Backing down a steep incline or slippery slope can be intimidating when the front tire loses grip. Using a technique to emulate rear-wheel braking is the magic solution.
There are countless YouTube videos showing epic failures of riders attempting to back their motorcycles down ramps from trailers or truck beds. And I’ve personally witnessed numerous riders at motorcycle gatherings and in campsites lose it as they tried to back down damp, grassy slopes. I’ll even admit to having a very awkward moment of my own a few years back in front of dozens of my fellow riders when I nearly dominoed a row of parked BMWs because I couldn’t keep the front tire from sliding as I rolled and slid backward down a steep gravel driveway. Not pretty.
The problem presented to riders when backing down a slanted surface is that the motorcycle’s weight shifts to the rear, simultaneously lightening the front wheel. Not a problem if the rider could maintain use of the rear brake, but both feet are needed on the ground to walk the bike backward and keep it upright. That leaves the rider with only the use of the front brake to keep the machine from rolling rearward too quickly. Unfortunately, with less weight on the front end, the front brake provides very limited grip, especially the steeper and the slipperier the surface. So what’s a rider to do? Here’s the perfect technique to use in a clutch.
To simulate the use of the rear brake without actually requiring a foot on the rear brake pedal, follow these clever steps. With the bike’s transmission in first gear, turn off the engine (engine cutoff switch is simplest) and ease out the clutch lever. The engine’s compression with the engine off will hold the bike in position on the hill—no need for brakes at all! To back down the slope with complete control, slowly pull in the clutch into the friction zone. This will partially disengage the engine and transmission from the rear wheel, allowing the bike to drift backward. Control your speed with the clutch position, releasing the clutch lever slightly to slow more or squeezing it in slightly to allow more speed. With a little practice, you’ll have the confidence and control to back down virtually any angled surface like a pro. Just don’t forget to restart the engine before you attempt to pull forward again!
Chains are not only cheap and reliable, they’re the most efficient form of final drive for a motorcycle. When you boil it down, chains come in two varieties: standard (or unsealed), and O-ring (or sealed). Photos by the author.
Take a look around any dealership floor, bike night parking lot or race paddock, and the vast majority of motorcycles will be wearing a chain and sprockets for their final drive. Belts and driveshafts have their perks, but chains are the dominant drivetrain thanks to their low production cost, efficient power transmission and easy gearing changes and component replacement.
Chains basically come in two categories: unsealed or standard roller chain, and sealed or O-ring chain. Unsealed chains are commonly found on vintage bikes, small-displacement economy rides and off-road motorcycles. They’re what you see on bicycles and conveyor belts, and even the treads on a bulldozer are a type of unsealed chain. Standard chain is just a series of plain bearings made of metal links and nothing else. That means it’s up to you to apply lubricant to keep the parts from grinding themselves into dust, and you have to do it every few hundred miles. Even then, reducing friction between high-wear components like the link pins and bushings is difficult, and as a result unsealed chains wear quickly, necessitating frequent slack adjustments and replacement.
Sealed chains, as the name suggests, have rubber seals sandwiched between the side plates and inner links, sealing in grease that’s sucked in around the pins via vacuum when the chain is manufactured. The O-rings seal the grease in and keep dirt and water out, ensuring the pins and bushings are bathed in lube, which greatly reduces wear and extends the life of the chain. This arrangement also means less frequent and lighter applications of chain lube, since all you’re doing with that can of aerosol is keeping the O-rings moist and pliable and preventing the metal links from corroding.
Having trouble visualizing the layout of a sealed chain? This oughta clear things up. By retaining grease right where it’s needed, a sealed chain’s most vulnerable components are always properly lubricated.
Sealed chains were introduced in the late 1970s and revolutionized chain maintenance by greatly reducing the need for lubrication while simultaneously increasing the life of the chain by up to tens of thousands of miles. More recently, other seal styles have been developed, most notably the X-ring. Here’s the idea: When that chubby little O-ring gets squeezed between the plates, it creates a fair amount of surface area that results in a small amount of drag every time the chain link pivots. That drag saps power getting to the rear wheel. With an X-ring chain, the sealing ring’s profile resembles an “X”” The X-ring is more readily compressed between the plates, and its shape provides four sealing surfaces around each link pin (instead of two), but with less total surface area, resulting in less drag.
