Riding terminology....

As stated previously... I'm a relative newb when it comes to riding. I was thinking... it would be nice if someone took the time to create a riders dictionary. Alot of the terminology used around here holds little meaning to a beginner such as myself and I always wish I knew what the heck that guy was talking about. So how about it? Anyone up to the challenge? Maybe make an official thread and peeps can continue to add to it. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thnx in advance.

 

Most terms need to be experianced in order to understand them. So, get out there and ride some more!

What terms are you asking about?
Might want to go here and do some reading.
http://www.msgroup.org/DISCUSS.asp

 

I don't know..... technical jargon, riding jargon, or anything related to it.

 

Aw, come on, this could be fun

I'll give this a shot - hopefully someone else will follow up. I'm not very clever, but here goes:
-----------------------------------
cage: 4 wheeled box used to isolate oneself from the world and take out rage on others; larger examples come complete with feelings of entitlement and certificate of road ownership

cager: pitifully oblivious occupant of the above; often seen with bent elbow and phone pressed to head; sense of vision excludes all other types of vehicles

biker: motorcycle owner who pulls machine out only on sunny days, dresses up like millions of others of the same herd, and rides to be seen & heard (see poser); won't wave at riders of other classes of machines; unable to smile while riding for a number of reasons including deathly fear of appearing as other than a tough guy

motorcyclist: one dedicated to the art & sport of two-wheeled travel; who constantly seeks to improve riding ability in every conceivable situation of weather and road; who takes pride in proper care and feeding of the machine; maintains view of motorcycling as legitimate means of transportation, indeed, a transcendance from hum drum existence and the most fun that can be had with clothes on, even on a bad day

VF/VFR: greatest family of motorcycles ever conceived

Honda: That From Which All Great Things Come

lid: helmet

%$&!#@!: nail/screw/other debris that finds its way into a new tire

I'll leave these as starter material for further discussion:

squid:
poser:
lowside:
highside:
debride:
shiny side: (hint: that which we always strive to maintain facing skyward)
stoppie:
chicken strips:
DOD nominal:
slip-ons:
fender eliminator:
O2 eliminators:
Power Commander:
sprocket:
gut the cat: (not as bad as it sounds)
decreasing radius:
inside turn:
outside turn:
off-camber:
apex:
contact patch:
pillion:
tire iron:
rim protector:
Cheng Shin:
pucker factor:
fork oil:
oil/oil filter thread:
Sturgis:
(Tail of) The Dragon:

 

I want some of those defined. Very nice.

Baloney Skin: A tire balder than Paris Hilton's $#%**

** Ironically, on a squid machine, only the center 1/2 inch will be bald. There will be rubber knobs on the edges.


Grabbing R's. Mistaken as a pirate term, it means how fast the bike engine revs up.

Spark emitter: Either peg of your bike, in a turn, when you realize a rear-set might be a good investment. (see pucker factor)

Brain Bucket: Helmet

 

You can try the Motorcycle Dictionary at Total Motorcycle Website: http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/dictionary/motorcycle-dictionary-index.htm

 

I was bored so I copied these from the site Emon posted.

Chicken Strips - The tread left on the sidewalls of a sport bike. How much of this there is (or isn't) is how some Bikers size each other up

Chromosexual - That one biker who keeps adding more and more chrome, a chrome-overkill

DBM - Double-breasted Mattress Thrasher - when you're out 'bird' watching.

Death Grip -Usually how a first time rider grabs the handle bars.

Decreasing Radius Corner - A turn where the arc gets sharper as you progress through the curve.

Ergonomics - The science used to design devices, systems and physical conditions that conform to the human body. A prime consideration when designing a motorcycle. Sportbikes have agressive forward leaning ergonomics, standards/dual sports are chair like ergonomics and cruisers offer laid back ergonomics

False Neutral - When you fail to engage gears and the transmission behaves as though it was in neutral even though it is not. Example "I hit a false neutral once when shifting from 4th to 5th gear."

Flickable - 1. Unstable; taking very little effort to move between an upright position and a lean. 2. The more flickable a motorcycle is, the faster it can turn.

Fast Riding Award - Speeding ticket

Flogging it - Getting on the throttle hard and shifting through the gears.

Flower Pot - A cheap helmet non snell-approved head protection device

Fools Paradise - A Harley-Davidson

High Siding - 1. Wrecking a bike by flipping it over. Usually caused by releasing the rear break during a skid. 2. Pitching a bike over and away from the direction you are turning. The dangerious kind of crash. 3. When a sliding rear tire suddenly regains traction while the motorcycle is leaned over, causing the motorcycle to violently snap from leaning side tot he other side (the high side).

Lane-splitting - 1. Riding between lanes of traffic on a freeway. 2. Driving between involuntarily parked cages on an overcrowded highway. Legal in some states.

Lean - condition where the optimum mixture of fuel and air is not being fed into the engine, too much air, not enough fuel; opposite of rich

Line - Path selected by the motorcycle rider to take through a turn

Low Side (Low-side) - 1. A type of motorcycle crash that involves laying the "low side" of the bike too low in a turn, resulting in a loss of traction and grounding the bike. 2. When the rider loses balance of the motorcycle and both fall onto the ground on their low side. 3. A bike falling over onto it's side that's lower to the ground.

Monkey Butt - What you get after riding your dirt bike all day. Soreness from an uncomfortable riding position. Can be caused by riding too long in the same position, chafing or rubbing.

Organ Donor - A biker who doesn't wear a helmet

Pillion (or ballast). 1. Motorcycle passenger (on the back seat). 2. chiefly British : a motorcycle or bicycle saddle for a passenger.

PMS - Parked Motorcycle Syndrome

Pucker factor - Refers to a very close call. "I had a pucker factor of 10 around that corner."

Reciprocating Weight - Total weight of all moving parts

Speed Wobble - A sudden instability of a motorcycle at speed in which the front end of the bike darts from side to side uncontrollably. Best recources I've heard to fix it: DO NOT slam on the brakes. DO NOT death grip the handlebars. Accelerate out of it or slowly close the throttle to reduce speed.

Tar Snake - An uneven, slippery patch in a road crack

Target Fixation - When a riders eyes focus on a point in the distance, line or debris on the road, causing them to inadvertently steer the bike toward that area rather than in the intended path. The majority of riders fall prey to this as it's easy to target fixate on a bump/hole in the road or something you didn't want to run over.

UJM - Universal Japanese Motorcycle - 1. Term given to Japanese motorcycles of the 80's, because visually they all looked alike; an air cooled 550-750 inline-4 with straight tank and seat, until you were close enough to read the tank emblems they looked identical. 2. During the 1970 and early 1980's, the Japanese became so indentified with the four cylinder, standard style motorcycle that this term was coined to describe those bikes.

W.H.O.R.E - We Haul Our Rides Everywhere. Those people that trailer their bikes to about 2 miles from an event, and then unload them and gently ride them in, only if there isn't going to be any rain, dust or dirt roads.

WTF - expression - What the f_ _ k!

Yard Shark - Dogs that come out of nowhere and try to bite your tires.

 

That Just Increased My Vocab!!!:biggrin:

 

Enviromental Impact: sudden unexpected close encounter with nature. Usually the result of losing control of your bike in an all natural, undeveloped area.

 

There is a biker dictionary at Total Motorcycle - http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/dictionary/motorcycle-dictionary-index.htm

 

"SOME STATES" - WRONG, only in Commiefornia is it Legal to split lanes .

To stay on Topic -

Commiefornia - a state where they insist to remove your rights to be Human & have fun, a.k.a. Peoples Socialist Republic of Kalifornia