Motorcycle Tips and tricks you have learned through the years
 

First off - lets not turn this into a I hate so and so kind of bike, or "That" kind of rider.
If you have a good habit you would like to share-
A traffic tip that could save a life lets have them.
To start=
I have been riding lots of years, and still learn something new everyday.
It a gamble with car drivers every time you and i hit the street.
My newest conclusion on two lane roads is -
I never crest a hill left of center. ( my lane of course ) If there is a IDIOT passing , coming from the other direction , where do i go? I might have a chance if i am already far right.
Yes he was wrong, but that does not help me much.
Next - riding with a group over taking cars
When i pass- I go past the car and then far right of the lane to allow the next rider in and so on. I stay on the throttle to allow room for the next bike.
I have been with riders who have not done this and all of a sudden the pass lane is all plugged up and no where to go ! That gets kind of exciting in a bad way.
Next i practice hard stops using just the front or the rear to keep in my head how hard i can come down with pressure before tire lock up.
Its a good habit .
I find when i ask , most riders have not ever practiced front wheel lockups. They have no idea of the stopping power that they have and will never use.
OK your turn

A few simple ones:

ATGATT
Never ride even after having a single beer. Ride or drink...but not both.
Don't ride if tired/sleepy.
Avoid riding for transportation...only recreation and at times when you know traffic is light, or in places where its light.
Stay off the center section of your lane especially when roads are wet or approaching intersections (slippery).
Always glance in your rear view mirror when coming to a stop to be sure the guy behind you is doing the same.
Always ride/stop to best allow an escape route if needed (see above).

I'll second, third, fourth, etc., etc. Mike's comment about not drinking & riding. Crashed my first bike at 3 AM riding home on a mountain road from a party - after I thought I was OK to ride.

ATGATT.

Always park facing uphill. :eek:

Use the front brake - 90% comes from the front, 10% from the rear.

Keep it in gear at red lights in case you need to scoot.

Instinctive counter steer, as taught by Keith Code.
X3 on maximum front bake.
Ride less and less after dark.

I have a LOT of deer around here...My new approach as i come to where they hang ou, - t I hit the kill on the ignition long enough to get it to go BOOM when i flip it back on.( Like a gun shot)
I will keep a tally on this to see if it works or not.

There was a horrific accident near my house about four yrs. ago where a dump truck didn't even slow down for a red light and ran into a bunch of bikes waiting at the stop line. I think four were pinned under the truck and burned to death. Since then I always watch my mirrors when sitting at a light. I have bright LED flashers on my license plate frame that are wired into my brakes. If I see a car coming up behind me when I'm stopped, I always give them a few flashes.

Yes. Leave yourself a "out" when ever possible.

1. Assume that every single car is out to get you.

2. Actively avoid cars' blind spots. (should be a no brainer.)

3. In a turn, look where you want to go, and your bike will take you there most of the time. If you look at the place you don't want to go, you're going to end up there.

When the traffic has stopped ahead of you, don't just slow down and stop. Look for an exit position such as scooting into the breakdown lane in case the car behind hasn't noticed the stopped traffic and is going to run into the back of you.

When riding in your lane stay fairly much in line with the driver of the car ahead of you. This way if something goes wrong you can easily ride around the car in front. Also if you are too much to the side of your lane a car driver will try to squeak past you in your lane.

Animals will (more than people) do the unpredictable. Be prepared when they run in front of you.
Dont overdrive your line of sight. People stop in the darndest places, around blind curves and below blind crests. Sometimes there is loose gravel on that corner.
Learn the limits of your machine. Braking practice can make a reaction a life saving skill.
Being right will not guarantee your safety nor your survival. Being prepared will help.

Ride safe out there!
Les

I lots of times will let a vehicle run block for me through intersections.

I don't ride street for all the above reasons.


But even on the dirt, (trees don't pull out in front of you.......most the time)


my tip is DONT STARE at any small object (rock, log, rabbit, small child, dog....) something about the bike will instinctively start to be drawn toward and gravitate into contact with said object. Keep it in your peripheral vision and not sole focus.

I put many thousands of miles on a dozen or so motorcycles and lived to tell the tale. My mantra was always, "STAY ON THE BIKE." And I did. Never dropped a street bike.