If evaluating the drag on your chain seems like the kind of obsessive minutia only a racer would think about, you’re right. X-ring technology was developed for the track and adapted for the street, where the better sealing of the X-ring helped increase chain life even more. As a track-bred product, X-ring chains are typically made from harder, stronger metals and may have weight-reducing features like hollow link pins and thinner side plates. With all those virtues, however, comes a higher price.
Not sure if your bike is running a sealed chain? Odds are it is, but if in doubt just take a close look. If you see some rubber bulging out between the plates, you’re riding with permanently lubricated links.
Generally speaking, the better sealing (and thus service life) a chain offers, the more expensive it’s going to be. That being said you may be tempted to slap a standard unsealed chain on your bike because it’s cheap, but the upfront savings simply isn’t worth the cost of increased maintenance and more frequent replacement. Unsealed chains still make sense on smaller, less powerful machines that will log fewer miles, but for regular road use a sealed chain–whether it’s an O-ring type or some other variety–is definitely the way to go.
Sealing lube in around the critical wear components of the chain has taken what was already a practical, reliable and efficient drivetrain and made it even better. No wonder the majority of motorcycles rely on links and sprockets to get down the road.
Improving slow-speed stability can be fun. No, really.
This “slow race” broke out after lunch with fellow riders and was just for fun. But it’s actually a great way to build skills.
More than any other skill, riders tell me they wish they had better low-speed control. And no wonder; a bike is unstable and heavy at low speeds. It’s a skill riders want to improve, yet most avoid practice. Why? Probably because we tend to avoid things we hate. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid slow-speed riding altogether.
For me, the trick to developing skills has always been to make practice fun. So, let’s play a game or two. But first, let’s consider the basic techniques of slow-speed riding. Sit straight up with eyes looking to a distant target. Place the bike in first gear, raise the engine rpm slightly over idle and ease the clutch into the friction zone. Once rolling, place your feet on the pegs and apply a little rear brake. Modulate your speed by applying more or less rear brake (no front brake!). Those are the basics of slow riding. Now, let’s have some fun.
When riding with friends, try an impromptu “slow race” at one of your breaks. Line everyone up side-by-side at one end of an open parking lot, all facing the same direction and with sufficient space between bikes. This will be your start line. Pick a finish line a few yards away or so (not too far). On the “go” signal, each rider starts toward the finish, riding as slowly, but as stably, as possible. The last one to get to the finish line wins. The first one there buys lunch.
Once comfortable with straight line slow-speed control, try introducing a game with turns. A favorite of mine is to pick another willing rider and begin riding in a circle together at slow speed. Let the bike lean beneath you as you stay upright. Keep eyes up and looking at your buddy across the circle. As you get more comfortable, the two of you can tighten the circle to challenge each other. End the game by steering out of the circle, away from your buddy.
Then there’s the two-wheeled version of follow-the-leader. With riders in single file, one rider leads the group around the lot, making random combinations of right and left turns and even large circles, while keeping speeds slow enough to require the clutch to remain in the friction zone.
With such games, you’ll spend more time enjoying yourself than being intimidated by the bike’s slow-speed behavior. And before you know it, you’ll be riding like Heinz ketchup: smooth and slow.
Radial front brake system.Axial front brake system.
Q:What is the value of radial-mount brake calipers over the normal “old-fashioned” fork mount? All I’ve read is that radial mounting makes it easier to service the brakes on race bikes.
Tom Sanor, Roswell, Georgia
A: The difference between radial- and axial-mount, or “old fashioned” brakes as you call them, boils down to how they’re mounted to the fork. Radial calipers are secured via bolts that run parallel to the discs, while axial-mount brakes are held in place with bolts that are perpendicular to the discs, parallel to the axle.
That’s a seemingly trivial difference, but radial mounting yields some important benefits. For starters, radial-mount calipers provide better caliper-to-disc alignment since the caliper body is centered over the disc using locating dowels rather than sliding pins as on an axial setup. Radial calipers are also more rigid since the caliper is secured at both ends rather than at just one end as is common on axial calipers.That improved alignment and rigidity can provide better bite, more stopping power and improved feel under aggressive braking, which is especially important stuff to roadracers.
