This week is a short week so this will be my only blog for the week as we enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with our family and friends. I wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving and hope that the weather is nice enough to get out and ride.
At the Women’s Maintenance Workshop on November 14, 2012 I asked a question: What are the two most important things on your bike, the things you should absolutely not skimp on? Well, for one, tires. That is the one thing that is gripping you to the road, without good tires it doesn’t matter how well you ride, eventually your luck is gonna run out. You need good tires! Traction and keeping both of those tires on the road are paramount, so check the pressure and wear of your tires regularly. Check with your dealership or the manufacturers suggested mileage on the tires and if you even are questioning it, get them looked at for an opinion.
The second thing is suspension. Why suspension? Well, as women we tend to be lighter and shorter than our counterparts so suspension is key to being able to feel confident on the bike. If a bike is set up from the factory for an average 175-200lb. guy who is 5’11”, I don’t know about you, but that bike is going to be hard for me to touch the ground, it will ride like a brick, and forget about confidence at a stop. I always joke that riding isn’t the hard part, when it comes to being height challenged, it is the stopping. Truth be told though, it is the stopping and the backing up, I find it incredibly hard to back into a parking space when I have no leverage. Suspension helps with all that, it helps to allow the bike to sag when you sit so you can touch the ground. When you are new to riding, not being able to touch the ground can be intimidating and will keep you from enjoying riding to the fullest. You have a bike, why not have it set up to fit you so you will want to ride it more? You wouldn’t consider wearing an outfit that didn’t fit properly right? You would get it altered to fit you and look good on you. Same applies for the fit of your bike except for it comes down to feeling confident on your ride. It is not very expensive, in fact quite reasonable, it depends on the type of bike and what it will require, but talking to a suspension specialist will give you an idea of what the total cost may be.
If you don’t do anything else to your bike to start with, these two things are huge! Of course, I could go into dynos, new exhausts, etc., but having good tires and a proper suspension setup will go a long way into you enjoying your ride. Everything and anything else you choose to do would be like icing on the cake and what girl doesn’t like icing? We are looking into a maintenance event that Nels puts on at his 2 Wheel Dynoworks shop in Woodinville, WA with Fluid Suspension Science for suspension sometime in January. If you are interested, shoot me an email with your name and kind of ride and let me know. We are trying to gauge how many women would be interested in this.
I will keep you posted as things come up and look forward to seeing you out on the road, Vixens ride!
Carol T. Carpenter
