Act is the last part of the Scan-Plan-Act loop. Imagine the motorcycle as a guided missile with your moving center its guidance system. The missile is high speed, so what guides it has to be the same. As the missile flies, the guidance system constantly scans for obstacles  plans alternative routes and occasionally acts to change direction. This why to to ride a motorcycle safely, your mind must be clear of worries, distractions and unrelated concerns. Being in the here and now is also why riding is so great. Its the nearest thing to flying you can do on the ground.

The commit point

The commit point occurs when you go from plan to execute. Before the commit point you can abort at no cost, but after the commit you are in the middle of an act that may be hard to stop. For example, suppose you are waiting to pull into a stream of traffic. You see a gap coming and plan to go, but as you do another car pulls into that gap from a drive close-by and accelerates towards you. You didn’t expect that! You want to stop so they don’t hit you, but its too late, as your already into the road. A panic stop now will make you a sitting duck, so you accelerate and they just miss. Trying to stop after a commit is like “half-swallowing” a thing, i.e. choking! Inexperienced riders end up in such situations when they commit too early. An experienced rider does not commit until the last possible moment – their actions are always just-in-time.

A Go-Stop accident. A cautious driver I know was stopped a few feet back from a Give-Way before turning into a road where fast traffic came from a corner not far away. Just as she decided to go, a car appeared round the corner so she jammed on the brakes suddenly. Unfortunately a hurry-up driver behind her saw her start to go and seeing there was time, assumed she would carry on. He plowed into the back of her. The problem with going then suddenly stopping is that the people behind you don’t expect it. A cautious driver plus an aggressive driver between them created the accident.

Just-in-time action

When committing to an action, there are two types of errors:

1. Commit too early: To unnecessarily commit to a dangerous action.
2. Cancel too late: Making things worse by cancelling an act half-way.

Commit too early is when you decide to go before you need to. Cancel too late is when you realize a problem mid-action and panic, like a deer on a railway line paralyzed by the lights of an oncoming train. Just-in-time action avoids both problems by not committing until the last possible moment, when the information is most complete. So when pulling into a cross-stream of traffic, start slowly and then quickly commit at the last moment. If another car pulls into the stream you see it and stop, or accelerate in front of it. In the fast changing world of motorcycle riding, dont go until you certainly can. The safe rider approaches the commit point slowly, then executes quickly after it.

Testing the waters

People taste food before swallowing it and test the water with their foot before jumping in. On a motorcycle, going where you dont know is like jumping into a pool if you dont know the depth – foolhardy. Suppose you come to to an uncontrolled intersection at the same time as car, and you both stop. It is unclear who should go first. If you just wait, the car driver could do the same if they are cautious. If you just go, the car driver could again do the same, giving a crash. What I do is “test the waters”, by making as if to go but not committing. If the other driver stays then I carry on. If they also go, I stop and wave them on, as they will go. If you try to wave on a cautious driver they will just wave you on back, and you both sit there begging the other to go.

Accelerate out of trouble?

When I was young, other riders often talked about accelerating out of trouble, which sounded quite impressive. With experience, I now realize that you can also accelerate into trouble. Motorcycle speed is not a substitute for safe decision making. As explained above, its only after the commit point that acceleration gets you out of trouble. Before the commit point, it just puts you in danger. When you come to an intersection or turn, don’t plan to accelerate out of trouble. Just as a little kid cant outrun a dog, a motorcycle rider cant outrun every speeding car.

A tight turn on. A friend has a steep driveway leading onto a country road just after a corner. When coming home I have to cross the road and drive away from the corner. The trouble is, a car could come round the corner any time, and you can only see oncoming traffic for a short distance. Cars are infrequent on country roads, but they travel fast and could easily take out a motorcycle getting up to speed on the road. However if you come to a full stop at the bottom of the drive, taking-off when stopped means a slower entry, so more chance a car could suddenly come round the corner and hit you. On the other hand, if you just speed onto the road you could coincide with a car no matter how fast you go. So I would coast gently down the drive to the road edge, then without stopping and at the last minute accelerate onto the road. Not stopping before taking off requires stability but greatly increases take off rate. Safety dictated leaving the commit point until the last moment.

Road position

Where do you position yourself on the road? Unlike cars, motorcycles only fill half a lane. Where your motorcycle is on the road affects what you can do in a situation. Do you sit to the left, right or middle of the lane? If there are three lanes on a highway, do you choose the slow lane, the middle lane or the fast lane? Most cautious drivers seem to prefer the middle middle lane as they think it is safer. In my view, the outside lanes are safer for a motorcycle as they give you options to pull to the side. Some reasons to adopt a road position include to:

1. Make space: To give more options.
2. Improve vision: To get a better view.
3. Signal intent: To suggest your intent to others.
4. Improve being seen: See Be Seen.

Lets look at these in more detail.

Make Space

As you ride, try to make useful space around you. More space means more options and more options means less risk. Tailgating the center of the car ahead is stupid because if it stops suddenly, where will you go? A motorcycle rider who follows closely behind the center of a car is not threatening the car, but themselves. Follow behind a car to the left or right, on one wheel or the other, so if they stop suddenly you can swerve around them.

Improve vision

Riding behind a truck can block your vision. If you only see the back of the truck, you can only see one vehicle ahead. This is not enough. It means you are just about riding blind. You need to see several vehicles ahead to react in time if someone up ahead decides to stop suddenly. They won’t? Sure they will, sooner or later. On a motorcycle, you can move left or right to get a view ahead. This also lets the truck driver see you in their mirror. Get in a position to see, because on a motorcycle seeing is surviving.

Highway on-ramps. You are traveling in the highway slow lane and there is an on-ramp ahead, where traffic merges from the side into your lane. Traffic merging onto a highway is supposed to gather speed and “merge like a zip”, but some drivers take this to mean they can just drive on and other drivers will let them in. Equally some slow lane drivers think that driving steadily in their lane means they have right of way. I I know several drivers hit side-on by merging traffic while traveling in the slow lane. I treat highway on-lanes like an uncontrolled intersection. So in the slow lane coming up to an on-ramp I look to the side to see the merging cars and slow down or speed up so they can get in. Dont just ignore them and hope they will avoid you, as they may not even see a motorbike. Sometimes I move to a middle lane that doesn’t take the merge.

Signal intent

Where you are on the road indicates to others what you intend to do as much as your indicators. For example, when turning, move to the side of the lane you’re turning towards. If turning across the traffic, move to the middle of the road. If there is no gap in the oncoming traffic, you slowly keep moving or stop in the middle of the road. This may seem dangerous, but if your indicators are on others will see and avoid you. Why not fill the middle of the lane with your indicator on, like cars do? A turning car will block the lane but motorcycles dont, so cars behind will try to “squeeze” past you, which is dangerous. When turning across traffic, look for a cross-hatched middle area where you can stop safely to wait to turn across oncoming traffic.

All over the lane. To go home in the US I had to turn off a highway round a blind curve, then go 50 yards to turn again at the traffic lights. When I turned off the highway, I was in the middle of the lane, but at the lights I was at the road outside edge. It looks like I’m all over the lane but there is a logic. Turning off the highway was around a hill where I couldn’t see the dead space ahead, so I rode almost down the center of the road, just this side of the middle line, to improve my vision. At the lights I am at the side of the road to signal my intention to turn that way. Road position changes according to the situation.

Be effectual

People talking on the phone while driving want to get two results for the price of one time slot, but such “multi-tasking” is a major cause of accidents. Trying to do two things at once while riding is ineffectual. High skill tasks like surgery and motorcycle riding favor the opposite – being effectual. As the surgeon on the TV show MASH said: “I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, then I move on.” To be effectual on the road, break complicated actions up into modules. If you want to swerve and stop, both require friction of which the road has a limited amount. If you try to do both at once you will probably skid. Being effectual means you swerve if there is time OR you straighten up and stop. Not both at once. So if you swerve to the side of a road into gravel, straighten up first, then apply the brakes.

Do one thing at a time. When young, I used to cross two lanes in one action. Then, on a wet motorway in heavy traffic, it so happened that just as I got into the first lane the car ahead braked suddenly, so I had to also brake. Braking while moving on an angle put the front wheel into a skid and twist, which nearly threw me. I got away with it, but it was a warning. Now I change two lanes in two actions. First get into one lane, then the other. Is it more work? In practice its easier because its simpler.

The slow lane change

Sometimes the weather is so bad that the usual options are shut down. In hard rain stability is an every moment thing, so turning your head to direct sight back before a lane change is  too dangerous and your mirror is just a blur. In this case the slow lane change is an option. It essentially involves moving into the other lane about three times slower than usual. First, move to the edge of the lane with your indicators on and sit there a while. Then slowly move to the other side of the line, and again sit there a while. Finally, occupy the lane in full. This move relies on giving other drivers time to avoid you.

Next

A motor loop is an ongoing action-reaction sequence. Its not an output like a thought or feeling but an ongoing process, like a wheel that continuously turns. If the intellect is a sniper rifle and the emotions are a bomb, then the moving center is a machine gun that constantly fires. It is driven by feedback from the muscles and cycles so fast that only the moving center sitting atop the spine can pull it off. If the cerebellum is damaged, or affected by alcohol, the motor loop slows to give tremors, like a shaky hand. Parkinsons is essentially when the moving center fails. When this happens the “higher” parts of your brain can’t compensate because they are too slow. The moving center has its own high-speed sense input that constantly monitors for spatial intrusions. Check out Mark Wahlberg catching a ball during an interview, or Evan Longoria doing the same.

People today ignore this “spider sense” but we all have it. Once when talking to someone my hand rose to catch an object that unexpectedly fell from a shelf above. Its there but if you don’t use it, it wont develop. Changing a feedback loop is like changing a production line in a factory – it happens faster if you plan the change. As a baseball player trains to catch sudden incoming balls, riders can train to respond to sudden motorcycle events. This means having a Plan B.

Have a Plan B

Plan A is the feedback loop the moving center is currently running, say balancing the bike as you ride along. Plan B is how this will change if something unexpected happens. A Plan B is necessary because things happen fast on a bike and there is no time to think. For example, if the car ahead screeches to a halt, do you swing left or right? It makes a difference because one way takes you to the side of the road and the other into oncoming traffic. Since it is better to swerve to the side, this is your Plan B but knowing it intellectually doesn’t make it happen in practice. There is no easy way to practice such events, so the answer is to “practice” in your mind. Just visualize the situation and imagine swerving to the side of the road. Sport psychology studies show that mental practice can improve motor skills, so basketball players who mentally rehearse an upcoming throw do better than those who don’t. On a motorcycle, imagine the car ahead stops and confirm your swerve response. Practice it mentally a few times then if it happens, that is the way you will go. Remember, the moving center is smart not dumb, but it learns by example not talk, even a mental example.

Don’t be an ostrich

Some people dont like to think about bad things that might happen, maybe feeling that thinking about a bad thing can cause it to happen. This is like being an ostrich with your head in the sand. Unfortunately ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away. This eyes tight shut approach is the opposite of the eyes wide open approach proposed earlier. The better approach is to fearlessly face the fact that bad things do happen by means of “What if?” scenarios.

“What if?” scenarios

A “What if?” scenario is:

• If this happens? Some unexpected scenario
• Then I do that! How you want to react.

The job of planning in the Scan-Plan-Act loop is to come up with accident scenarios and define your response. Once riding becomes a natural skill,  part of you is free to think: If X happens, I will do Y. So if children are kicking a ball on the side of the road, you think what if the ball goes on the road with a kid after it? The Ready Reaction already given is a general utility Plan B that readies you to stop but what about the horn? Horn is good to warn the running kid to stop, so you add that in – left thumb ready over the horn. A horn blast can be the difference between accident or not. Readying the horn response makes it much faster, as your brain “factory” plans for it.

Younger kids follow. One of the saddest of predictable road accident scenarios is when a young kid follows an older kid. The older one decides to cross the road when the coast is clear, then the younger one sees them go and runs into an oncoming vehicle. The older crosses safely themselves but doesn’t consider the younger, who assumes that to follow is safe. What is sad about such accidents is that it’s no-one’s fault. On Colbert’s Tonight show a guy told how when he was 11 another kid called him from across the road and he ran across, assuming it was safe, into a cement truck. It was two years and several operations before he could walk again. If you have kids, convince the older to always cross roads with the younger ones. And if you see a group of kids, remember that young ones follow.

Even better than a Plan B is the ability to predict.

Predicting trouble

What can you do in a half a second? People take that long to gather their thoughts. Those who study human reaction time find it takes about a quarter of second just to see visual stimuli, let alone react. But in some cases they found that people had zero second reaction time! How is this possible? The answer is they predicted, in what is called a feed-forward reaction. For example, a soccer goalie cant react fast enough to save a penalty shot if he waits until the ball leaves the boot and then reacts. Yet goalies do save penalty shots when they predict which way the kicker will will go. To do this he watches the kicker not the ball. The human “super power” is not speed or strength, jaws or claws, but prediction. Prediction is the avoid-trouble skill.

Mind reading. If you practice predicting other drivers, after a while it can get “spooky”, as Dame Edna Everidge says. I was riding in a lane to the side of a car in front of me, and just felt it “wanted” to change lanes into mine. So I held back. As far as I could tell, the car made no lane change indications, but sure enough, it then moved into my lane without indicating. Just coincidence or did I read the drivers mind? It doesnt matter. We all predict what others will do, because knowing what they do affects us! We are all natural “mind readers” , so why not apply this on the road?

