How to ride safe, avoid aches and pain and enjoy

Safety First

• Safety gears are must, they just doesn’t just help prevent injury in a crash, but will make riding more comfortable, put you in better control of your bike and help you be seen by other drivers. Bright colors on your helmet and jacket/suit will help car drivers see you, potentially avoiding some of the common accidents.
• On the road, “Slow In, Fast Out” is an effective rule of thumb. Enter a corner wide and slow, to increase your vision and at an easy pace. Once you are able to see the complete road you can increase the speed. Approaching on the outside also increases the visual field on the respective turn, allowing the rider to effectively adjust speed, trajectory and avoid potential dangers. At the same time, this is one of the fastest ways to get past a turn, given it's one of the straightest and therefore, shortest distance one can travel.
• Don't brake in turns, it does not mean you should do.
  It is much safer to enter a turn a little slower than having to brake hard in the middle, so get used to anticipating how fast you need to be. Too much speed will cause you to do a wider turn, away from the ideal trajectory and possibly into the opposite lane or scenery.
• Make sure the bike is serviced well in advance and you have tested it.
• Don't over speed, know the vehicle response to stop and maneuvering capabilities.
• Adjust the handle bars to suite you position. Most handlebars can be adjusted, even slightly. Just rolling a handlebar forward or back a little can change the angle of your wrists and your whole riding position. You may also consider handlebar risers.
• Make sure bike has mirrors, insurance, emission certificate, number plates are in English not in local languages as other state people cant understand your local language, and when traveling inter-state or cross country, make sure you carry the originals and have photo copies at home not the other way.

Dress appropriately

Heat can cause dehydration which leads to cramping. Open the vents on your jacket, use iced gel 
packs or wet handkerchiefs around your neck and consider a hydration vest or Ventz which allow cool air to flow up your sleeves. Meanwhile, cold can cause joint and back pain. Dress warmly and consider buying chemically-activated gel heat packs which you can slip up your sleeves, around your neck or into the back of your trousers to ease wrist, neck and lower back pain.

 

 Ergonomics of Bike Posture

• Leads to a better distribution of opposing forces. Unpleasant pressure points and related discomforts are avoided. 
• Optimum handling of the bike.
• Your joint position, range of motion, and overall posture can be optimized. Misalignment's and the associated pains will be prevented.

How to Sit

• The posture will vary with the type of bike, but in all cases you should use your 'core muscles' to hold yourself in place rather than using the handlebars as braces. Hold your outside thigh against the tank so that it supports most of your body weight and allows your arms to be relaxed at a natural bend.
• Gap between rear seat and butt is reduced. Crouch down a little more to get a better curved spine. Not much but just a little bit.
• Decrease in shoulder height implies greater angle between the elbow joints and lesser α angle.  A rider can’t hold his/her muscles stiff if they maintain a curved spine. Hence it will enhance the endurance as body is relaxed.
• Muscles – Stiffer muscles will lead to poor response time. The body will also be strained as much effort is used to keep the muscles stiff.
• Neck – Same as muscles; never stiffen the neck because relaxed neck allows the head to stabilize after going through a speed breaker/pothole. It’s again because of the cushioning effect.

Remember it is important for the riders to keep their muscles relaxed while riding.

Stretch

Before you get on the bike and at every stop, just do some basic stretches. Even Valentino Rossi stretches before a race. I am not talking roadside yoga or pilates, but some back, leg, neck and wrist stretches before you ride will prevent cramps. They will also ease a cramp once started. But don’t be tempted to do too many stretches on the bike. Get off the bike and walk around, stretch and rest. Don’t wait until the pain is so bad it takes up most of your concentration as that is dangerous. Take regular stops and nip the pain in the bud.

In my previous post I have mentioned how to maintain your fitness.  How to stay fit?

Food & Drinks

Have lite food before and during your ride and have enough water, and some electrol water would be nice. If you can afford to get one hydration kit. Have enough water since you will get dehydrated during the ride. Due to dehydration muscle will cramp. Carry some snacks and dry fruits with you when you stop for break or fuel you can have some so that you don't feel hungry during ride and you intake of food will also be reduced.

To prevent cramps, you’ll need to eat carbohydrates and foods with plenty of potassium, calcium and magnesium, Banana does a great job, if you have seen tennis/cricket during drink breaks players eat bananas.

Avoid alcohol as it dehydrates you and leads to cramps. Don't have alcohol the day you drive and also in the night if you are riding the next day morning. If you feel tired of riding and you enjoy alcohol have less quantity so the next day hangover will not make you feel sick and spoil the mood of riding.

How much distance to cover

Roads are longer than what you think. 

Have breaks at every 80-100km or 1-1.5 hours interval. Don't push hard your self and also the bike even it can't take long duration. Get down and stretch your self so that the muscle's get relaxed and bike cools down.

Ride during the day try to avoid during dusk and night. Start the day as early as possible it is great if you can start the ride just before the sun rise. Don't try to cover more distance in one single day you will get sick of riding and you will feel you are not covering the distance. Try not to drive more than 5-6hr a day. If you over do the ride you will not be able to enjoy the place nor the ride.

Few other points

Don't carry heavy luggage on your backpacks. I would recommend to tie the backpack using the bungee ropes (double strands instead of single rope). Since the backpacks keep moving and it will be irritating and you have to adjust the position multiple times if you adjust the strap to tight you feel uncomfortable. 

Carry pain killers and other pills if your prone to some allergies or other things. You get calcium, Magnesium pills.

If you are riding high altitudes then you should take of high altitude sickness. It is commonly know as AMS if you search you will be able to get the details.

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