When I repeated, "Stay on the bike" to myself, I was basically telling myself to stay conscious of my surroundings, traffic, the road, etc. and to not let my mind wander to work, family, chores, etc.

I firmly believe that keeping my MIND on the process of riding kept my BODY there, too.

Haven't ridden a bicycle or motorcycle in years. One trick I learned is keep an eye on the driver's side mirror of parked cars for faces. Had more than one driver's door open up as I was approaching.

Parked cars, - i watch the front wheels if someone is in it. I know they can not do a "U" turn or pull in front of me if the wheels are straight ahead .

Remember to cancel turn signals after turning. I see so many bikes w turn signals going on for miles.

Here in SoCal the concept of lane sharing (not splitting) is ~ legal. When coming to a red light or stop sign I would share the lane on my left all the way to the front of the line. This puts cars between you and the next guy who does not see the stopped traffic.

Anticipate obstacles (cars, sand, rocks, water) in turns you cannot see the exit from.

Pick your spots. Never let other drivers determine your position on the road.

Avoid group rides with folks you don't know - very easy to get pushed outside your comfort/skill level.

Mentally and physically practice the concept of avoiding an accident rather than clamping on the brakes. Sometimes a minor direction change is all that is needed to avoid contact.

Avoid roads popular with the 'racer' community during peak hours. Lane intrusions are common.

Do not drink and ride. Don't do it.

What are these "turn signals" you speak of?

Anyways, other than the obvious and indisputable things (situational awareness, etc.), I always filter up to the front at traffic lights. That way I can get ahead of the pack of cars. Also, it ensures that I won't get rear-ended by someone on their phone.

I lane split at lower speeds if it allows me to pass cars to get to "clean air" (pockets where there are no cars around me). I try to use the cycle's manuverability to put me in spots where there are as few cars around me as possible.

Lots of good tips here. Here are mine, for what they're worth:

Never ride in the center of a lane - it's bound to be dirty and greasy.

Always ride in a lane's right-hand groove. That seems to help establish "ownership" of that particular stretch of lane.

This is kind of a personal thing - but I never, ever, split lanes if traffic was traveling at 45 mph or more. And when I did split lanes, I did so very carefully and slowly, without too much speed differential between me and them - just enough to make it worthwhile.

Always assume that the cars and trucks around you are being driven by homicidal maniacs.

In the blind curves, many of which we have here on the Angeles Crest, never ride the racing line. Never. I used what I thought of as a "street line," apexing only when I could see all the way around a corner. Late apexing, I guess, in other words.

And maybe most important: Remember that the throttle works both ways.

Ride 10k miles in three months or ride every for a year. If you and the bike are still together you will have it figured out.
Jim

ATGATT I cant believe the number of riders without any helmet at all in PA. Not to mention shorts, T shirts, sandals, etc etc.

Always leave the bike in gear at a stop light and keep and eye on your rear view mirrors when you're at a light.

Don't trust anything that moves, cars, other motorcycles, bicycles, animals you name it.

I also don't get the guys with a bluetooth phone talking away on their ride or even listening to tunes.

Nice 300 mile run yesterday, probably the last one of the season on a Sunday. I have logged a few hundred thousand miles on the road and thousands of hours on the dirt/trails. Sometimes I have been lucky but you have to try and leave yourself an out all the time. Learning to ride on the dirt also taught me a lot about how to handle a bike and how to dump a bike.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1412030191.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1412030512.jpg

Luckily I have never been badly hurt on a motorcycle, so I tell myself, just don't do it. It has worked out really well.

pre flighting the bike is tedious as hell. but it will save your life eventually.

always park where you can keep an eye on it.

my old office in l.a. overlooked the parking structure where i left the bmw. a blonde was walking back and forth in the lot talking on her cel. she was nice looking so i kept an eye on her. eventually she came up to my bike and started running her hand over it. i wanted to object, but she was across the alley, and i figured at least my bike was getting so action.
after work i hesitated and gave the bike a longer look than usual before starting. in twenty seconds of contact the woman had found the dial that adjust the travel of the front brake lever. just by random chance she had almost killed me.

Take a motorcycle riding course, even if you have been riding "forever". I (somewhat begrudgingly) took an advanced riders' course back in 2000 as a prerequisite to leading group rides for my local HOG chapter (insurance requirement for HOG). I went in thinking there was nothing they could teach me; boy, was I wrong. And I had a blast.

