Motorcycle safety gears:Helmet

February 20th, 2010 by Rider | No Comments | Filed in General

“pick up the key pick up the helmet“


Th‎is is most important safety gear of all.”It may not be the cure for all but it can help you protect your skull, face and even your life”.

Choosing a helmet

For choosing a helmet the price tag and colour may be a deciding factor for most of us but think about protection and comfort first. There are three kinds of helmets Full helmet,open-face helmet and a hybrid version in which you can lift the lower part(jaw). A full face helmet protect the full head which includes face, lower jaw, ears and the head. It is the best choice, it gives maximum protection for your head. One third of people using motorcycles prefer a open face helmet. It has the same construction as that of a full face helmet but does not have the chin protection and face protection.
Choose a colour that is most noticeable in the road so that you will be noticed easily.

Now if you have decided which type of helmet you want lets find out how to try one on

1.Hold it by the chin straps. The bottom of the helmet should face you with the front pointing down.
2.Put your thumbs on the inside of the straps, balancing the helmet with your fingertips.
3.Spread the sides of the helmet apart slightly and slip it down over your head using the chin straps.
4.The cheek pads should touch your cheeks without pressing uncomfortably.
5.There should be no gaps between your temples and the brow pads.
6.If the helmet has a neck roll, it shouldn’t push the helmet away from the back of your neck.
7.On full-face helmets, press on the chin piece. The helmet or face  shield should not touch your nose or chin. If it does it will do so at speed from wind pressure.

The basic construction and working of the helmet

The outer shell is made from some family of fibre-reinforced fabric composites or thermoplastics like polycarbonate. It is designed to compress when it hits any thing hard, by this action it disperses energy from the impact to lessen the force before it reaches your head.Inside the shell there the impact-absorbing liner made of poly styrene. This absorbs and cushion the shock as the helmet stops and your head wants to move on. The comfort padding keeps us comfortable and the helmet fitting neat. The chin strap keeps the helmet on your head in a crash. It should be fastened tightly and the helmet should not move.

Some time the helmet may break, by doing this its doing its intended job.(breaking absorbs lot of energy ie less impact will get to the skull). If a helmet was subjected to a serious impact and not broken even then it should be changed because the impact damage from a crash to non resilient liner may be invisible to the human eye.

Tips for caring the helmet

1.To clean the helmet use the mildest detergent(strong cleaning agents may decompose it)
2.Handle it as a fragile item though it may look strong. Remember a strong impact can make the helmet useless.
3.Always wipe and keep the shield clean.If it is scratched replace it
4.Dont store it near petrols, cleaning fluids or excessive heat(not even near engine parts) as these factors can result in degradation of helmet materials .
5.Never hang your helmet on the mirror, turn signals or backrest because the inner linings can be damaged by this.
6.Store the helmet in a flat secure place and make sure that it do no roll over.
7.Replace the helmet every 3 to 4 years.

Installing ABS for indian bikes

February 18th, 2010 by Rider | 2 Comments | Filed in General

The first complaint about the pulsar bike was that “The brakes will kill people”. At that time people were unaware of disk brakes and its efficiency. People would just slam on the brakes and lose control of their bike and fall down. There comes the use of ABS ,it divides the motion of the  wheel in a second to a number of smaller motions ie the wheel will not be locked. If the wheel is not locked it will not skid and the stopping distance will be reduced.

ABS stands for anti lock braking system, from the early 20 century it has been around. In India the first two wheeler to sport a disk brake was the Enfield fury. But till date no other bike in the mass production category have sported a ABS. A company in India is producing mechanical brakes for bikes in India. You can order in through www.SafeRideABS.com. The price tag is also reasonable which is 1250/-rs including courier charges but excluding shipment charges.

The steps for installation are:

Step 1: First, remove brake oil input pipe from Brake Caliper.
Step 2: Screw oil pipe end to the top of Saferide Adaptor.

Use adequate washers to ensure leak proof joint.
Step 3: Attach side end of Saferide Adaptor to Brake Caliper with the help of stud,

nut and rubber O-ring provided with the pack.
Step 4: After complete assembly, open slightly the oil drain plug (grease nipple covered with rubber cover)

of the Brake Caliper. Pump the brake lever for several times. This will help entire line to be

filled up with Brake oil and help removal of air from the line.
Step 5: Once oil starts coming out of the nipple, immediately tighten it and put back the rubber cover.
Step 6: Now the brake is up and running. Enjoy your SAFE ride !


You might also be interested in :

Disk brakes advantages

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Fuel injection engine

February 17th, 2010 by Rider | 6 Comments | Filed in Accessories, General

Fuel injected engine thats what you hears when you go to buy a modern vehicle. But what exactly is fuel injection and how is it different from the carburetor?That is what we are going to discuss in this article.

The function of a carburetor is to provide air fuel mixture in the correct proportion to the engine. It uses the pressure difference generated in the engine to pull air and fuel in. It is fully mechanical and has no intelligence ie the intelligence is provided by the driver itself.

