Stayin’ Safe: The Art and Science of Riding Really Well
$24.95
Order Code: GROD
Author: Lawrence Grodsky, Editor: Pete Tamblyn
Larry Grodsky devoted his life to motorcycle safety. Through the riding courses he taught and his “Stayin' Safe” columns in Rider magazine (from 1988 until his untimely death in 2006), he helped thousands of motorcyclists improve their skills and their ability to ride really well. This collection of Grodsky’s columns reveals his ability to illuminate complex and sometimes highly technical subjects with an entertaining and personal style, spiced with his trademark wry wit and keen observations of human behavior.
A master teacher, Grodsky was constantly learning from his students, always striving to find the best way to lead riders toward mastery of their two-wheeled vehicles. Many of his columns focus on helping riders develop specific skills (complete with practice exercises), while others deal with the riding environment and riders’ mental processes.
While it is packed with information useful to both novice and experienced motorcyclists, this book is not structured as a how-to guide to motorcycle proficiency. Rather, it is a collection of thoughtful essays to be read and savored individually. Readers will be rewarded by the beautifully written stories of a great motorcycle riding instructor who has left his mark on a generation of grateful riders.
About the Author
Larry Grodsky’s passion for motorcycling began in college and eventually led him to become an instructor with the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Foundation. In 1988 his freelance writing landed him a job as Safety Editor with Rider magazine, for which he wrote more than 200 monthly columns.
As a motorcycling riding instructor, he moved on from MSF to found his own program, Stayin’ Safe Motorcycle Training, which uses road rides (rather than training ranges) to better teach the riding skills needed in real-world situations.
Product Detail
Hardcover: 6.25 by 9.25 inches
Format: 352 pages, black and white illustrations
Product Detail
- Introduction
- Preface
- The Bikes
- Use(d)ful
- What is Handling?
- The Six Hippies Ride
- Looks Like Dirt, Feels Like Dirt
- Strange and Wonderful
- Encrusiasts
- Those Pesky Reminders of the Past
- The Roads, Rules, and Risks
- Least Likely to Succeed
- California 101
- Without Rancor
- Safe Talk
- Where the Geritol Meets the Road
- On the Horns of a Dilemma
- Braking
- Braking Techniques
- Still Bringing Up the Rear
- Student Teachers
- Stopping on a Curve
- The Toughest Skill in Motorcycling
- Cornering
- Steering 101
- A Touch of Class
- Wheel of Fortune
- The Theory of the Left Bend
- The Theory of the Right Bend
- Brakes? Perhaps . . .
- An Ass No More
- Legally Blind
- Street Strategies - Stayin’ Safe
- Home Base
- Gypsy Lanes
- 21st Century Junctions
- Good Sports and Bad Sports
- Urban Warfare
- Wheelmen Ride in Traffic
- Danger Gets a Name
- Pieces of a Circle
- Chasing the Visual Point
- The 10 Commandments of
- Making Progress (American Style)
- Riding Tips
- Mr. Safety’s Top
- Practically Everyone
- Speed Kings
- The Big Ugly
- Drills and Skills
- Perfectly Basic
- Parking Lot Pragmatism
- The 20-Minute Tune-Up
- Rust Bucket
- Brown Highways
- Secrets of Smoothness
- The Meaning of Whoosh
- Counting Mississippis
- Gimmee Five
- Gear
- The Face People
- A Slippery Slope for Head Protection
- Putting a Lid on the Bull
- Sartorially Safe
- Adding the Safety Component
- Yee-Hah! The 25 Best All-Time Safety Tips
- The Zone
- Mistakes, Near and Far
- Groundhog Day
- Four on a Bubble
- For the Love of Riding
- Across an Ocean . . . in Seconds
- Responsibility
- Drunken Research
- Secrets of Smoothness
- A System Error Has Occurred
- Bearing Strait
- Training
- A Few Good Men
- Rolling the Ball Out
- Humble Pie
- The Next Big Thing
- Fakin’ It
- Stories from the Road
- Demonology
- One Hundred Months of Demons
- Jean-Claude Grodsky
- Mikey Likes It
- This Safe Land
- No Bluff
- Safety Third
- The American Idiot Tour
- An Uncle’s Eulogy
Customer & Editorial Reviews:
Reviewer: www.inter-bike.co.uk, August 2009
Date Added: Friday 02 October, 2009
This book is a selection from the many articles he wrote grouped together in logical chapters, although each column stands on its own. I remember many, but it was joy to read them once again.
This collection was put together by a co-instructor at his school and clearly reveals Grodsky’s ability to illuminate complex and sometimes highly technical subjects with an entertaining and personal style, spiced with his trademark wry wit and keen observations of human behavior.
