set of tires and spend $300 on another pair. If a bike is wearing a pair of budget-brand tires, I automatically deduct $250 from my offer.

It’s a good idea to speak with as many other owners of a certain model as you can before making a purchase (here again, belonging to a club can be beneficial). Also, check any service bulletins that may have been issued to your dealer on a certain model before buying that model.

These rough guidelines may help, but in the end, it’s just going to be you and the seller. The entire process may boil down to how badly you want to buy the bike or how much the owner wants to sell it. One thing I can guarantee: If you buy the motorcycle that’s right for you, one or two years from now, as you’re riding down the road enjoying your machine, you will not be thinking, “Damn, I paid too much for this thing.”

Buying a used motorcycle seems something of a crap shoot to the uninitiated. Judging a dependable bike from a pile of junk may appear difficult to the first-time buyer, but a couple of basic motorcycle characteristics make it easier than you might think.

First, motorcycles have nothing to hide. If a frame has been repaired, you will see welds or cracks in the paint. If the bike leaks fluids, those fluids will ooze out before your eyes.

Second, there’s just not that much to a motorcycle. Compared to cars, they are relatively simple devices.

Further simplifying the buying process is the fact that what you need to check is limited to just a few basic items; luckily, you won’t need to worry about all the parts of a motorcycle covered in Anatomy of a Motorcycle Category (at least on Japanese bikes—European and American machines present a few more challenges). The things to look for when buying can be broken down into two broad categories: condition and completeness.

Critical : Condition

You need to ascertain the mechanical and cosmetic condition of a motorcycle before you make an offer.

Judging a bikes’ cosmetic condition is easy: Just ask yourself how it looks. By looking at the bodywork and such items as mirrors, turn signals, and mufflers, examining those items for scratches, dents, and other deformities, you can usually tell if a bike is in good shape. Pay particular attention to the outside edges of those items, the edges likely to contact pavement in even the most minor tip over.

Usually you will find some evidence of a tipover, even if it’s just microscopic scratches. Finding a machine that hasn’t fallen over at least once is rare. If the scratches are so minor they are difficult to see, you needn’t worry. Often, they can be minimized with some chrome polish and some elbow grease. (Be aware, however, that a dealer will also find these scratches should you someday decide to trade the bike in.)

Even if you find more major evidence of a low-speed spill, that shouldn’t dissuade you from buying the bike; Just reflect the costs of cosmetic restoration in your offer. Often, the owner will have already taken such things into consideration when setting a price.

When purchasing European or American motorcycles, there are a few other things to watch for. Cosmetically, Harleys will more often than not be immaculate, but you need to check things such as the belt-drive system. Fraying or missing teeth indicate future problems, problems that are expensive to correct.

The level of finish on European bikes tends to be lower than that of Japanese motorcycles, and corrosion can be a problem. This is especially true of Italian bikes, but it can even be a problem on BMWs. For example, BMW doesn’t apply a clear finish to exposed aluminum on items such as the fork legs. While this finish tends to yellow with exposure to sunlight, giving the forks on older Japanese motorcycles a dingy appearance, it protects the metal from corrosion. This corrosion becomes more pronounced in coastal areas, because of the salt in sea air. It’s also a problem for machines used during the winter, because of the salt placed on roads in snowy climes.

The outside condition of a bike can help give clues to the condition of internal parts. If a bike looks good and runs well (if it starts easily when both cold and hot, if it idles smoothly without making horrible noises, and accelerates adequately for a bike of its size), the odds are it’s okay inside. The owner has more than likely lavished as much care on the motorcycle’s internals as he or she has on the bike’s appearance.

Notes : Some motorcycles have built-in odd noises. Suzuki’s two-valve GS series, for example, has a camchain guide that allows the chain to slap while idling at low speeds. This causes no damage whatsoever, but the mechanical knocking sound has caused many unnecessary top-end rebuilds because owners didn’t know about the defect and thought something was wrong.

I once went shopping for a Harley-Davidson with a friend of mine who was looking for an Electra Glide. At one dealership, we found two of them. Both bikes were the same model year, both were similarly equipped, and both had around 57,000 miles on them. The price on each bike was identical. One bike was black, the other a hideous dustyrose color. My friend was partial to black motorcycles.

Unfortunately, the black one was in much worse shape, cosmetically. It had spent much of its life sitting outside in the elements, judging by the corrosion on the engine and other aluminum parts. This was a red flag to me: If the previous owner had taken such abysmal care of the outside of the bike, what sort of care had he given the inside?

I advised my friend to buy the rose-colored bike, if he was determined to buy either. But he bought the black one with the pitted aluminum.

The bike was nothing but trouble, right from the start. He’d had it less than a week when the clutch went out and left him stranded on the freeway. The next week, the drive belt went out. After we fixed that, he started having trouble with the carburetor. We took it apart and discovered that someone had tried to repair it using what looked like rubber cement.

My friend had that bike for several years, and he never did get it to run right, even after he overhauled the engine. He spent so much money fixing the thing, he could have painted the rose-colored bike several times over.

