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

Motorcycle Touring Made Easy

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

We encourage you to email our eZine to your friends.
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
One of the greatest things you can do in motorcycling is finding yourself an organization to join that have membership with like riders on like motorcycles. With motorcycles there is safety in numbers when you ride so instead of riding alone, ride with others that you can enjoy and get along with. The easiest way is through organizations.

Judy and I found this with GWRRA (Gold Wing Road Riders Association). They have what we were looking for. National Membership, no voting, national support, just join and ride. With chapters globally we could find friends all over the world.

Organizations can provide training, rallies, discounts, etc. and best of all, other folks with the same interest. We have even gotten to the point where while out riding over the weekend, we share rooms with other members to cut the room costs. What a great way to get a 50% discount on a room.

So check out some organizations and see if they're for you. Don't like what you see? Check out others cause they are all different and if you read through their requirements you may fine (like GWRRA) you may be able to join with any type bike. We have a list of a few organizations on our site to get you started. If you know of others that we should include on our list, please send us a note and we'll get them listed.

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Out on the Road - Riding and Safety
April showers bring May flowers? Well someone forgot to tell Mother Nature cause May came in raining hard and what better safety topic to talk about than riding in the rain. Judy and I took a weekend ride to some friend’s house about two hours away and it rained going and coming. So what are the things to look out for when that happens?

I think the two most important things to think about right off the bat is riding gear. Choose rain gear that breaths, is sealed up and has reflective material sewn into it. Fox Creek Leather has a great set. Look under Men's or Women's and click Rain Gear.

The next thing to consider is a good boot. Waterproof, oil resistant and a waffle tread. Make sure the boot comes up over the ankles and laces are much better than zippers.

Your riding style will have to change a bit. Greater anticipation, more following distance and no quick moves. I'm sure you know that drill. You will also find that face shields tend to fog up so lift them up a bit so air can get in and clear the shield.

Gloves are another issue. Some cheap leather gloves without lining in them will blead the dye right into your hands and will be there for a couple days before it wears off. Some folks go without gloves in the rain. Suit yourself there but me, well I need gloves on, can't ride without them. So I go for a heavier winter glove in the rain, one that was designed for wet climates.

Make sure you have plenty of tread on your tires, cover up any areas of your bike that you don't want wet, like a cloth seat. And the best advise, stop often, warm up and relax when you can. Riding in the rain can be a bit more stressful and that's no fun.

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Keeping Garage Time Short - Maintenance Tips
Changing grips can be a difficult task if you don't know some of the tips that go along with it. Basic rubber grips are pretty straight forward. It's the hole in the end that makes it all happen.

To remove the basic hand grip, get an air compressor and bring the pressure up to about 40 lbs. With a standard trigger valve on the end, place the tip in the hole and pressurize the inside of the handle bar. The grip should inflate a bit loosening it from the handle bar. The grip on the throttle side is a bit tougher and depending on the type throttle you may need to adjust some the method a bit.

If your grips are glued on, the best and really only way is to cut them off. With a knife, slit the grip along the bar starting from the inside and working out. Once slit, try to peel it back by hand. Once the grips are removed clean them off with some solvent to remove as much glue as possible.

Installing grips are just as easy. Grips that are installed and held in place by friction can be installed by soaking the grips in warm soapy water. Place the grip on the bar and close off any openings. Place your palm over the hole and push it on. The trick is to not let any air escape. Once both grips are on, the soap will dry and act as an adhesive.

Grips that require glue are easily installed. The one tip here is ALWAYS place the glue inside the grip. This will provide for a clean installation. If you place the glue on the bar, the grip will act as a squeegee and scrape the glue clean and leave a mess on the outside of the grip.

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Our View On Parts - Product Review
This month we're going to take a little side shuffle. We received our new chaps from Fox Creek Leather and felt we would put in our two cents here.

We looked into some new chaps and decided to go with Fox Creek Leather. Their quality workmanship and lifetime guarantee that they stand behind has really impressed us in the past and with these new chaps we weren't disappointed either.

Going by their measurement suggestions we took the tape measure out and sized ourselves up and ordered the chaps. When they came we realized that the waist measurement was not correct. They had stated to measure "Over the Belt" as we did. We put on our pants with a belt that we would be wearing and took the measurement right one the belt as we understood "over the belt" to mean.

After receiving the chaps we think that they meant measure your waist above the belt. What it came down to was that the waist measurement was about two inches more that the waist size of our jeans. They have since then changed their site and it is much easier to "Build Your Chaps".

After calling Fox Creek Leather they were more than happy to help us out and took back the chaps and sent them in to be fitted to our measurements. The tailoring took about six weeks but since they were being fitted to our measurements I was okay with that.

Once we received them back we tried them on and now they fit perfect. One word of caution before we leave the measurements, if you get chaps that are lined with thinsulate, add an inch to the thigh measurement.

As for the chaps, they are just what we've come to expect from Fox Creek Leather. Heavy duty leather, hardware that is top quality and attention to detail with stitching and styling. You can check out the chaps that we purchased here and look on our site and we should have a full review by the end of May.

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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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