Driving guide in autumn

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Driving guide in autumn

Advice: Driving in the fall
Final preparation for autumn drivers

For some, it is the best time to ride a motorcycle: colorful, glittering forests, mist-shrouded valleys, excursion roads that are rarely used. You can really crank it up again at the season finale. Our tips on how to curve safely through autumn.

Jorg Lohse

09/12/2013

The commuters among motorcyclists have long since noticed that summer is over. Anyone who gets on a motorcycle early in the morning can feel the cold and feel the dew. The sun is already lower and the streets don’t dry until much later. Nevertheless, autumn is a wonderful time to get on a motorcycle. Popular routes are no longer hopelessly overcrowded with excursion traffic, and at the meeting point you can get a cup of coffee or a bratwurst much faster. The enjoyment can be increased if you adapt your driving habits to the cooler season. First and foremost, this concerns cornering. Because with the sinking degrees of Celsius, the possible degrees of inclination also tumble.

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Longer warm-up time for the machine

Even on sunny autumn days, the asphalt no longer offers the grip that is known from midsummer. The tires themselves also take significantly longer to warm up or even to reach the optimum operating temperature. This can also be seen elsewhere: If you can read the cooling water or oil temperature in your cockpit, you will find that the machine now takes much longer to warm up than in summer. In any case, at ten degrees and less, tires and asphalt no longer want to interlock sustainably. That is why one of the most important currencies is: Get off the gas! Because there are other pitfalls in addition: Greasy leaves, windfalls or branches and twigs on shady avenues as well as dirt from harvesting or forest vehicles are simply part of the natural street scene in rural or wooded regions.


Driving guide in autumn


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The colorful landscape beckons.

Driving in the rain is one of the most delicate points of all. The problem: The asphalt’s coefficient of friction drops significantly, which in practice means less banking and, above all, longer braking distances. Reason: Tire grip depends primarily on the micro-roughness of the road surface. These are the small peaks of the asphalt surface, sometimes only tenths of a millimeter high, on which the tire rubber can literally cling to. The opposite denotes the macro roughness: rough road surfaces with rounded edges – the best-known example is cobblestones. At first it is difficult to visualize how adhesive the road surface is. On an asphalt with microfine tips, the tires can interlock better, even with a closed film of water, than on a coarse surface, which appears drier to the observer, but provides significantly worse coefficients of friction with a smooth basic structure.

You can get an impression of how adhesive the surface actually is by deliberately overbraking the rear wheel – of course only if the traffic situation allows it. Those who regularly practice this on longer autumn tours get a better feeling for how they can literally read wet roads in the future. The driving dynamics themselves do not change in cool, wet autumn compared to hot, dry summer days. However, the physically sensitive processes such as accelerating, braking, turning and cornering must now be approached much more gently. This is especially true for the choice of lines in curves. If you approach the apex too early, you will have trouble staying in your own lane at the end of the curve. And for a courageous push you don’t have much leeway with significantly less adhesive reserves. Therefore, as a rule of thumb for enjoyable curves through autumn: brake early, start late, accelerate gently.

The human being


Driving guide in autumn


fact

Fit and relaxed on the motorcycle through autumn. Warm functional underwear helps prevent the body from cooling down.

Stay relaxed, ride smoothly. If you get fit and with a keen eye on your motorcycle, you will be yours on dull autumn days
to have great joy. How to start your workout at the end of the season.

Those who shiver tense up. And so you already have bad cards on lousy rainy days, where smooth driving is the top priority. The light and airy summer clothes go back to the closet (freshly washed). Under the weatherproof textile combination, treat yourself to good functional underwear that creates a comfortable climate on the body. Buying tips from MOTORRAD: the thermo series from X-Bionic (Energy Accumulator, approx. 250 euros) or IXS (Kenai / Sitka, approx. 190 euros).

Now it’s time to get down to business, preferably on a rainy weekend. Perfect for starting a training session in an empty industrial site or in a parking lot. Most important exercise: braking in the rain. Even if the motorcycle now has an ABS: Develop a feeling for the best way to come to a stop on a wet road. Radical measures are always out of place. Increase your units. You can use the rear brake to find out how quickly the blocking limit can be reached when it rains. The freestyle of the exercise is emergency braking. To do this, you need to be aware of the dynamic wheel load distribution. If the brake pressure is increased suddenly (for example with a typical panic braking), the front wheel locks and a fall is almost inevitable.

