There is an aspect of motorcycling we don't like to think much about, but inevitably must all deal with it. Whether that becomes an ordeal or just another part of the fun will be determined by positive attitude and preparation more than skill and experience.

New riders frequently will ask me for riding advice, which is invariably to take as many rider training courses as you can afford to on street and track, regardless of the kind of motorcycle you ride. If they've already done all that (or are in process of doing so), I give them just one more nugget: "See Everything."

If you recall my last article (Aug. '08), I spoke about muscular balance and how offsetting this natural equilibrium can alter spinal position. It is virtually impossible to be in perfect anatomical position every minute, but we can reverse a lot of the damage our daily routines cause. The key is to use exercises that specifically target the muscle groups responsible for poor posture. Another great way to combat poor anatomical alignment is to switch arms or sides in whatever you're doing. For example, if you have a baby, switch the arm that you hold her with or carry the car safety seat in the other arm. When you grocery shop, evenly load your bags into both arms if you're carrying them. Women should switch the shoulder they carry their pocketbook on, and so on. Try challenging yourself to use your nondominant side in every daily task if you can: It'll make a difference.

Have you ever been at a rally and taken a really good look around? If you gazed long and hard, you probably realized the folks you're checking out aren't exactly the most stand-up group-literally. In other words, your motorcycling brethren are a bunch of slouches. The good news is that most of the general population has bad posture too, not just motorcyclists. The bad news is that the biggest cause of slouching is not laziness, but sitting.

Virtual Safety

By the time you read this most of the country will have made the switch to Daylight Saving Time. Sure, I'm tickled to have that extra hour of light, but I'll still face the occasional post-sunset commute home. And night riding just ain't the thrill it used to be when I was a young buck. Generally speaking, your ability to see at night deteriorates with age, and a twilight spin in my mid-40s demands way more preparation to keep the excitement meter from going off the dial. You've probably heard the sobering stats: A disproportionately high rate of accidents occur between dusk and dawn.

Most of us recognize the importance of at least a perfunctory visual check of our machines before we set out for a scoot, but what many riders forget is that it's just as important to check your body position, too. Out on a one-lane country road 30 minutes into your ride is not the ideal time to be wondering, "Uh, why are my hands tingling? Why are my shoulders tight? And damn it, why does my neck ache?"

For some folks, winter simply marks the end of daylight saving time. For many motorcyclists, though, it signals something far more important-the end of the riding season. But just because the days are short and the air is cold, it doesn't mean you have to stash the ol' scooter. With a little knowledge and the right combination of gear, you can feasibly ride year-round (except for those of you located in the icy, snowy, northern climes).

The arrival of warmer temperatures in spring means a long-anticipated return to the road for a number of winter-weary riders. For those climate-challenged enthusiasts forced to store their ride over the winter months, the first ride of the season should be preceded by a thorough check-up.

Ears Are for More Than Hanging Sunglasses On

If it's a choice between riding our bike or trailering it, we'll take the former any day-even if it's to a rally in another time zone or on a troll through the local hills in the rain. Sometimes, though-like when wrangling multiple bikes to the dragstrip for this issue's comparison test-we don't have a choice.

So you've nailed down a destination, and now you're chompin' at the bit. Throw a few Jockey shorts in the backpack and off you go, right? Not so fast-any overnight trip requires a bit more forethought. And if you're headed on an extended tour on two wheels, remember, "less is more." Even if your week-long odyssey is on a full-blown touring bike, you'll have to make every inch of cargo space count (especially if there are two of you). That ice bucket will start looking pretty dumb after Mile Marker 3. We talked with Tom Mehren, author of the new book Pack Light, Pack Right! (available at www.mm411.com). Mehren's also a proponent of the less-is-more theory. Following are his main packing points:Heavy On The BottomStuff heavy gear closest to where the bag will be mounted on the bike. I like to use a three bag system on extended trips: one big sack for the large stuff, a medium bag for necessities and a smaller one for traveling fast and loose. (This one comes in handy off the bike.) The big bag should be weather- proof, durable and flexible enough to accommodate different loads on different bikes. Attachment points, stiffeners or frames help the cause too. The medium-sized bag should essentially be a stuffable, soft bag that can be rolled up, and I usually grab a backpack for light, off-bike excursions.

Motorcycle Cruiser's mothership, Motorcyclist magazine, recently published the following advice to an overwhelmingly appreciative response. We have decided to republish the list of living-saving techniques-in its entirety-for our own readership.

This spring, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger collided with a car that turned left in front of him, breaking his face and causing a concussion, it triggered a media uproar about the need for helmet laws. Few remarked on the irony or hypocrisy of the situation, the fact that the soapboxes came out when a sports star merely sustained recoverable injuries, but not when dozens of other riders in the same state died because they weren't wearing helmets. The life and death of Joe Rider apparently doesn't much interest editors and readers of general-interest publications, but the chance that a star quarterback might not be fit for football season is a big deal, one that should be prevented with helmet laws or even banning all players from riding motorcycles, as some teams do.

This spring, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger collided with a car that turned left in front of him, breaking his face and causing a concussion, it triggered a media uproar about the need for helmet laws. Few remarked on the irony or hypocrisy of the situation, the fact that the soapboxes came out when a sports star merely sustained recoverable injuries, but not when dozens of other riders in the same state died because they weren't wearing helmets. The life and death of Joe Rider apparently doesn't much interest editors and readers of general-interest publications, but the chance that a star quarterback might not be fit for football season is a big deal, one that should be prevented with helmet laws or even banning all players from riding motorcycles, as some teams do.

