Gold Wing Riding Tip

The Vanishing Point is way done there!

Would you like to have your very own super power? I can give you a super power that very few Gold Wing riders possess, but everyone needs. I can teach you how to foresee the future. Ayup. It's easy, when you know how. Here's the secret:

Look Up. Look In.That's it.

Stop gazing mindlessly at the road 20 feet in front of your front tire. Get your vision up and ahead of the bike where it will do you the most good. Look up and find the place where the road disappears from view. That's called the Vanishing Point. That's the limit of your vision. Just by tilting your head back a notch and pulling your eyeballs up, you can see waaaay down the road.

Would you be safer if you could see 15 seconds, maybe even a minute further up the road? That's 5-10-30-60 extra seconds for you to see danger and react. That's plenty of time to slow down, move over or stop. Heck, when you look far enough ahead, you might have time to see trouble, pull over, turn around, ride down the road, pull into a restaurant and order a piece of lemon pie!

A nice side benefit of looking up and looking in, is that you have plenty of time to put your bike in the correct position for the next corner. That makes you a smoother rider. When you get your eyes up, you will also have time to scan every corner for rocks, logs, dead skunks or whatever. Knowing the road ahead is free of sand or oil can be a wonderful confidence booster.

Try it. You might like it.

How do you know you are using your vision incorrectly? 

Well, if you CAN look up, and you CAN look in, THAT's where you should be looking.

Am I saying you should stare mindlessly at the Vanishing Point? No. If you see danger, that's where you should look, at least long enough to make a judgement about what to do next. Then put your vision where it needs to be a make it happen.

It you enjoyed this tip, you might want to scoot over the my Amazon Author page for more. My author page has my Moxie Nixx Twitter feed and I frequently put short tips and fun stuff there. Here is the link: Click Here.

Dunlop E3 Out Back

My rear tire had a slow leak so I stopped in at my friendly, local Honda dealer so they could check it out. The service writer found a piece of metal in the center of the tread. No problem. They could fix that easily enough, if the darned tire wasn't already down to the wear bars! My first Bridgestone G704 lasted about 8,000 miles. I replaced that one when I upgraded the suspension. The second Bridgestone went about 10,000 miles. Not bad, but I wanted more, and I just wanted to try something different. So, $325.00 later, I'm out the door with a new Dunlop E3 mounted, balanced and installed.

One hundred miles later, I like the E3 dual tread radial a lot. Turn in is quicker. Grip is good in the dry--even when leaned over going around a surprisingly sharp decreasing radius corner on Black Snake Road in Stanley, NC. Ride is fine. While this is a little taller tire, I can still reach the ground fine.

I'll update this post as I put more miles on the E3, and I'm hoping to get around 15,000 miles out of this tire. The E3 radial has a dual tread compound that's harder in the middle and softer on the edges. We'll see.