How to ride like a road tester - the roundup | MCN and Bikertek collaboration | Motorcyclenews.com

After nearly two decades of riding for MCN, doing tens of thousands of miles a year on lots of different bikes, road testers like me have learned how to have our cake and eat it when it comes to riding. We really enjoy our riding, we get the best out of our riding, but most of all we manage to be safe at the same time. Now that all starts from bike preparation, making sure your bike's tip-top before you even go out and test, to the way you think about your riding. So when we go out and road test, we're never rushed, we avoid putting ourselves into dangerous situations, and we always look after each other when we're riding together. And despite riding all those miles, we know how to combat tiredness by stopping regularly, taking light snacks and keeping yourself hydrated. Then there's the actual mechanics of riding, starting from braking, where to brake, how to brake, how to roll off the throttle and gently grab the brake to get weight transferred onto the front tyre before you really squeeze it, to use these two fingers so you've got a nice subtle grip on the brake lever, you can have the brake lever more towards you, just for more finesse, and crucially when to let go of the brakes, to gradually bleed them off so you can get a nice smooth entry into the corner, and be off the brakes completely before you turn in. Also the importance of using the rear brake, not for braking power, but to keep the bike more stable as you enter the corner, and also to take a lot of the fatigue out of riding. Because you brake flatter, there's less pressure on your arms, so riding long distances is a lot less tiring. For cornering we're always thinking about maximum vision, so we're placing ourselves on the road where we can see as far as we can around the corner, so that generally means taking deep late lines rather than turning in too soon, and that also gives you a chance to look out for hazards on the road, other traffic around, and also things like gravel and white lines and road markings. Hi, I'm Rich from BikerTech, we can't be on the road right now, but visit our online store to check out the stories behind these amazing biker parts. Then there's cornering body position, now obviously you're not hanging off a motorcycle like you are on the track, but subtle movements to your body makes a massive difference to the way the bike corners, the way the bike behaves, so everything from shifting your weight on the seat from bum cheek to bum cheek as you go through corners, having your inside arm a little bit bent, having your shoulder dropped into the corner, and also having your foot back on the foot peg, so you're not riding like Charlie Chaplin, makes a massive difference to the way the bike handles, and also improves your enjoyment. Then there's turning into the corner in the first place, which is best done off the throttle, a bike turns much better when you're not under power, so on that phase where you're turning into a corner, off the throttle, the bike turns really crisply, the bike holds a really nice tight line, you've got lots of grip from the rear tyre, and then when you've turned you're ready to get back on the gas and power safely through. And then there's overtaking, it's all about waiting until you're 100% sure it's safe to overtake, and don't take any chances with any possible hazards, because at the end of the day it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you have to wait a couple of seconds to overtake, or if you're straggling behind your group, because they'll always wait for you, and an overtake isn't that important. But when you do overtake, it's all about hanging right back from the person you're overtaking, so you can see as much of the road ahead, they can see you, and then not flying by so you make them jump, not dawdling by so you make them anxious, just smoothly by, and pull in not too soon, so you don't spook them, you don't cover them with gravel or water, pull in at a safe distance in front of them, get on your merry way, and don't let them react badly to the overtake that you've just made. And when you're filtering, always mind the gap, because you never know what other vehicle is going to jump into it just before you get there. So that's a brief overview of how we do it, but to get more in-depth information on each of these riding tips, check out our videos on our MCN YouTube channel. Bespoke fitted, which makes it perfect for reconnecting femurs to damaged hip joints. These are parts we don't want you to have, because bikes repair easier than bikers. See the range at bikertechshop.co.uk