Experts say that fatigue contributes to between a fifth and a sixth of all car accidents. That may not be true in motorcycle accidents across the board, but fatigue is definitely an issue for riders on trips of three days or more. It's something that you need to consider and prepare for. If you are riding with other people, it is an issue that you should discuss and accommodate as you plan your trip. Different riders will have different requirements for rest, and if the trip is to be a safe one, all members of the group should be willing to accommodate each other.

It could be that my favorite thing about riding motorcycles is the way they turn, leaning over to balance all the forces involved in making a single-track vehicle change directions and go right where you want it. Even after riding through corners hundreds of thousands — probably millions — of times, the process of riding a motorcycle around a turn in the road or racetrack is still exciting and challenging. I'm also sure that there haven't been more than a handful of times in more than 40 years and a million miles of riding that I arrived at the entry to a corner and entered it just perfectly, with exactly the right amount of handlebar pressure, body English, throttle opening and lean angle to deliver me to the ideal point at the apex of the turn without minute adjustments. You virtually always have to make some sort of adjustment as you commit to a line around the turn. To keep all those forces balanced, you can't make any violent changes or you'll quickly find yourself flat-side-down. To avoid doing that, you need to to be sure of what lies ahead .

New research dispels some of the myths about effective brakingMotorcyclists have no shortage of opinions about how to use their brakes. Get a group of riders talking about how to make a hard emergency stop and you'll hear all sorts of opinions:

Experts say that fatigue contributes to between a fifth and a sixth of all car accidents. That may not be true in motorcycle accidents across the board, but fatigue is definitely an issue for riders on trips of three days or more. It's something that you need to consider and prepare for, and if you are riding with other people, it is an issue that you should discuss and accommodate as you plan your trip. Different riders will have different requirements for rest, and if the trip is to be a safe one, all members of the group should be willing to accommodate each other.

Get a group of motorcyclists talking about crashes and safety, and you will almost certainly hear some of them—popular misconceptions, incorrect assumptions, urban legends, and intuitive explanations about motorcycle safety that turn out to be wrong when you actually check out the facts. The problem is that believing these misconceptions can increase your chances of being involved in an accident or getting hurt when you do crash.

It could be that my favorite thing about motorcycles is the way they turn, leaning over to balance all the forces involved in making a single-track vehicle change directions and go right where you want it. Even after doing it hundreds of thousands of times, it's still exciting and challenging. I'm also sure that there haven't been more than a handful of times that I arrived at the entry to a corner and entered it just perfectly, with exactly the right amount of handlebar pressure, body English, throttle opening and lean angle to deliver me to the ideal point at the apex of the turn without minute adjustments. You virtually always have to make some sort of adjustment as you commit. However, to keep all those forces balanced, you can't make any violent changes or you'll quickly find yourself flat side down.

By now, four days after the event, at least 97% of the world's population must know that California's celebrity governor had a minor motorcycle accident on January 8, 2006. Almost that many have probably heard that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't have a motorcycle license at the time of the crash but escaped a citation because of a loopy loophole in California law that lets you ride a sidecar with just a driver's license to operate a car.

I was motoring along southbound on a four-lane Oregon road, barely overtaking another motorcyclist who I'd first seen over a quarter-mile ahead of me. By now the distance had shrunk by about two-thirds and, even over the wind noise I could tell from the considerable rumble that he was riding a big twin. I was still a few hundred feet behind when he gradually overtook a van towing a big house trailer. This rider had been favoring the right side of the lane, and when he got right up behind the trailer, he made a quick flick into the left lane, again on the right side, close to the van-trailer. It was going almost as fast as we were, and I could hear that he didn't accelerate when he drew alongside of it. He had probably been in passing position for almost a minute when the van-trailer signaled, then began to move over (a deer carcass lay in the road ahead). The rider apparently didn't see the signal and didn't react until the vehicle began crowding him. Then he pulled ahead next to the driver and gestured angrily. I saw the brake lights on the trailer, then the bike, illuminate, as the rider apparently tried to stay next to the vehicle as it braked. But the driver still had the obstacle to avoid and continued to move over while trying to brake to get behind the bike. The rider wanted to express his anger though and didn't get out of the way until he was finally on the shoulder, and both he and the other vehicle had slowed to less than 30 mph, and I'd had to brake to stay clear.

Remember that movie? Steven Spielberg's very first attempt at thrilling theatergoers in the early '70s? The one where the mysterious driver of a menacing tractor-trailer stalks Dennis Weaver in his Plymouth Valiant? It was freakishly horrifying, wasn't it?

I was motoring along southbound on a four-lane Oregon road, barely overtaking another motorcyclist who I'd first seen over a quarter-mile ahead of me. By now the distance had shrunk by about two-thirds and, even over the wind noise I could tell from the considerable rumble that he was riding a big twin. I was still a few hundred feet behind when he gradually overtook a van towing a big house trailer. This rider had been favoring the right side of the lane, and when he got right up behind the trailer, he made a quick flick into the left lane, again on the right side, close to the van-trailer. It was going almost as fast as we were, and I could hear that he didn't accelerate when he drew alongside of it. He had probably been in passing position for almost a minute when the van-trailer signaled, then began to move over (a deer carcass lay in the road ahead). The rider apparently didn't see the signal and didn't react until the vehicle began crowding him. Then he pulled ahead next to the driver and gestured angrily. I saw the brake lights on the trailer, then the bike, illuminate, as the rider apparently tried to stay next to the vehicle. But the driver still had the obstacle to avoid and continued to move over while trying to brake behind the bike. The rider wanted to express his anger though and didn't get out of the way until he was finally on the shoulder, and both he and the other vehicle had slowed to less than 30 mph, and I'd had to brake to stay clear.