Next

When you learn to ride a bicycle your moving center is learning a motor feedback loop. Note that you cant do it intellectually because the moving center has no language. Second, getting emotional slows down the learning, and a big fright can make you give up entirely. Third, you need to practice because this is how the moving center learns, maybe with someone helping you in the beginning. There are no shortcuts to learning a motor skill – its just practice. The good news is, we all have a moving center so we can all learn this way.

Three ways of knowing

Three centers mean we have three ways of knowing:

1. Intellectual. Analyzing sensory patterns gives thoughts and ideas.
2. Emotional. Analyzing experiences gives likes and dislikes.
3. Tacit. Analyzing motor feedback gives movement skills.

Most of us are aware of what we think. Many of us are aware of what we feel. Yet very few of us indeed are aware of tacit skills. Tacit knowledge is the stuff you know unconsciously, like how balance on a bicycle. Tacit knowledge is largely unsung, but it is the key to riding safely.

Enjoy the trip. A example of tacit knowledge is relaxing when you fall. I may know intellectually that it is safer to crumple in a fall, but when I slip on the pavement still panic and tense up, making injury more likely. When my Mum accidentally slipped in a mall, the fall broke her hip. A few accident seconds meant a hip operation and a year in recovery. Yet several times I saw my Dad slip and fall in his late eighties and just get up. In his job as a carpenter he had learned to relax when he fell. Check out this man hurled 1,000 feet by a tornado who survived because he was unconscious! In the instant of a fall, the intellect is helpless and the emotions panic. Only the moving center is fast enough to get you out of trouble. I learned this during Army night-time exercises. New Zealand is very rainy, so country ground has lots of tiny rivulets across it. When you walk across it in the dark, sooner or later your foot slips into one and you “fall” about a foot. With a fifty pound pack on your back, tensing up usually twists an ankle so you cant walk. If you go with flow and crumple, you get up wet but in one piece. Knowing a thing intellectually is one thing, doing it in practice is another thing entirely.

The way to turn intellectual knowledge into moving center knowledge is automation.

Automation

Automation suggests becoming mechanical, but here it means transferring knowledge to the moving center, which is anything but mechanical. What you read about riding a motorcycle is going into the intellectual part of your brain, but that knowledge is no use there. How do you “translate” intellectual knowledge into tacit knowledge? It seems hard but sportsmen do it all the time. If you need a better grip in a sport like golf, first you do it intellectually but with practice the moving center learns and takes over. Then you get the benefits. Likewise in riding, what you initially do with the clumsy intellect will transfer to the moving center by practice. Only when your actions become automatic do you really “know” them.

Academics who dismiss the moving center as a “reptile brain” don’t understand its potential. When a skilled pianist’s fingers fly over a keyboard, he or she doesn’t think “I will play A sharp”. Indeed their intellect can discuss the weather while the moving center alone controls their hands. The human moving center is under-rated because it cant talk, but it is the key to learning a motor skill like riding.

Reprogramming the moving center. Moving from New Zealand which drives on the left, to America which drives on the right, I literally had to “reprogram” my moving center. It wasn’t easy. For example, I felt “lost” when turning a corner at an intersection and had to keep telling myself intellectually to “Keep right!” I couldn’t “see” the traffic flows. It took about two weeks before I was comfortable riding. The odd thing was that when I returned to NZ, the left side riding skills kicked back in almost immediately. It was like my brain learned an inverse copy of all I knew about driving in NZ for driving in the US, but still kept the original intact. So if I go back to the US any time, that tacit knowledge will still be there.

Scan-Plan-Act!

Motorcycle safety classes use the the SIPDE (Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide and Execute) approach. Its good to teach but I find it too complex to remember. Riding is not an logical scenario because intellectual thinking takes too long. For a fast motor feedback loop I prefer Scan-Plan-Act:

• Scan: Scan the world to recognize risk.
• Plan: Plan your next actions to minimize risk.
• Act: Commit to execute an action.

Scan-Plan occurs as you ride along apparently doing nothing much, just just looking and thinking. By thinking here is meant planning your next move, not pondering the meaning of life. “Thinking all the time” is the motto of the safe rider. The Act part kicks in when you do something, like turn a corner. An emergency, like when you skid and recover, shows how fast a motor loop can be. It cycles in microseconds not seconds. Motor loops work best when you are wide awake, calm and giving full attention, without emotions like fear to interfere. Bodily distractions like being cold or wet also interfere, and alcohol or drugs affect motor loops directly. We now look at Scan-Plan-Act in detail.

Next

When your state changes you may not be aware of it. After all, the “You” deciding if you’re drunk is drunk! Only your intellect can look at your behavior and conclude you are drunk, but in the brain the intellect is like the nerd in the high school movies that nobody listens to. But when it comes to your state, the intellect is the whistle blower that can warn that all is not well in the Kingdom of You. Whether or not the rest of you listens depends on the balance of power in your brain.

Drunk

Alcohol affects your brain in two ways:

• Slows down movements. Slurred speech, stumbling walk and lack of balance.
• Activates the emotions. Can make you happier and more confident.

Alcohol is extra dangerous because as your skills go down, your belief in them goes up.

When drunk, you cant take that corner as well but your emotions tell you you can do it better! It is a fatal combination. Most people “know” alcohol impairs their ability to ride. In this regard alcohol is like fatigue but it also raises your confidence. Alcohol is like fatigue on steroids, so if you get drunk, sleep over or take a cab.

How much is too much?

Most laws find you intoxicated at a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.08% to 0.10% and first time penalties range from fines to six months license suspension. Usually two or three drinks has an effect on your driving, and four or five drinks and you’re over the limit. What you drink also matters, as some drinks have more alcohol than others. These numbers are less for a small person or for women. If you wait for an hour, you lose about one drink from your bloodstream. Coffee has no affect at all on your blood alcohol level, nor does drinking water. In general, you can drink less than you think you can, but as you drink you think you can handle more. That’s because you’re drunk!

Fatigue

Fatigue slows down your brain and reduces your awareness of things around you. The human “battery” needs about eight hours of charging to run for only 16 hours! The brain copes with low energy by shutting down what it doesnt consider important. So when tired you get “tunnel vision”, which is like riding with blinkers on. Beware of fatigue, as you need all your brain to ride!

Fatigue, like intoxication, can creep up on you. Hyped with stimulants like coffee or a strong desire, you may not realize how tired you are. The problem may build up over days, as you accumulate a “sleep debt”. Normally, when people tire they stop to rest but some people fight this. Some children get more active as they get tired. At nap time they run around in frantic circles until they finally collapse and fall asleep anywhere. Its a strange thing to watch. If the mind does not want to sleep, eventually the body just turns out the lights. This is exactly what you never want to happen on a motorcycle.

Falling asleep at the handlebars

Riding while drowsy is just as dangerous as riding while drunk. A surprising number of people fall asleep at the wheel in cars, usually with bad results. They are not lazy people but more likely the opposite – hard working A types who push their bodies around. One day they push too hard and lose. Falling asleep at the handlebars is unlikely, but on long trips it can happen if you want to press on and dont feel like stopping. You know you are tired, but maybe the weather is bad and if you stop you might not want to start again. Do you listen to your body or deny it? If you go against it, remember that ultimately your body not “you”, controls your “on/off switch”. If the body flicks this switch, then “you” disappear. You decide, but sometimes you really need to take a break.

Just for a second. This is a true story. I was on a two hour trip home after a long day in another city. It was dark and I was tired, and for the last few days had not had much sleep. While riding, my eyelids felt droopy. Then my body presented a “great idea” to my mind: “Why not just close your eyes briefly to rest them, just for a second, then open them again after that?” Fair enough I thought, as I was riding along at high speed. Then another part of me suddenly realized that was a good way to become roadkill. Shocked at my own stupidity, I stopped at a cafe, ordered a coffee, then put my head on the table and promptly fell asleep for 15 minutes, then headed off again. I arrived a little later than planned, but in one piece.

Naps

If you are tired and stop, maximize the power of your break with a nap. Naps dont waste time, they save it, as the first part of sleep gives the most rest. Napping is a skill. The key to effective napping is to rest deeply but briefly. Even a short nap can recharge your body’s batteries. If the weather is fine, I find a clear grassy area, like outside a highway road-stop, and lie flat on my back. You rest best when horizontal. Then I forget the stupid world and “disappear” from it. In bad weather I find an indoor place where they let you sit, like a cafe, order coffee, then sit upright, close my eyes, and drift off. I find it easier to nap sitting upright than slumped. The second part of napping is waking up again. If you sleep for hours then it isnt a nap. I like a place with people moving or talking so I dont nap long.

The Army Nap. The apocryphal army story about how to nap is to get a metal bucket and a spoon. Sit holding the spoon between the palms of your hands over the bucket. Now nap. When you fall asleep your hands relax and the spoon falls into the bucket with a clang that wakes you up. This is the end of the nap. Now you are good to go again. Its just a story, but it illustrates the power of naps.

Angry

Anger alters your brain to take more risks, so people do things when angry that they would not normally do. Angry time is risk time. And its not just a thought, as specific brain chemicals change how your brain works. If you ride while angry only half your brain is attending the road. The other half is getting upset and concocting elaborate schemes for revenge. If you are angry when you get on a motorcycle, you have to tell that half to “get with the program”, because you need all your brain. Give anger a rest while riding because it is unsafe. If you want, you can get angry again after you arrive.

Warm up your brain

Just as it is a good idea to warm up your motorcycle for a few seconds if it hasn’t been used for a while, so it is a good idea to warm up your brain if you haven’t ridden for a while. So when you start riding, for the first minute or so take it easy. If you have not ridden for a week or more, then take it easy for five minutes. It takes time for the riding brain to kick back in. Your brain is a complex piece of machinery, so give time for the right circuits to activate. At the first intersection, take a second to breathe and focus. If pulling out looks tight, then just wait. Until your mind speed is up, keep your bike speed down.

Next

Many things affect the motorcycle state, including luggage, a passenger and a mechanical failure. The answer in every case is to first recognize that you are now riding a different bike, and second to adjust how you ride accordingly. For example, too low tire pressure causes sluggish, unstable handling and less responsive steering. Too high tire pressure lightens the steering and will wear out the middle of the tire faster.

Luggage

Luggage is a problem if it changes the weight distribution of the bike. When riding, if the bike center of gravity is at the sweet spot, right over the wheels, it takes no more effort to handle a big bike than a small one. Likewise a pencil balanced on your finger is stable if the weight is over the point,  but if not, it starts to fall. On a motorcycle you adjust the weight to be over the tires as you ride. However loading one pannier but not the other interferes with this balance, so the bike handles differently when you corner. So when adding luggage, add it as close as possible to the bike’s center, and add evenly so the effect balances out. The best place to put luggage is directly behind you, where the passenger normally sits.

Passengers

Passengers that sit behind you dont alter the balance but they do increase the bike weight, and for a small bike the change can be significant. That the extra weight means you can’t stop as quickly is not immediately obvious, so be aware you need more time to stop. And this weight can move, so take it easy cornering for a while. For a new passenger, impress upon them that you want them to do nothing at all. Dont let them get on until you stabilize the bike, with both feet planted. Suggest they put one hand on your shoulder and with a leg on the peg, to get up vertical first, then slide the other leg across and sit. Its easier as a two-step process. Tell them to hold onto you firmly, not the seat or the sidebars, as a pillion passenger can fall off the back of an accelerating motorbike. When you stop, again stabilize before they get off.

Be like a sack of potatoes. When a trapeze artist was carrying a man across Niagara falls on a tight wire he gave him this advice: “I have done this safely many times with a sack of potatoes that is your same weight. So if you imagine you are a sack of potatoes, you will be perfectly safe.” When you have a passenger,  ask them politely to be like a sack of potatoes – just sit there and do nothing.

Flat tire

When a tire blows you get a big wobble, so hold the handlebars firmly, keep as straight as you can and get to the side of the road. Your riding on the rim of the tire, so none of the normal controls work too well. The main thing is, don’t panic Hold as steady as you can and get to the side of the road, out of the traffic.

Bike suddenly stops

There are many reasons a motorcycle can suddenly stop. Brakes can jam, a chain can break, an engine can fail, or maybe you just ran out of petrol. Whatever the cause, you have a few seconds to do something about it. The main thing is get off the road before you stop entirely. Even on a quiet country road, get off it! If this happens on a highway, the problem is even more urgent because the traffic is so fast. Even if you are in the middle lane, if you feel the power go, get to side  right away. Dont wait. Dont worry about offending other cars. Stopping in the fast lane is a death sentence for car or motorcycle. If your bike ever loses power, for whatever reason, get out of the traffic flow before you run out of momentum.

On the overpass.  After a regular service, my bike had new brake-pads installed. I rode off and was crossing a four-lane overpass in heavy traffic, when suddenly the brakes seized. The bike was going to stop, no matter what I did. Indicating and waving, I pushed into the fast lane and pulled onto a bridge side gap and sat on the overpass guardrail looking down at the traffic below. Then I noticed that none of the traffic whooshing past my bike was slowing down at all, and some only missed it by inches. As I sat in front of my bike thinking it protected me, I wondered if I would be better off behind it, so a car hitting it would not push the bike onto me. Eventually the bridge lane was closed and the person who picked me up was the mechanic who did the brakes. He was very apologetic.

