Winter is here (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) and for many of us that means that our time on our motorcycles is drastically reduced.

Here in the mountains of Utah, where snow and ice are a regular part of the winter experience, deciding when it is and is not safe to ride is a constant part of the winter cycling experience.

I typically refuse to ride my motorcycle if there is even a small chance of snow or rain for the day, but I want to hear from you.

How do you determine if it is safe enough to ride your motorcycle in the winter? Leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say.

Photo by Flat-Back-66

The 8-part series, which originally aired in 2004, has now been turned into a popular book and DVD set – each of which has received high marks and rave reviews.

But who exactly are Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman? What exactly is Long Way Round? And why should you, as a motorcycle touring enthusiast, care?

Who Are Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman?

If the name Ewan McGregor sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Ewan is an A-list actor, with performances in films such as Trainspotting, Star Wars (episodes I, II and III), Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, I Love You Phillip Morris, The Men Who Stare At Goat, and so many others. Ewan’s star power is likely the reason the Long Way Round TV series was able to get so much funding, press and sponsorship.

Charlie Boorman, on the otherhand, is a good friend of Ewan’s who, like Ewan, is also an actor, but not nearly as famous, successful or well-known. While Ewan may have held the role as the face of Long Way Round, Charley was the main motorcycle man behind the project. His knowledge of motorbikes and love of motorcycle travel is what helped to make the project a reality.

Together, Ewan and Charley make a great team. Throughout the film they laugh with one another,  fight, quarrel and share experiences in a truly realistic way. It is the dynamic between these two characters that, in large part, makes the Long Way Round series such a memorable piece of media.

What Exactly Is Long Way Round About?

Long Way Round is the story of Ewan and Charley riding a pair of BMW motorcycles around the world – from the United Kingdom to America (a 19,000 mile adventure that crossed through 13 different countries, including the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Canada and the USA).

In order to make the film, the two riders were followed by a small team of filmmakers. The main cameraman (Claudio von Planta) followed the cyclists for most of the journey on a separate motorcycle, and the rest of the filmmaking crew followed the motorcycle riders in a pair of support vehicles.

The series starts in the UK, where Ewan, Charley and their small team of filmmakers go about the process of mapping out a route around the world, securing sponsorships, collecting the proper paperwork, and figuring out the logistics involved with a round-the-world motorcycle tour.

This part of the Long Way Round story is rather drawn out (two whole episodes in fact), but actually quite interesting. While most motorcycle travelers would be forced to plan and prepare for their adventures from the comfort of their home, Ewan and Charley set up shop in a small building on the streets of the UK. From this small command post, the pair of adventurers collected their gear, mapped out their route, and brought in a small army of helpers to make their motorcycle tour and the subsequent documentary a reality.

While many motorcycle riders dream of getting sponsored and paid to ride a motorbike around the world, this is something out of the grasps of most individuals. But for Ewan and Charley (each with their own bit of star power), sponsorship deals, funding, and the backing for a television series was not only a reality, but something that would ultimately play a major role in how they would need to go about their travels.

In the planning and preparation part of Long Way Round, we follow Ewan and Charley as they test out several different types of motorcycles that they believe would be ideal for their round-the-world adventure. They attempt to get free bikes, by way of a sponsorship from KTM motorcycles, but when the company pulls out, Charley goes ballistic. Ewan, on the otherhand, plays it cool and brings us back to reality, when he reminds himself that getting the opportunity to even ask for free motorcycles is a blessing in itself, and that if they are able to secure motorcycles of any kind, they are truly fortunate men (these are my words – not his).

This behind-the-scene coverage of the planning and preparation that goes into a round-the-world motorcycle tour is going to be interesting to some, but might a bit of a bore for others (those who would prefer that the adventure simply begin).

Once they hit the road (in Episode 3), however, Ewan and Charley make a mad dash through Western Europe. Their time in this region is so short, it barely plans a part in the series at all.

Only after the riders hit Prague (in the Czech Republic) and the Ukraine does the adventure truly begin. It is here that we start to see the conveniences of Western civilization begin to slowly disappear and in the same breathe, this is where the riders begin to face some of their most difficult challenges.

Over the next several episodes, Ewan and Charley travel through Kazakhstan (where the police insist on slowly escorting them through nearly every mile of the country), Mongolia (where they enjoy some of the most breathtaking scenery on their entire adventure and nearly quit at one point when the roads fade to mud), Siberia, and Russia (where they are forced to sit and wait for a series of trucks to come by so they can cross their motorcycles over a network of deep rivers that block the “Road of Bones”).