As you surmised, radial-mount technology was born on the track and trickled down to the street, and as you mentioned mounting calipers radially makes it easier to change disc sizes since all you need to do is swap out the caliper spacers to accommodate larger or smaller discs. MotoGP racers may run 320mm or 340mm discs depending on the track, conditions and rider, and swapping out those pie plates wouldn’t be nearly as quick and easy with axial-mount calipers.
JIS screws on a vintage Japanese bike carburetor. Note the small dot next to the cross slot.
Q: After owning Honda automobiles and Japanese motorcycles for years, I just found out about JIS. Can you explain what it is, and why nobody seems to know about it? To be clear, I’m talking about screws and screwdrivers that appear to be Phillips but are not. All of us who have ruined such “Phillips” screws can truly say, “It’s not my fault.”
Kevin Schilling, Ames, Iowa
A: JIS is the abbreviation for “Japanese Industrial Standards,” which is the government body responsible for homogenizing everything from bridge-building materials and techniques to medical equipment standards and testing. Even though JIS covers all aspects of Japan’s vast industrial endeavors–literally tens of thousands of specifications and rules–it’s one lowly screw-head standard that affects us motorcyclists.
While the nuts and bolts on our Hondas, Yamahas, Suzukis and Kawasakis mate perfectly with metric wrenches, the JIS screw head, which resembles a Phillips head and was commonly found on the engine cases, carb float bowls, bodywork and other areas of older bikes, is in fact different and not particularly compatible with the traditional #2 Phillips screwdriver in your toolbox.
JIS screws are denoted by a dot or a small “x” placed next to the cross slot. “They look similar,” says Jon Mullins, Race Support Manager at Motion Pro, “but the shape of the recess is different enough that the tools are not interchangeable.” Due to those different profiles, your trusty Phillips tip won’t fully seat into a JIS screw head, and may “cam out” as you attempt to loosen or tighten the fastener. The result is usually a stripped and mangled screw head, a rounded-off screwdriver and a frustrated mechanic.
Factory trained mechanics and Japanese-bike aficionados are aware of the JIS cross-point driver, but the knowledge never seemed to trickle down to the DIY general public. Nowadays, hex-head fasteners have replaced JIS screws in most applications, but you’ll still find them on vintage bikes and the occasional modern machine. If you’re tired of butchering screws, you can always pick up the correct tool from Motion Pro. They offer a T-handle kit with #1, #2 and #3 JIS bits to tackle all the screws you’re likely to encounter.
With an excessive load of scrap held in place by a cable, that vintage flathead V-8 engine, along with the rest of the load, could soon be on the road surface.
I’ll admit, there can be some really interesting things to be seen packed into the backs of trucks and in open trailers as they haul down the interstate. But, while it can be tempting to get a closer look at that pickup truck loaded to the sky with unusual scrap items, it is wiser to exercise caution around overloaded vehicles. Often, loose items are simply thrown on board and trusted to stay in place on their own. Or a weak attempt to tie things down is expected to do the trick. But at speed, with a little wind or a bump in the road, those items can break loose and topple to the highway, creating a serious hazard for motorcyclists.
Despite any draw of curiosity, it’s best to create extra space between loaded vehicles and ourselves. It’s also a good idea to consider how other drivers in traffic might react if an object falls from the truck or trailer ahead of them. We should have a planned response ready. Also watch for poorly fastened singular items, such as mattresses on car roofs and loosely secured ladders in truck beds (both are popular items to launch onto the roadway). Even displaced lightweight items such as clothing and trash can send traffic scurrying in all directions and some items can get caught in a motorcycle’s wheels.
Even with no loaded vehicle in sight, be ready for the remnants to be on the roadway at any time. Monitor traffic ahead and notice if any vehicles are moving around as if to avoid a larger object on the road. Items that are small enough to be straddled by cars can still be dangerous enough to put a motorcycle down, so keep a healthy following distance from any vehicle and anticipate the sudden appearance of a flying, sliding or emerging object. One man’s junk may be another man’s treasure at the flea market, but for a motorcyclist on the highway, it can be serious trouble.
Heated grips are a treat on chilly rides. Not only do they make you more comfortable when it’s cold out, they improve safety by keeping your digits limber and sensitive on the controls. Photos by Spenser Robert.
Heated grips are great for extending your riding season and staying comfortable when the temperature drops. When it comes to choosing heated grips you essentially have two options: cheapo panels that go beneath your existing grips, or complete assemblies with integrated heating elements. While they tend to be more expensive (in the $60 to $160 range) and a little bulky, integrated kits usually work better and come with higher-quality controls and wiring.