Next

Road state changes include jolts, slips, ruts, white lines, ice and gravel. The worst are those you don’t see in advance, like oil slicks. Understanding the road means knowing where such changes are likely to occur so you can be prepared. Road state affects riding so be ware of the road at all times for changes in state and adapt.

Jolts

Jolts are caused by pot-holes or obstacles in the road that suddenly shock the bike. A jolt from hitting an object like a dead animal in the road can twist the bike so it falls or even throws you off. If you see a pothole, slow down and try to avoid it, but if you cant then at least hit it straight on. This avoids the twist and fall problem. Just before you hit, you can raise your body slightly with your legs to absorb some of the shock, and use bendable arms to absorb any forward shock. If a jolt lifts you off the seat don’t panic as the law of gravity will return you to the bike if it is straight. If you are cornering and meet a jolt, first slow down and straighten up, then as above.

Question: What if I am turning a sharp corner and see a deep hole in the road? If I straighten up for the hole, I go off the road. If I keep the turn, the jolt might throw the bike. What should I do?
Answer: That certainly is a problem. In such situations you do your best and hope it works out. Then you learn to increase your safety envelope when cornering.

Ruts

Ruts are ridges or channels in the road that take control of the bike and move it in the direction of the rut. On unpaved roads, ruts are commonly caused by water or wheels. On modern roads they can occur when lanes on highways are laid down separately and split apart over time. Tramlines also create a rut problem. If your front tire gets in a rut it will follow the rut, and often there is not much you can do about it. You have to follow the rut until you regain control. Dont try to fight it, as that can make things worse. Hitting a rut while turning a corner can be disastrous, as the rut sends the wheels one way and forward motion sends the bike another, flipping it to the ground. If you see a rut on a turn, slow and straighten immediately. If you are riding where there are ruts, be aware how dangerous they are. To cross a rut, increase the angle across it. So if there is rut between two lanes on a highway, turn into the other lane at a greater angle than you normally would.

Ruts! I was turning a corner when my front wheel hit a rut in the road that flung the bike down onto the road with force, and threw me off. I didnt even see it coming and there was nothing I could do about it. Now I keep a sharp watch for ruts that can catch the bike.

Grills

Grills are like minor ruts that interfere with bike control. They occur on bridges where the engineers put down steel ridges instead of asphalt for service reasons. As you cross the bridge you feel the grill ridges controlling your tires in the direction of the grill. Slow down, and try to drive in the direction of the grill. Don’t try to fight it. If you point the bike in the same direction as the grill, there will be some wobble but not much. It is disconcerting, but not dangerous. Another type of grill is a cattle grill that stops cows from walking over it. If you cross the grill at right angles there is nothing to worry about – it will just bump the bike up and down a bit, thats all.

Slips

Slips are parts of the road that have less friction. They include oil, ice and white lines. If you are riding straight ahead at a constant speed, a slip is not a problem as you just slide on over it, but if turning, stopping or accelerating they are a problem. A turning bike that hits a wet manhole cover can slip and fall. If the slip is brief the bike will recover, unless you are pushing the envelope or overreact. Worse than small manholes are the large metal panels sometimes used to cover road repairs. If you hit one of those on a turn, then you have a problem. But like all things what you see coming isn’t a problem – just take the turn slower or straighten up over it.

Oil patches

Oil patches are another type of slip but are hard to see, so know where they are likely to be. Oil leaks from cars occur in the middle of the road, or where cars often wait. For example at toll booths, the center can be an oil slick so slippery you could not even stand there, so keep to the side. Likewise at stop signs or traffic lights, there is often an oil slick front and center. This position is not where you want to accelerate off from.

Straighten up

The solution to every case of turning on a slippery surface is to straighten and not accelerate or brake. You have to go straight across a slip. If anyone has a better solution, let me know. After the slip, you can turn again. If you feel a slip rather than see it, the response is the same – straighten up immediately. Bringing the bike upright in a slip usually restores stability, and then you have other choices like to brake or turn again.

White lines

White lines, or any kind of road marking, are a special case of road slip. When you ride over road markings, especially in the rain, your friction is much less. If you apply the brakes, you may slip. In general keep your bike off road markings for this reason. Definitely don’t brake heavily while on the white lane direction arrows. If overtaking, keep off the lines separating the lanes. If stopped, keep your back tire off the stop line. This advice applies double in the wet. If your back tire is on a white line at a traffic light, and you accelerate off when the light turns green, there is a good chance you will skid. When the bike is on a painted road marking you are in “slip alley”.

White lines. I learned about white lines the hard way. Coming down a hill in the rain, and oblivious to the big white arrows in my lane, I braked directly over them. The bike immediately spun around 180°. Surprisingly at this point I was still upright, but looking back up the hill I had just come down. I remember then thinking “Maybe I’ll fall off now”, as there was nowhere else to go. I had on helmet, jacket, gloves and leggings, so wasn’t hurt. Lesson? Never do nothing on white lines.

Ice

When traveling over ice, you have no control at all. You had better believe that ice is the perfect slip. The effect of ice is no friction, so you cannot turn, accelerate or stop. If you hit ice, all you can do is try to keep straight and steady. My advice regarding ice is DON’T RIDE. I ride in snow, rain, wind and storm, but in ice, I stay home. Clear day with snow on the ground – no problem. Pouring rain – fine. Thunder and lightening – I have rubber wheels. But if there is ice on the road, take the train.

Ice is not nice. Until I came to America I did not know about ice. Here is how I learned. At the end of one fine December day it started to snow. I was at work, and my rational brain said to leave the bike and train home. Then my man brain thought “Its only a snow drizzle, she’ll be right.” Bad plan. The intersections  through Newark, NJ were icy but I “floated” across. Then I dropped the bike three times, and each time a black African-American volunteered to help. I dont think that would happen in Manhattan. After the third time, while walking the bike home with the engine, I came to a hill and my feet were slipping. A black guy said to me “Hey man, leave the bike at the garage” and helped me push it there. Then I caught a bus, but after half a mile, it pulled over and the driver said “This bus is off the road”. As I carried on home on foot, I slipped on the ice while walking. I got home with new respect for ice.

Even though I dont ride on ice, I have ridden when there was salt on the roads so the ice was patchy. The best bet is to stick to often used roads, as the cars using it melt the ice, and car tires can clear ice. When they salt the roads take the main roads and avoid side roads that are salted less frequently. Take the most traveled route, and stay in the vehicle tracks not the road center. Then remember not to go out on ice again.

Highway ice. I set off to Philadelphia for a conference on a fine cold day and again testosterone told me all would be well. It was right for the day but wrong for the week. I arrived OK but three days later my motorcycle had icicles hanging from it. Not a good sign. Testosterone again told me all would be well, but on the highway back it started to snow. I kept in the middle most-used lane and in the tire tracks. As I rode, I saw cars that had slipped off the road while trying exit the side ramps that curved off the highway, so trying to pull off the busy highway didn’t seem a good idea. And it was safer to keep up with the traffic than slow down. The last 50 feet to my house was down a slope to my drive. I parked the bike at the top of the hill and walked down to check it for ice. When I walked in my wife asked “What took you so long?”

Gravel

Gravel and dirt are not really slips but they behave the same. Gravel is an unstable surface that moves if pressured in any way. If you try to turn in gravel the front wheel slips away and the bike goes down. So as with slips, keep straight until you can slow down. Some people like gravel, but most of us prefer to avoid it, which means knowing where it is. Most gravel sits on the side of the road. If you pull off a highway for any reason, beware of gravel and keep straight and stop slowly. Sometimes gravel is where you might not expect it, for example it builds up at the points between the flows on major intersections where car tires push it. So there can be gravel right in the center of an intersection, where the cars dont go. Watch out for these “gravel accumulation points”.

Gravel. Once I dropped the bike in gravel. It was really silly. At a V junction, I took the right lane then changed my mind, and pulled onto the V base to take the left option. I was fully stopped, but my front wheel was in the gravel that builds up where traffic doesnt flow. I turned my front wheel to drive left and the bike slid out from under me. It all happened in slow motion. As is usual in accidents, I couldn’t do much about it. I stood over the fallen bike and for the first time saw the gravel. Never noticed that before!

Debris

Road debris sitting on the road can fly through the air and hit you when a car runs over it. Maybe it fell off the back of a truck or an insecure trailer. Then cars ride over it until it disappears. If you see debris in the road there is not a lot you can do except prepare for a jolt, i.e. keep straight and let your legs absorb the jolt. If debris flies through the air at you, just duck, or drop your head forward momentarily to present a smaller profile. It then hits your helmet top rather than your visor.

Turning on a slope. This one can get even experienced riders. You ride up a hill, then do a U turn and promptly drop the bike on the ground. The slope changes the rules of the turn, so you must turn less sharply. I did this twice before I woke up to it.

Next

When the sun sets, our eyes go from color to black and white, like changing the film in a camera. Your night vision works differently from your day vision, so you may have good day vision but bad night vision. Since we are not night animals,  our night vision is not very good.

Night riding

Riding at night is different from riding during the day. In particular, at night our depth vision gets much worse, so you cant judge the distance of oncoming cars very well, or their speed. How far away is that car and how fast is it coming towards you? At night you know less than you think. So be extra careful when pulling into a traffic flow or changing lanes at night.

Blinding headlights

Some drivers forget to dip their headlights for oncoming traffic. Some headlights are badly set so they shine into your eyes anyway. Some big trucks have lights so bright they are naturally blinding. And sometimes the headlights of a car coming up a hill shine at you even when dipped. One way or another, sooner or later, if you ride at night you will encounter blinding headlights. Don’t look at them, as one tends to go where one looks! Look to the side of the road, to the line of the road markers, or look to the traffic ahead. Fix your vision on a point of the road that you can see, and focus on that.

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise and sunset are particularly dangerous, as when the sun shines in your eyes you cant see. On a bike you can temporarily raise your left hand to shade your eyes, but it is dangerous to ride like this. A better option is to drop your head so the top of the helmet acts as a sunshade. Or just squint. The flip side of this problem is if the sun is setting behind you, the other traffic cant see you. So if the setting or rising sun is behind you, give other drivers especial latitude.

I couldn’t see, so I went. One day I was riding at sunset up to a car at a stop sign. Something felt wrong, so I slowed down to at 15mph, then suddenly the car at the stop sign took off and hit me. There was nothing I could do but fall off. It was a big bike, so the car crunched it not me. I got up scratched but unhurt to get the driver’s name and address. I asked why he rode into me. He said: “The sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t see, so I went.” I was astounded by his “If you cant see go” logic. Later, I found the car was stolen and the address was fake. He seemed to win but Karma follows such people wherever they go. My new bike was a write-off, but I had insurance right? Then I found that insurance companies have two value books, a “big” one they use to calculate premiums and a “little” one they use to calculate payments. My bike was now worth a lot less than the value used to insure it. After they deducted the excess, I got enough money to buy a new bicycle. Since then, I take out third-party but don’t insure the bike itself. The money saved after a few years is enough to replace the bike anyway. I learned that insuring my motorbike isn’t worth it.

Next

Oncoming wind is a normal part of riding. Riding a motorcycle is like being in a wind tunnel, so a front wind isn’t a problem at all because the bike is designed for it. In fact, I quite like riding in the wind. However when its windy, rain, stones and even dust thrown up can sting sting the face and interfere with vision, so you need a full-face helmet and visor to keep your face and eyes safe.

The sail effect

When you ride, some wind turbulence is normal. Fairings and wind-screens reduce front turbulence but as pointed out earlier, can act like sails if hit by side winds. When wind hits a sail it generates force and the bigger the sail area the bigger the force. Never underestimate the power of this, as vans with high flat sides regularly get blown over by the sail effect. The motorcycle solution to side winds is to not be a sail.

A motorcycle should not present any large flat side surface that can act like a sail. After all, a motorcycle with wind protection all around it would be a two wheel car, and that doesnt work. Wind is why umbrella rain gear works on a bicycle but not a motorbike. You want any side winds wind to go through the bike, like a sail with holes in it. This is why I don’t like solid side farings for ordinary riding.

Wind wobble

Wind makes the bike wobble but even normal riding has a wobble that the rider just naturally compensate for. Wind just makes the wobble bigger. The more stable you ride the better you handle wind. Handle it the way rodeo riders handle a bucking bronco:

• Relax your upper body. Don’t grip the handles too tight to fight it but counter-balance the bike’s movement with your body.
• Grip the bike with your legs to keep  firmly on and keep up the acceleration to push on through the  wind.

Your upper body goes with the flow, continually re-adjusting the center, while the lower body holds you on. Dont over-react to wind, as wind is part of riding and wobble is part of wind.

Gusting crosswinds

Front winds are not a problem. Even constant side winds are not a problem, as you can just lean into them. However gusting crosswinds that suddenly push the bike sideways then stop can be unsettling. They can happen when you cross a river bridge or pass a large truck. Here is what I do:

• Lower your profile. Drop the body to the tank a bit to lower your profile and reduce the crosswind effect.
• Slow a bit. Going a bit slower can make the bike more stable, but not too slow as it is the centrifugal force of the wheels keeps you upright. Keep the revs up.
• Knee tank grip. Grip the bike by pushing inwards with knees and feet for vertical stability.
• Don’t panic. Worse than the wind is over-reacting to it. Stay calm and go with the flow.