The couple’s ride through Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Russia is where the meat of the Long Way Round series is told. It is in these places that the true challenges of motorcycle touring take place.

Once Ewan, Charley and their support team arrive in Alaska and make for the final cross-country drive through Canada and the United States, the paved roads of North America pick up again and covering long distances becomes a breeze.

Despite two accidents on the roads of Canada (one of which nearly takes Ewan’s life when a young male driver hits him from behind), the tour through North America is fast and uneventful.

In the final episode of the series, Ewan and Charley meet up with their friends, family and loved ones in New York, where they celebrate their round-the-world adventure, look back on their favorite moments, and reflect on how the experience has changed their lives and their outlook of the world.

Who Is Long Way Round Intended For?

Long Way Round is a must-see series for any motorcycle tourist, traveler or enthusiast. But it isn’t just a show for people who love motorbikes.

While the BMW motorcycles that Ewan and Charley ride in the film are certainly important for getting the two riders from one destination to the next, the Long Way Round series can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in world travel, taking up seemingly impossible missions, and living a life with gusto.

After watching the series, you will not only learn about several different places around the world, but you will be filled with a sense of possibility. Through Ewan and Charley’s example, you may come to believe that whatever you want to do in your life is possible, if you just simply set a goal, work towards it, and start moving in that direction. The path to your goal may not be short and easy. In fact, you might have to go all the way around the world in order to make it happen. But with a little bravery, determination, and will power, you can get there. You can make it happen – whether that thing be on the back of a motorcycle, or in some completely unrelated area of your life.

While the Long Way Round series does not consist of the most breathtaking cinematic work I have ever seen, the series as a whole is actually quite good and totally worth a look.

If you missed the show when it aired on television back in 2004, don’t worry! All 8-parts of the Long Way Round series can now be viewed on DVD and purchased individually or as part of the much larger DVD package that also contains the Long Way Down and Race To Dakar DVD sets, which are two other mini-series created by Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman.

My Rating: 9 Out Of 10

More information on the Long Way Round can be found at www.longwayround.com.

A recent email from a MotorcycleTouringPro.com reader named Denise shows that this is a real problem every new motorcycle rider has to face:

Hi. I came upon your site. I am a new rider. Have my bike now for only two weeks. My one friend, who is mentoring me, wants me to go on a road (35 mph) with traffic (in town). Thus far I’ve only been in my neighborhood and in parking lots. I don’t feel ready. Mostly because nothing is second nature to me right now and I can tell when something doesn’t go well, I get very tense/nervous.   How will I know when I’m ready for a road and traffic.  I need more parking lot practice, but my friend said its not good for my bike to always be running at a low speed, 2nd or 3rd gear. Which I understand, the engine does get hot. But how do I practice going faster if I am not ready for a road yet?

Denise

To answer Denise’s question I will explain how I transitioned out of my practice parking lot and began driving on real-life streets.

When I first got my motorcycle, the first thing I did was find a big, wide-open parking lot at a nearby school where I could practice driving my new bike. I would go to this parking lot several times a week and I would practice stopping, making sharp turns, weaving in and out of lines on the road, and shifting into second and third gear. This is where it all began. I made hundreds and hundreds of loops around that parking lot until stopping and shifting between first and second gears became second nature.

Even after all that practice though, I still didn’t feel quite ready to ride on a road where I might encounter another vehicle. At some point, however, I needed to make that move and this is how I did it…

After practicing my stops, turns and shifts in the school parking lot near my house for several weeks, I decided it was time to hit the road. Lucky for me, the school where I was practicing was located along a small frontage road that runs along the freeway. This particular frontage road has little traffic during the day (1 car passing about every 30 seconds) and the speed limit is 40 miles per hour. So it was the perfect place to not only practice driving on a road with a small amount of traffic, but also a great place to finally shift my bike into fourth and fifth gear.

Turning out of the school parking lot and onto that frontage road for the first time was super scary. I made sure to look both ways before entering the road, making sure that there were no vehicles coming from either direction. The main thing I did not want was for me to pull out into the road and then have another vehicle come up behind me and be pressuring me to go faster. I knew that I was going to go slow once I got onto the road, so I made sure that there were no vehicles in the area.

When I finally turned out onto the road I quickly shifted into second gear. I had practiced this a hundred times in the school parking lot, so the action was nearly second-nature, but still felt a bit frightening now that I was doing it on a real-life road.

