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Here's The Motorcycle Touring Made Easy eZine
April 07, 2009

Motorcycle Touring Made Easy

....the eZine
....inside this issue

Welcome to the Motorcycle Touring Made Easy eZine
Our goal with our website is to provide motorcycle touring information to others that would like to get involved or know more about motorcycle touring. We've spent the last year gathering information and getting it together on the site and now with our eZine we're looking to bring you more and up to date information directly to you.

We hope that you find this information helpful and forward this eZine on to all your friends and if someone has sent this to you, please go to our home page and subscribe to get your own monthly copy. Just fill out the form and your there!

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Knowing the Basics - General Motorcycling
New to touring on a bike touring bike? Spring is a great time to get out and start getting use to how your bike handles. For serious touring folks this can be almost an annual ritual. A spring parking lot practice with friends is a great way to loosen up and get back in the groove for the year's riding.

In Delaware our Department of Transportation conducts the basic and experienced rider courses for motorcyclists and have a nice parking lot with all the maneuvers marked out in their parking lot. The instructors are nice enough to allow us to use the lot when not in use. It's a great place to work on slow maneuvering and balance of your bike.

Mind you, be prepared to pick up a bike or two when doing this so make sure you wear all your safety gear not only for your safety but if you are using the states property, insurance may require that you do, so check into it before you use any lot as a practice area.

By spending an afternoon working on slow maneuvers you'll feel much more in control of your bike and better understand the limits of both you and your equipment. So take some time, get out and loosen up before the season gets started.

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Out on the Road - Riding and Safety
Something that we're all beginning to realize is the fun we are having with new technology. Some of the big touring bikes have already experienced this with CB radios, Intercoms etc, but now more an more motorcyclists are enjoying what the touring bikes have known for a while.

Bluetooth communications has allowed an entire new class of communication to motorcyclists. Now a simple cell phone in your pocket with a Bluetooth headset in your helmet and you're set. You can now call home while navigating your favorite set of twisties.

Judy and I enjoy this ability by utilizing our Bluetooth enabled GPS that will allow me to browse my address book, or look up a business number via the GPS database and make a call using my helmet installed headset. Our intercom allows both Judy and I to talk over the cell at the same time.

Other things that are out there are MP3 players, XM radios, CD players and more. Soon the sky will be the limit as technology is being pushed again to help us come out of the slumping economy and ecology issues that are making the news lately.

Our big safety issue here is that all these "toys" can be distracting when you drive. So please be careful when you use them to not allow them to take your mind off your driving. We all know how difficult it is for motorists to see motorcycles so it's up to us to make sure that we anticipate what drivers might do around us. Don't let the distraction of all these technologies become the deciding factor to whether you are in an accident or not.

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Keeping Garage Time Short - Maintenance Tips
Garage time is not only for your bike but for your gear as well. For us it's a helmet and communications upgrade. I have to admit, Judy and I have been skimping on the electronics gear and most of that equipment has been poor quality gear to get us by.

So we decided that after dropping our helmets one too many times and jury rigging our headsets to the point of totally rebuilding them once or twice, we would upgrade our gear. We've been using Nolan Helmets which we both like from thier lightweight lexan shell and ease of changing out the face shields to the removable and washable liners so we stuck with them and went with thier new N-42e model that is designed for communications.

Our choice on communications was to go with top of the line J an M headsets designed specificly to fit the N-42e helmet. We had a few rides with them so far and we're totaly please with the fit of the helmets and the clarity of the headsets.

If you are interested about installing headsets into your helmet, we have the complete procedure on our site so that you have an understanding of the process. It's all relatively straight forward and with the setup we used, can be done with minimal michanical skiills as everything is plug and play.

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Our View On Parts - Product Review
Continuing this month on comfort we thought we would move from the butt to the boots. Well sort of..... This month we're reviewing highway pegs and mounts. The ones in particular are the Ergo Cruise Pegs from Kuryakyn.

When we purchased the Ergo Cruise Pegs they were sold for Goldwings and I don't recall them being designed specifically for one model although now online they state that the Ergo Cruise Pegs are for Valkrye and GL1500 Goldwings. I have them mounted on my GL1800 and find that they work just fine. I even noticed that Kuryakyn even shows them mounted on a GL1800 so who's to say.

All I know is despite the confusion, the pegs are great. They are designed to clamp on to the case guard and provide 360 degrees of rotation so that you can place them where you need them. You can also get 4" or 6" extension arms to better fit your riding style. The foot rests are designed to fold neatly so you can store them up or if you happen to lean into that corner just a bit too much, the chance that you will peg your bike and disrupt your ride is reduced.

The high quality of Kuryakyn is prevalent in every inch of these highway pegs. They may be a bit pricey, but the look and the quality is well worth it. So look into these or other Kuryakyn products. We're sure you'll be pleased.

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If you have any information you'ld like to discuss, we have our new forum up and need YOUR input to get some great and current discussions going. Plus a new area to post "For Sale" items. See our Forum Here



Judy and I hope that you've enjoyed our eZine and if so, please send it on to your friends. If you have any tips that you would like to see posted on our site go to our tips page. We'll get them on our site and maybe use it in our eZine as well.

Also feel free to Contact Us with any questions or suggestions.

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