Completeness

Along with the condition of a bike, make certain that all the pieces are there. Items such as missing side covers or other body panels can cost as much as a cheap motorcycle. Check a motorcycle to make certain it has the following items :

- Side covers. These are the plastic covers that cover components located behind the engine, under the seat. These can often break and come off the motorcycle, and are very expensive (and in some cases impossible) to replace.

- Emblems and insignias. These are often glued or screwed to the tank or sidecover, and are also difficult to find for older motorcycles.

- If a bike has an aftermarket fairing, make certain all the original lighting and turn-signal brackets and components come with the bike. Should you decide to restore the motorcycle to its original condition, you’ll need these pieces, and on some bikes, they can cost as much as the motorcycle itself.

- Fenders. This will probably only be an issue if someone has tried to build a chopper out of a motorcycle. Generally, such bikes make poor candidates for restoration, and should be avoided.

Costs for individual parts, especially on Japanese motorcycles, run high, partly because of the Japanese manufacturers’ practice of custom designing nearly every part on each individual model. On the other hand, Harley-Davidson, and to a lesser extent the European manufacturers, tend to use many of the same parts on various models. Only minor tweaks, such as different wheels and fenders, differentiate one Harley model from the next. This enables them to spread development costs across the entire line.

Be especially concerned with completeness when buying an older motorcycle. You may find items like side covers and seat covers unavailable for an older bike. These parts usually can be found with a little leg work. Just because a bike is not complete is no reason to reject it outright: Just reflect the potential cost of replacing parts in your offer.

Motorcycles are expressions of passion, and the people buying and selling them tend to be passionate people. (Should you doubt this, ask yourself when you last saw someone covered with Chevrolet tattoos, wearing a T-shirt stating he’d rather see his sister in a brothel than his brother in a Toyota). Just finding a motorcycle differs from finding a car. You can find motorcycles in several places, some obvious, others less so.

Dealerships

The most obvious - and perhaps the easiest - place to find a bike is at a dealership. If you’re buying a new bike, you’ll have no choice but to buy from a dealer, but even if you’re buying used, buying from a reputable shop can be the best way to get your first bike.

Physically locating a motorcycle dealership can present a challenge if you’re not familiar with an area. People selling motorcycles don’t have the kind of cash flow car dealers have, so usually you won’t find motorcycle shops amid the endless car lots, strip malls, and office buildings in the sprawl suburban America has become. Motorcycle dealerships tend to be hidden in out-of-the way locations, like inner cities and industrial parks, where leases are lower. Check the Yellow Pages under “Motorcycles” to find dealers and repair shops in your area.

Choosing a Dealer

Not all dealerships are created equal. The quality of the staff makes or breaks a shop. When you’re buying your first motorcycle, it’s tough to know if you are being taken advantage of. My first experience with a dealer turned out badly. I wanted to buy a 100cc Kawasaki dirtbike, but my father distrusted Japanese products (this was the early 1970s in rural Minnesota), so he took me to a shop selling American-made minibikes. He liked the minibikes because they were powered by snowmobile engines, which he believed to have been built right there in Minnesota. Actually, these engines were manufactured in Japan and were wholly unsuited for summertime operation. The second day I owned the bike, I seized a piston.

The dealer fully expected us to be back the next day; he knew these bikes were unfit, but he had a plan. He traded me the trashed minibike for a new 80cc Yamaha motorcycle. It ended up costing about 20 percent more than the 100cc Kawasaki would have cost, but it was either that or keep the blown-up minibike.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the dealer lied to me about the model year of the bike. I was too naive to know where to check the date of manufacture and ended up buying a two-year-old carryover motorcycle for more than the price of a new one. So, Here are some tips to keep this from happening to you:

- Learn as much about the motorcycle as possible. Check my article about "How To Choosing the Right Motorcycle ?" and also "New or Used Bikes ?" to see if it’s listed there. Go to the google, and read back issues of motorcycle owners that have tested the bike.

- Make sure your sales person knows motorcycles. Ask good questions, and by the answers, you can tell if the person is uninformed, unscrupulous, or both.

- Check the mileage on the odometer against the mileage on the title, and check the model year on the title against the date of manufacture on the frame, usually located on a plate riveted either to the steering head or the lower frame tube or beam. If something’s not kosher, chances are neither is the shop selling the bike.

Buying a motorcycle from a salesperson who knows bikes and whom you can trust can be fun, the beginning of a productive relationship, but getting ripped off can poison you for life. Generally, you’re more likely to have a bad experience at a shop where motorcycles are just a sideline, like a car dealership that also carries a line of bikes, or a dealership devoted primarily to snowmobiles, watercraft, or some other type of recreational vehicle, and just carries motorcycles because its franchise requires it. Your best bet is to find a shop specializing in motorcycles.

But like any generalization, there are exceptions. The best salesperson I’ve ever dealt with worked at a Chrysler shop that carried Honda motorcycles. If you can find just one person at a shop who knows and cares about motorcycles, that’s a good shop.

How’s Their Service Department ?

Finding the right dealership with a salesperson you trust means little if the mechanic working in the service department is a ham-fisted fool.

This is more of an issue when buying a new bike under warranty than it is when buying a used bike. With a used motorcycle, if you get a good deal, you can always take it to a mechanic you trust somewhere else. When you buy new, you may be forced to go back to the same dealership for warranty work; many shops balk at covering warranty work on motorcycles bought at other dealerships.