Integrated heated grips—wherein the heating elements are molded into the assembly—offer better performance, appearance and durability than universal under-the-grip heating panels.
Before you can install your new grips you’ll need to remove the old ones. Getting your OEM bar-ends off can be a bear, so use a T-handle for leverage and hold the bar-end with a pair of channel locks and a rag to keep the weight from rotating. Use a razor blade to slice off your old grips (no going back now!) and then scrape off any glue residue and wipe the bar and throttle tube clean with a rag doused in isopropyl alcohol or carb cleaner.
OEM bar-ends are often installed with Loctite or even interference threads. Wrap the weight with a rag and grip it with channel locks to keep the bar-end from turning.
Some OEM throttle tubes have ridges and/or a flange molded into them that you’ll need to knock down before you can slide on the heated grip. A sharp utility knife and some 120-grit sandpaper will do the trick, but if you have access to a bench grinder or a benchtop belt sander, that will yield the quickest and cleanest results.
Now that you’ve got your bars prepped, it’s time to slide on those grips. Most integrated heated grips are too rigid to be blown on with my favorite installation accessory, compressed air. Your best bet is to douse the inside of the grip and your bar with a quick-evaporating fluid like–you guessed it–isopropyl alcohol, and then push the grip on with a twisting motion. Some grips are so robust that they need to be coaxed into place with a rubber mallet.
You can usually use compressed air to blow your old grips off the bars, but a razor blade will make exceptionally quick work of the job. Be careful not to slice into the plastic throttle tube.
Depending on the kit, you may have a dial or control switches that need to be mounted in a convenient place. Regardless of how easy or visually appealing it might be to place said switches on the right side of your cockpit, don’t do it. You want those controls as close to your left grip as possible so they’re easy to use. Some kits, like the Koso Apollo grips I installed for this article, have the controls build right into the flange. That means you can operate them without removing your hand from the controls. It also makes for a really clean installation.
When it comes to running the grip wiring back to your battery, it’s best to route it along a frame rail away from pinch points and moving parts, which often means removing some bodywork or perhaps the tank. Secure the wires with zip ties and make sure you leave enough slack at the right grip and headstock to accommodate full throttle and full steering sweep. If your bike’s bodywork is a nightmare to remove, you can use a fish tape to push the wires from the headstock back to the battery.
Take your time running the wiring back to the battery, and don’t be afraid to use lots of zip ties. Removing the bodywork is a pain, but it provides the access needed to do the job right.
The final step is to get the grips powered up, and with most kits it’s as easy as slipping the supplied fused ring terminals under the battery bolts. As always, you’ll want to disconnect the negative (black wire) terminal first and affix it last to avoid an unpleasant and potentially dangerous short. Most accessories come with fused power hookups, but if not it’s important to wire in a fuse of the appropriate amperage (typically 5 to 7.5A) to protect against shorts. And you should review your owner’s manual to make sure you’re not overburdening your bike’s electrical system.
Route the grip wires along your bike’s other cockpit wiring to keep it tidy. Check to see that you have ample slack to accommodate full rotation at the throttle and full steering lock at the handlebar.
The ideal wiring situation for heated grips and any other electrical accessories is a relay or switched power-distribution box, but we’ll save that topic for another article. In the meantime, get your grips hooked up, test them to see how toasty they get and then keep an eye out for a decent day to go for a ride.
The three steps for powder application are surface prep to remove contaminants, protection of sensitive areas and careful application of the product. Photos by the author.
Powder coating is a durable and protective surface treatment that has become ubiquitous in automotive and motorcycle restorations. Applied correctly, it resists UV, moisture and moderate impact. For me as a resto-guy who routinely rides my 1960s Brit bikes, it’s worth the investment.
In a process called electrostatic spray deposition, a specialized spray gun applies electrically charged powder to grounded parts. The parts are then placed in a curing oven, where the coating chemically reacts with heat to form long molecular chains with high cross-link density, making it tougher and more durable than paint.
Unlike paint, powder coating does not rely on a liquid solvent or carrier fluid, so it emits few volatile organic compounds. Applied dry, it can be applied thicker without sagging or running.