Riding in the wind can be tiring, as you are continually working to balance the bike. The wind is one case where it helps to have a heavier bike.

Insects

Insects rule the world, so sooner or later you will meet them on a motorcycle. They dont want to fly into you, so really you hit them. Bugs on your visor create a vision problem but bugs in your helmet are a safety issue. Insects that hit you on the outside bounce off, but you don’t want a wasp inside your jacket. Make sure gloves cover jacket sleeves, and leggings go over your boots. A point of entry often forgotten is the neck, so I wear a scarf to keep my neck sealed. There is nothing worse than a stinging insect down your neck.

Wasp in the jacket. I learned the scarf/insect thing the hard way. I was riding with my daughter on the back when a bee went down my front. The first I knew was a stinging pain on my chest. Using all my control I stopped the bike and told my daughter to get off. When she asked “Why?” as young girls do, my screamed “Get off!” convinced her. Then I dropped the bike and ripped off my jacket and shirt, while she wondered if I was going insane. The wasp flew off as I surveyed the large blotches growing on my chest. After that I always wore a scarf when riding.

Next

Rain changes everything because it creates:

• Wetness. That makes you uncomfortable.
• Slipperiness. That can drop the bike.
• Obscurity. That reduces visibility to see ahead.

Wetness, slipperiness and obscurity make rain dangerous for the unwary motorcyclist.

The rain prayer

I often  ride in the rain and so am not scared of it. If it rains, I go anyway. However before I ride in the rain, I say “the rain prayer”. It goes like this: “Let me take care out there!” Its also a sincere wish. You dont have to get on your knees or light a candle or anything. It only takes a second. The main thing is to put the thought in your head that rain changes everything! The problem is that habits die hard, so we tend to drive the same in the rain. You cant do that on a motorcycle. Most people see rain and worry about getting wet. If is warm, wet is no big deal, as we are all wet on the inside anyway. Getting wet doesnt hurt you at all. The big thing is: change your attitude when it rains. With that and wet-weather gear, rain is no problem.

Question: Does the rain prayer really work?
Answer: I dont know. I do it. You cant be too careful in the rain.

Wetness

Rain soaks your clothes and makes you feel uncomfortable, and if it is cold doubly so. Wet gloves feel horrible and wet boots wrinkle your feet. When you arrive soaked, you feel a wreck and have to change clothes. For these reasons, riders want to travel through rain and arrive as they started – warm and dry. The answer is waterproof gear that sheds rain like water off a duck’s back.

A long rainy ride. Coming back from Boston to New Jersey in November heavy rain poured down the whole way. As usual, I saw no other riders on the busy road, but at a break I saw a motorcycle! I talked to the rider. His system was to wear several vinyl raincoats at once to keep dry and warm. He was obviously an oddball to be riding a motorcycle in such weather. Like me! As I crossed into New York, the traffic increased, it got dark, and cold water started seeping into my warm parts. I struggled to concentrate in the cold, wet and slippery conditions with heavy traffic. I still remember the dark rush of traffic, lights and pouring rain. Why do it? On a motorcycle you take the bad with the good. I got home mostly dry and still warm, with a few wet patches.

Plug the gaps

Water has a way of getting into places. At riding speeds, wind forces water into any gaps. While each thing you wear might be waterproof, their combination may not be. If you have a leak at one point, it will seep in and spread. You are as waterproof as your first leak. To keep dry, pay attention to the following gaps:

• Neck: A scarf stops water dribbling down your neck and back.
• Wrists: Gloves (gauntlets) should overlap your jacket sleeves.
• Waist: Make sure your jacket is long enough to cover your leggings in the riding position.
• Ankles: Leggings must be long enough to overlap your boots when crouched.

All leaks flow to the crotch. An interesting fact of riding in the rain is that all water flows to the crotch. When it is cold, a wet crotch is like sitting in a puddle of ice-cold water. If you hit rain riding to work in jeans you may be dry all over except for wet crotch patch. No prizes for guessing where people will think this wetness came from. A wet crotch is not the sort of “patch” most motorcyclists want. The solution is lightweight waterproof leggings.

Very light raincoats

I always carry a very light raincoat or wind-breaker. It is so thin it can crush to the size of a fist and is easy to carry on a bike. It has two uses:

• Layering. Under your main jacket it is additional protection against water.
• Passengers. If you have a passenger, they can wear it for protection.

When riding, always carry a spare very light wind-breaker, whether waterproof or not.

Slipperiness

Rain increases road slipperiness so any safety practice you have, double it in the rain! This applies to cornering, stopping, speed and accelerating. You have only half the stopping power, so double your usual following distance. If you normally take a corner at a certain lean, lean a lot less in the rain. Wet roads also combine dangerously with other slip factors, like white lines and manhole covers.

The first wet

During a dry weather spell, oil from cars builds up on roads. When it rains, the water cleans the roads by loosening these dried up surface oils and in time washes them away. But if you are riding in the first rain after a dry spell, take special care as these oils are still on the surface. The first wet is the worst wet, as rain after a long dry period makes roads extra slippery. Until they wash clean, the roads are extra dangerous for motorcycles.

Reduced Visibility

The main problem with rain is that it obscures vision. Rain drops on the visor outside make it hard to see. You cant clear the drops with your gloves as they smear the visor and make it worse. Sometimes at riding speeds you can turn your head briefly so the wind flow blows the raindrops off. If not, maybe the drop pattern has a clear patch you can see through – altering your head position in the helmet may help. If not, you have to stop and clear. It is worse when rain gets inside the visor to give an inner drop layer as well as an outer one. When two overlapping layers of drops obscure your vision, you have to stop and clear. Don’t ride on, as riding blind is not an option!

Fogging

Fogging occurs when moist air condenses inside your visor. While raindrops partly obscure vision, fogging blocks it entirely. On a nice day you can lift your visor slightly to let the airflow clear the fog, but fogging is more common when it rains. Dealing with visor fogging in wet weather is my pick for worst riding problem. It is a catch-22 between visor down and fogging vs visor up slightly that gives water droplets inside the visor as well. If you wear glasses like I do, water drops on your spectacle lens mean three overlapping layers of droplets blocking vision. Thats bad! A fogging visor in the rain isn’t easy to deal with, but here are some options:

1. Anti-fog liquid. Anti-fog liquid inside and outside your visor, and on your glasses if you wear them, reduces fogging and repels the rain. I always carry anti-fog for this reason.
2. Visor vents open. Most visors have vents – check they are open in hot muggy weather.
3. Lift visor slightly. Click your visor up a fraction, as even a little air flow can clear fogging. On a trip, over time rain drops will still get through, so stop periodically to clean the visor inside and out.
4. Breathe down. Fogging often starts when you stop at traffic lights as there is no airflow. So while stopped I breathe out downwards to fog less, and might also temporarily raise the visor up a bit to get clearing air, then pop it down again when the light goes green.

The best solution is a visor that is anti-fog to start with, or buying an anti-fog visor insert to fit inside the visor. Visor fogging is so dangerous that I always fit an anti-fog strip inside any helmet that I buy. You have to take the visor off to apply it, so it often pays to do it in the shop when you buy. They may help you fit the strip right and get the visor back on correctly afterwards.

Fog

Fog is when droplets of water condense in the air around you to reduce vision. It is not common but fog happens, and when does visibility goes way down. There are stories of people being unable to see their hand held out in front of them in fog. Fog reduces your main line of defense – vision. And when your vision goes down, so must your speed. Speeds of 20 or 10 mph are not unreasonable in fog. Fog on a highway produces 50 car pile-ups when drivers ignore visibility conditions. On a motorcycle in bad conditions like fog, look for a “sweeper”, a large vehicle that can blaze a trail for you. Behind a big truck you can travel faster than your lights allow, as their lights see further.

Question: If the fog is really bad, how slow should I go?
Answer: As slow as you have to. If necessary, get off the bike and walk. Adaptability has no limits – ride to the conditions, whatever they are.

Water-planing

Sometimes a body of water several inches deep or more forms on the road that you must ride through. If you hit solid water at speed it becomes hard, and like a water-skier you skid across it. This is called water-planing. So as for cornering, enter slowly then accelerate to push through it. A motorcycle can move through quite deep water, deeper than most cars, but the key is once you enter don’t stop. Keep the revs up and use the clutch to give more power as needed. Move through at a steady pace without trying to force it. Water-planing happens when riders try to force their way through water. If you go through gently, the water simply moves aside for you.

Next

On a motorcycle, wind chill can turn cold into very cold. For a rider at 55mph, it can turn a cool 63°F day into temperatures approach freezing point. So on a cold day, a rider gets really cold. Coldness distracts from riding, cold fingers cant feel the bike controls and a chilled body gives hypothermia where one cant think clearly. Yet with the right gear, you can be snug in almost any weather.

The layer system

The layer system lets you adapt to the cold. I have a warm jacket but sometimes in winter it is not enough. The layer system lets you add layers for extra warmth. It is not the thickness of each layer that counts but the number of layers, because the air between layers is also an insulator. On a long cold trip, I might wear:

1. A warm body vest (thermal optional).
2. A warm shirt over that.
3. A warm woolen waistcoat over that.
4. A light windbreaker over that.
5. And a full riding jacket over it all.

Can it really get that cold? Sure it can, especially on a long trip! The layer system gives flexibility. If it warms up, take a layer off, like the waistcoat or windbreaker. If it gets colder, stop and add one. I always carry a windbreaker as a spare layer. Layering also works for rain, as if water gets through one layer, the next one stops it.

The layer system also works for feet, hands and legs. Two pairs of socks, an thin inner pair and an thick outer one, are better than one very thick pair. Glove liners, thin fingered gloves worn inside your main gloves, increase warmth in cold conditions. In extreme conditions, glove covers worn outside your gloves give extra warmth and waterproofing. For the legs, inner long-johns add warmth, and lightweight leggings can pull over heavy leggings for an extra layer.

Plastic bags. When young I carried four plastic bags and rubber bands. On really cold or wet days, I used to put the bags over my gloves and boots with rubber bands to hold them in place. Sounds dumb but it worked. It was a cheap and effective way to keep hands and feet dry and warm when riding. Of course it looked strange, but on cold rainy days the motorcycle fashion police are off-duty. If the bags ripped, they were easily replaced.

Don’t be an iceberg

Even with good gear, in mid-winter you can often only go an hour or less before you have to stop. When the body isn’t regenerating the heat you are losing fast enough, you slowly turn into an iceberg. Normally you generate heat by moving about but its dangerous to move about to warm up while riding. Recognize that once your main body heat drains away, you have to stop. It only gets worse from here. And when you stop at a cafe to warm up with a coffee, it can can take 10-20 minutes for your main body heat to return. Stopping every half hour is not a good way to take a long trip so warm gear is the way to avoid that. When traveling, keeping warm is mostly about hanging on to the heat you have.

The weakest link

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so what about a freezing wind coming up under your helmet on a cold day? As you go faster, the problem increases and a frozen face is bad news. I find a scarf helpful here. Push one end up under the helmet to stop the wind chill on your face. A balaclava is better, but you have to put that on in advance under your helmet. A scarf is like a cheap balaclava that you can just pull up over your face as needed. Flexibility rocks!

Next

Skills are the physical actions a rider uses to ride. They are learned by practice, not words. To be effective, skills must be automatic. There are two types of skills, basic and advanced. Basic skills are what you learn right away, including getting on the bike, take-off, riding and stopping. You use these skills all the time, so might as well start right. If you start wrong, then you are just practicing mistakes. If you are experienced, then you can skip this section.

Getting on

Getting on a motorbike is the simplest thing in the world, right? Wrong! When you get on a bike, especially a big one, stand close to it and grab both handlebars firmly. Probably it is on a side stand leaning towards you. First straighten the handlebars and pull the front brake on so you have control. Why close?  Well if for some reason the the bike falls away from you it can be really hard to stop. Why the brake? Well on a slope when you push it off the stand it can move. Now swing your leg over by sliding the bent knee over the seat. Don’t hurl your leg back, as this puts you off balance. If you have a pack-rack bag, there is no room to do that anyway. Just raise the bent knee and push it over the seat. Now you are on, vertical the bike and kick the stand away. Then plant your left foot, lean the bike onto it, and put your right foot on the break. This frees your hands to adjust your gloves or jacket before you put it into neutral to start. Next is the take off.

After twenty years. After riding a motorcycle for twenty years I felt I had getting on the motorcycle covered. Then one day I swung my leg over and my boot caught in the carry strap of my bag on the back. My foot caught in the bag pushed the bike away from me. It was a slow-motion dilemma – as I leaned forward more to grab the bike my foot pushed the bike over more, but if I didnt lean forward I couldn’t grab it to pull it back. In the end the bike went down with me on top of it. Embarrassing and nothing I could do! After that, I got in the habit of checking the bag carry strap was flipped to the back before getting on.

Take off

Sitting on the bike, open the choke as necessary. Put the gear in neutral, then turn the ignition to start the bike. Give it a moment to warm up, then plant your right foot and kick back the stand. With all four fingers of the left hand, pull in the clutch, and with your left foot engage first gear. You are now stationary, with front brake still on, but ready to take off.

