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Gauges – Motorcycle Gauges
GS (Motorcycle designation suffix) – Dual Sport/Enduro (eg. BMW F650GS)
GAG IT – a full roll-on in high gear from about 50-60mph (emphasizes low rpm torque).
Garbage Wagon – 1. A stock motorcycle with standard parts intact, very heavily loaded with saddle bags, chrome and accessories. 2. A scornful term used by some outlaw bikers to describe touring bikes.
Gas Surprise – Running out of gas and moving to switch to reserve and finding to your horror that you forgot to switch back to fuel last time you filled up and just blew your reserve.
Gas cap – The cover for the fuel inlet on a tank.
Gasodometer – Resetting your trip odometer when you fill up to act as a gas gauge replacement.
Gauges – Displays information to the rider on speed [Speedometer], RPM (revolutions per minute) [Tachometer], Total Distance Traveled [Odometer], Fuel, Trip Distance and more.
GBIS – Gorgeous But it’s Slow ( A Kawasaki 1500 Classic )
GBNF – Gone But Not Forgotten
Gear – The set of toothed parts, such as wheels, disks and chains, that mesh with the teeth in similar, but different-sized parts in order to transmit force and motion between rotating shafts. Gears control the number of revolutions per minute and hence the force.
Gearbox – Transmission housing.
Gearset – T set of gears within a bike’s transmission.
GearHead (Gearhead) – 1. A person with a strong interest to all things mechanical. 2. A Motorcyclist. 3. Any true mechanic, not just the weekend mechanics.
Gear ratio – A gearbox contains several toothed wheels that are connected and disconnected to each other in order to switch into the intended gear. The gear ratio is the ratio between the number of teeth of the two wheels that are connected at a given time. If one wheel has 25 teeth and the attached one has 50, there is a 2:1 ratio.
Gear whine – The noise made by gears that aren’t spaced correctly or are worn.
Get Off – Crash, “Eat Asphalt”
Giblets – Chrome Accessories
Giggle Gas – Nitrous oxide
Ginmill – Bar
Gixer – GSXR Series Bikes
GFxD – God Forgives, (Club Name) Don’t (ie. GFPD = God Forgives, Pagan’s Don’t)
Goatsbelly – The ugly silencing chamber in the exhaust system of later model Vulcans
Goose – Slang for a Moto Guzzi motorcycle
Goosing it – Canadian. Expression for riding a motorcycle hard and/or fast.
Goggle The Horizon – Is an old biker term that means several things. Keep an eye out or be careful is a common translation. Believe it or not it did not originate with bikers but with free fall jump school during Navy Seal Training. Another meaning, in the same vane is ‘Keep your head up, don’t let anything get you down. As in ‘See ya later, Goggle the horizon.’ Meaning, be careful, keep your chin up. You see in free fall you MUST arch your back and keep your headup.
Gore-Tex – 1. Thin, lightweight membrane mounted between the face fabric and the lining. It is Waterproof, Windproof and Breathable. This membrane has nine billion microscopic pores per square inch. These pores are much smaller than a droplet of liquid water, but much larger than a molecule of water vapor. Water in a liquid form cannot penetrate the membrane, but both moisture vapor from perspiration and heat can easily escape. The membrane works when the outside temperature is colder than your body temperature. The membrane actually sucks the heat out of the apparel as long as the outside temperature is lower than 98F. 2. A membrane made of teflon (PTFE/Polytetrafluorethylene). Innumerable microscopic pores prevent the penetration of large water droplets while allowing the much smaller water vapour molecules to pass through. The branch-like structure of the membrane means that it is also completely wind proof.
GPS – Global Positioning System – A satellite oriented system, including computers and receivers, which allows the determination of a very precise location (latitude, longitude and height) of an object. The GPS unit allows the calculation of speed and direction of travel by communitcating with satellites to track movement. An increased number of touring motorcycles (such as the Honda Goldwing) are being manufactured with a GPS navigation system built-in, and add-on GPS units are available for any other motorcycle. The units provide colour graphic screen presentations of street maps as well as both planned and actual travel itineraries. Some will announce turns that are to be made in order to follow a planned itinerary.
Grabbing a Handful – Applying Brakes or twisting the throttle in excess.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – Gases in the environment that absorb and emit radiation. Common GHG emissions include water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (NH4), nitrous oxide (NOx), ozone (O3) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).
Gross axle weight rating (GAWR) – Gross axle weight certified by a vehicle manufacturer for one of the axles, either front or back, measured between the tire and the ground.
Greenpeace – The cage in front of you covered with environmentalist stickers and spewing black smoke into your face.
Green track – A new track with little or no rubber laid down which can be slippery.
Gremlin – A gremlin is blamed when one can’t find the defect or cause of some malady. A mythical creature that is blamed for a problem where the defect or cause cannot be immediately determined or is uknown.
Gremlins got it – Unexplained tanglement of wires/rope/bungee cords.
Grid – A pattern marking the starting points on the track.
Gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) – The maximum allowable total weight of the vehicle that may not be exceeded, as designated by the manufacturer. It is a combination of curb weight plus payload (including driver and fuel).
Ground – The earth pole of a battery, usually negative on most motorcycles.
Ground clearance – The distance between the ground and the lowest part of the motorcycle apart from the wheels.
Gumball – What’s left of your rear tire after a prolonged burn out, or can refer to the bits of rubber piled up behind that same tire.
GVW – Gross Vehicle Weight
Gypsy Tour– A motorcycle road event, usually several days in duration, in which the participants travel through the countryside and stop at a different destination each night. The implication is that you are traveling without time or distance constraints.
Gyroscopic Inertia – Gyroscopic inertia, also known as centrifugal inertia. The spinning top is stable when it spins fast, and becomes less stable (starts to wobble) as it slows down, as the centrifugal or gyroscopic inertia becomes less. The same physics applies to motorcycles, inceasing stability at higher speeds at their wheels spin.
