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Fairing – Motorcycle Bodywork
F (Motorcycle designation suffix) – Four-stroke engine (eg. Honda CRF230F, Yamaha WR450F)
Fairing – 1. The plastic shrouds that deflect wind and rain from the rider, the motorcycling equivalent of automotive bodywork. 2. The devices mounted at the front of a motorcycle to protect the rider from the elements. These range from simple Plexiglas shields to complex encompassing body panels.
False Neutral – When you fail to engage gears and the transmission behaves as though it was in neutral even though it is not. Example “I hit a false neutral once when shifting from 4th to 5th gear.”
FAR – Factory Authorized Repair
Farkles/Farkle – 1. Things that can be added to your bike that make it more useful, versatile, or attractive. The price of which often exceeds the original purchase price of the bike. 2. Any accessory item that enhances the functionality of a motorcycle and also contributes to the pride in ownership of the bike.
Farklectomy – The purchasing of a brand new motorcycle with the opportunity to add many more accessories.
Farklitis – The strong desire to continuing purchasing new accessories for your motorcycle even though the accessories are not adding functionality.
Fathead – The Twin-Cam engine (V-Twin, produced from 1999 – Current Day)
Fatigue – Tendency of material to fail under repeated use. (i.e.. Bending a piece of metal over and over again will eventually break it)
Fast Riding Award – Speeding ticket
Fat – Too Rich Fuel Mixture
Feathering the brake – Gently applying the brake.
Feathering the clutch – See also Slip the Clutch and Friction Zone – Gently allowing the clutch to engage. This makes for a slow smooth start.
Fender Bunny – Nice babe on the back of a bike
Fender Fluff – Nice lookin’ babe on the back
Fiddly-bits – Those chrome do-dads all over saddle bags and seats.
‘Fighter – See Streetfighter.
Filter(ing) – Avoid traffic jams by riding between the lines of bumper-to-bumper vehicles (queues). Also known as lane splitting. See also Combat Filtering.
FIM – Federation Internationale Motorcyclist. International governing body of motorcycle sport.
Final Drive – Mechanism that delivers power to the rear wheel, usually chain drive, shaft drive or belt drive.
Fins – Heat sinks on an air cooled engine.
Fishtail – Rear wheel swinging from side to side caused by increased rolling resistance of the rear tire (often caused by over braking, flat tire, frozen drive train or a road hazard like mud, gravel, sand, snow or ice).
Fishtails or Fishtail Muffler – The exhaust tip or the end of a muffler looks like a Fishtail from the side and usually straight pipe’s with Fishtail tips had a narrow exit for the exhaust where no night stick could fit to check for baffles in the exhaust pipe.
Flame and Crook – Fire and Theft insurance.
Flashover – Generally an unwanted electrical discharge through the air to the ground.
Flathead – Early head design where the valves resided in the block so the head only covered the block and held the spark plug. Also called L-Head or side-valve.
Flat Cylinders – Found in the flat four and flat six cylinder engines used in Honda’s Goldwings, the cylinders are arranged in a flat, opposing configurations.
Flathead – The Flathead engine (V-Twin, produced from 1929 – 1972)
Flat Spot – 1. A band of RPM’s on the acceleration power curve (specific to each motorcycle model) where the engine does not have additional acceleration power so acceleration is restricted. 2. Term refers to the condition where opening the throttle results in a reduction in speed or power output caused by incorrect fuel mixture.
Flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) -Vehicle designed to operate using either conventional gasoline or any blend of gasoline/ethanol such as E85 (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline).
FlexiFlyer – 1970s 2-stroke Kawasaki 500/750, lots of go, really bad frames.
Flickable – 1. Used to describe the agility of a motorcycle, or how quickly a rider can “flick” the bike from side to side in turns. 2. Unstable; taking very little effort to move between an upright position and a lean. 3. The more flickable a motorcycle is, the faster it can turn.
Flogging it – Getting on the throttle hard and shifting through the gears.
Foot pegs – The resting place for the rider’s feet on a motorcycle during riding.
Flower Pot – A cheap helmet non snell-approved head protection device.
Fluff – Young Girl (AUSTRALIAN Terminology)
Fluid Exchange – Stopping for gas and to take a leak.
Flycatcher – Kuryakyn Hypercharger
Fly Wheel / Flywheel – 1. Rotating weight used to damp engine vibration or to improve smooth operation of the engine between power strokes. 2. A heavy metal wheel that is attached to the crankshaft and rotates with it to help smooth out the power surges from the engine power stroke.
Flying Colors – Riding while wearing the club/organization’s colors
Fog Line – The edge of the pavement.