Slowly open the clutch to the point of engagement (POE). The POE is the point when the clutch lever lets the engine power go to the wheels. It varies from bike to bike, but at the POE the bike will start to pull and the engine revs decrease. The POE can be altered by a knurled adjuster where the cable leaves the clutch lever. When you get to the POE, you have to do two things at the same time:

1. Release the front brake so the bike can move.
2. Open the clutch to transfer power to the wheels.
3. Turn the throttle to keep the engine revs up.

If you do this right, opening the clutch as you turn the throttle gives a nice, smooth, controlled take off. Since you are balancing two things, two things can go wrong:

• Too much power. You take off too fast and lose control or skid.
• Too much clutch. The engine lurches and stalls, and you don’t take off at all.

Don’t worry if you get it wrong first time – it takes practice. When you take off, you need power to accelerate to a safe speed quickly, like when a plane takes off it needs plenty of power to get airborne. At take off, your speed is low because you start at speed zero, but your acceleration is high. Take off involves high acceleration, so if you are on a slippery surface, like a white line, or in gravel, you can easily skid. If you skid while perfectly straight the back wheel spins in place, but any lean and it slides out left or right and you fall off.

The other likely outcome for beginners is to stall. This means too much clutch and not enough throttle. Go easier on the clutch and get the engine at higher “revs”. Dont be afraid of high revs as they dont affect anything until the clutch is out. Get the clutch to the point of engagement slowly but this time keep the revs high. The higher you rev the engine the less chance there is of stalling, and the slower you let the clutch out the less chance of takeoff “lurch”. High revs and slow clutch gives a smooth takeoff.

Posture

Posture is how you sit on the bike. You can lean forward, lean back, sit upright or some combination. Racing bikes are designed so riders crouch forward to reduce wind drag, but this becomes uncomfortable over time. Easy rider bikes let you lean back but oddly this is also uncomfortable over time. Touring bikes, designed to ride for long distances, favor an upright posture. Upright is less effort, because the body supports itself, giving a more relaxing ride. Upright gives better vision, because the head is higher. Finally, it gives better control, as the body is not leaning on the hands or feet. Leaning pressure can interfere with hand/foot control actions. Its also better for your back to be upright.

Check your posture when you sit on the motorcycle – can you lift and move your hands and feet without affecting the body? If you relax your arms and fall forward, you were leaning on them. Your hand must be entirely free from body pressure because it interferes with bike control. Another way to check your posture is go on a long trip. If you have a sore back or shoulders at the end of the day, your posture is not right. When you sit upright, you retain a lumbar arch – that arch in the lower back is an important part of good posture. Find a posture that suits you and stick to it.

Foot off the brake

There is some discussion about this. If you ride with your foot right over the brake, then any sudden bump can result in accidental braking with potentially dangerous results. Here’s why. You hit a bump, maybe junk on the road and as the body lurches forward, the foot over the brake accidentally presses the brake on. Unexpectedly stopping or even slowing down like that for no reason is very dangerous, in traffic for example. If you are heavily thrown forward foot on the brake can even throw you off the bike. So I always ride with my right foot to the side of the brake pedal, maybe pointing the foot a little out. With your foot to the side of the brake, if you lurch forward for any reason, the brake is not affected. I only put my foot over the brake when in the ready reaction position, i.e. when braking is needed.

Stopping

There are two brakes, front and back. When stopping, the weight of you and the bike are thrown forward, pressing the front wheel down. This gives the front wheel more friction and so more stopping power, but if you brake too hard you can go over the top. The most effective brake on a motorbike is the front brake. Experienced riders often mainly control the bike with the front brake because it is so effective, but others suggest learners use the back brake at first for the same reason! I prefer to apply both brakes gently at once, on the principle that how you stop normally is how you will stop in an emergency. So I normally use both brakes at once so my brain will follow the same steps in an emergency. My normal stop and my emergency stop are the same pattern. You cant expect your body to behave differently in a rare emergency from its usual habit. It wont suddenly learn new skills in an emergency, as when the adrenaline is pumping, habit dominates. Practicing using both brakes when normal stopping is building a habit that may save your life. Applying front and back brakes together is a skill that must be practiced until it is automatic. It should be a single gentle action.

When you stop, plant your left foot, lean the bike and press the brake with your right foot. Don’t put down both feet, as it is less stable. When stopped at a red light, don’t put the bike in neutral gear! Keep the bike in first gear with the clutch pulled in. This lets you react faster, which is what riding a bike safely is all about. For example, if someone coming up behind doesnt look like they are going to stop, you can immediately move forward out of their way. If you are in neutral you may well be rear-ended.

Bike falls away. After a ride I was standing by my bike with my young son on the other side. I don’t remember if he grabbed it or not, but for some reason the bike started to fall away from me onto him. Oh no! I jammed my feet under the hot exhaust and hauled on the handlebars to pull it back from him. This worked, but a nasty calf burn from the hot exhaust was a good reminder to keep your bike close and watch out when kids are around.

Park

Dismount and park is the opposite of mount – with the bike vertical and in first gear, front brake on and two legs down, kick the stand out. Then lean the bike on the stand until you feel it is secure, switch it off and get off. Be careful parking on slopes, because a bike pointing down the slope can roll off the side stand. I usually point it on an angle up the slope to park. Also remember that a bike has no reverse, so if someone parks in front of you pointing downhill you can get stuck, if you are unable to pull the bike back uphill. This especially applies to big bikes.

Parked bike wont start. When I taught at university, periodically I would come back and find that the bike just wouldnt start. First time, it took me a while to realize that it was because somebody had flicked the kill switch on, to make the bike “dead”. At first I thought that some student had it in for me, but then I realized that young students like bikes, and pressing buttons is just what they do. Who wouldnt want to press a big red button on a motorbike?

Controlled braking

Stopping in an emergency is all about controlled braking. If a car suddenly pulls out in front of you, STOP AS FAST AS YOU CAN is NOT a good reaction, as if you jam on the brakes too fast you skid and crash all by yourself. On the other hand, if you brake too slow you hit the car. What to do? As with the clutch, the answer is to know your brake point of engagement (POE). My aim is to quickly get to the brake point of engagement (POE), then slowly squeeze the brakes. You separate braking into stages, one done at maximum speed and the other done with maximum control.

First,get to the braking POE as fast as you can: right hand gets the front brake to the POE and right foot gets to the brake pedal POE. At this point, you can still choose to not brake. Then, apply the brakes with control not panic. The two stages are:

• Engage the brakes fast.
• Squeeze the brakes slowly, with control.

The two stages are different. If you vigorously engage and press the brakes, chances are you will skid and lose control, especially in the wet. If you cautiously engage and press the brakes, you may crash before they activate. Get quickly to the POE, then gently apply the brakes. Emergency stopping is a fast as possible “kick in” followed by a controlled squeezing of the brakes! And if you learn this in normal braking you have a better chance to apply it in emergency braking.

There is no question that in panic situations controlled braking is hard to do! For the front brake, the initial “fingers to the lever” action is fast but the rest is steady and controlled. For the back brake, first “cover” the brake with minimal pressure then apply controlled pressure. To get control, the pressure is from the ankle turning around the pivot of the heel. It’s a controlled ankle turn, not a stomp down with the whole leg. The end result is a smooth and controlled emergency stop.

A panic stop. Here is a true story of a stopping mistake that nearly cost me. I was on a four lane highway and turning right up onto the Auckland Harbor Bridge. The turn was banked, traffic was low, and the bridge itself was uphill – every reason to “open her up”, swoosh the corner, and power up the hill, which I did. I was enjoying the moment when suddenly a car at the top of the bridge jammed on their brakes, and with smoke coming from the rear wheels, skidded sideways until it blocked all three lanes. I panicked and jammed on both brakes. The back wheel locked and slid out to the right. The moment of skid was like balancing on the point of moving needle. The bike skidded across two lanes before I let go the brakes, and regained control. I then found I had plenty of time to stop, and had over-reacted. No brains. It all happened in seconds, with no emotion, so I drove on over the bridge, but coming down the other side I had to stop. The emotions had kicked in. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I had to pull over and reassure my emotions that all was ok! I also made it a goal to learn controlled braking.

Next

Advanced riding skills are those you need occasionally or in special circumstances. They develop over time. Dealing with other people on the road, including anticipating, positioning and signaling, are covered later under Situations.

Vertical stability

Occasionally you hit a hole in the road that almost bounces you off the bike. It is a scary feeling, as your body leaves the bike and rises in the air. The bike’s shock absorbers are designed to take care of such events, but when they aren’t enough you can use your legs as shock absorbers. You see off-road riders riding with their body raised off the seat for this reason, to absorb hard bumps. They are using their legs to absorb shocks that might otherwise bounce them off the bike.

You dont have to stand up on a bike to do the same thing. If you see a big pothole in the road ahead with no chance to miss it, push down with your legs as you hit it. Even if your body doesnt raise much, this will help absorb the vertical shock. I routinely do this when crossing “speed bumps”. Note: you need footwear with a heel to lock against the foot-pegs, so the foot cannot slip off. Dont try this if you are struggling with normal riding!

Forward stability

If you hit something on the road and are thrown forward, your arms must act as shock absorbers. If you ride with your arms rigidly “locked” they wont be good shock absorbers. A rigid arm is trying to oppose a shock that it should be absorbing it. If you press down on the front shock absorbers of a motorcycle, the bike goes down, it doesn’t rigidly resist. Your arms need to work the same way if you are thrown forward.

The bendable iron arm is a martial arts way to effectively absorb a shock to the arms. To try this, hold your arms forward, curved at the elbow, and palm down. The arms are bent in a natural inward pointing curve, not rigid, so your elbows don’t “lock” . Now do the same when you hold the motorcycle, with palms down and thumbs lined up against the handle grips. Imagine your arms as “bendable iron”, so your body, arms and the handlebars form a circle, that under forward pressure bends but does not break. Your arms are the shock absorbing part of the circle. Since you never know when you will suddenly hit a pothole or an object on the road, set your arms for forward stability as a safety habit.

Try this at home. To find out how your arms absorb shock, stand in front of a solid wall at home. First, extend your arms straight in front of you, upwards, just in front of the wall. Then starting gently get someone to push you forward or do it yourself. Increase the force gradually until you are hitting the wall with some shock but not enough to hurt yourself. If your arms are straight, they lock to oppose the shock when you hit the wall. This is not good, because a strong force could break them, or they could bend the other way! Now try the “bendable iron arm”, extending your palms sideways and curve the arm inwards. Now under pressure, the arm bends but does not break, which is what shock absorbing means. As an alternative, try holding your arms up, as occurs on choppers with high handlebars. Now with hardly any force you will find your face hits the wall.

Sideways stability

Your arms and legs give forward and vertical stability, but what about sideways stability? Sometimes winds or ridges in the road push the bike sideways. There may be rut that pulls the bike to one side. Or you may hit an object that twists the bike. How can you straighten a sideways movement? The knee tank grip can control sideways forces on a motorcycle. With a firm hold of the handlebar, grip the tank with your knees and push your feet in. This lets you keep the bike from wobbling sideways.

How slow can you go?

Stability is how well you keep your balance and how little you wobble. With experience, you reduce the natural wavering that occurs as you ride. New riders have a lot of wobble. Skilled riders have very little. Good riding, like good wine, is smooth. Wobble is not bad – it is natural – but the less there is the better the rider.

Stability is especially evident when you start and stop the bike. A stable start means you just lift your feet and go. An unstable start involves swerves and foot dragging. A stable stop means you stop, then calmly put your feet down. An unstable stop involves feet scraping the ground while the bike is moving, with a heavy heave at the end to stop it falling over. Unstable riders tend to wear out their boots.

When you go fast, centrifugal force keeps the bike vertically stable. When you go slow that reduces, so then you find out how stable you are. Your motorcycle skill is not how fast you can go, but how slow you can go. Any fool can twist an accelerator, but to come to a complete stop, stay vertical, then calmly drop a leg, takes skill. The more stable you are, and the less you wobble and the safer you are on a motorcycle, at any speed.

Stop-Start Practice. Skilled riders can come to a full physical stop, with their feet still on the pegs, then take off again (without putting a foot down on the ground). Pilots practice a similar exercise involving almost landing and taking off in one action. When you can do this on a bike, you have stability.

The two-part hand grip

The controls of a motorcycle are sensitive, so a fraction of an inch too much or not enough can cause a crash. Especially important is the right hand, that controls both the accelerator and front brake. I keep these two functions separate, as follows:

1. Accelerator Control: “Choke” the accelerator grip as far up the hand as possible, so it sits in the base of the thumb and forefinger “V”. Turning the wrist then turns the accelerator.
2. Brake Control: The above lets your fingers pull on the front brake. To check this, with the bike running in neutral and all fingers pulling the brake lever, turn the accelerator. If you can’t do this while your fingers are braking you are doing it wrong.

I ride with my right forefinger always extended over the front brake lever. The rest of the fingers curl around the handle, but the extended right forefinger “reminds” my body where the brake lever is. The rest of the fingers follow the forefinger when needed. This is part of the “quickly engage” part of a sudden stop sequence. Meanwhile the wrist turn quite separately takes care of acceleration.

