March 2020

by Gary Klinker

I would like to start this month by thanking the members from 1E who sent a very nice donation to Safe Rider from the Art and Pricilla Schneider Memorial Ride. It is very appreciated. This would probably be a good time to remind everyone about the two programs that we can also benefit from. The Amazon Smile program allows anyone who orders from Amazon to designate a portion of the sale to an organization. It costs nothing but can benefit your favorite charity or non-profit. The other is the My Huttera app that lets you donate a portion of your purchases at a wide variety of places to your favorite organization. I don’t use Amazon, but the Huttera app is very easy to use. Safe Rider gets regular donations from both of these companies. Thanks to all of you who use them. I would like to encourage everyone to give them a try.

With the start of a new month we are that much closer to the riding season. The Wisconsin Motorcycle Safety Program Spring Kick-off gave us a lot of new procedures to deal with. We have had our Safe Rider Board meeting and training day. If your region would like to schedule a BRC2 for your members contact me so we could set up a date and a Rider Coach to meet your needs. The schedules are filling up fast. I hope that is a good sign that we will have another good year.

After picking up a nail in my back tire late last fall, I need to get a new tire. I plugged it so it would hold air through the winter so I could move it around, but it is never safe to ride with a plugged tire. You never know if it will hold when riding. When you only have two small tire contact patches to keep you upright you want to make sure they are the best you can get. Make sure you have good tread left and keep your tire pressures adjusted. The ride, handling, braking and proper operation of the suspension all depend on your tires. Check them weekly at least. Clean and shiny won’t get you home. Good tires and maintenance will. The next thing is to make sure your skills and mindset are ready to be out there in traffic.

I must be slipping or getting too busy lately. Recently I have been asked twice if I have trips planned for this year. I had to admit that I have not planned anything yet. It did give me a chance to talk to these people about places to ride. We live near some of the best riding roads in the country. It doesn’t need to be a week-long thousands of miles ride. Day trips around the state or to neighboring states are a fine way to get miles on your bike and enjoy riding. If you have never seen it, check out the Roadside America web site. It lists, by state, many interesting things to see. Some are well known, but a lot of them are really weird. It makes a good way to plan one of these day rides with an interesting destination. Another good place to plan rides is the ABATE of Wisconsin calendar of events. Every weekend there are events in regions throughout the state. You can pick something out by determining how many miles you want to go that day. By route planning you could probably catch more than one event the same day. Such a deal. Get miles and support your favorite organization at the same time. By next month’s report I should have some more good ideas about rides.

Ride Safe,

Gary