An unskilled mechanic actually wrecked the top end on one of my bikes once. This was at a shop where I’d developed a relationship with one of the salespeople, a decent fellow and a dedicated motorcyclist. I made the mistake of assuming that the personnel in the service department were as competent as my friend in sales. I was leaving on a solo motorcycle trip to the Ozark Mountains in a couple of days, so I brought my motorcycle in for a complete tune-up. I wanted to make certain my bike was running well.

When I picked my bike up, it wouldn’t idle. In fact, it never idled again. The mechanic, who I later learned had been hired because his father owned the shop, had over-tightened the valves, and before I left the parking lot, I’d bent a valve stem. I was still somewhat of a novice and didn’t know what had happened. I took the bike back to the service department, and even though they knew exactly what they had done, they blamed the problem on dirt in the carburetors. They kept the bike overnight to clean the carbs, but there was nothing they could do short of a valve job. Shops like this usually develop reputations in the motorcycling community. Within two years of trashing my bike, this shop went out of business.

So how can you find out which shops offer reliable service? Wherever motorcyclists hang out, they talk about mechanical things. And they love to gossip. If you can find a coffee shop or bar where motorcyclists congregate, ask them about the reputation of a shop’s service department. If several people agree on a shop to avoid, avoid it. If you have no local hangout, check with independent repair shops. These are often staffed by mechanics who cut their teeth in local dealerships and who usually know the scoop on other shops.

The Classified Ads

The other obvious place to hunt for a used bike is in the Classifieds section of a newspaper or website. I enjoy this form of shopping, because it puts me in direct contact with the local motorcycling community. When I go to look at bikes I found in classified ads, I meet all kinds of motorcyclists, from people who bought a bike on a whim years ago but never rode it much, to hardcore riders who are moving on to a different bike.

Shopping the classifieds requires you to bring even more knowledge to the transaction than buying from a dealership. The range of conditions you will find classified bikes in varies as widely as the personalities of the owners selling them. Even the most unscrupulous dealer fears lawsuits enough to make certain the wheels are correctly bolted on. (At least they usually do; I once tested a bike that handled so squirrelly, I stopped and discovered the dealer had mounted the wheel backward!)

You never know what to expect on a machine you found through the want ads. Pinch bolts may be missing from axles. Chains may be held together with baling wire. Seats may be attached with duct tape. Remember, your life depends on the condition of your machine, and any one of these conditions, as well as a host of other possible problems, could convert you into a grease spot on the pavement.

Many people will let you test ride a bike, but check it out carefully to make certain it’s safe before taking it on the road. Later in this chapter, I’ll show you what to look for when you examine a bike.

When buying a bike from a private party, obtaining a clear title is absolutely critical. As with buying from a dealer, make certain the information on the title matches the information on the bike. This is especially important on motorcycles with high theft rates, like Harley-Davidsons, but it’s important with all bikes. A friend of mine once replaced the frame on his Suzuki after a crash without changing the title to reflect that change. One morning, he went out to the street to find his motorcycle had been carted off by the police. They wouldn’t release the bike to him because of the irregular title. He ended up forfeiting the bike, because it would have cost him more to get it back than it was worth.

If you buy a motorcycle that turns out to be stolen, you will not only lose the bike, you may well end up in legal trouble for receiving stolen merchandise. Generally, this is only a problem when buying from private parties, but dealerships have sold stolen motorcycles, too. One clue that something may be less than above board is if the bike has a replacement title from another state.

Buying a motorcycle through the classifieds requires you to bring more to the table yourself, but it’s often worth the effort. Private sellers don’t have to build the overhead costs of running a dealership into the price, so the prices tend to be lower. Plus, you get to see a lot of cool bikes and meet a lot of cool people.

I read the classified motorcycle ads every day, even though I’m usually not in the market to buy a bike. I find it’s a good way to keep up on the motorcycle market, as well as the motorcycling community. I like to see who’s selling what, and how much they’re asking. Sometimes, I find even more information than I expected. My all-time favorite ad, written by a guy selling his Harley Electra Glide, ended with the following phrase : “She caught me cheating, and now it’s the big D for me: make offer.”

Motorcycle Clubs

Motorcycle clubs are another rich source of used motorcycles. Members of clubs tend to buy and sell a lot of motorcycles. They trade bikes the way some kids trade baseball cards and comic books.

Again, check with other motorcyclists at local hangouts and shops to find out what kind of clubs operate in your community.  Members of motorcycle clubs tend to be long-time motorcyclists, people who love to talk about bikes. You can learn a great deal about every subject in this book from these people (I have), but they are an especially valuable resource when it comes to buying motorcycles.

The bikes these folks sell tend to gravitate toward the higher end of the price scale, usually with good cause. The following is a list of reasons a motorcycle bought from a club member will likely be worth the money:

- Club members’ bikes are usually in excellent condition. They take pride in their equipment, partly because they know their fellow members will judge them by the quality of their bikes, and partly because they bond with their machines even more closely than a "normal" motorcyclist (if there is such a thing) does. They treat their bikes like members of the family.