Non-visual handling

When you ride, can you operate the controls without looking? This includes front light, high/low beam, indicators and horn. Try beeping your horn without looking down at the controls (to see where the horn button is). Why do this? In a “situation” you will almost certainly be busy looking elsewhere. If you cant handle a control without looking, perhaps you wont handle it at all. When you shower, do you need to look at each part of your body to wash it? Of course not. Your kinesthetic sense based in your muscles tells you where everything is! So use this sense, which everyone has, to do things like dip the beam or press the horn. Like all things, practice until you know where each control is by touch, not by sight.

Haptic indicators. Current motorcycle design assumes the rider is looking at the controls, but when riding this is not a good idea. When you turn on an indicator, the control light blinks and ticks, but a safe rider rarely looks their controls, and with a helmet on often cant hear the tick. So it is easy to ride with the indicator is on, which is dangerous. Motorcycles need some form of touch or haptic feedback, like a vibration, to remind the rider the indicator is on. Hopefully this will become common one day.

Turning

You turn a bike not by steering it, or twisting the handlebars, but by leaning or “falling” into a turn. Your forward momentum then makes the lean create a turn. Going too fast into a turn can run you off the road or put you into oncoming traffic. Either way is a problem, but judging the line of a turn before you enter it is not easy. So the general rule is slow down into a turn then accelerate out of it. Slowing down into a turn lets you judge the line of the turn, then when you get that you accelerate out to increase control. Accelerating into a turn is like diving into a pool when you dont know how deep the water is.

Judging the lean needed to give the right trajectory line on a turn requires skill. So take it easy early on. With experience, you will “see” the curve the bike should take as a turn line. The turn line also varies with the situation, so when turning where there is oncoming traffic, you might keep to the side of the road away from them. In wet weather you have to lean less because of reduced tire friction. You can reduce the amount of turn by “cutting” the corner, start outside the lane, then go inside, then back outside again.

Normally when riding you look where the bike is pointing, as that is where it is going. But when turning, where the bike is pointing is not where it is going. As you turn, you will be looking at the road side, not the road ahead. So drag your vision up from the front wheels to the turn line end-point. Lock your early warning risk “radar” to where you are going, not where you are pointing.  When you turn, unlock your eyes from your habitual “front” to look ahead where the turn is taking you.

The Ready Reaction

Before the brain reacts to any situation it has to prepare and preparation time can be as long as the reaction time. If it takes half a second to react, it might take half a second to decide what the reaction is. Getting in a ready state, as in the sumo wrestler picture, is all about reducing response time, and the ready state is:

• Front brake. Extend one finger over front brake lever.
• Back brake. With heel on the peg, the right foot “covers” the back brake.
• Accelerator. Right wrist stops any acceleration.
• Clutch/Gear. Left fingers extend over the clutch lever and left foot recognizes the gear.

Interestingly, the same principle of readiness applies to societies, e.g. the U.S. military five levels of readiness, from DEFCON 5 (safe) to DEFCON 1 (severe). The motorcycle ready reaction is like a DEFCON Yellow, which is “On Guard”. It is not a big deal, like some red alert, but a precautionary state that improves reaction time. Fingers on front brake and foot over back brake makes you ready to stop if necessary. Not accelerating makes your speed reduce. Clutch and gear are ready to drop down a gear if needed for more control. And of course your awareness goes up. What initiates a ready reaction is your sense of risk, that something might happen, as when going through an intersection.

The ready reaction as an advanced riding skill must be practiced until it is automatic. You say “Go!” and it happens right away. All of the above happen simultaneously, but in itself the ready reaction does nothing at all – it just gets you ready to do something. And when automatic it happens with no effort, almost subconsciously, so it took me a while to realize I was doing this. Many times you may go to ready mode and nothing happens, e.g. when you see children on the side of the road. If nothing does you have lost nothing, but if something does you are ready. The ready reaction is the most valuable safety skill you can learn because it saves vital half-seconds that may make all the difference.

Next

Readiness is not just getting ready, but also staying ready. Maintenance means checking your bike every now and again. By the Law of Entropy, everything gets old and wears out, so maintenance is part of life. It lets you catch little problems before they become big. A little time spent checking your bike can prevent a lot of trouble later. Putting your bike in the shop regularly for a check is just part of the cost of running a motor vehicle.

Keep your bike clean

How shiny a motorcycle is doesn’t affect how well it runs, so why bother keeping it clean? Won’t a dirty bike run as well as a clean one? It sounds good in theory but in practice a clean bike means:

• You see problems. If you clean your bike regularly, you are more likely to see developing problems, like a nail in a tire, or a dry chain.
• Mechanics respect it. If you put your bike in for service, the mechanic sees if it is clean or not. . If you don’t care, why should the mechanic? If it is clean you check it regularly, so they will more likely do a good job.
• You feel good about the bike. Finally, a clean bike makes you feel more positive to your motorcycle. It means you care.

Check your mirrors every time you ride

Should you check tires, oil, chain tension etc every time before you get on the bike? Its a good idea, and some riders do, but if you never find a problem, as the bike is regularly serviced, it becomes a pointless chore and then you dont bother checking anything. But every time I ride, one thing I check without fail is that my visor and mirrors are clear. If not I clean them. Good vision is so important that this is not an option. Even if late, it only takes a moment to breathe on and polish a mirror or visor. Seeing is surviving, so never set off without clear rear vision mirrors.

Check your tires

My main weekly check is that the tires are not slowly deflating. If tires go down suddenly, you can tell, but if they go down slowly, you may not notice. You need a tire gauge to check the pressures. It only takes moment to check tires. If your ride feels a little “spongy”, check your tires right away. You can usually see or feel if a nail is in the tire

Service checks

Every six months or so, your bike needs a maintenance check and tune up by an expert with the right equipment. Some things you can do yourself, like change the oil, spark plugs, air filter and grease the rear chain, which is important as a dry chain can break. Putting grease on a chain is not that hard and grease is cheap. You can change the oil yourself with an oil pan and oil. It can get messy but you need to keep some oil around anyway in case it needs topping up. Yet since you need a service check anyway, why not leave it to the mechanic?

The problem many people have with mechanics is they charge a lot. Some shops pressure mechanics to replace everything they can, even if it doesnt need it. They call this “efficiency” but you call it “being ripped off”. When you go into a big franchise to pick up your bike you talk to the front desk whose job is to tell you a story and take your money. You are talking to to the organ grinder not the “wrench monkey” who did the job. I always ask to talk to the person who worked on my bike. This is not being cynical, it is just that the best person to tell me about my bike is the person who worked on it. So find a personal motorcycle shop, where the person who talks to you is the person who did the work.

Use the service schedule in the bike manual to specify exactly what to check, and leave the manual with them on the bike with that page marked. They should give an estimated price. Give your cell phone number to call you immediately so if something comes up, they can check with you first. When you get the bike back, go down each point and ask about it, to learn not just what was done but also what is likely to go in the future. Was the oil low, maybe a leak? Was only one spark plug gone? Ask to see any replaced parts, like spark plugs, to see how bad they were. You are entitled to those parts, as they are yours. Then ask them to sign or stamp the service in your manual, with the date and mileage, as a record for next time.

Maintain your battery

The battery is the “heart” of a bike and a flat battery is like a bike heart attack. To make it easy to keep your battery healthy fit a battery tender. It provides wires from the battery terminals to an external plug point for convenient charging. To charge the battery, just plug the charger into the battery plug point when your battery is getting flat, say you haven’t ridden for a while. No need to take off a side cover or lift the seat to mess with battery terminals. With a battery tender, its just plug and play. The battery tender should sense when the battery is charged and stop charging.

A push start. I put my bike in for its regular check up, then headed off to Boston. Unfortunately, unknown to me, the mechanics had run down my battery. I was idling at a toll line with my headlights on for a time. Again unknown to me, when idling with headlights on your charge loss is greater than the generator is creating. Then the engine stopped and wouldn’t start – flat battery. Push starting a big bike is not easy, but goes something like this. Push the bike up the nearest slope. Put it into neutral gear. The ignition is off. Push the bike to get some speed, then put your left foot on the peg, and jump on. Turn the ignition on, pull in the clutch, drop to second gear, then let out the clutch entirely. Your speed will turn the engine, which hopefully will start. If it does, the bike will take off, so pull in the clutch in and rev it, so it doesn’t stop. If you are on the flat, its same, but harder. Kind people around may give you the push necessary to start. Of course at toll booths no-one helps, but eventually the bike started. The lesson is that mechanics can fix and mechanics can make things fail, so never take a major trip the day after service.

Waterproofing

Once a year, I waterproof my gear, usually on a sunny day in summer. Over time, jackets, gloves, boots and leggings tend to leak, mainly at the joints. Of the various waterproofing products, I prefer the solid ones that melt on with warmth, like Sno-Seal. The spray on types don’t seem to last as long. On a sunny day rub the proofing into your gear to keep the water out.

Next

A properly kitted motorcycle can carry quite a lot. I’m not allowed to tell you the things I have carted from A to B on my bike over the years, but even just riding to work you need to carry a briefcase. If a bike cant carry a simple briefcase, its luggage capacity is poor. You would be surprised how many so-called “big” bikes cant carry a simple briefcase. Sooner or later we all want carry things on our motorcycle, if only a spare helmet. So how can you do this safely? A motor-cycle can carry luggage on the:

1. Side of the bike (side-panniers/bags)
2. Back, behind you (back-pannier or pack-rack).
3. Tank, in front of you (tank-rack).

All affect bike balance, width and wind-flow differently, and some need special fitting.

Side-panniers/bags

Side-panniers are popular because they are easy – just open them and drop luggage in. They are fixed form, lockable and waterproof, and usually curved so the wind flows over them. Yet often a square briefcase wont fit into a round side-pannier, nor will a spare helmet. Conversely large side-panniers that carry what you want jut out, making the bike less maneuverable.

Side saddlebags are made of a more flexible material, but often small and again cannot fit a helmet or briefcase. They are not as waterproof as panniers. Carrying luggage in side-panniers or bags can affect the bike’s balance if you only load one side.

Back panniers

Back panniers sit behind the rider, so the wind resistance problem is less. Nothing juts out on the left/right, so maneuverability is not affected. A weight at the back moves your center of gravity back, but usually not by much. A back pannier is always a good option, even if small, but a pack rack is more flexible.

Pack Rack

My preferred luggage means is a backpack that slides on a pack-rack fitted on the bike. The advantages are:

• Backrest. Even without the backpack, the pack rack is a passenger safety backrest. It stops them falling off the back if you accelerate and they dont hold on, which happens!
• Central. A backpack on the pack rack sits directly behind you, where the passenger normally sits.
• Flexible. If you have a passenger, the pack can flip around to be behind the passenger.
• Mobile. When you arrive, you lift off the pack and walk away.

For me, a pack rack and bag is the ultimate luggage flexibility and safety. Putting luggage weight where the passenger sits suits the bike design. It is mobile because when you park, you walk away with the backpack on your shoulder. A good bag is large enough to carry helmet, jacket, leggings and gloves. When you arrive, put your helmet and gloves in the bag, lift it onto your back and walk around hands-free to shop or whatever. Or leave the bag behind a counter knowing your  expensive helmet isn’t visible. When traveling, you can add a sleeping bag on top with a bungee cord. And finally, it is the best way to carry  a spare helmet if you need to give someone a lift.

Tank Rack

The advantage of carrying stuff on the tank is that it sits centrally and doesn’t affect bike balance. The disadvantage is it wrecks your tank paintwork and you need to hold it in place with something. A tank rack avoids the paint problem and gives a place to bungee cord items on, or hold them between your knees. A tank rack can also attach a small bag to put things you need often, like a map.

Tank Carriage. In the early days, when bikes were simple, most riders carried stuff on the tank. Each day I put my briefcase on the tank and took off to work. If it rained, I put the briefcase in a large black plastic bag which I always carried. The trick was to hold the case with your knees, so it didn’t affect handlebar control. You had to watch that when the handlebars turned, they didn’t hit the case. I even took suitcases this way, propped end up and leaning on my shoulder, with me peering around it. Of course it was dangerous and I don’t recommend it. Nor is it a good idea to carry that most awkward of luggage, the spare helmet, on the tank as its too hard to hold between the knees.

Helmet lock

Helmets are awkward things to carry around, and if you drop a helmet on concrete you may have to buy a new one. What to do with your helmet when you arrive is a rider problem, so some bikes have a helmet lock. It lets you lock the helmet on the bike after you stop, so you don’t have to carry it around and no-one can steal it. It was not designed to carry a helmet while riding, so NEVER use it for that.  You can get a detachable helmet lock or helmet carry bags, but I prefer to put it in my pack bag and take it with me.

Bungee cords

Bungee cords are used to attach luggage to a bike, given somewhere to hook the ends. You can use several cords from several angles, then a final cord to tension the other cords. Even a pack rack bag can bounce off if you hit a big bump. If that happens one cord stretched diagonally will hold it on. I always carry a set of bungee cords for unexpected luggage demands. There are also “bungee nets”, stretchy webs of nylon, that are great for traveling. Bungee cords are the most useful addition to a motorcycle’s carry capacity.

Personal backpack

What about putting a pack on your own back to carry things? A small backpack can carry light stuff like a drink but if you are student say, putting a pack full of heavy textbooks on your back and riding to university is a bad idea! The weight on your back strains the body and affects control of the bike, which is dangerous. Not a good idea. A satchel with a long strap that goes around your neck is OK, as you can swing it around to rest on the tank. Lean on it with your tummy so it doesnt move while riding.

