My common sense tips that keep me safer on my motorcycle

With safe riding practices I hope to enjoy many more trips like this.

I have been riding motorcycles for quite a few years now, in one form or the other.

Luckily, I have been down only once.

On a beautiful day in the spring of 2008, with the family out of town, I took a nice ride up to Possum Kingdom Reservoir in North Texas.  It was a perfect ride out, perfect temperature, blue sky,  just a great day for a ride.  I was cruising the country lake side roads when I approached a sharp left turn coming off of a slight decline.  I instinctively turned my head sharply to the left to look in the direction of my turn when I went down.  I hit a huge 4 inch deep by 10 feet wide pile of gravel dropped right in the middle of the road.  The bike was out from under me before I knew what happened.  I had all my usual gear on, helmet, boots, riding jacket, and gloves, but I lay with my leg trapped under the bike when a truck passed by and offered assistance.  For my lesson learned I was granted a cracked rib, a little road rash, and a dented ego.  I had to drive the 70 miles back to the house with a busted shift peg and a painful rib that I “really” started to feel the closer I got to the house.

What did learn from this roll in the gravel?  Well, one thing I learned is sometimes you can be doing almost everything right and still go down.  My only fault in this wreck was not seeing the huge freakin’ pile of gravel that some idiot left in the middle of the road for this idiot to discover.  This little lapse in safety cost me some bumps and bruises.  I was fortunate that this was all I received from the wreck, but my riding jacket, gloves and helmet protected me from further damage.

I live in Fort Worth, TX and commute everyday to DFW airport where I work.  Traffic for the most part is pretty good but like all commuters I face my occasional hick up.  While commuting back and forth I have watched a few other riders, and learned from my own experience some things that I think keep me safer on the road, and I wanted to share them with you.

So, here are my common sense tips, that keep me safer on my motorcycle.

Use lane position to your advantage

Tip 1 – Lane position - I always try to position myself in the lane so that I am the most visible to the cars around me.  Most car/motorcycle accidents occur because the driver of the car claims they did not see the motorcyclist.  One easy way to increase your visibility is with lane position.  When following cars, I drive so that I can see the driver in front of me in their driver side mirror.  I know if I can see them in the mirror, they can see me.  While this does not guarantee my visibility, it is one more thing in my control to keep me safer.  This requires the motorcyclist to ride on the inner third of the lane when in the right hand lane, or the outer third when in the left hand lane.  The illustration on the left shows the motorcyclist best positioned to be visible to the drivers around him.

Tip 2 – Speed - I believe the safest speed on a motorcycle is “slightly faster than the flow of traffic”  Notice I did not say flying by traffic, I said, “slightly faster than the flow of traffic”. Use common sense with this tip and keep yourself out of harms way.  By going slightly faster than the flow of traffic, you can focus more of your attention on what is happening in front of you and less about what is going on behind.

Tip 3 – Pay attention to what is happening in front of you - This sounds surprisingly simple and this tip goes hand in hand with “drive slightly faster than the flow of traffic” tip.  It is a fact that most accidents occur to the front of your bike, far fewer accidents occur by a car rear ending you.  So, it makes common sense to pay more attention to the hazards in front of your bike than the hazards behind you.  Besides, we have more control over avoiding accidents in front of us than we do accidents behind.

Tip 4 – Following Distance - I believe this is the BIGGEST safety precaution you can take to protect yourself on the roads.  In DFW, cars travel on the highway at 70 – 80 mph.  If you are following too closely, you have very little reaction time to avoid the obstacles that will come your way.  The only way to avoid these obstacles safely is to give yourself plenty of time to see and react to them.  I have seen huge tire treads from 18 wheelers, lost lumber, furniture, dislodged wheels, and many other things lost on the highways in DFW.  An automobile driver hitting these obstacles can damage their vehicle. For motorcyclists they can ruin your whole day…and then some.  Use the 3 second rule:  Pick a stationary object and start counting, when the car in front of you passes it, it should be at least 3 seconds before you pass that same object.  On more than one occasion I have ridden by some road debris instead of over the road debris because I have given myself the room and the reaction time to deal with it with out resorting to last ditch avoidance maneuvers.

Lets face it, some accidents are out of our control as riders.  The good news is we can actively and greatly reduce our risks of being involved in an accident by using common sense, traveling at a reasonable speed, and being aware of the hazards ahead of us.

I am old enough to remember cars with out seat belts.  When seat belt laws were first passed I remember how strange it felt to be strapped in, after a while it felt funny not to be strapped in.  Now I would not consider driving without a seat belt.  Riding safely on a motorcycle is the same way.  Practice safe riding habits, be vigilant about it, and before long it will feel strange to break one of the tips that make you a safer rider.

Have fun, enjoy the journey, and live to travel many more!

Kevin
www.RiderGroups.com