In the case of fuel injected engines the case is different , it can be said that the fuel supply has some intelligence .The fuel supply to the cylinders are different at different condition. It senses from different sensors placed in different parts of the vehicle and alter the fuel and air flow accordingly. Modern electronic fuel-injection systems meter fuel very accurately, and use closed loop fuel-injection quantity-control based on a variety of feedback signals from an oxygen sensor, a mass airflow (MAF) or manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor, a throttle position (TPS), and at least one sensor on the crankshaft and/or camshaft(s) to monitor the engine’s rotational position. . Oxygen sensors monitor the amount of oxygen in the exhaust, and the engine control unit (ECU) uses this information to adjust the air-to-fuel ratio in real-time.

They have better throttle response, better cold starting ,smoother ride, larger time interval between servicing and correct fuel distribution between the cylinders. In a multicylinder vehicle FI ensures that every cylinder get the same amount of fuel , in the carburetor engine the first cylinders will get more fuel and last will be under fueled this leads to lesser efficiency and wear and tear of the engine. The fuel injector is a electronically controlled valve which is supplied by the fuel pump of your vehicle. When the injector is energized, an electromagnet moves a plunger that opens the valve, allowing the pressurized fuel to fall out through a tiny nozzle. The nozzle is designed to atomize the fuel so that it can burn easily. The injectors are mounted in the intake manifold to spray fuel directly at the intake valves. The fuel rail supplies pressurized fuel to all of the injectors. The fuel injected engines are a little more costly than the carburetor engine but the performance and the efficiency is high. The only problem I see with the fuel injected engines is that ,if the battery is down we cannot push the vehicle and start the vehicle because it will damage the sensors.

Calculate the real cost of a Vehicle

February 16th, 2010 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in General

How to find the real cost of owning a Car or Bike

What is the real cost equation for calculating the real cost of a Car or Bike? It includes several steps starting with On-road Price.

Step 1 – On road price of the car. Add the following steps to this.

Step 2 – Interest on the loan over the repayment period.

Step 3 – Fuel cost over the ownership time.

Step 4 – Maintenance cost and the service cost over the ownership period.

Step 5 – Insurance cost of the ownership period.

Step 6 – Cost of the consumables like tyres and all for the ownership period.

Step 7 – Reduce the approximate resale value at the end of the ownership period.

The interesting thing is that the potential buyers generally try to look at the On road price of the car and then only secondarly as the fuel cost. Most of the buyers does not get into the other factors before take a decision for buying the car or bike. But it can also account for as much as a third to a half of the cost for owing a car.

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Disc brakes advantages

December 30th, 2009 by Tinku | 1 Comment | Filed in General

As technology improves the use of automotives become easier, softer as well as more effective. The invention of disc brakes is inevitable in today’s improved roads and more powerful vehicles. The faster driving habit of the world expects the vehicles to have stronger brakes to stop the vehicle when and where required. Many of us opt for disc brakes when we buy a car and bike. But some of many not even know the advantages of disc brakes. Some even say that the faster application of disc brakes leads to accidents. In fact that view is wrong. On the other hand one must know how to apply disc brakes while driving. It is a special skill. Similar is the case with power steering of cars, buses and trucks. If we use the power steering as we operated the ordinary steering wheel, it will create accidents

If you are interested in knowing the function of disc brakes here is the disc brake operation for you. There is a flat, disk-shaped metal rotor that spins with the wheel. When the driver applies break, a caliper squeezes the brake pads against the disc and the disk brakes dissipates heat much efficiently. It gives a better outcome of brake and safety.

The main advantage of disc brakes is that it provides a better perfomance even in wet conditions whereas the drum will collect water in it where the brake shoe contacts the drum. And this may lead to brake failure and then accidents. On the other hand the disc brakes use brake pads instead of brake shoes. This ensures a better security and care.

The maintenance of disc brakes is also easier and cheaper. The replacing pads can be done in a few minutes where as the replacement of drum brakes and brake shoe takes a lot of time and we even have to remove the tyre entirely for replacing brake shoes. The replacing of disc brake pad is easy and we don’t have to remove the tyre of bikes for it.

Unlike drum brakes, the disc brakes dissipate heat swiftly as the rotors and pads are open and the rotors have large internal ventilation air passages too. Since the discs run cooler than drums, less heat is shifted to tyres and therefore it increases tyre longevity.

It is important to note that the disc brakes are 30 – 40 %t lighter in weight than drum brakes, which also reduces tyre wear and it then gives more comfort and stability on road. The number of parts of disc brakes is also very less compared to drum brakes. The disc brakes have only one fourth the parts of drum brakes. The drums brakes are tend to get stuck when they are wet. The disc breaks on the other hand works in all the climates. The disc brakes perform a self adjustment when the linings wear down. With all these advantages it is wise to buy disc brakes or to select vehicles with disc brakes. If your vehicle does not have disc brakes, it is wise that you convert it to disc brakes as it provides better security and control over vehicle. The disc brakes in the vehicles with alloy wheels add luxury look and beauty to the vehicle. The various disc brake designs and colorful disc brakes add special attraction to your vehicle.

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