Fools Paradise – A Harley-Davidson
Foot Paddling – 1. The way an unskilled rider “walks” his or her motorcycle around at low speeds. 2. Sitting on and “walking” a motorcycle without power assistance from the engine.
Foot pegs – The resting place for the riders or passengers feet on a motorcycle.
Footprint – Contact patch of the tire with the road surface.
Foot Skids – A riders boots that are extended to the ground while the bike is in motion.
Forks – The sprung metal tubs holding the front wheel to the rest of the motorcycle using the triple-tree.
Formation Ride – A motorcycle road event in which participants maintain their relative position in a group while riding down the road.
Fossil fuel – Organic (carbon-based) fuel formed from the remains of plants or animals within or beneath the earth’s crust.
Four – An engine configuration comprising of 4 cylinders.
Four Banger – An in-line four cylinder motorcycle (or automotive) engine, these are among the most powerful motors on a motorcycle. Also referred to as an in-line four.
Four Stroke – Engine with the common induction, compression, power, exhaust stroke sequence. Designed by Dr. Nicolas Otto in 1876.
Frankenbike – A motorcycle made up of or built from many different makes/models/years.
Free Rider – Someone who shares the same ideas as a gang but doesn’t belong to one.
Freightliner – A big truck.
French – An old custom car and bike term that refers to mounting a device, a light, usually, deeply recessed into the bodywork, “frenched-in,” and peeking out from within a sort of tunnel, completely recessed below the surface of the surrounding bodywork, presenting only a sudden, clean circle through smooth the surface from which the light appears
FreshMeat – New young girlfriend.
Friction Zone – The part of the clutch lever travel from where the clutch just starts to engage until it is fully engaged. Riders use the friction zone to get the bike in motion. See also Slip the Clutch.
Frisco Pegs – Railroad spike highway pegs
Frisco’ed/Frisco style – Style when a gas tank is mounted right along the top of the backbone.
Front Door – Leader of a group ride
Front end – The whole front part of a motorcycle, comprised of all the parts of the motorcycle forward of the yoke of the frame. Typically refers to the front tire and/or forks.
FTF – F_ _k The Factory
FTHRWYFL – Forget the Hype, Ride What You F@$#%&n Like!
FTW – F_ _ K The World, also Forever Two Wheels
FUBAR – Which is a very old slang acronym meaning “F_ _ked Up Beyond All Repair.” Pertaining to the sad, inoperable and unfixable state of someone’s bike or engine or whatever.
Fuel-air mixture – The mixture of fuel and air found in the combustion chamber, for compression and ignition. When the piston reaches top dead centre, the fuel-air mixture has been compressed to the smallest volume, is the most unstable, and is ready to be ignited.
Fuel cell/fuel-cell battery – Like an ordinary battery, the fuel cell produces electricity by a chemical reaction. Unlike a storage battery, however, the fuel cell continues to produce electricity as long as fuel is added. Fuel cells generally use hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen as the oxidant.
Fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) – A vehicle in which electricity is generated through an irreversible electrochemical reaction of hydrogen with oxygen. Hydrogen gas enters the fuel cell, where it reacts with precious metals. A proton exchange membrane, or PEM, then separates the hydrogen protons and electrons. The PEM only allows positively charged ions to pass through its membrane. This forces the electrons to travel through an external circuit, which generates the electricity to run the car’s electric motor and power the accessories. The only by-products of this process are heat and water. Also known as fuel-cell electric vehicle.
Fuel consumption – The amount of fuel needed to cover a specific distance (e.g. litres/100 km).
Fuel economy – The average amount of fuel used by a vehicle to travel a specific distance (e.g. miles/gallon). The term “fuel efficiency” is also used.
Fuel Injection – Replaces carburetors. Uses small nozzles, called injectors, supplied fuel by an injector pump, to inject fuel into the intake manifold. Serves the same function as a carburetor, but uses computer-controlled jets to inject atomized fuel and air into the air stream going into the engine.
Fuel Injection System – This mixes the fuel air charges and forcibly injects them into the combustion chambers, unlinke carburetors, which rely on the vacuum created by the engine to draw the charges into the combustion chambers.
Fuel Management System – Carburetor
Full Chat – Riding at top speed for the riders skill level and road conditions.
Full system – A complete set of after-market exhaust comprising of headers, mufflers and pipes.
Fully electric vehicle – A vehicle that uses only an electric motor for propulsion. Fully electric vehicles are different from conventional gasoline or diesel vehicles in that their energy typically comes from being charged for several hours from a standard 110 V or 220 V outlet.