- People in clubs have enough motorcycle savvy to buy bikes that are worth something, motorcycles with decent resale value.

- They know the value of their machines and usually won’t ask more than they’re worth, if for no other reason than that other club members will doubt their intelligence, should they get greedy.

- Motorcycle clubs are an especially tight subcommunity within the general motorcycling community. If one club member ripped off another club member, he or she would be ostracized from the group.

Read More : 

- Buying Your First Motorcycle : What’s It Worth ?

- Buying Your First Motorcycle : What to Look For ?

- Buying Your First Motorcycle : Minimizing Maintenance Costs

Are you often confused by some of the things your bikers friends say ? Like any hobby or geek-o-meter, there are common motorcycle terms that we all come to learn, and then there is some of the more bizarre slang you can spend a lifetime behind the engine never understanding. Below we’ve compiled a collection of common Motorcycle and Bikers slang to help lift the veil on their mystery.

A

ABS (Antilock Brake System) : The ABS detects when a wheel is not turning and releases pressure to the brake on that wheel, preventing a skid.

Aftermarket : The sector of the market that sells parts and accessories other than OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers).

Airheads : A term for older, air-cooled BMW Boxer Twins.

Ape hangers : A term coined at the height of the custom-bike movement to describe tall handlebars that forced the rider to reach skyward to grasp the controls, making the rider adopt an ape-like posture.

B

Bagger : A motorcycle equipped with saddlebags and other touring amenities.

Belt-drive system : A final-drive system that transmits the power to the rear wheel via a drive belt.

Big Twins : The engines in the larger Harley-Davidson bikes.

Bobbers : The custom bikes American riders built after World War II where the owners cut off, or “bobbed,” much of the bodywork.

Bottom end : The bottom part of the engine, where the crankshaft and (usually) the transmission reside.

Boxer : A two-cylinder engine with the pistons opposing each other, resembling fists flying away from each other.

Brakes (disc and drum) : Disc brakes are located on the front tire and use stationary calipers that squeeze pads against the discs that rotate with the wheel. Drum brakes, on the other hand, are located on the rear wheel and use horseshoe-shaped brake shoes that expand against the inner surface of the wheel hub.

C

Café chop : Converting a stock motorcycle into a café racer is known as doing a café chop on a bike.

Café racer : Motorcycles modified to resemble racing motorcycles from the 1950s and 60s. They are called “café racers” because their owners supposedly raced from café to café in London, where the bikes first appeared in the 1960s.

Cam (camshaft) : A rod with lobes on it that opens the valves.

Carbon fiber : A high-tech material favored in many motorcycle applications because it is extremely strong, light, and inexpensive. The distinctive look of carbon fiber has become trendy.

Carburetor : A device that mixes fuel with air to create the fuel charge burned in the combustion chamber.

Cases : The two clam-shell-like halves in the bottom end of the engine surrounded by a metal shell.

Centerstand : A stand that supports the motorcycle in an upright position.

Centerstand Tang : A small lever attached to the centerstand.

Chain drive system : A final-drive system that transmits the power to the rear wheel via a chain.

Chassis : The combined frame and suspension on a motorcycle.

Chopper : Once used to describe a custom motorcycle that had all superfluous parts “chopped” off in order to make the bike faster, a chopper today is a type of custom bike that usually has an extended fork, no rear suspension, and high handlebars.

Clip-ons : Handlebars that attach directly to the fork tubes, rather than to the top yoke, that hold the fork tubes together.

Clutch : A device that disengages power from the crankshaft to the transmission, allowing a rider to change gears.

Combustion chamber : The area at the top of the cylinder where the fuel charge burns and pushes the pistons down.

Coming on the cam : The term used when a four stroke reaches its powerband.

Coming on the pipe : The term used when a two stroke reaches its power band.

Connecting rods : These attach the crankshaft to the pistons via the eccentric journals, and the rods’ up-and-down movement is converted into a circular motion through the design of the journals.

Constant-radius turn : A turn with a steady, nonchanging arc. In a decreasing-radius corner, the arc gets sharper as you progress through the curve, while in an increasing radius corner, the arc becomes less sharp.

Contact patch : The area of your tire that actually contacts the road while you ride.

Counterbalancer : A weight inside an engine that cancels out some of the engine’s vibration.

Countersteering : The way you use the handlebar to lean the bike into a turn. If you want to turn right, you push the handlebars to the left, and vice versa.

Cowlings : A piece of bodywork that covers the engine area.

Crotch rocket : A term some people use to refer to sportbikes.

Crowns : The tops of the pistons.

Cycle : The up-and down motion of the piston. The terms cycle and stroke are used interchangeably when referring to engine types.

Cylinder block : The hunk of aluminum with holes bored through it, inside which the pistons move up and down.

Cylinders : The hollow shafts in the top end of an engine inside which internal combustion occurs.

D

Decreasing-radius corner : A turn where the arc gets sharper as you progress through the curve.

Dirtbike : Bikes intended for off-road use that aren’t legal to ride on public roads. Sometimes the term pure-dirt is used to distinguish a dirtbike from a dual-sport motorcycle.

Discs : These are the metal rotors the caliper presses the pads against to brake.

Double-cradle frame : A bike frame with two steel tubes circling the engine from the front and “cradling” it.

