A strong fear

Before I became an avid Motocross fan, I was a mixed martial arts Brisbane practitioner. Truth be told, I was hesitant to get started with Motocross, even with my background as an MMA practitioner. MMA is a contact sport which, I think, has a higher rate of broken bones and incapacitation than motorcycle accidents. At least with motorcycles, you have a chance of walking away from a gimped-up jump without any broken bones. The sad part is that, I was more afraid of breaking my bones in Motocross than MMA.

 

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If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to motocross, then you should know that motocross racers say the feeling pretty much include blood pumping, adrenaline springing, brain distorting and heart thrashing. Well, not literally but the feeling of racers being 12 feet off the ground at 50 MPH is overwhelming. To describe it as overwhelming may underrated even.

Motocross, a sport that demands the maximum physical conditioning and bravery, is questionably the most popular form of off-road motorized sports. And although it’s rough and rowdy from the outside, it is actually an organized sport. You just have to be on the inside to truly understand the system. If you’ve never been to a race but love the idea of hitting the track on your dirt bike, you can read through some of our handy tips to get you started.

Talk About The Bike

When it comes to bikes, motocross is certainly model-specific. Every major manufacturer ensures that they devote a huge allotment of its time and money to building its best machines for the motocross market. If you currently own an off-road-specific enduro bike, your racing motocross dreams can be possible. Some racing series have classes made for off-road bikes. These classes, sometimes called sportsmen or enduro, incite the headlight-and-spark-arrestor crowd to challenge the motocross track with their soft-suspended off-road bikes. If your local series has such class, you can begin from there. In case your area doesn’t support sportsmen classes, you still have other choices.

Going To A Race

The best thing you should do to get your MX hobby started is to go to a race and leave your bike at home. Motocross can be overwhelming especially since everyone doing it seems to have hidden schedules and rituals they’re not telling about. Racers have their own internal clock to remind them when to practice, how long races last, when to tidy and loosen their chain. It’s an advantage to know someone who races because that way he or she can tour you around the area. You can freely observe the ritual to grasp some idea on what’s going on without the pressure of participating. Use the opportunity as well to go on an asking spree. Feel free to ask questions if you have any. There aren’t stupid ones so make sure to ask away. The motocross community is known to be an all-encompassing and convivial group.

Moto-shopping

If not all, at least one person at your local motorcycle dealers races or has raced motocross. Create a rapport with those working at your favored dealership or hop-up shop. The relationship you’ll have with the person will be instrumental at some way. You can ask them about the tracks around the area or on the other side of the state whether it’s worth driving to. If the shop guys do not know the answer, they usually know someone who can answer for you. Ask your shop as they will be your trusty guide to starting your hobby. Second to visiting the racetrack, the motocross shop is usually the best source of anything motocross.

Exploration

Before you begin racing, do some little research and exploration first. The information you will obtain will greatly help you and let you be more prepared as you embark on the racing world. Do your exploring and researching when you’re in the race track or in your local shop. Is there a club affiliation at the race event you’re entering to? Is membership necessary? If not, is there a discount of which you can avail of? How about benefits that is worth joining anyway? You can also ask whether this race will be included on a series of races. The more you ask, the more you will learn. It’s even better if you get firsthand information and insights from motocross experts.

Practice

It’s important to invest in some quality practice time especially if you’ve never ridden on a motocross track before or your track time is very inadequate. You’ll have to bust out some laps before challenging a race. The practice will let your body adjust from the complete flaying you’ll be going through. If you don’t practice MX, your body is going to be pugnaciously surprised about a lap in your first try. Make sure to get into situations that imitate races and learn how to handle with the overcrowding of a motocross track because that has always been a thing of motocross—congestion around the area. The practice will also give you an idea how fast you are and what class you should enter.

Involving Friends and Family

Motocross racing is a whole lot better and more fun with a friend. So tag along a riding buddy and hit your first race together. You can also make it a kind of family affair by getting the whole bunch involved. It’s basically one of the best reasons to race motocross—so you can talk about your race immediately after racing.