Moving the bike into third gear was even scarier. I had practiced going into third a few times in the school parking lot, but because the parking lot wasn’t very big, my time in third gear had been minimal. But once I kicked the motorcycle into third gear on the road, I felt like I was actually riding my motorcycle for the first time. I went for several hundred feet in third gear (moving at about 25 MPH (far below the actual speed limit)) before finally attempting to move the bike into 4th.

I was so scared the first time I kicked my motorcycle into fourth gear. However, I wasn’t all that frightened of actually getting the bike into fourth gear. What I was truly afraid of was not being able to shift the bike back to first gear fast enough in the event that I needed to quickly come to a stop or slow down. But after riding in third gear for a while and feeling comfortable there, I finally transitioned the bike into fourth. The bike kicked a bit at first, and the sputtered, because I wasn’t giving it enough gas. I twisted the trottlle and my speed increased. I was now going the fastest I had even gone on my motorcycle. Nearly 40 miles per hour!

Driving in fourth gear, I traveled down the frontage road for about a half mile. As I approached a small commercial shopping center on my left-hand side, I transitioned back into third gear… and then into second. I turned on my left-hand signal and then slowly pulled into the shopping center parking lot where I kicked the bike down one more gear and brought it to a stop. I had done it! I had driven on a real road, moved my bike into fourth gear, and driven nearly forty miles per hour!

After this initial half-mile ride down the sparsely populated frontage road, I turned the motorcycle around and drove back down the road in the direction I had come, this time repeating the entire process over again. When I reached the school where I had started, I pulled into the parking lot and brought the motorcycle to a stop. Then I turned the bike around, pulled out onto the frontage road again, and drove back to the shopping center a half-mile down the road.

I repeated this process dozens of times. And once I was comfortable doing that, I decided to drive a bit further down the frontage road, this time passing the shopping center where I had been turning around previously, and driving another half-mile down the road to a small residential area where I would turn around and drive back to the school where I had started. Again, I would repeat this process a dozen times or more and once I was comfrotable, I would slowly begin to add new stretches of road to my loop.

You see, the way I got comfortable at riding on the streets was by performing loops on the same stretches of road, time and time again, and then slowly adding new stretches of road as I became more comfortable. After some time of performing these loops on low-traffic roads, I then began to challenge myself by riding on small stretches of road where there were more vehicles. But this came only after I was (somewhat) comfortable riding on roads where traffic was either non-existent or extremely minimal.

So that’s how I did it! That’s how I made the transition from riding my motorcycle in a school parking lot to riding on the road with other vehicles.

And if you are a new rider who is currently trying to make the transition to street riding, I suggest you go about it in a similar way. Stick to small side-roads and low-traffic streets and don’t attempt to enter traffic until you are comfortable riding in these low-traffic scenarios.

You see, I was out riding my bike on a 30-mile long dirt road east of Heber City, Utah when the incident happened. The weather was clear and, because I was in the back-country, there were hardly any other vehicles on the road. The scenery was spectacular and I was enjoying myself tremendously. In fact, I took this photo of the scenery just moments before I crashed:

Things went south, however, as I was cruising downhill and through a small cluster of Aspen trees. At the bottom of the hill was a fresh layer of loose gravel. I could tell that the gravel had just recently been laid down on the road, so I slowed the bike to around 20 mile per hour, but it wasn’t slow enough.

As soon as I hit the gravel I felt the bike sink in and start to shift from side to side. I immediately knew that the bike was out of control and I needed to stop. But I didn’t want to slam on the brakes, because the loose gravel, which was nearly 6 inches deep in parts, would have caused me to skid out even more. So I straightened out the bike as best as I could and tried to hold on until the bike came to a stop.

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite make it that far. The problem was, I was going straight, but the road was making a sharp turn to the right. So just as I was about to go off the road and into the gutter, I attempted to turn the bike to the right and that’s when the bike fell over on me. The gravel in this part of the road was at least six inches deep and as loose as hell. As soon as I tried to steer the bike, the front wheel dug itself into the deep gravel and the entire bike toppled over to the right.

It all happened so fast, but I remember the bike being on top of my right foot. However, I jumped up off the ground so quick and pulled my foot out from underneath the bike in such speed that I barely remember it happening. After pulling myself out from under the bike, I realized that the motorcycle was still running, so I hit the kill switch and turned off the engine. Then I immediately grabbed the handlebars of the bike and lifted the 450 pound beast back to its verticle position.

