சுதர்சன் சாந்தியப்பன்

Like me, there must be a lot of Indian fellows riding their bikes
during all seasons and for all reasons. A typical problem during rainy
season is wet brake drums which can cause very risky accidents due to
failure of reactive brakes. When it suddenly starts to rain, the rider
should generally slow down the speed of the bike as it becomes very
skiddy on the roads along with yielding brakes. We have disc brakes
now which does not have this problem of brakes yielding. Still disc
brakes are riskier because they bring the wheel to zero which may cause
unexpected skids on the road.

Let me get to the point. When the brake drum gets wet, no matter
how hard you hold the brakes, the wheels will not stop. If you
following the below said procedure, you can easily overcome this
problem.

1. Pick on a safe road where you are ride comfortably. Or prepare yourself for a the procedure where you are riding.
2. Hold the front brakes partially and start accelerating.
3. Dont hold the brakes too tight, as it would waste a lot of fuel.
4. Make sure you dont ride too fast.. 20-30kmph is a safe speed.
5. After crossing say 500 meters, test your front brake for its response to your brakes
6. If it is still blunt, repeat the above procedure until youbecome comfortable.
7. You may use the same procedure for the rear brakes as well.
   The only warning it, you may see that your bike responds more to the
   back brake by skidding.

The idea here is, heat the brake drum and force the wetness to
evaporate. When the drum is wet, the asbestor lining would fail
reacting to the application of brakes. When you hold the brakes and
continue accelerating; the lining gets heated up due to friction and
slowly the wetness would start to evaporate. But when you do this
often, the life of your brake shoes will drastically reduce. So use
this technique smartly.

A motorcycle rider’s attitude could be easily
guessed by checking the clutch setting in his motorbike. There are
generally two modes of clutch setting, a half clutch, a full clutch.

To
brush up, clutch is a device that controls the amount of power
transferred from the engine to the rear wheel. Generally clutch device
is made of multiple discs called wet plates
and power is transmitted across these plates by friction. The clutch
lever on the left hand side controls the amount of friction and hence
the power transmitted. When one fully pulls the lever, the clutch
plates move away from eachother and no power transmitted. On the other
hand, when the clutch lever is released fully, maximum friction is
available amidst the plates and maximum power transfer. The magic is
how good one is, in handling the clutch to get the maximum out of the
bike, be it 100cc or 1500cc.

Half clutch is a
setting, where a full pull of the clutch lever does not pull the clutch
plates far away. So effectively, the operating range of the clutch
lever is so small. Even when the lever is released a little, one can
see the rear wheel starts rolling.

If you check
the bikes of boys vrrooomming in the signals like rockets, they would
have half clutch or even smaller. Boys with half clutch have a fast and
furious attitude. They need everything on their plate faster. These
guys cannot wait for anyone. These guys are performers given
opportunity. These boys are quick witted and even some of them are
impulsive too.

On the other hand, the full
clutch boys are patient movers. They take their time to do things.
These guys are steady and focussed. If you take a statistics across age
groups, full clutch setting would be opted by a lot of middle aged men,
who are good in decision making, logical thinking. These boys can wait
for their best catch. It is pretty difficult to make these boys angry.

With
respect of biking, half clutch boys outperform full clutch boys
significantly. The reason is full clutch will not let the bike to
perform to its fullest. One should not forget the half clutch ruins the
clutch plates and engine gears faster.

என்னிடம் Hyundai Getz கார் உள்ளது. அதற்கு கவர் போடுவது ஒரு பெரிய வேலையாக உள்ளது. என்னென்றால், தனியாக போட முடியாதென்று இது நாள் வரை நினைத்திருந்தேன். எப்போதுமே யாரவது கவர் போடுவதற்கு உதவியிருக்கிறார்கள். ஒரே ஒரு முறை மட்டும், நானே கவர் போட்டேன்; அப்போது நன்றாக காற்று அடித்துகொண்டிருந்தது. காற்றின் பக்கமாக கவரை தூக்க கவர் parachute போல பறக்க, அப்படியே காரின் மேல் சார்த்திவிட்டேன்.

இன்று, உதவுவதற்கு எவருமில்லை; காற்று கூட அமைதியாகவே இருந்தது. பல முயற்சி செய்தும் ஒரு பலனும் இல்லை. எனக்கே காமெடியாக இருந்தது. கவரை போடுவதும், அது விலகி கிழே விழுவதுமாக இருந்தது. யாரவது பார்த்திருந்தால் என்னை ஒரு கிறுக்கன் என்றே நினைத்திருப்பார்கள்.

நான் செய்த தவறு கடைசியாகத்தான் எனக்கு புரிந்தது. நான் கவரை காரின் முன் பக்கத்திலிருந்து போட முயற்சித்தேன். முன் பக்கம் தாழ்வாக இருப்பதால் கவரானது வழுக்கி விலகியது. சரி, ஒரு முறை பின்பக்கத்திலிருந்து முயற்சிப்போம் என்று போட்டு பார்க்க; அட இவ்வளவு எளிதாக கச்சிதமாக பொருந்துமா என்று ஆச்சரியப்பட்டேன்.

இக்கதையிலிருந்து கற்றுக்கொள்ளவேண்டியது காருக்கு கவர் போடும் போது பின் பக்கத்திலிருந்து தொடாங்க வேண்டும். முன் பக்கத்திலிருந்து தொடங்க வேண்டுமானால் யாராவது துணைக்கு வேண்டும்.