A road with lots of tight curves that must be ridden at significantly reduced speeds.

A motorcycle with one wheel in front and two in the back, just like that Trike you rode as a kid. Newer rigs with two wheels upfront and one in the back are typically referred to as Spyders after the Can-Am Spyder product line.

Track days are organized riding events at actual race tracks. No matter what you ride, consider getting your Bike out on a race track. While track days are dominated by riders on amped-up sportbikes, track days are great for learning the limits of your bike — any bike — and improving your riding skills. Instructors will help diagnose your riding problems and give you tips to improve your experience. Track day skills translate directly to improved street riding and there’s nowhere else you can safely push the limits to the maximum without fear of cops, dumb-ass car drivers, obstructions, and speed limits. Well worth the time and investment, and quite possibly the most fun you can have while clothed. Check with your closest track or a local riding club to see where track days are taking place near you – and then go attend one, no matter what you ride.

A long, broad, constant turn. There are many kinds of turns out on the road or at the track, but a Sweeper lets riders maintain high speed and push their cornering skills to the limit.

A reverse wheelie. While a wheelie stands the Bike up on the back wheel, a Stoppie stands it up on the front. Made possible by advances in braking technology, it is still enormously difficult to do a stoppie. Do it wrong and you trash your bike and possibly injure yourself. Do it right and you’re a god among men and women.  It looks like this.

This is a derogatory term for sportbike riders who are long on talk and short on skill. Also, squids typically don’t wear safety gear when riding. The term comes from what happens when a rider piles his Bike into the back of a dump truck while showing off for the ladies, breaking every bone in his body (thus, a body like a boneless Squid).

Not used as much as it used to be, “rubbie” is somewhat derogatory slang for Rich Urban Biker, or those riders who buy expensive motorcycle (any brand) and then ride them only to coffee shops, bars, or hardly at all.  Rubbies will sometimes even call themselves such, so it’s not like it’s a terrible thing to be called. At least they ride. Sometimes.

Vintage British term for a motorcycle rider, as opposed to a scooter rider (or “Mod”).

What’s left after the stripping away of skin from unprotected parts of your body as you slide down the roadway during a crash. Wearing correct gear prevents Road rash, which is painful, takes forever to heal, leaves scars, and could give you a nasty infection. It also tells everyone you foolishly didn’t gear up for your ride.

A Rat bike is any motorcycle in good to a crappy condition that you don’t really care about. That said, some people care plenty about their rat bikes. But for the most part, rat bikes are machines for just gettin’ around and if it gets crashed, tipped over, snowed on, or some drunk idiot pukes on it, oh well, hose it off and it’s good to go. Be sure to own at least one rat Bike in your riding career.