What to carry in your jacket?

Here are some things I carry in my jacket when riding:

• Copy of license/insurance – in case you forget your wallet.
• Toll money – coins as needed.
• Tire gauge – to check my tires any time.
• Tissues, lip chap, sun screen and whatever
• Map(s) – for when lost.
• Visor defogger spray/fluid – for hot wet weather.
• Glove liners – Light inner gloves for cold weather or passengers.
• Spare $ – as you never know.

Other just in case things I carry on the bike are:

• Basic tools: pliers, Philips/slot screwdrivers, plug socket, crescent and spanners.
• First aid: Band-aids and antiseptic.
• Balaclava – just in case.
• Wind-breaker – for passengers and just in case.
• Bungee cords – for unexpected luggage.
• Large black plastic bags – to put luggage in when it rains.

Next

Boots and gloves need to protect you, feel comfortable and be easy to put on and take off.

Boots

Ankle covering boots are important because stones from the road can fly up and hit your feet and ankles. If you cant afford proper bike boots, at least wear hiking boots that cover your ankles. Riding boots extend up the calf to protect from road stones and hot exhausts. And if you have leggings, they go up enough so the rain doesn’t run into your boots. Good boots are waterproof and warm. They close with zip and Velcro, not laces that can come loose and tangle in moving parts. I  like my boots to look nice when walking so when I arrive there is no need to change shoes. If you pull your pants over the boots it looks like you are just wearing ordinary black shoes.

Gloves

Gloves protect your hands with extra padding at hit points, like knuckles. They keep hands warm but not sweaty, if made of a material that insulates but still breathes. Heavy gloves should be waterproof, as wet gloves make your hands stink. Gauntlet gloves are long enough to cover over the jacket sleeve, so wind and water can’t come up the arm. Finally, you want gloves as light as possible, so your hands can feel the controls. Protective, insulated, water-proof, breathable and lightweight – gloves have a lot of demands! I usually have two pairs of gloves, heavy for winter and light for summer. Heavy gloves are bulky but keep the rain and cold out. Light gloves give better finger control at the handlebars but still offer protection in an accident. In heavy rain, water goes up the sleeve because the jacket sleeves go over them.

I wear lighter gloves when possible because they give better control. Don’t buy the “finger free” gloves hunters use. They look good, but dont protect your all important fingers. And don’t use mittens – they keep your fingers warm, but you have terrible lever control. Some gloves have a little zip pocket on the back. If you go through tolls, you can keep coins in there, and get at them easily.

Leggings

Leggings are not pants, they are what goes over your pants, and also go over skirts by the way. The main thing about leggings is they must be easy to put on and take off with boots on – or you wont use them. Good leggings are wide and have zip at the bottom to ensure this is always possible. Riding in shorts is stupid. If you come off, say goodbye to the skin on your legs. If you normally wear shorts, at least put on lightweight leggings when you ride. I wear lightweight leggings even just around town because they protect my nice pants from dirty road grime, not to mention the occasional flying road stone. With leggings, you can arrive looking good. Leggings also let you jump onto a wet motorcycle seat without flinching. Leggings must also be long enough to go over your boots when you bend your knees, as you do while riding, not always easy if you are tall. If not, the leggings just channel the rain right into your boots.

Scarf

It can be good idea to wear a light scarf to seal your neck against cold and rain if the jacket doesnt have a collar that goes right up. It also stops the jacket Velcro from scratching the neck and feels nice. Finally, it stops nasty insects flying down your neck when your riding. The ends of the scarf can also be a useful warmth addition to tuck down the front of your jacket if it suddenly gets cold.

Watch

If your watch strap breaks open or unclips while riding at 80mph down a highway, then your watch is gone forever. You will not get it back. So I wear a watch strap that unclips to a continuous loop. If the strap opens up, the watch still stays on your wrist.

Losing a watch. I discovered this watch strap breaking on the highway thing the hard way. I felt it go, but at 80mph you cant do much. I just looked down, and the watch wasnt there any more. It was really frustrating, as I knew exactly where it fell off, but going back to look for it was out of the question. A one-way highway is not a place to look for things. Eventually I accepted reality and went out and bought a new watch – with a continuous strap.

Easy on, easy off

With gear, the time lost getting it on and off can cancel out the time saved because bikes are quicker. So make “easy on, easy off ” your overall number one gear requirement. Who wants to spend 15 minutes getting ready to ride? Gloves need a smooth inner lining to slip on without fuss. Helmet should be flip and clip. Boots should be zip and Velcro close. In  the Army, I had boots that were great protection but took ages to lace up. If what you wear is fiddly, you will tend not to use it. This applies most of all to leggings, that must also slip on and off easily. No item should take longer than a minute to get on, and most should be less. So like a hard boiled egg, I am ready in three minutes.

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Without a good riding jacket, you can be cold, wet, wind-burnt, sun-burned and injured. The riding jacket separates the pro’s from the bro’s. A motorcycle jacket has no hood, as the helmet keeps the head dry. A jacket is your most expensive gear, but after the helmet it is the most important for safety so it pays to get it right. It costs the most because it must be

1. Protective: Rip proof, absorbs damage, protection pads.
2. Warm: Good insulation, internal winter wool insert.
3. Waterproof: Pocket flap seals, closed wrists and collar, zip overlays.
4. Ventilated: Breathable material, back vents, underarm vents.
5. Wearable: Not too heavy, stays clean, adjustable waist, nice design.
6. A carryall: Wallet pocket, map pockets, side pockets, inside pockets.

Protective

The many types of jacket material include:

1. Leather
2. Polyvinyl or nylon
3. Synthetic

Leather motor-cycle jackets can be heavy, bulky and not entirely waterproof (the leather jacket one wears to a club is not a motor-cycle jacket). Leather tends to be expensive, but is warm, and does one thing well – protect in a fall. Leather protects as skin does, by absorbing an attack. If you hit the pavement, the jacket rips but you don’t – it takes the hurt for you. The gravel bits stick in the jacket, not your skin, which is good.

Polyvinyl or vinyl is the cheaper alternative to leather. Originally designed for road-side workers, rain suits often come in glaring colors, like yellow or orange. They arent designed to absorb impact in a fall. Polyvinyl is fully waterproof and tough, but being thin tends to just rip in a fall. It also isn’t that warm and doesn’t “breathe”, so in summer it can feel like your in an incubator. Wearing a woolly jumper under a vinyl jacket is a cheap way to add warmth and improve fall protection.

Synthetic jackets are the ideal motor-cycle solution. If you can afford a quality synthetic jacket get one – they are worth it. They breathe, are fully waterproof, are warm and give at least as much protection as leather. They are made of Gore-tex, a Kevlar like material used in bullet proof vests, and have protective pad inserts at important “hit points” like the elbows. Finally they have great pockets to carry all sorts of stuff. Synthetic jackets are expensive, but worth it.

Waterproof

You find out if a jacket is waterproof or not when it rains heavily and you have some distance to travel. You feel a damp spot, often beginning at the front where the rain hits, that slowly spreads. For jackets, the fabric may be waterproof, but leakage occurs at the joints, especially the main front zip or button up. The more joints (zips and pockets) a jacket has, the more places it can leak. Good jackets have a waterproof flap system that covers the zips to ensure they don’t leak, held in place by Velcro or metal clips. On a water-proof jacket, all zips and water entry points have covering flaps, so you cant see the main zips directly. Velcro straps on the wrists close up stop water entering there. Likewise the neck needs a button up Chinese collar, to cover and seal with a pull-around Velcro strap. Does all this matter? When you are traveling for an hour in solid rain it does!

Warm

Most jackets are lined inside to be warm, so I wouldnt get a jacket with no lining at all. Air flow has a wind chill effect, so if you ride at speed in cold weather, it is much colder. The windchill can easily be below zero even if the actual temperature is not. Unfortunately, a heavy jacket for winter it is not pleasant in hot summer, and vice-versa. Some jackets let you get the best of both worlds, with an inner lining both for body that can be unzipped and removed in summer when it is hot. I usually get this type, as they cost more but it is cheaper than buying two jackets!

Ventilated

Ventilation is how well a jacket handles warm weather. A jacket needs to “breathe”, or let air in and out. A vinyl jacket is impermeable to water, but also to air. On a hot day the body generates water as perspiration. Vinyl keeps outside water (like rain) out, but it also keeps inside water (perspiration) in. On a hot day you can be wet from sweat not rain. A good jacket keeps rain out but still breathes, due to zip vents that allow airflow at the back or sides, where rain does not come in.

Wearable

Most fashion leather jackets are wearable around but neither warm nor waterproof on a motorcycle, as they have open fronts and collars. It is hard to get riding functionality and good looks in a single jacket. A wearable motorcycle jacket is one that still looks good when you get off the bike, so you can walk around in it without looking to out of place. Heavy or bulky jackets that make you look like a polar explorer are not “cool”. Leather jackets that look good are often too short to cover your bottom part, especially for tall people like me. When it rains, the water runs down goes to the groin and a wet crotch is not cool. In the picture of a cool leather jacket, note that it stops a few inches short of his belt, so even with leggings, in the crouch position on a bike the water is going to go in there.

Synthetic jackets are longer to cover better, and look good if they have a fitted look. They also come in various design colors and styles. To justify the cost, you are getting two jackets in one, one to ride and one to walk around in. And the material does not fade – even after years they look as new.

A carryall

A motorcycle jacket needs waterproof pockets, including:

1. Wallet pocket: In the old days getting out your wallet with a motorcycle jacket on was a major undertaking. Today’s jackets have a zipped breast pocket that sits outside the main front zip, so you can pull out your wallet without unbuttoning the jacket at all.
2. Front map pockets: These can hold a large flat object, like a map, and are very deep. To get at the map requires opening a side zip or Velcro rip.
3. Side pockets: If zipped with a Velcro flap, they can hold items like toll booth coinage or tire gauge, on both sides.
4. Inside Pockets: Have to open the jacket to get at these pockets, but they are useful to keep things really safe and dry, like for example your license or insurance.

A jacket can carry the things you need, from lip chap to map, and keep them dry if it rains.

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Full-face Helmets

To protect your head, get a full face helmet as most head accidents involve the face. It protects your face and chin from damage and also keeps out wind and road noise. A full-face helmet protects from flying road debris, like stones thrown up by cars. Your eyes are too fragile to ride at speed without a visor. You can buy goggles, but why bother? It is just one more thing to worry about. Wind rush affects your eyes, ears (the noise) and skin. A full-face helmet protects all your head from all the turmoil of riding. Your brain deserves a full-face helmet.

Cap Helmets

Cap helmets just cover the top of the head leaving the face free and open. Since they just cover the top of your head, unless you fall vertically on the top of your head they don’t work. They dont protect your face, and as you ride faster in the rain each drop becomes like a little stone that can hit hard enough to bruise, not to mention a truck in front throwing out a stone into your face. Seeing also becomes difficult, so with a cap helmet you also need goggles. When it rains, cap helmet wearers must “toddle along” because they have no face protection, so cars whoosh past covering them in a dangerous wet flurry.

The popularity of cap helmets seems to be their association with the world war two German army helmets. But while the main danger for infantry is artillery fire from above, a motorcycle rider faces danger mainly from the front. Except for riding in show parades, cap helmets dont do the job.

Helmet fit

A helmet that is too loose, could slip off in a crash, but a helmet that pinches or rubs as you ride is distracting. You want a firm fit, so when you shake your head from side to side, the helmet does not move. Fit a new helmet as snug as you can, as with time the foam padding inside compresses and loosens up.

Helmet visibility

Your helmet should be as visible as possible, so white is the best color and black is the worst from a safety point of view. Does it really matter? Well as explained before, there are no certainties here, only probabilities. If you wear a black helmet will you die? Probably not, because lots of people do, but it is certain that black is harder to see. If you slip in the wet and are lying on the road a white shows up the bit that cars should not hit. One thing for sure, if you are lying on the road, its too late to change your helmet. For me, I always go white for better visibility. Even more important than color is that the helmet is reflective so it shows up at night. Its another feature that doesnt seem important, until it is! Some US states mandate that every helmet must be reflective for safety. It is easy to put tape on the sides and back, so do it.

Visor

The visor is the part of the helmet you see through, so it needs to be scratch proof when hit by sandy bits thrown up on the road. Otherwise over time you wont be able to see through it. Visors also fog up on the inside in hot rainy weather, which is a serious problem because suddenly you cant see at all! Even your breath can fog up a visor in humid weather. The simple way to clear fogging is a good air flow, so check the top and side vents are open. The visor should also click up and down to allow low, medium and high set positions. Then if the vents dont work and the visor fogs, you can click it to the low position to allow more airflow. Check the low setting gives a nice small gap, so the the rain doesn’t force to the inside of the visor, as that also lowers visibility.

Flip the helmet on

To put on your helmet, hold it by its straps in two hands in front of you. Flip the helmet front up to your forehead, then slide it back over your head in one easy back motion. Pushing your hair back like this stops irritating bits sticking out of the helmet. If like me you wear glasses, take them off first and do the above with the glasses in hand. Once the helmet is on, open the visor and slip the glasses back on.