Dresser : A motorcycle set up for long-distance touring.

Dual sport : Street-legal motorcycles with varying degrees of off-road capabilities. Also called dual-purpose motorcycles.

Eccentric journals : These are used to attach the connecting rods to the crankshaft (also called metal shafts).

Ergonomics : The science used to design devices, systems, and physical conditions that conform to the human body. A prime consideration when designing a motorcycle.

Evolution (Evo) : When Harley-Davidson began using aluminum to build its cylinder jugs, it called this new engine the Evolution.

F

Fairings : The devices mounted at the front of a motorcycle to protect the rider from the elements. These range from simple, Plexiglas shields to complex, encompassing body panels.

False neutral : When you fail to engage gears and the transmission behaves as though it is in neutral, even though it isn’t.

Flat cylinders : Found in the flat-four- and flat-six-cylinder engines used in Honda’s Gold Wings, the cylinders are arranged in a flat, opposing configuration.

Foot paddling : The way an unskilled rider “walks” his or her motorcycle around at low speeds.

Forks : The metal tubes holding the front wheel to the rest of the motorcycle.

Four-cylinder bike : A motorcycle with four cylinders.

Fuel-injection system : This mixes the fuel-air charges and forcibly injects them into the combustion chambers, unlike carburetors, which rely on the vacuum created by the engine to draw the charges into the combustion chambers.

G

Garbage wagon : A scornful term used by some outlaw bikers to describe touring bikes.

Gearhead : A person with a strong interest in all things mechanical; a motorcyclist.

Gearset : A set of gears within a bike’s transmission.

H

High siding : Pitching a bike over away from the direction you are turning. The most dangerous kind of crash.

Horsepower : A measure of an engine’s strength.

Hydroplane : When your tires start to float on top of water, causing them to lose contact with the road’s surface.

I

Increasing-radius corner : A turn where the arc becomes less sharp as you go through the curve.

Inline six : An engine with six cylinders in a row.

Inline triple : An engine with three cylinders placed in a row.

Iron Butt Rally : The most grueling long-distance motorcycle rally in the world. To finish, the rally requires that you ride at least 10,000 miles in 11 days.

K

Knucklehead : A term for Harley-Davidson’s first overhead-valve Big Twin, introduced
in 1936.

L

L-twin engine : A V-twin engine with its cylinders splayed apart at a 90-degree angle, which creates a smoother-running engine. These engines can either be placed transversely (crosswise), or longitudinally (lengthwise) in the motorcycle frame.

Lane splitting : Riding between lanes of traffic on a freeway.

Laying the bike down : A crash where you slide down on one side of the bike.

Leviathan : Used to describe big, multicylinder dual sports.

Lugging the engine : Letting the RPMs fall below the engine’s powerband.

M

Manual transmission : A device consisting of a set of gears (the gearset), that alter the final-drive ratio of a vehicle to enable an operator to get up to speed. Automatic transmissions do not have gearsets but rather use a complex system of fluid and metal bands to vary the final-drive ratio of a vehicle.

N

Naked bikes : Bikes without any type of fairing.

O

Oilheads : Newer, air-and-oil-cooled BMW Boxer engines.

Open-class : When referring to street-legal sportbikes, open-class designates motorcycles with engines that displace more than 800 cubic centimeters of volume.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) : The companies that build the bikes.

Orphan bikes : Rare bikes that are no longer in production.

Otto cycle : The four-stroke engine is sometimes called the Otto cycle, in honor of its inventor, Otto Benz.

Overbore :When you overbore your engine, you drill out the cylinders and then put oversized pistons in the holes, effectively increasing your engine capacity.

Overhead cam system : A system where the cam rides directly on top of the valve
stems.

P

Panhead : A term for Harley-Davidson’s second-generation overhead-valve Big Twin, introduced in 1948.

Parallel-twin engine : A two-cylinder engine with its cylinders placed side-by-side in an upright position.

Pistons : The slugs moving up and down within the cylinders.

Powerband : A certain RPM (revolutions per minute—how many times per minute an engine’s crankshaft spins around) range in which an engine makes most of its power.

Primary drive : A drive chain connecting the engine’s crankshaft to its transmission.

Production motorcycles : The bikes manufacturers produce to sell to the general public, rather than bikes built specifically for racers.

Pushrod system : In a pushrod system, the cams are located below the cylinder heads and push on the rocker arms by moving long rods, called the pushrods.

R

Radial : When used to describe a tire, refers to the way the cords of a tire are constructed. While radial tires have long been used with automobiles, they are just now being used on motorcycles.

Rain grooves : Channels cut into a road’s surface to help water run off the road during a rainstorm.

Repair link : A link in some motorcycle chains that can be disassembled for chain repair.

Repli-racers : Hard-edged sportbikes. These motorcycles are characterized by riding positions that tuck the rider into an extreme crouch, forcing him or her to practically lay down on the fuel tank.

Revolutions per minute (RPM) : The number of times the crankshaft spins around each minute. Often, the term revs is used, especially in conversation.

Riding two up : Carrying a passenger on your bike.

Rocker arms : Devices that work like upside-down teeter totters and push on the valve stems.