Many of his columns focus on helping riders develop specific skills (complete with practice exercises), while others deal with the riding environment and riders’ mental processes.
I can only say that whatever stage you are in your motorcycling career, this book is a must read and may help you reach old age.
Reviewer: Thunder Press, December 2008
Date Added: Wednesday 25 March, 2009
Each time we mount our bikes we’re playing the odds of having an accident. To ignore this fact is to court disaster. The only valid method for improving these odds is the knowledge and skills we learn and apply each time we mount our motorcycles. Stayin’ Safe is one book that should be read by all motorcyclists, veterans and newbies alike.
Reviewer: Adventure Motorcycle, March 2009
Date Added: Wednesday 18 March, 2009
Stayin’ Safe is likely the best collection of ideas, real-life stories and accurate data available to a motorcyclist. Through it, the spirit of Grodsky continues to teach simple, effective methods that anyone might practice at home. U-turns, swerves, slow speed maneuvering; his use of seconds as a measure of distance rather than feet (which are vague guesses at best) and his instruction on buffering ourselves from harm by being flexible in our lane positioning are just a hint of the tricks he shares. It is there for us in black and white, amidst a colorful presentation of wit and humor from a man who spent his life honing the cutting edge of ride perfection.
Reviewer: Clement Salvadori for Rider, April 2009
Date Added: Tuesday 03 March, 2009
Not a travel book, but a book about how to travel safely. Books on the safety subject are often too dry to be read enjoyably, but not in this case. This is a compilation of some of Grodsky’s best writing in the columns that he wrote for Rider magazine over 18 years, entertaining and informative.
Reviewer: US Rider News, December 2008
Date Added: Thursday 15 January, 2009
If you’ve never read the newsstand publication Rider magazine then you might not have heard of Lawrence Grodsky. That’s your loss. Our loss is that Grodsky died way too young in April 2006 as a result of a tragic freak collision with a deer. It’s ironic that the man who dedicated his life to helping others ride safely was killed in such a manner but that in no way lessens his expertise and contribution to rider safety. This book is a compilation of articles from his 220 Stayin’ Safe column published in Rider magazine. One of my favorites is on page 113 titled An Ass No More and it deals with the issue of braking. Knowing how to stop and when to apply "hard braking" is a crucial survival skill and one that every rider (and I mean every rider) should practice to perfection. Not the kind of 20-30-mph braking, bur real world 60-75 mph sphincter tightening ass grabbing the seat braking. In you’ve got a friend who needs a little help in the safe riding department, give him or her this book. They’ll live long enough to thank you for it.
Reviewer: Motorcycle Consumer News, November 2008
Date Added: Thursday 16 October, 2008
But this isn’t a book in the traditional sense of the word; it is more of a guide on how to become a safer rider by developing the necessary mental skills to survive riding on the street. It is also a lasting tribute to Larry’s memory and should be part of every motorcyclist’s library.
Reviewer: American Rider, October 2008
Date Added: Monday 15 September, 2008
A friend of mine was in the hospital for a couple of days—nothing to do with his motorcycling habit, more like hangnail surgery—and he needed reading material. I loaned him Larry Grodsky’s Stayin’ Safe, and when he returned it he told me it was the best damned book he had ever read on the subject of motorcycle safety, because it was readable.
...There is really no aspect of safe riding that Larry does not cover in this book. It is not stodgy boring stuff, but brought to cheerful life by an adroit use of words.
Reviewed by Clement Salvadori
Reviewer: WomenRidersNow.com, August 2008
Date Added: Tuesday 19 August, 2008
...it explains the ins and outs of why things happen on a motorcycle and how we can capitalize on that to be the best rider out there.
Reviewer: CMGOnline.com, July 2008
Date Added: Friday 18 July, 2008
Grodsky's writing was clever; he had a nice way of getting technical information across without seeming pedantic, and often a wry sense of humour was evident.
...There's lots of good advice here for anyone who spends time on the roads; definitely a worthwhile addition to the old motorcycle library.
Reviewer: Backroads, June 2008
Date Added: Friday 11 July, 2008
With 200+ columns to choose from, Tamblyn did a wonderful job selecting 77 of Larry's most significant articles. Each article introduces a new idea or concept for us to consider, while simultaneously stimulating our thinking in a way that only Larry could. But this isn't a book in the traditional sense of the word; it is more of a guide on how to become a safer rider.
This book is all about developing he necessary physical and mental skills to survive riding on the street. It is a lasting tribute to Larry's memory, and in our not-so-unbiased opinion, should be part of every motorcyclist's library.
Displaying 1 to 10 (of 15 reviews)
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