Proficient Motorcycling 3rd Edition

Essential reading for every motorcyclist!

• The basics you need to know to get on a bike ASAP
• Riding city streets and country roads
• Navigating common and uncommon hazards
• Avoiding manmade dangers and canine pursuers
• Surviving nature's challenges: rain, wind, heat, cold
• Safely riding in groups and carrying passengers
• Wearing the most protective clothing

This is the ultimate guide for all motorcyclists—regardless of experience!

Author David L. Hough, a columnist and riding-safety consultant who has ridden since the '60s, lays out a clear course to sharpen your handling skills for a safer, more enjoyable ride. This third edition is revised with a new chapter on getting started, exercises to gain skill and confidence on the road, updated charts, graphs, and statistics, a description of motorcycle gears, types of motorcycles, equipment that can be added to your bike, and other updates throughout each chapter. New riders and experienced bikers alike will receive the sage advice needed to be prepared for anything on the road, avoid accidents, handle the unexpected, and arrive safe!

This book tackles bike mechanics, selecting the right-sized bike, basic riding skills, night riding, group outings, advanced survival tactics, and more. Learn the equipment and skills required to control a bike, preserve your safety, and avoid injury or fatal crashes. The author is a nationally renowned motorcycling expert and is outspoken and direct when it comes to safety, emphasizing the importance of braking abilities, showing how to improve them, and providing tried-and-true techniques for quick-stop tactics critical for every rider to master.

Explore vital skills to evaluate and improve, such as turning, balance, stability, and steering. The details of steering and control are defined and analyzed: direct steering, countersteering, push steering, out-tracking, coning, U-turns, and directional control. Get a virtual master class in acceleration, deceleration, use of weight, throttle, leaning, and handling challenging terrain. The detail offered comes from decades on the road, and the author is the consummate instructor, assigning homework exercises to practice and improve specific techniques.

These pages take you from long, snaking country roads right into the traffic of the big city, offering the best advice for dealing with the most challenging conditions, like road construction, snap-jawed intersections, skateboarders, suddenly slippery road surfaces, aggressive car drivers, oblivious SUV drivers, and "blind" truck drivers. Over 300 photos, illustrations, and diagrams accompany the easy-to-understand instructions and concepts.

This crucial guide offers first-hand experience that can literally save your life! It offers evasive tactics to handle slick surfaces, curbs, construction plates, ferocious dogs, hazardous wildlife, and difficult weather conditions. Experienced riders who travel together in groups or with a passenger on the bike will find helpful information covering formation, packing for trips, communication between riders, sidecars, trikes, and more. Explore resources for organizations, training schools, educational tools, and websites, a glossary of 80+ terms, and a complete index.

Do you want to blast around twisty mountain roads, ride through miles of desert, or go on a weekend-long group ride? Do you want to commute to work on your motorcycle, handling aggressive drivers and construction zones with ease? Whatever your motorcycling goals, whether you're a novice riding for the first time or a seasoned road warrior, this is the must-have resource to improving your skills and arriving safely!

David L. Hough is a longtime motorcyclist and journalist. He began motorcycling as a means of commuting to work. He is the author of numerous articles, columns, and books. In 2009 he was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.