Rubber-mounted : Rubber-mounted engines use a system of rubber cushions and/or jointed engine mounts to isolate engine vibration from the rider.

S

Shaft drive system : A final-drive system that transmits the power to the rear wheel
via a drive shaft.

Shaft jacking : Shaky or bumpy motion created by the impact of acceleration and then fed back into the bike’s frame.

Shovelhead : A term for Harley’s third-generation overhead-valve Big Twin engine,
introduced in 1966.

Sidecars : Small carriages attached to the side of a motorcycle to provide extra carrying
capacity.

Sissy bar : The backrest put behind the passenger’s portion of the saddle.

Snicking : The act of shifting a well-functioning transmission is often called snicking, because that’s the sound the action makes. A transmission that doesn’t snick into gear is described as sloppy-shifting.

Solid-mounted : A bike with a solid-mounted engine has the engine bolted directly to the frame tubes.

Splitting the cases : The metal shell surrounding the bottom end is composed of two clam-shell-like halves, called cases. Taking these apart to repair the motor is called splitting the cases. See also bottom end.

Sport tourer : A motorcycle that combines the comfort and carrying capacity of a touring bike with the handling and power of a sportbike with larger fairings and hard, lockable luggage.

Sportbike : A motorcycle designed for optimal speed and handling characteristics, often with extensive bodywork.

Springer fork : Springer-type forks use large, exposed springs to dampen the impact of road irregularities.

Squid : Someone who rides a sportbike on the street as if he or she were on a racetrack.

Steering geometry : The geometrical relationship between the motorcycle frame, the angle of the fork, and the position of the front tire.

Streetfighter : A bare-bones sportbike, stripped of all extraneous body work (also called a “hooligan” bike).

Stroke : The up-and-down motion of the piston.

Suspension : The forks, shocks, and to a degree, tires, of a motorcycle. The springs and fluids in these items that “suspend” the motorcycle frame off of the ground.

T

Tappets : Small metal slugs between the cam and the pushrod or rocker arm.

Telelever system : The most successful alternate front suspension, made by BMW, which takes the shock-absorption function of a hydraulic fork and transfers it to a shock absorber located behind the steering head.

Thumper : Bikes with large-displacement, single-cylinder, four-stroke engines.

Top end : The upper part of the engine, which contains the pistons, cylinders, and valve gear, and the induction system consists of the apparati that mix an air-and-fuel charge and inject it into the combustion chamber, located in the top end.

Torque : A twisting force, and in a motorcycle, it is a measure of the leverage the engine exerts on the rear wheel.

Touring bike : A bike equipped for longer rides with fairings and lockable saddle bags.

Traction : A tire’s ability to grip the road.

Travel : The distance that suspension components, the forks and shocks, move up and down when the bike rides over bumps.

Twin spar-type frame : A bike frame with two steel or aluminum “spars” (flat beams) sandwiched around the sides of the engine.

Two up : A term for carrying a passenger on your motorcycle.

Two-stroke engine : An engine (also called a “stroker”) whose power cycle consists of just two movements, or strokes: The piston moves down, drawing in the fuel-air charge, and then up, combusting the charge.

U

Unitized transmission : A transmission (often referred to as a “unit transmission”) that is an integral part of the engine’s bottom end.

Universal Japanese Motorcycle (UJM) : During the 1970s, the Japanese became so identified with the four-cylinder, standard-style motorcycle that this term was coined to describe them.

V

V-four : An engine with four cylinders arranged in a V-shaped configuration.

V-twin : A two-cylinder engine with its cylinders placed in a V shape.

Valves : Devices consisting of metal stems with flat disks on one end that open and
close to let fuel charges in and exhaust gases out.

Valve guides : Metal tubes that house the valves.

Valve train : The system of valves that let the fuel charges in and let the exhaust
gases out.

Once you’ve selected a type of motorcycle, you need to decide whether you want to buy a new bike or a used one.

Price is probably the prime determining factor in this decision. If money is no object, you can just waltz into a dealership and buy any bike that strikes your fancy. You can buy two or three of them if you’re that well off, so you don’t even have to make any choices. But most of us have to make prudent decisions when it comes to expenditures, especially when it comes to spending money on recreational activities like motorcycling. If you’re on a budget, buying a used bike can be a wise decision.


In general, though, modern motorcycles are pretty tough to destroy, and unless the previous owner really went out of his or her way to trash the thing, most used bikes are in fairly good condition. This is especially true of motorcycles that appeal to more mature riders, such as touring bikes, cruisers, and standards. It is less true of sportbikes, which tend to lead harder lives than other types of motorcycles. Dual sports can go either way. They are usually in fair condition, unless the owner has attempted to do serious off-road riding on them. One disadvantage of buying a used bike is that you are never quite certain what you are getting. Another disadvantage of buying used is that you don’t usually get a warranty.

But given the reliable nature of modern bikes, these disadvantages are fairly insignificant. The advantage of buying used is that used bikes are less expensive than new ones. This is especially true of Japanese motorcycles, which historically have had fairly poor resale value. For example, Kawasaki’s 1998 Ninja 500R retails for $3,200. At that price, the little Ninja represents one of the best values in motorcycling. But you can find a used fixer-upper for as little as $1,000. Nice, clean, used models can be found for as little as $2,000 to $3,000. These bikes may be 10 years old or more, but they are the same basic motorcycle as the new model.

