The Essential Pre-Ride Checklist

It should come as no surprise that safety is a huge priority for our organization. After all, as fun as it is to get out there and ride, it can quickly become hazardous to you and those around you if your motorcycle isn’t in the condition it should be. To help prevent accidents, we recommend that you check out your bike before each ride for some key indicators of an issue.

The recommended safety inspection is commonly referred to as T-CLOCS.

What Does “T-CLOCS” Mean?

T-CLOCS is an acronym, meant to guide a rider through the various aspects of their bike that should be evaluated before each ride. Abbreviating Tires & Wheels, Controls, Lights & Electrics, Oil & Other Fluids, Chassis, and Stands, T-CLOCS guides you through the recommended process to ensure that your bike is safe to use before you find out it wasn’t the hard way. This process is available for download from their website.

Hopefully, this is all old news to you… and if it is, you’re likely familiar with how tedious these checks can be to go through before each ride. Fortunately, there are sources out there that have shared a few ways to expedite these processes.

The Process Developed By FortNine

FortNine is a Canadian motorized powersport retailer and content creator, with an entire YouTube channel dedicated to motorcycling and associated topics. One of their videos focuses on how you can make the T-CLOCS process much more efficient.

In Before You Ride - A Quick, Effective Motorcycle Safety Check, an abbreviated version of a pre-ride checklist process is shared that should only take about a minute and a half to complete but still helps to ensure a safer ride. 

This process can effectively be summed up as an ABCDEFG process.

1. A.  Air - Using a pressure gauge, check your tire pressure and consistency, while also giving your spokes a once-over with your gauge and listening for any out-of-place sounds.
2. B.  Bars - Pump your motorcycle suspension up and down by bouncing, as any ineffective suspension or brakes would result in some unwanted movement. Afterwards, checking the range of motion in your steering range will help to confirm there are no snags in any cables.
3. C.  Control - Go through the controls that you use to dictate the operation of your motorcycle, checking your lights, your clutch, and your levers.
4. D.  Drive - Check your chain to ensure that it has the proper amount of slack, and that no teeth are missing or damaged.
5. E.  Earth - Check the ground under your motorcycle for any fluids that might have leaked.
6. F.  Fasteners - Mark your bolts to make it easier to see if any of them migrate, and make sure that the welds in your frame are secure.
7. G.  Guy/Gal - Are you ready to ride? Are you tired, emotional, or otherwise impaired? Is someone aware of where you plan to go?

Of course, this should not replace the T-CLOCS evaluation every time, but so long as you take the time to go through the comprehensive evaluation every so often, this ABCDEFG method should suffice.

Remember, as wonderful as motorcycling is, that can all go away in an instant if you aren’t being safe about it. We hope to see you out on the road, fully responsible and prepared to be there.