Walk The Track

Once everything is settled and you’re in the track, you should do something first—walking the track. Walking the track allows you to get a slow-motion view of what you’ll be flying by, over and across. It’s like making an imaginary map of the jump locations, corner directions, mud holes, slick spots and the all-important finish line.

Early Bird

Worst case scenario is showing up late for a race. Being early is less stressful and much more likely to be a pleasurable experience. You’ll be starting with a busy day and just racing one class already includes many steps of preparation—the sign-up, the rider’s meeting, walking the track and a whole lot of other necessary stuff. Instead of going through a lot of pressure, show up early and take your time going through the motions.

Prepare Physically

Evidently, motocross is physically intricate. You’ll need to prepare your body physically as with all endurance activities. To avoid a terrible tap, you need to pile up fuel to burn. Drink plenty of water and eat lightly but adequately. Nutritious meals should be eaten throughout the day. Cut junk food and simple sugars from your diet. Instead, take in complex carbohydrates days before the race and simply on the race day. Recommended pre-race breakfast include cereal, oatmeal, fruit and toast. Lunch should be similarly simple with lots of water.

Stretching is also important and the best way to prepare your body for the physical ferocity you’ll be going through. Do simple stretching such as touching your toes and stretching major muscles.

Take Things Slowly

It’s unclear whether you’ll win on your first race but usually, you can’t win on your first race. Nevertheless, go fast by going slow. You’ll be a much better racer if you take it easy and let your skills and speed develop slowly but surely. This is especially true if you are a beginner. Slow down and learn; speed will shortly follow.

In both automobiles and motorcycles, components that ensure the safety of the drivers and passengers are always incorporated in the design. This article will discuss the role that windows or windshields in cars and fairings in motorcycles play in the safety of the people who drive and ride these vehicles. So the next time you visit Campsie auto glass for windscreen replacement or your local motorcycle shop for a repair or maintenance job, you will have an idea about one of the most crucial safety components in your riding or driving experience—the windshield in automobiles and fairings in motorcycles.

Motorcycle Fairing

A motorcycle fairing is the shell shaped glass or composite plastic panel that is placed over the front frame of motorcycles usually those use in motocross and racing have dual purpose. The first one is to reduce air drag; thus, giving the motorcycle better aerodynamics, better fuel economy, relatively more powerful engine performance, and more importantly, increased speed.  The second purpose is for the safety and protection of the rider from possible risks like airborne hazards, wind-induced hypothermia and engine components in the event of accident. Fairings can be found in both the front and back of motorcycles and one of their integral components is the windshield.

A motorcycle’s windshield is made either from a polycarbonate (Lexan) or acrylic (Plexiglas) material. The Polycarbonate material is known as an extremely strong plastic and about as transparent as glass. However, there is a big disadvantage in using a Polycarbonate windshield given the fact that the material picks up water from the air making the windshield cloudy.

Acrylic windshields meanwhile are only about 3% as impact resistant as the polycarbonate one and they shatter upon impact. This quality makes them unsafe to use for windshields. However acrylics are very chemically resistant and more transparent than glass.

Car Windshields

 

Windshield glass in cars meanwhile is specifically designed to ensure the safety of the people inside the vehicle in case of strong impacts during accidents. Long before the use of laminated or tempered glass as windshield material, car used regular glass, which could shatter into dangerous sharp pieces that could cut and seriously injured the driver or passengers of the car.

Innovation in technology brought about laminated glass windshields, which are particularly designed not to shatter during accidents. These are formed by fusing together two glasses with the use of polyvinyl (PVB) plastic. The result is a glass that breaks and cracks and not shatters completely.

Another process to ensure that car windshield will not cause injuries during accidents is tempered method. The process employed in this technology is the rapid heating and cooling methods. The result would be the shattering of the glass into tiny pebble like pieces during impact. However these tiny pieces are not sharp thus eliminating the risk of passengers being cut by the shattered pieces.