Harley-Davidsons prove the exception. Because people have been waiting months or even years to buy new Harleys, the used market has gone insane. I recently saw a 1998 Sportster 1200 Custom, a bike that lists for $8,500, advertised in a newspaper for $13,000. A premium of $4,300 is quite a price to pay for being impatient. I strongly recommend waiting to buy a new one, given the current market climate.

Fortunately for buyers (and unfortunately for those looking to turn a quick buck), that climate seems to be changing. The current market boom, caused by demand exceeding supply, appears to be waning. Harley plans to step up production dramatically over the next few years. This means the future supply of new Harleys will meet demand. Already, you can find new Harleys sitting for sale on showroom floors, a situation unheard of a couple of years ago. When supply and demand equalize, only a fool would pay more for a used bike than a new bike.

While buying a used bike may make the most sense from a pure dollars-and-cents point of view, buying a new bike has its advantages, too. When you buy a new bike, you get a warranty. While the odds of a modern bike breaking down are slim, it does happen, and when it does, that warranty is nice to have.

Another benefit of buying a new bike is that it can be easier to finance. Often the dealer will be able to finance the machine, saving you the hassle of procuring financing yourself. And many manufacturers offer attractive low-interest financing packages. Buying a new bike frees you from some of the worries of buying a used bike. Knowing the machine’s complete history has certain benefits. When you are a bike’s only owner, you can break it in properly yourself, and you know the bike has been properly maintained.

Plus, there’s the intangible benefit of riding a brand-new motorcycle. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of riding away from a dealership on your brand-new bike.

The Costs of Cycling

The most obvious (and largest) cost of motorcycling is the cost of the bike itself. New streetbikes range from a low of around $5,299 for a Kawasaki Ninja 300 ABS to a high of almost $34,000 for a Ducati Panigale R. Most new bikes will fall into the $7,000–$15,000 range.

Used bike prices can vary even more than new bike prices, but expect to spend at least $2,500– $5,000 for a good used motorcycle (unless you’re a skilled bargain hunter). No matter what type of bike you buy, or whether you buy new or used, you will find some unexpected costs. Some of these costs, like buying insurance, will become apparent soon after you write the check for the bike. Others, like the cost of basic maintenance, will rear their ugly heads only after you’ve racked up a few miles. These costs aren’t obvious to a new rider, and a little knowledge ahead of time can influence your choice of a bike. As you will learn, that choice will in turn influence those hidden costs.

Insurance Costs

Some insurance companies simply will not insure a motorcycle. Those that do usually use a completely arbitrary method of determining insurance premiums based on engine displacement. Basically, the smaller your engine, the lower your insurance costs are likely to be, and any bodywork will add to your premium. This may seem logical to someone who knows absolutely nothing about bikes, but once you understand more about engines, you’ll realize that engine size means little.

But that’s the way things are, so it’s a good idea to take insurance costs into account when selecting a motorcycle. Check insurance prices in your area before buying a bike. Rates for the same bike from the same company can double from one location to the next. For example, my wife, who has a spotless driving record, paid about $260 per year for full-coverage insurance on her Honda ST1100 when she lived in North Dakota. When she moved to Minneapolis, her insurance premiums (using the same policy) doubled, shooting up to nearly $600 per year.

Maintenance Costs

Even less obvious than insurance costs are maintenance costs. While modern bikes don’t require an annual overhaul like many older models do, they still require more maintenance than most cars. This is partly because motorcycles are so technologically advanced.

Motorcycle designers have to use sophisticated mechanisms to get a relatively small motorcycle engine to generate so much power. Thus, these engines require more routine maintenance than less highly-stressed engines. Add in the other procedures your bike will require, such as carburetion adjustments and chain and tire replacements, and you can expect to fork out some serious cash for tune-ups over the years.

And if you don’t do your own basic maintenance and instead take your bike in for things such as oil and tire changes, you can add a significant amount to your overall total. But there are some things you can do to minimize these expenses. The less you abuse your motorcycle in general, the less money you will have to spend maintaining it.

Topping your list of essential items should be your helmet. The issue of helmet use causes more debate than any other issue in motorcycling, which is insane : It’s like arguing for or against smallpox vaccinations during the nineteenth century.




Make no mistake about it: Not wearing a helmet is stupid. According to a long-term study conducted by Professor Harry Hurt for the University of Southern California’s Head Protection Research Laboratory, you’re five times more likely to suffer a serious head injury if you have an accident while not wearing a helmet than you are if you crash while wearing one. Every study ever conducted backs up Hurt’s findings.


Given the overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of helmets, you’d think everyone wears one, but you’d be wrong. Stand on any street corner in a state without helmet laws, and you’ll see as many bare heads as you will see helmeted heads. People go to extreme lengths to justify their choice to not wear a helmet, but none of their justifications hold up in the face of all the available research. The arguments that helmets break necks, block vision, impair hearing, and cause overheating have been proven myths by every study ever conducted.