Electro Tech Powder Coating in San Marcos, California, did my recent work and owner Adam Mitchell gave me the lowdown on the process and what customers can expect.
After blasting, the sensitive areas are protected with Teflon plugs or special high-heat tape.
First, all grease, oil, dirt and loose rust must be cleaned away. Greasy areas like swingarm abutments, steering necks and chain guards need particular work to avoid risk of porosity failure due to contamination. Some parts will need protection from build-up including threads, tight clearance areas, structural connections, bearing locations, etc. Mitchell insisted that his crew would protect any areas like these.
In the past, I’ve used all-thread rod, assorted washers and even sacrificial bolts to protect crucial areas myself, but Mitchell’s crew are “all car and bike people with years of experience” so I degreased as well as I could and let them protect as necessary with high-heat tape and Teflon plugs.
In house, parts are surface-prepped with an abrasive blast, but excessive grease or oil will contaminate their blast media, so I pressure washed the parts at a car wash to remove the majority of the contamination. Some powder coaters may provide additional cleaning, perhaps baking the parts to burn off greasy residue, but they will charge for that time. Clean parts make everyone happy.
Once the parts are cleaned and prepped, the powder is electrostatically applied. Some parts may get preheated to aid in this application depending on their physical size and thermal mass. Once powder is applied, the parts are oven baked for specific times and temperatures (usually 390 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes), causing the finely milled thermo-plastic powder particles to melt, bond and flow smoothly.
The powder material is applied by an experienced worker with an electrostatic gun, assuring a good even coat of correct thickness. Then it’s off to the oven for melting, flowing and a chemical cure.
Thickness of application can be critical. Typically, powder coating is a thicker process than painting, so build-up at contact points on frames must be dealt with. I use a 2-inch diameter Scotch-Brite 120-grit pad in a die-grinder to get clean steel-to-steel contact on important areas like swingarm abutments, frame assembly points and any close tolerance areas like steering neck bearing locations. Failure to remove coatings in these areas may lead to vibration-induced fretting and ultimately, a gradual loosening of fastener torque.
Powder is tough to remove and difficult to touch up, so be careful if you want to keep perfect results. Layers of blue masking tape will help to protect that perfect gloss-black finish from errant “whoops” mistakes.
Some through-holes for bolts may need to be chased with an appropriate drill bit. Careful use of a file aids in detailing visible areas. A few threaded holes may need freshly cadmium-plated bolts run in a few times to clear debris. Taps and dies are expensive for arcane Brit bike threads so I use a MacGyver work-around with patience and careful wrenching. I’ve used brass gun-cleaning brushes in a drill motor to clean blind bolt holes.
Powder coating should be removed at hard contact areas to resist fretting caused by inherent lubricity of the powder material on the mating surfaces. Careful use of Scotch-Brite pads in a drill motor or grinder will easily clean the parts back to bare steel.
Useful suggestions to keep the finish fresh include WD-40 to detail the bike once it’s ridden and when it requires cleaning of road grit. It removes road grease without marring the powder, according to Mitchell. I learned to not use my regular brake-cleaning aerosol after an unannounced reformulation caused it to streak the black powder on the 10-year-old restoration of my 1968 Triumph T120 frame.
Simple Green and warm water will remove most dirt with minimal physical abrasion. I avoid scrubbing any powder-coated parts until all grit is removed. It is durable but it can scratch and it can’t be easily polished back. Even chrome will scratch if improperly cleaned, so protect your investment.
“If you wouldn’t use a cleaner on the door of your car, don’t use it on your powder coat,” says Mitchell.
Costs vary depending on the number of parts, amount of handwork and type of finish or specialty colors. Discuss what you want to see and rely on your powder pro to provide it. Treat it well, respect it and it will remain bright and glossy for years.
Big Bike Parts Focus LED Light Kit on a Harley-Davidson.
With daylight hours growing shorter as winter closes in, you’re more likely to find yourself riding at dusk or after dark. The headlights on most new bikes are outstanding compared to those of only a decade or so ago, but no matter whether you’re in traffic on a busy highway in broad daylight or on a deserted two-laner in deer country at night, more light is better than less. Adding a pair of driving lights or highly visible spots can help you see and be seen better than even the best stock headlight.