Straps

A good helmet should “click and secure” easily. When someone is injured because their helmet “flew off” in an accident, the straps were not secured properly. The best helmets have a fail-safe, one-click, mechanism. Push the straps together, and the click confirms it is secure. An alternative is the two-ring tie up, where one strap must be folded back through two rings. It works fine too, but depends on you doing it right. Remember that when you do up your helmet you usually cant see what you are doing.

Helmet strap “tug”

It is easy to put your helmet on but forget to tie the straps. Maybe you got distracted. Once you are riding, you may wonder “Did I clip my helmet?”. You cant tell as it feels tight, but in a crash an unclipped helmet could fly off, negating the whole point of having a helmet. If you dont feel like stopping, just pull on the strap with one hand at a safe moment. If it is clipped, you feel the resistance. If not, immediately stop and do it up. Believe me, I am careful, but every so often I forget and ride off with an unclipped helmet, which is like riding with no helmet at all! The helmet strap tug is easy to do while riding, takes just a second, and is always worth doing if you are not sure.

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Gear keeps you warm and protects you from bad conditions! It has two main purposes: protection and comfort. Protection reduces your damage in an accident. Comfort is part of safety because discomfort is distraction and distraction causes accidents. Remember, any fool can be wet, cold and miserable.

Why buy gear?

When you buy a motorcycle you save money, as there is less to a bike than a car, e.g. two wheels instead of four. So put back some of the money you saved into buying riding gear. A car has a metal protective shell, but a bike does not. Compensate for the lack of vehicle protection by buying body protection. Say for $6,000 you can buy a bike that is equivalent in age and miles to a $12,000 car. Why not spend 20% of the money saved on safety gear, i.e. about $1,200? Buying body protection is just common sense.

Protection level

My protection in order of priority is

1. Helmet
2. Jacket
3. Gloves
4. Boots
5. Leggings

Riding without any personal protection is a false economy that will cost you in the long run. Riding without a helmet is suicidal, as the head is so fragile. Riding without a jacket is dangerous because it protects you the most. Riding without gloves or boots is careless, because hands and feet are easily hurt. Riding without leggings is unwise, because roads are dirty, dusty places. You decide your level of protection.

Comfort

The purpose of gear is not just to protect you in an accident but also to provide the comfort to make good decisions. Being cold, wet or uncomfortable distracts you from riding safely. Without a helmet, face and eyes are battered by wind and rain. Without a jacket, clothes flap and slap and get soaked in the rain. Without gloves, wind chill and bug splat affects your hands. Without boots or leggings, stones from the cars ahead strike your legs and feet. Good gear insulates you from the chaos. It gives you a peaceful place to make the right decisions when riding.

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There is no one bike for everyone because people want different things. Motorcycles can be designed for:

• Speed (sports bike)
• Rough terrain (off road bike)
• Touring comfort (touring bike)
• Ease of use (scooter)
• Appearances (chopper)

There are many reasons to pick a bike other than safety, but the fact is that no-one looks cool in a hospital bed. You decide, but here are some safety factors to consider:

1. Size and Power: Power to weight ratio
2. Width: Keep it narrow, to avoid “clip and flip”.
3. Front light: Powerful light to be seen.
4. Rear light: Big bright braking light.
5. Indicators: Big, stick well out, bendy.
6. Horn: As loud as you can get.
7. Mirrors: Big enough, stick out, both sides.
8. Brakes/Suspension: Get the best you can.
9. Seat: Comfy, wide.
10. Battery: Holds a big charge.
11. Foot pegs: Large enough to stand up on.
12. Tires: All weather.
13. Luggage: Away to carry extra stuff safely.

Size and Power

Motorcycles can be:

• Small (150cc or less)
• Medium (up to ~400cc)
• Large (is 500 – 900 cc), and
• Very large (1,000+cc).

A factor in choosing a bike size is your size. How big are you? Can you pick the bike up if it drops? There are many reasons to drop a bike, mostly harmless, but if you cant pick it up that’s a problem. On a slope, petrol may leak out of the tank cap. Smaller people are less for the bike to carry, so may not need as much power.

Heavier motorcycles tend to be safer as they absorb more in a crash and have better brakes, suspension and lights. They also avoid the small bike “insecurity complex”, so you ride them more sedately. Do people on little motorcycles feel they have to go faster to prove themselves ? I dont know – but sometimes it seems that way. On the other hand, bigger bikes can also mean bigger crashes.

Most important is the power-to-weight ratio (PWR). A heavy bike with a weak engine has a low PWR, not much power and a lot of weight. It is “sluggish” and doing anything takes a while. This can make it safer, especially for beginners. A high PWR is a light bike with a powerful engine – now the slightest accelerator touch gives an immediate response. Such “racing” bikes are dangerous for beginners who dont have the necessary control. There is nothing wrong with a powerful engine on a big frame with good brakes, but put a powerful engine on a light bike with weak brakes and you get a death trap.

My First Bike. When I was young, my Mum didnt want me getting a motorcycle. She was afraid I would take stupid risks and kill myself. Unknown to her, I was doing that already and had been for some time. One doesnt need a motorcycle to do risky things. My Dad knew, so he decided to help me buy a motorcycle with the little money I had. I would have bought a fast but cheap little bike. He suggested a BSA Golden Flash 650cc. It was really big, with an old engine. Perfect for a beginner! He also made sure I got a good leather jacket. This is what Dads are for.

Width

One of the things I always consider is how wide the motorcycle is. A “fatter” bike is less maneuverable and so less safe. It doesn’t take much to tip a bike, as only balance keeps you up. So you don’t want things sticking out the side that can catch and drag you down. This is why most indicators are bendable. Note that a big bike need not be “fat”. In an emergency, you may have to swerve to avoid the car or truck ahead. The fatter the bike, the less maneuverable it is in a tight situation. If the cars ahead stop suddenly, a narrow bike can swerve into a tight gap between two cars. In a such a situation inches can be the difference between coming off or not. For safety reasons, I choose a narrow bike over a fat one, as narrower bikes have more options.

Wheels

A motorcycle’s stability comes mainly from its wheel’s rotation. The bigger the wheels, the more stability they create when moving. Strangely, while the frame of scooters makes them look more stable, their little wheels mean are less stable in practice, i.e. easier to tip over. If you ride a scooter, be careful of the gravel on the edge of the road, as they tip easily. However scooters are also closer to the ground, and generally don’t go as fast, so riders who fall off often just get back up. Scooters are designed to be easy to ride rather than safe, as you just step through them, and they have an automatic clutch.

Try this. To see how a spinning wheel gives stability, hold a bicycle wheel by the axle and spin it. Now try to tilt the wheel. It resists! The “centrifugal force” creates stability. This force keeps your motor-cycle upright. Bigger spinning wheels are harder to tilt and so more stable. Conversely little wheels give less stability.

Height

Every bike has a center of gravity (COG) and ground clearance. A high COG makes the bike easier to tip but low COG usually means poor ground clearance. Poor ground clearance means that when you ride over a bump or kerb you hear a “clunk” as the bike scrapes the ground, and the jolt can throw you off. Off road bikes have a high ground clearance to avoid this. Touring bikes have a low COG, as it is assumed they will always be on flat highways. For safety I choose a low COG bike that also has reasonable ground clearance.

Balance

The bike COG should be mid-way between the front and back wheels, to give both wheels traction. So when you apply both brakes, both wheels have stopping power. When you sit on the bike, your center of gravity should sit over the bike’s COG. You can see in the picture that on an easy-rider bike the weight of the rider is too far back. This means the rear wheel has good traction but the front wheel is “light”. So when cornering the handling is bad, because you need front wheel traction to guide the bike round the corner. “Easy rider” bikes look cool but aren’t safe from a handling point of view. Conversely if you sit too far forward, as in badly designed sports bikes, a sudden stop can lift up the back and put you over the handlebars, which is not good. I prefer a bike where my weight is pretty much in the middle between the wheels. This balances the weight so you and the bike as one, in a stable combination.

Headlights

Your headlights make you visible, so others see you and don’t crash into you. So look for big, bright lights. Tiny lights make you hard to see, especially at night. When drivers hit motor-cycle riders, the most common comment is: “I didn’t see him ”. So get a powerful headlight, then they will see you coming. One advantage of bigger bikes is they tend to have bigger batteries that allow bigger headlights. Also check the high beam throws a good extra surge of light that gets attention. The rear light is even more important than the front light, so people don’t hit you from behind. Check the rear light is big, bright and red, not just a designer afterthought. When you touch the brakes, it should glow extra bright.

Indicators

Your indicators tell others you are turning. Some bikes have tiny dot indicators on tiny stalks, that faintly flicker when you try them. These bikes are clearly not built with safety in mind, so dont choose such a bike. Indicators should be large and noticeable, because it is very important that other road users see and know when you are turning. They should stick well out from the side of the bike, and be visible. Check they are bendy not rigid, so if swiped they don’t pull the bike down.

Horn

Your horn is a quick way tell other drivers “I am here!” It should be as loud as possible. When a car starts to move into your lane as you pass it, a horn is the best and quickest response. Horns are also useful for warning wandering pedestrians and wavering bicyclists. A tiny horn on a big bike is a sign the designers dont care about safety. What other corners have they cut? Avoid big bikes with baby horns.

Brakes and suspension

Brakes and suspension work together to stop you in an emergency. Good front and back disc brakes give stopping power, and a good suspension absorbs the shock of stopping. Without suspension, the sudden shock of stopping could throw you off the motorcycle. If you hit a sudden bump, or stop suddenly, you will find out if the bike has good suspension. Rocking the bike can give you a feel for its suspension, but to really evaluate brakes and suspension, read the specs.

Battery

When you buy a bike, you don’t know how good the battery is. Often the factory battery is not the best, for cost reasons. I usually replace it with the best battery I can get. Why? Not all batteries are borne equal. Some hold charge better than others. If your battery fails the bike wont start, so it also fails. This usually happens at the worst possible time (like at traffic lights). You need a good battery if you:

• Ride in traffic with lots of starts and stop.
• Spend time idling in a toll lines (with your headlight on).
• Have a big bike (starting a big bike takes more power).
• Have an older bike that needs two or three tries to start.

If you press the ignition and the engine slowly turns then dies, you need a better battery. Get the best battery you can afford – you wont regret it!

Seat

The seat supports your backside, which supports your body, which controls the bike. You realize how important the seat is when you go on a long trip. Body discomforts (like an itch, ache or soreness) are the sort of distractions that cause accidents. Comfort helps safety, and a good seat avoids discomfort. Its shape should fit your shape. A tiny or narrow seat won’t do (unless you have a tiny or narrow backside). Custom shaped seats are nice, but they hold you in a fixed position. I prefer a wide flat seat, so I can move backwards or forwards to adjust my riding position. This is important if you are a different size from normal, which I am. If the seat lifts up for storage, that’s good too.

Foot pegs

Foot pegs keep your feet from hitting the ground and touching the hot exhausts, so make sure they are not too small. Sometimes you want to stand up on a bike, so the foot pegs must give a solid platform to stand. Make sure the foot pedal is “full-foot”, not a little half-wide knob, that your foot can easily slip off.

Mirrors

Your mirrors must be big enough, and be on both sides. They must extend out far enough to give a clear view behind. You have to sit on the bike to check this, as it depends on your size. If your arm blocks half the mirror, that’s still ok, as you can pull your arm in when you view the rear mirror. Mirrors help you see behind, like an extra pair of eyes. I prefer larger mirrors that give a clear back view, not tiny little cheap ones. Never buy a bike without mirrors – they are essential! Getting a good set of mirrors needn’t cost much, and they are easy to fit. When buying a bike, ask the dealer for better mirrors for safety reasons and they may be thrown in for free.

Fairings and windscreens

A motorcycle fairing is a shell over the motorcycle frame to reduce air drag. Some people like them and others dont. Racing bikes often have fairings because they reduce wind drag at high speeds, making the bike faster. But while a fairing works for front winds, for side winds they can act more like a sail. When I cross the Auckland harbor bridge for example, there are often side gusts that push the bike about in a scary way. In an open bike the wind mainly flows through the bike, but a fairing presents a flat surface for the wind to push against. I prefer a “naked” bike with no fairing because it is more stable in side winds, and maximizing speed is not my priority. The same goes for windscreens that pretend to protect you from the elements when rally that is the job of other gear. A windscreen on a bike seems to me more symbolic than functional.

Tires

There are many types of tires, even snow tires, but in general there are two main types:

• Fine weather tires are hard, to minimize friction and increase speed.
• Wet weather tires are softer to give more friction and better stopping in wet conditions.

A wet weather tire will “grip” the road better in the rain when a fine weather tire will slip, but for the same reason are slower and wear out quicker. Fine weather tires go faster in fine weather but slip more in wet weather. To go really fast, hard high-speed tires are best. For general safe riding, always choose tires with some wet weather capability. So called all-weather tires aim to give good fine weather performance but also work in the wet. They can be expensive, but are worth it. Get the best all round tires you can afford, because on a bike everything is riding on them. Since you only have two tires, make them good ones. When you buy a bike, have a mechanic check the tires are not cheap fine weather hard tires. If they are, change them!

So there  it is! Now you know my safety factors to look for, you can choose what you want. Note if you buy from a dealer, they might swap-out things you dont like, such as tiny mirrors, worn tires or weak battery for better ones, just to sell you the bike. They might also be willing to give a good price for fitting a luggage option like a pack rack, and give reduced prices on other gear. This gives you a total $ all-up price to compare with other sellers.

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