As I was lifting the bike back up, I heard several small cracks and pops and I knew in that moment that I had damaged the body of my motorcycle. After a quick inspection, my suspicions were confirmed. The front-right side of the motorcycle had slammed into the ground during the crash and I had broken off about 6-8 square inches of plastic from the body of my bicycle. I then picked up the broken pieces of plastic, but them in my backpack, and soon thereafter realized that my body had experienced some damage as well.

Even though the motorcycle had fallen on its right side and had landed on my right foot, I experienced no pain, cuts, or bruises anywhere on the right side of my body. Instead, I had a small scratch on my left shin (pictured below), a slight pain in my upper-left shoulder, and a sore left wrist. The accident happened so quickly, and I recovered in such speed, that even now as I’m writing this I’m not sure how exactly I was able to hurt my left leg during the accident. The only thing I can think of is that I potentially hit my shin on the foot-peg or the handlebars as the bike went down.

Anyway, after assessing the damage and sitting by the side of the road for a few moments in order to let my mind cool down, I jumped back up on the bike and continued on my way.

In reality, the crash was very, very small. I probably could have prevented the crash altogether if I had been going just a wee-bit slower when I entered that patch of fresh gravel. And in the end, the damage to my motorcycle was minimal. If I cared a whole lot about the cosmetics of my bike, I would probably just have to order a new right-front body plate for my bike, but the damage that has been done is so small that at this point I’m just going to continue riding the bike the way it is.

Have you ever had a similar experience while riding your motorcycle? How did you feel during and after the experience? And what did you learn from the accident?

A couple weeks ago I asked you “How much do you pay for your motorcycle insurance?”

This week, I thought it would be interesting to share with you just how much coverage I get with my current motorcycle insurance plan and tell you exactly how much I pay for that plan each year. After you check out the coverage that I currently have, please leave a comment at the bottom of this article and let me know what kind of coverage you get and how much you currently pay for your motorcycle insurance each year.

To get started, I should tell you that my motorcycle insurance is with Progressive… and the motorcycle I am insuring is a 2009 Kawasaki KLR650 that has been fully paid for.

This is the coverage I’ve currently got:

For this type of coverage I pay $464 USD per year (or $38.67 per month).

As far as you can tell, is this pretty good coverage? Or am I getting screwed? Are there other things I should be covered for in the case of an accident, theft, damage, etc? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Getting the old tires on your motorcycle swapped out for new ones isn’t as difficult as you might think – especially if you are willing to pay someone else to do the job for you.

After a recent month-long motorcycle tour of the Pacific Northwest, the tire on the rear of my motorcycle was lacking all of its origional tread and I knew it was time to get a new tire. Lacking the skills to replace the tire myself, I called a number of local motorcycle shops and asked how much they charged for the rear tire and how much it would cost in labor for them to put the new tire on the bike for me.

The prices for the rear tire on my Kawasaki KLR 650 ranged from $65 USD to as much as $75. And if I wanted to put a more street-style tire on the bike, the price jumped to as much as $125 USD. Overall, the price for a similar stock tire itself really wasn’t all that different depending on which shop I was talking with.

The price for labor, on the otherhand, is where the pricing between shops really seperated. At the first shop I called to get a quote, they wanted $45 USD to put the rear tire on for me. The second shop I called wanted only $25. And the third shop I inquired at wanted somewhere inbetween the two extremes.

In the end, I decided to go to the shop with the $25 labor fee and their work (and customer service) was beyond was I was expecting.

In the end, I got a brand new tire put on my motorcycle (for $65). I put a new tube in the tire (for $15). And even though the tire took about an hour to replace, the shop still only changed me $25 for the labor.

Check out the pictures below and note the difference between my old tire (the bald one on the left) and the new tire (with its tread, on the right).

The guys at the motorcycle shop warned me, and I will warn you now, that after getting your tires replaced, you need to be especially careful while driving the bike for the first 100 miles or so. The tires themselves, because they are brand new, are especially slippery, and the tube inside the tire can shift around as it positions itself inside the tire and rim. For these reasons, drive with caution, take the corners slow, and be careful out there for at least the first 100 miles or more after getting your tires replaced.

Call me a dolt, but until recently I had no idea that a motorcycle with a near dead battery could be started up again simply by giving it a little push.