I believe most people who don’t wear helmets make their decision based on peer pressure. Otherwise reasonable, intelligent adults seem more afraid of facing the ridicule of their comrades than they are of living out the rest of their lives as produce. I actually had a man at the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis tell me he always wore a helmet but wasn’t wearing one during the rally because his friends weren’t wearing theirs. I was a rebel, I told him, and I wore mine anyway.

I was once in his position. I rode for over a decade without a helmet, mainly because when I was young, I hung out with hardcore Harley bikers, and they would have thought I was some kind of wimp had I worn a helmet.

When I was 25, I took a job working as an orderly in a rehabilitation hospital, in the head-and-spine-injury unit. One patient I worked with was a victim of a motorcycle crash. He didn’t break a single bone in his accident, and had he been wearing a helmet, he would have walked away with nothing but his pride injured. But he wasn’t wearing one, and he hit his head on a rock.

While his body was perfectly healthy, the patient couldn’t remember where he was from one minute to the next. One of my jobs was to lead him to the cafeteria every day, because he forgot its location from one meal to the next. That spring, my wife and I both bought motorcycle helmets, and I haven’t ridden without one since.

Besides protecting your head, a good-fitting helmet actually makes riding more comfortable. Helmets reduce road noise, keep the wind blast out of your face, and keep bugs and other debris out of your eyes.

How Helmets Are Made

Helmets help keep the contents of your head on the inside rather than the outside by using four basic components in their construction:

- The outer shell. The outside of a helmet, usually constructed of fiberglass or injection-molded plastic, disperses energy from an impact across a broad area of the helmet before that energy reaches your head.

- The impact-absorbing lining. This area inside the outer shell, usually made of a dense layer of expanded polystyrene, absorbs most of the shock caused by an impact.

- The comfort padding. This innermost layer of soft foam and cloth conforms to your head and is primarily responsible for how comfortable the helmet is.

- The retention system. This consists of the strap connected to the bottom of the helmet that goes under your chin and holds the helmet on.

Helmets come in a variety of styles, from small, bowl-shaped half-helmets that protect your brain stem and not much else, to sleek fully enclosed helmets that protect everything above your neck. In between are the three-quarter, or open-face helmets, which cover most of your head but leave your face unprotected. These give better protection than half helmets, but should your face contact the pavement at speed, an open-face helmet will provide you with a one-way ticket on the ugly train. Neither half helmets nor open-face helmets offer the comfort full-face helmets provide by shielding the wearer from the elements.

Whichever type of helmet you choose, the important thing is to choose a helmet. It is the single most crucial piece of motorcycle gear.

Choosing the Right Helmet

Helmets come in a variety of styles and prices. You can get a full-face helmet for under $100, while high-end helmets can run over $500, or even more than you thought for brand new "hi-tech" helmet.

Why do some helmets cost more than others ? There are a variety of reasons. Paint schemes add to the price of a helmet; expect to pay more for a helmet with fancy graphics than for a solid-color helmet. (If the paint scheme replicates the helmet of a top racer, expect to pay more yet.) Some expensive helmets are more comfortable than cheaper helmets, while others are not.

Some helmets cost more because they use more expensive material in their outer shells. This may contribute to comfort by making the helmet lighter, but it doesn’t make the helmet any safer.

Safety First

All helmets have to meet minimum safety standards set by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Two other organizations, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Snell Memorial Foundation, also certify helmets. A Snell certification is something I look for on a helmet. Snell won’t certify a half or open-face helmet, as DOT will, and it also has more exacting standards for the retention system than DOT.

If you choose a half helmet, be certain you are getting one approved by DOT. Lately, unscrupulous dealers have been placing DOT stickers (stickers applied to the helmet listing the helmet as DOT approved) on unsafe novelty helmets. Genuine DOT-approved helmets also have a label permanently attached to the inside of the helmet displaying DOT information, like the date of manufacture. Make sure you’re getting the real thing.

Getting a Good Fit

When you get used to wearing a helmet, you will not feel comfortable riding without one. Of course, that assumes that you’ve picked a helmet that fits you well. A helmet that is too loose might flop around while you’re riding, obstructing your vision, and a helmet that is too tight will live up to the worst predictions of the anti-helmet crowd.

If all heads were the same shape, choosing a helmet would be simple: You’d just match your helmet size to your hat size. Unfortunately, helmets have to conform to your entire head rather than just a ring around your forehead.

Because of the difficulty involved in selecting a properly fitting helmet, I strongly advise you to purchase your first one from a store where you can try on different models and sizes. While you can often save money by purchasing accessories through online shop, you won’t be saving any money if you can’t wear the helmet you order from a online shop ads because it doesn’t fit.

A helmet should feel fairly snug on your head to prevent it from sliding around and possibly obscuring your vision or falling off in an accident. It may feel too tight when you first put it on. When in place, a properly fitting helmet should not slide around on your head. At the same time, you need to watch for pressure points - places where the helmet pushes uncomfortably against your head.

When you try on a helmet, wear it around the store for a bit, and when you take it off, note any soreness or red spots. Wearing a helmet that exerts pressure on your head can turn into a brutal form of torture after an extended period; improperly fitted helmets have permanently turned many riders against helmet use. If the helmet you are trying on touches pressure points, try on a larger size or a different brand or model.