Practice emergency braking by increasing the front brake pressure to your personal maximum within just under a second – the rear brakes are always applied without delay. In the rain and on cold days, the motorcycle does not have to be carried around the curve, but the courageous swing from the summer is now a thing of the past. Abrupt maneuvers are taboo, now smooth, soulful movements on the handlebars count. Use your training area to draw circles and get a feel for how much lean angle you (can) trust yourself and your bike. You will be amazed at what is actually possible.

The machine


Driving guide in autumn


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Goethe already said: more light!

A technically fit motorcycle is actually a prerequisite for every trip. But you should plan a few extra units of care and attention for autumn.

Seeing and being seen is a vital premise for motorcyclists. The first control look is therefore at the front and rear lights. The first measure to achieve more light output is to simply wash the headlights. Anyone who removes the cloudy coating has already gained 20 percent or more in luminosity. Since dirty roads and driving in the rain are a part of autumn, this procedure should be followed regularly (for example at every refueling stop).
Without investing in expensive fog lights or even pseudo-xenon auxiliary lights, a much better light output can be achieved simply by replacing the light source. Simply by switching to high-quality branded incandescent lamps, you can get up to 100 percent more. In the last MOTORRAD test, the Osram Nightracer (approx. 12 euros) and Philips XP Moto (double pack approx. 20 euros), specially designed for motorcycles, impressed with excellent ranges and very good route illumination.

Limit of 1.6 millimeters

The next step: checking the tires. If the profile is already nibbling at the wear limit (the limit of 1.6 millimeters also applies to motorcycles), it is better to change the tires now than next spring. Because if you want to be out and about in the rain and on cold days, tires with great wet driving properties are indispensable. At www.motorradonline.de/reifen you will always find the test results of the current MOTORRAD tire tests, in which performance on wet roads plays an essential role. Even if the tire still has deep tread grooves, but the four-digit DOT number reveals that it was manufactured many years ago (the calendar week and year are stated), it should be changed. An old, hardened rubber simply cannot perform at its best on wet asphalt.

A partially charged battery quickly kneels on cold days. If possible, check and reload the acid level. Fresh-keeping devices with quick-release couplings that are connected to the starter battery overnight are ideal.

The material


Driving guide in autumn


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Fresh impregnation helps when it rains.

Hoar frost on the bench, raindrops on the tank and windshield. All of this will leave you feeling cold when you’ve got your equipment ready for the autumn trip.

If the water sloshes in your boot after just five minutes of rain, stop and drive home. The same goes for the hands. With clammy fingers, the brilliant driving maneuvers that are important are not possible. Put it to the test: Before you take your next trip, check that boots and gloves are still waterproof. Because here, too, the following applies: material fatigues, wears out, subsides. In the immersion bath, you will quickly notice where it runs into the gloves or boots. Stay away from bulging rubber covers for hands and feet. You restrict mobility too much. Just treat yourself to a new couple.

Refresh the impregnation with a dryer or iron?

When was the last time your textile suit was in the washing machine? The dirt on the streets is too much for you. The following applies to the laundry: take out protectors, use mild detergent or special functional detergent, use an extra rinse cycle. Fabric softeners or similar additives in the last wash cycle are absolutely taboo, as this will permanently impair the function of the waterproof climate membrane. Can the station wagon go in the dryer according to the laundry slip? Great, because this way the applied impregnation can be refreshed. The same can be done with the iron, if allowed. If none of that helps: the impregnation from the spray can makes the outer fabric water-repellent again.

Now a look through the visor. Does it look like processed with a pan cleaner? Then get down with it, because when the sun is low, the ride is like flying blind. You should also avoid heavily tinted visors in autumn. Because in the golden-tinted forest the game rejoices next to you, deer or wild boar cross the road. At dusk you have to be extremely vigilant, and that calls for a crystal-clear view. Which is why maximum freedom from fogging must be guaranteed. In the MOTORRAD practice, Pinlock inner visors have proven themselves, which are also available for retrofitting with contrast enhancement for almost every type of helmet (from around 30 euros).

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