#lessons

The rear brake is probably one of the most taboo subjects in motorcycling, second only to the black art that is motorcycle suspension. The truth is neither subject has to be any more intimidating than you make it to be, and the rear brake is actually very useful. Granted, the front brake(s) carry the majority of the workload when it comes to slowing down and stopping, but knowing how to use the rear brake effectively will serve you better when it comes to bike control rather than simply scrubbing speed.

My daughter had Monday off from school, and she spent a good portion of the day learning how to draw hair curls. Periodically, she’d express frustration, as only an eleven-year-old can, with her inability to make her ringlets as good as those in the instructional video, and I’d have to remind her that the artist had probably performed this task many, many times, and these were only her first few attempts. 

Riding a motorcycle quickly isn’t easy, which makes it all the more inspiring to watch those who have mastered the art. It’s always fun watching and analyzing quicker riders, but personally, I’ve long been interested in what the best riders in the world do with their feet. Other than the Rossi leg dangle, not much attention gets paid to a MotoGP rider’s lower half – we’re all too busy watching everyone get their elbow down – but there are three very important points on the lower body we should be paying attention to: the butt, and both feet.

Some things, like love and substance abuse, everybody has to learn for themselves, the hard way. The wise man says, “the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history,” but if you’re smart you can save yourself a little pain by listening to the wisdom of the ancients. Here are 10 of my pearls. At MO as always, no charge.

While all of us at MO clearly like to wrangle the latest and greatest motorcycles, you might be surprised to learn that a larger percentage of our time is spent in a chair (or standing desk in my case), staring intently at a computer screen, typing away as quickly as our little fingers will go. It’s not glamorous, nor is it nearly as much fun as riding, but hey, the site doesn’t run itself.