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Here's The Motorcycle Touring Made Easy eZine
October 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 two years 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 Now Have Over 150 Subscribers To Our eZine! Help spread the word about our site and eZine and let's try to hit 1000 subscribers by the years end. 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
Never Leave Home Without Them! No I'm not talking about your credit cards, I'm talking about a tool kit. Yeah I know, you get this fantastic tool kit with your bike tucked under a seat or strapped down in a saddle bag. Yeah that's sarcasm.....

Okay so let's really think about this. The tool kit you get with your bike is small and usually inadequate but you'll need tools with you for those times that you run into others that are broken down on the side of the road. (Yeah we know we NEVER break down ourselves.) So what's the best practice here?

I recommend using your tools whenever you do maintenance on your bike. Put all the fancy tools away and work with just that little pouch of tools. This will let you develop habits and knowledge of working with these tools so that if you are ever on the road and break down, you know just what tools to use and how to use them.

You may need to supplement your tools some. I put in a ratchet and sockets to remove the tires and my kit still stays small enough to stow yet is complete enough so that I can do most maintenance on the road if needed. Hopefully you'll never need them, but it's good to know you have them and the knowledge to use them.

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Out on the Road - Riding and Safety
For a good majority of us autumn is coming and we're all trying to extend that riding season or take the ride through the mountains to enjoy the changing leaves. Those same colorful leaves can be a danger on the road. Wet leaves are like ice and always seem to be in our riding line. Add those with the painted lines and oil slicks at the traffic lights and cool fall ride can become very dangerous.

Things you can do to make your ride safer are, SLOW DOWN!! Yeah okay, that's a no brainer. Watch your lean into corners, use your engine more and your breaks less. Remember though, too much engine can still lock up the rear wheel so be easy on the clutch when down shifting.

If you ride with a group and have communication, make sure others are aware of trouble areas ahead so that they have time to react safely. Also make sure you have the proper clothing. When riding into the mountains, the temps can easily drop 10 to 20 degrees just from the elevation change. If you need some good clothing, check out our friends at Fox Creek Leather for some great riding gear that will keep you warm.

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Keeping Garage Time Short - Maintenance Tips
Give Yourself a Brake! Depending on your riding habits and loads, your brakes can last from 30,000 miles to as little as 10,000 miles! So it's important that you check them often. If the brakes have wear indicators on them, change them as soon as you reach the indicators. If there are no indicators change them when they reach the thickness of about a dime.

When you check your brakes, make sure to check the tops and bottoms just in case they are wearing a bit uneven. You may think it's fine on one end but down to metal on the other. If your brakes should become too worn, they will heat up real easy. This can warp a rotor which you'll feel as a jerking feeling when you apply the brakes. Brakes may be expensive, but rotors are even more so.

If you should have an inkling to try out some new high tech brakes pads like ceramics etc, make sure you upgrade your rotors as well. Brakes pads and rotors should match. Ceramics run hotter than your OEM pads and will easily ruin an OEM rotor.

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Our View On Parts - Product Review
Keep the shiny side up! As a cleaner that we use on a daily basis, we find that Plexus fits our needs well. With all the plastics on bikes now a days, Plexus works well and cleans the chrome as well.

We carry a can or two with us for touch ups on the road. You can pick up a large can for anywhere between $15 to $20 and its well worth it. It will handle the bugs, smudges and dirt that collect all over. I found that it works well on windscreens too. It leaves no distracting streaks and provides great clarity.

Next time you see some at a rally or your local shop, pick up a can and try it out. We think you'll like it.

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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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