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Tips,Tweaks, Fixes and Facts: The two-wheeled ownership experience, explained
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Cover Me! There’s analytical debate about whether or not to cover your brake lever, but experience makes the case BY MITCH BOEHM
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ike a lot of (probably) older motorcyclists, I learned to ride exclusively by experience, and all the bumps, bruises, close calls and actual falls that come with that, and I’ll happily admit to never having taken a rider skills course. Of course, having ridden for 50 years, raced motocross for 47 of them, road raced for 37, ridden on the street for 40, having taught road racing skills and strategy in the classroom and on the track, and having written a lot about riding technique over the decades, I’m thinking there’s not much I haven’t yet encountered. Commuting for 30-plus years and hundreds of thousands of miles in the loveliness that is Los Angeles traffic 70
taught me a lot of useful things over the years, and one of the most vital was covering the front brake lever to varying degrees depending on the particular traffic situation. It’s a tactic that comes in handy on backroad rides and on the racetrack, as well, but for this discussion I want to stick to street riding and the many benefits covering the brake offers. Of course, not everyone agrees, including a lot of instructors that work for various riding-skills entities out there. Boiled down, their argument is basically that, for newer riders, especially, covering the brake lever to reduce reaction time in an emergency or brake-now situation can get in the way of separate and proper braking and throttle-application techniques, and for new riders just learning the
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basics I can see some logic here. You want to become proficient at throttle and braking separately before you start mixing them, as covering the brake (and working the throttle at the same time) entails. But then you read something like this on an online forum, and you wonder…as I did. • I took the MSF Experienced Rider Course yesterday (excellent refresher course, BTW), and the instructor noticed that I used two fingers to cover the brake at all times. She asked me where I learned that technique, and I told her that I learned it from talking to experienced riders, reading about it in various books (such as Reg Pridmore’s “Smooth Riding”) and from firsthand experience. I ride in a
