{"id":523,"date":"2010-07-13T04:31:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T09:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/pre-ride-motorcycle-safety-checks-are-important\/"},"modified":"2010-07-13T04:31:14","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T09:31:14","slug":"pre-ride-motorcycle-safety-checks-are-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/pre-ride-motorcycle-safety-checks-are-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-ride Motorcycle Safety Checks Are Important"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is funny how bikers will select just the right motorcycle helmet, motorcycle chaps<\/a> or motorcycle jacket to protect their head, skin and feet before they ever think about getting on a motorbike. Nevertheless, they will just hope on their bike with out a thought of doing a pre-ride safety check. <\/p>\n

Pre-ride motorbike safety checks are important. They insure that you make it to where you are going and back again safely and help prevent brake downs.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I have heard horror stories about terrible motorcycle accidents because of a blown tire or a brake or suspension malfunction. Fortunately, this has never happened to anybody that I know. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, my wife did have a break down one day because we didn\u2019t give the bikes a good once over before we went for a long ride . <\/p>\n

My wife Sherry rides what a lot of women motorcyclist<\/a> are riding these days, a Harley Sportster 883 Low and I ride a Honda VTX1300R. Sherry didn\u2019t like the feel of the center controls so we had forward control\u2019s put on her motorcycle . She loved the way her Harley rode after we added the forward controls.<\/p>\n

All was good, so one warm Sunday morning we decided to go for a motorbike ride in the country. It was a beautiful day and the ride was great . We had ridden the back roads for about 90 miles or so and then decided to head back home for lunch . <\/p>\n

The shortest way home was to take the freeway . <\/p>\n

As we turned down the ramp towards home it was a good thing I looked in my rear view mirror because my wife was stopped buy the side of the freeway onramp flashing her high beams like crazy . <\/p>\n

I stopped, parked my VTX, and walked back to her to see what had happend . <\/p>\n

As it turned out, the linkage that connects the foot shifter, to the transfer case had fallen off and Sherry had no way of riding her motorcycle . <\/p>\n

This was a serious problem. We were ninety miles in the middle of nowhere, we didn\u2019t want to leave a brand new Harley Davidson sitting on the side of the road and I could not leave my wife there alone sitting on her Harley while I went to try and find linkage. Although that would have been impossible because it was Sunday and none of the motorcycle shops are open on Sunday where we live. <\/p>\n

Not all was lost though. I asked Sherry if she remembered the last time she had changed gears . She told me she had changed gears just before we turned onto the on ramp of the highway . Therefore, I went on a quest up the ramp to see if I could find the linkage and the two bolts that held the linkage in place. <\/p>\n

\u201cAwesome!\u201d About half way up the ramp, I found the linkage. I was almost home. I still needed to find the two bolts that fastened the linkage on to the sportster so Sherry could shift and we could continue our ride home. <\/p>\n

I went up one side of the highway onramp and down the other looking for the ever so elusive linkage bolts. Frustration was setting in, as I looked and I looked again for those bolts. <\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help matters that two half drunk rednecks in an old 1953 faded red colored flat bed truck had stopped by Sherry and started to bother her. I think they thought better of it when Sherry told them to go do something with themselves that I am sure neither one of them had done with a women in years and they saw me walking up the ramp scowling. They drove off gesturing, I guess they though that we were number one or something. <\/p>\n

Back to the problem at hand, I had the linkage but no bolts to put it on with . I had my motorcycle, however, it is a metric bike and Sherry\u2019s sportster is good old American standard.<\/p>\n

If you know anything about metric and standard bolts, they do not fit. The threads will not match up. Anyway , that didn\u2019t stop me. I found out that the seat bolts on my VTX are just about the same size as the bolts that hold the shifter linkage for the forward controls on a Harley Davidson. The difference is the thread pattern is a bit larger. They did fit just enough though; I just didn\u2019t crank them in. <\/p>\n

After my discovery, it did not take long and we were back on the road heading home. <\/p>\n

I guess the reason for this story is not to take doing a pre ride check for granted. <\/p>\n

You would have thought that having work done on your new motorcycle by a certified Harley dealer would insure that the work would be done correctly . Well as it turned out, the mechanic that switched the controls on Sherry\u2019s motorcycle didn\u2019t put lock tight on the linkage bolts and after a few months of riding the bolts vibrated out. <\/p>\n

Could the problem have been eliminated if the mechanic had changed the linkage correctly? Of course , it could have. However, it could have also been eliminated if we had taken the time and done a pre ride check. <\/p>\n

We were fortunate that it was just a linkage that failed and not something that could have caused injury or death. <\/p>\n

For your safety and others that might ride with you, take the extra time and do a pre ride safety check. It will save your life some day. <\/p>\n

\nGrab useful info in the sphere of auto loan calculator<\/a> – this is your individual tips store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is funny how bikers will select just the right motorcycle helmet, motorcycle chaps or motorcycle jacket to protect their head, skin and feet before they ever think about getting on a motorbike. Nevertheless, they will just hope on their bike with out a thought of doing a pre-ride safety check. Pre-ride motorbike safety checks<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2D1TS-8r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.syntheticoilhq.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}