That’s right! If you find yourself with a dead battery (or nearly dead battery), your motorcycle can usually be brought back to life by simply pushing the bike down a hill or down a flat stretch of road.

To get your motorcycle running with a push start:

• Engage the cluth.
• Turn the ignition key to on.
• Place the motorcycle in first or second gear (second gear is recommended, but be ready for the kick once the bike starts up).
• Turn the ignition switch to the on position (But do not touch the starter button. During a push start, you will never need to press the starter button. The motorcycle will start due to compression within the engine itself and does not require you to press the electrical start button).
• If you are lucky enough to have the motorcycle positioned on a hill, let the bike coast downhill until you reach a speed of approximately 5 miles per hour. If you are on flat ground, you can try pushing the bike up to this speed yourself, or you may have to have some friends give you a push.
• Once you reach about 5 MPG, slowly let out the clutch and at the same time give the bike some gas via the throttle.
• At this point, your bike might jump a bit, but it should start up and send you rolling down the road with the engine fully engaged.

Be sure that when performing a push start you have a clear stretch of road in front of you. Due to the fact that you are starting the bike in second gear and the fact that you are actually rolling the motorcycle before the bike has actually been started, you need to have a clean runway in front of you for a proper push start. A push start, therefore, should not be performed in a garage, short residential driveway, or in a crowded area where people might walk in front of you while you are attempting to start your bike.

It may take a couple tries to push start your motorcycle for the first time, but once you’ve done it a few times, push starting your motorcycle will become a piece of cake. Not necessarily a fun thing to do, but a piece of cake nevertheless.

What experiences have you had with push starting your motorcycle? Are there any other tips you want to share for push starting a motorbike? Leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say.

If you have ever wanted to conduct a long motorcycle tour, but were unsure as to how much a trip like that might cost you, this article should help you out immensely.

I’ve just recently completed a 3.5 week motorcycle tour through the US States of Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada. While on the tour, I stuck almost entirely to sideroads and small state highways (and purposely avoided the freeways whenever possible).

I started the tour in Park City, Utah (where I live) and traveled for four days to the city of Vancouver, Canada, where I visited with a friend for a few days and then spent five days backpacking in the mountains north of Whister, British Columbia. After leaving Vancouver, I traveled south for another four days, camping along the way, before arriving in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Once there, I met up with my parents who happened to be at the lake for their annual vacation. I stayed with my family for the week at Lake Tahoe and then spent the final two days of the tour driving back to my home in Utah via Highway 50 (aka The Loneliest Road In America).

This was my first true long-distance motorcycle tour (unless you count my much shorter trip last summer to Dinosaur National Monument), so it was definitely a learning experience. I’ll share more about the tour with you in a future article, but for now I thought it would be interesting to share with you just how much it cost me to make this near month-long adventure on my motorbike.

Gas: $226.08

The largest expense of the trip was the gas for my motorcycle. I’m currently driving a 2009 Kawasaki KLR 650 and the bike can hold about 6 gallons of gas, with each gallon getting about 55 mpg. That means that if I fill the bike all the way up, I can safely go about 300 miles before I need up fill up again. On this trip, however, I never really stretched the gas tank to that limit. Instead, I usually tried to fill up when I was around the 220 mile mark (just to be safe). Nevertheless, the gas for the entire trip (more than 3,300 miles) cost me only $226.08 USD.

Food: $142.80

Food was my next biggest expense. I bought and carried a small amount of food with me at the beginning of the tour, but after that food was gone I had to buy what I could along the way. I hate to admit it, but I ate a lot of fast food on this tour, which is a food type I avoid entirely in my normal life. But traveling can do that to you sometimes – make you do things you wouldn’t otherwise do. And in this case, my trip by motorcycle across the country had me eating a lot of Subway, McDonald’s, and Dairy Queen. Yuck!

New Motorcycle Battery: $92.30

When I was in Vancouver, the battery on my motorcycle suddenly went dead and even though I was able to push start the bike and get it rolling again, the battery failed to hold its charge. So before I left Vancouver I bought a new battery for the motorcycle, which set me back an extra $92.30 and took several hours of my time to get replaced.

Lodging: $83.32

On this motorcycle trip I did two major things to save money on my lodging. First of all, I stayed with friends and family. When I was in Vancouver I stayed with a friend who had a nice big house in West Vancouver and let me stay there for a few nights for free. A hotel in the city would have set me back at least a couple hundred dollars. And when I was in Lake Tahoe, I stayed with my parents who had already paid for a vacation cabin near the lake. Plus, when I was on the road, I camped! Rather than paying for a hotel each night, I camped at established campgrounds or found state/national parks that would allow me to camp on their grounds for free. Of the ten nights that I was on the road with my motorcycle, I ended up paying for only four nights of camping. The other six nights I was on the road I was able to find free places to stay.