There are three basic types of auxiliary lights, says Brandon Westphal, sales manager at Big Bike Parts, broadly defined by the job you want them to do. “What we call driving lights throw a narrow beam of light farther down the road than the headlight,” he says. Driving lights give you more time to react to obstacles in the road like potholes or debris that you wouldn’t see as soon if you relied only on your headlight.
Chrome LED driving light.
“Spotlights act like floodlights,” Westphal says, “throwing a broad spread of light ahead, illuminating more of the shoulder of the road than the more narrowly focused driving light.” And finally there are fog lights. “The idea here is to throw a low horizontal beam that’s wide and close to the road surface, making it easier to see roadside ditches without being aimed so high as to blind oncoming traffic that’s already having a hard time seeing through the fog.”
Halogen bulbs do a great job in stock headlights, but swapping one out for an LED changes what Westphal calls the “photometrics,” or how the light source bounces light off the headlight’s reflector. The bulb and reflector are designed to be used as a pair, and changing one or the other throws the photometrics out of whack. But auxiliary lights are designed from the start to use LEDs, so the photometrics are optimal right out of the box.
Big Bike Parts Tridium on a Honda Gold Wing (shown with both fog and running lights on).
Wesphal says there are other reasons LEDs rule for auxiliary lighting. “The latest LEDs are small and light,” he says, “and the technology is evolving fast.” Because smaller lights weigh less, they’re less susceptible to the jarring of rough roads and more durable than halogen bulbs. LEDs are also very directional–the light goes right where you want it, and not much of anywhere else.
But perhaps the best reason to go with LED auxiliary lighting is that LEDs draw very little power from the bike’s electrical system. “That’s important on small bikes whose charging systems might not be too robust, and on larger bikes with a lot of electricity-gobbling add-ons like heated grips, a radio and hookups for heated clothing.”
Big Bike Parts Mini LED Light Kit on a Harley-Davidson.
Where to mount auxiliary lights varies with the purpose and the available locations, but some states prohibit locations that place them higher than the headlight or less than a certain height from the road surface. Aiming them so they light up the road without blinding oncoming drivers is important, too, and might need to be adjusted on the fly with the addition of a passenger or a lot of luggage that raises or lowers the angle of the front of the bike. Another legal matter concerns DOT approval. Wesphal says that wherever possible the auxiliary lights sold by Big Bike Parts are DOT approved, which removes one potential problem if you ever get pulled over by a picky trooper. “It’s also handy if you’re in a state that requires regular vehicle inspections,” he adds.
His final piece of advice: “Don’t cheap out on lighting. Amazon and eBay are full of inexpensive no-name LED auxiliary lights that don’t work as well as quality products that cost a little more, and they’re almost certainly not DOT approved.”
Grass on the roadway can be a non-issue or an extremely slippery condition. If possible, slow down using clear pavement ahead of the covered area.
I’ve got a grass-fed beef. And, based on recent conversations, so do a lot of riders. Homeowners mowing their lawns and throwing abundant grass clippings onto the roadway can create a special kind of threat to motorcyclists.
Dry grass will typically blow away as vehicles pass through or breezes sweep it off the roadway. But if grass is wet, it clings to the surface and can be like grease under motorcycle tires.
If possible, when confronted with grass-covered pavement, do all slowing on clear pavement leading up to the grassy area. Keep eyes up, looking well ahead to increase stability. To maximize traction, minimize steering, braking and throttle inputs and coast through the grass patches. If the equivalent of one of these Chia Pet patches of pavement appears in a corner, the rider should minimize lean angles and look to the exit, not down at the grass or toward the edge of the road.
Remember that grass will stay wet longer than pavement. So, after a rain shower or in the morning when dew blankets the landscape with moisture, the road surface may be dry, but grass clippings may still be wet and slippery.
When riding through grass, minimizing steering, braking and throttle inputs will help to maximize available traction.
The best way to avoid problems? Ride only as fast as you can see and anticipate the possibility before you encounter it. If you see homes with lawns–especially on the weekends when homeowners are most active doing yardwork–there’s a good chance someone will be mowing. Larger lawns, like those found in rural areas where we like to ride, are often maintained with lawn tractors that process large amounts of grass and throw it greater distances.
While discharging grass onto roadways is illegal in many areas, it remains a threat to riders. Anticipating the condition and riding smoothly and calmly through it will reduce the likelihood that grass on the road will clip you.