Then, just for good measure, if your local police department offers their rider training to the public, go take that, too. Make sure you pay the extra and use their bike if available, though. You will probably fall down... What an incredible learning experience, though. Those guys can ride, and the "street survival" skills they taught me have doubtlessly saved my life several times.

Ditto the most of the above. Situational awareness at all times.
Don't follow so close at highway speeds that you can't react to something the car in front of you may run over.
I ride with the high beam on... and drop it once to low and back to high when I approach a car waiting to left turn (right into me).
Don't follow 18 wheelers- they are always spitting off tire tread carcasses. When you seem some tire shrapnel, like when you see a deer, there's more very nearby.
Consciously groove counter steering and weighting the opposite peg every ride.

When I drive my Ram 1500 i can see down into cars, I am always pissed to see how many people drive with their phone on and on their lap. In the past five years, I have been rear ended at a light by a texter, and I struck a deer that jumped out in front of me from another dimension... Both while I was in an auto. Had either been on a bike I wouldn't be typing this. So if you do choose to ride and have responsibilities to others than just yourself, make sure you're responsibly insured.

Don't ride next to cars use your superior acceleration and maneuverability to stay away from cars they are evil

Limit nighttime riding.
Careful with fresh tires.
Not cancelling a turn signal can easily cost (you) your life.
Never ride in a pack.
Loud pipes save lives. : )

The Left turn from a car is the most scary thing to me. If i do not think they "see" me I have been known to zig zag, flash my lights ,wave, what ever it takes to get their attention .

This bears repeating

I don't think I would ever want to ride a bike on the street. Too many cars with nobody at the wheel. Don't get me wrong, I love bikes, bicycles, motorcycles, just don't think people pay enough attention for me to go amongst them on a scoot.

Take a class even if you have been riding for years. Maybe its an intermediate or advanced class but take on and learn from it.

Secure your ego. Secure it in class - its a learning environment and on the street at all times. Doesn't matter who is right or wrong if you are dead.

ATGATT. Seriously All The Gear, All the (freaking) Time! The one time you skip it will be exactly the one time where a deer, another rider, a cager or a patch of gravel does you in.

angela

This is why I stopped riding on the road. And this was before cell phones. These days, the idea of getting on a MC to get somewhere makes my skin crawl.

While I'm at a stop light and nobody is behind me, I'll alternately press/release the brakes. In effect, this gets my taillight to flash which is easier for a car driver not paying attention to see and hopefully not rear end me.

Be very careful on whom you get advice from.........

There is more to it than this but I always use cars and trucks as rolling shields on the street and ride in between them as much as possible. The odds of two cars next to each other squeezing together just as I go between them is infinitesimal compared to the odds of getting rear-ended or T-boned on the street. I got really nervous riding in the midwest this summer where lane-splitting is not allowed.

Lane-splitting, (or "filtering", as it's technically referred to here), needs to be done with caution and common sense but it's part of normal traffic here and auto drivers adapt to it and give you room 95% of the time. When they don't, I wait a minute and then go past them when there is room. I never worry about being rear-ended at a light and when the light turns green, I'm all by myself on an empty road with cars falling further behind me until I catch up with traffic ahead of me, which I filter up to the next light.

I'm going to make a go-pro vid of riding here one of these days, I'll share it here and let people comment away. I rode out to Malibu a couple weeks ago on a hot Sat. night, PCH was very crowded with cars crawling along. Lane filtered with a traffic cop all the way from Topanga to Paradise Cove. We were cooking. :cool:

Aim for the deer's ass.

The one time you ride without full gear is the time you go down.

when I was on patrol section I was riding a motorcycle in the summer months. My 2 cents:
Treat every green light like a stop sign, in other words look both ways before entering that intersection when the light goes green.
Make eye contact with someone that may be waiting to enter traffic, if you can't be ready to get out of their way if they cut you off.
steve

Three rules:
Nobody can see me;
Everyone is trying to kill me;
Everyone is trying to kill me.

At an intersection stop, if you are first in line, when the light turns green, let another car enter the intersection first...it's best to let a red light runner t-bone the Expedition next to you, than hit you.