New Laptop Charger: $80.77

Like the motorcycle battery that died on me while I was in Vancouver, I had another battery die on me while on this trip – the battery charger for my laptop computer. I carry my laptop with me almost everywhere because I work from home and need the computer to send emails, do my work, and update my websites (like this one here). But after arriving in Lake Tahoe, Nevada I discovered that the charger to my laptop computer had suddenly gone dead. I had both the laptop and the charger packed away inside my motorcycle’s side-cases, so I don’t know what could have caused the charger to die, but it did! So this small mishap added an additional $80.77 to the total cost of my tour.

Entertainment: $4.32

I didn’t do much to entertain myself while on this trip. I carried my iPod touch with me, which I used to listen to music and study my German/French/Polish at night in my tent, but other than that, I spent just $4.32 on RedBox movie rentals while I was at the cabin in Lake Tahoe with my parents.

Gifts: $4.01

While in Vancouver I bought a couple postcards to mail to my friends. These small gifts (which included postage) cost me just $4.01 USD.

Parking: $2.05

Finally, I was forced to pay $2.05 for parking when I took a trip into downtown Vancouver to meet up with a friend who lives in the city.

TOTAL COST: $635.65

In total, the final cost for my 3.5 week motorcycle tour was just $635.65 USD. Not bad! Especially since it would have cost me nearly that much just to take a round-trip flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Vancouver, Canada. The flight would have been a whole lot quicker, but I wouldn’t have been able to go to Lake Tahoe for that same price, go backpacking up near Whistler, nor would I have experienced all that I did while during those eleven days on the road with my motorcycle.

Out of curiosity… How much do you pay for your motorcycle insurance?

Leave a comment below and tell me:

• Where you live.

• What kind of motorcycle you have (be sure to include the year).

• What kind of coverage you’ve got.

• And how much you pay per month or year.

For example: I have a 2009 Kawasaki KLR 650 (fully paid for) with $25,000 of liability insurance and $25,000 worth of bodily damage coverage. I pay $62 USD per month.

Photo by alancleaver_2000

You’ve been driving your motorcycle for a while now and you are starting to notice that the tread on your tires is getting a bit thin.

“Do I need to get a new tire?” you think to yourself. “At what point exactly should I replace the tires currently on my motorcycle with new ones?”

Well, the answer to this question is going to vary from tire to tire, but generally you want to start thinking about replacing your motorcycle tires when the depth of the tread gets to be about 2mm (0.08 inches) or less.

Note: Every motorcycle tire is going to have a different recommended minimum tread depth, so be sure to check your specific type of tires to see what the recommended tread depth for those tires happens to be.

The problem with letting your motorcycle tires wear down is that as the tire wears, the tire itself becomes more susceptible to puncture and failure. In fact, an estimated 90% of all tire failures occur when the last 10% of tread remains on the tire. Or to say it differently, most tire failures occur after the tire has become 90% worn down.

And believe me… you don’t want to have one of your tires fail on you while you are out there on the road. Can you imagine having either your front or rear tire completely blow off your bike while you are driving at 65 miles an hour or faster? You wouldn’t stand a chance! And this is why replacing your tires before they get to that dangerous level of baldness is so incredibly important.

To measure the thickness of the remaining tread on your tires, you can simply use your eyes to estimate when the tire needs to be replaced, or if you want to be more exact about it, you can purchase a tire depth gauge, which will give you an exact calculation of how much tread you have remaining on the tire.

Other Notes About When To Replace Your Motorcycle Tires

• The rear tire, because it is responsible for your motorcycle’s drive, is usually the first tire that needs to be replaced. The front tire usually lasts a lot longer than the rear tire, but you still may want to replace both tires at the same time.

• Before you get on your motorcycle, be sure to visually inspect your tires for cracks and cuts. If the tread is low or you find any suspicious cracks/cuts, be sure to replace the tire(s) right away. Swelling or any other high spots in the tires indicate that there may be internal damage and that the tire(s) need to be replaced.

• To increase the life of your motorcycle tires, be sure to remove any imbedded stones or other foreign particles from your tires and tread before each ride.