During my 25 years (OK make that 30 I really am that old) of riding, I’ve done a lot of thinking. Apart from ridiculous choices in headgear, here are some other mistakes riders make.
We all ride for different reasons but for those that ride regularly nothing beat the thrill that the perfect ride will give you. Whether it’s ending up on a rock watching the perfect sunset with your bike making pinging noises as it’s cooling down in the evening air, or taking a great corner at the perfect speed, there’s always a sense of achievement. This sets us apart from those sitting in their couches in front of the TV.
Unfortunately biking is inherently dangerous and we all know people that got unlucky and paid the price. Yet there are people riding around that haven’t crashed in years (or ever). What’s up with that? Do they have a secret or two? Or were they just lucky?
Certainly luck plays a role. As does the circumstances under which you ride. Off roaders crash more often, but they almost always walk away and have a good laugh almost immediately before they kick the bike back into shape and get on again. You see couriers and pharmacy delivery bikes zooming up and down the main road at ridiculous speeds and taking the smallest of gaps – how often do they come short? The answer is quite often but their crashes are normally less severe.
It’s no co-incidence that these two groups mostly operate at lower speeds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m also addicted to speed, and will definitely not ride at 100 if I can ride at 200. But when Simon called me about this month’s column being late (again), I was already planning to write about the “Most common mistakes riders make”. In fact, this is the end product of some serious research I’ve conducted during last year when quite a couple of people I know had crashes ranging from slight injuries and some discomfort to the ending up bagged and tagged in the back of a low roofed white pick up.
As humans do, I started wondering if this would happen to me because I ride a lot and surely that would raise the odds. I’m also not the most law abiding of riders so that’s got to count for something too. I started asking questions, observing and thinking. Here’s what I came up with. And speed does play a vital role, although maybe not in the way you’d expect. Maybe I should rephrase that, speed judgement plays a vital role.
We’re fortunate that lane splitting is allowed in this country. It’s probably the most convenient thing about biking, never to have to deal with traffic jams in the way that car drivers have to. It’s also a very dangerous thing to do if you’re not very, vary careful. Speeding while splitting lanes is looking for trouble. People just don’t check their mirrors when changing lanes in traffic jams, why should they after all everybody is grid locked, right? I see people racing through stationary traffic often and just wonder how long before they get tossed or a pedestrian suddenly appear in front of a truck (try to look under cars and trucks for signs of feet moving).
Never assume a cage driver’s seen you/won’t cut you off/or won’t turn in front of you. Try to make certain he’s seen you. Ride behind him for a while (don’t just zoom past out of nowhere because bikes are fast and drivers that don’t check their mirrors often wouldn’t have noticed you). When riding behind him, keep an eye on his mirrors. You’ll see when he’s aware of you because he will become aware of you through his rear view mirrors. Sometimes aggressive drivers will change a lane right in front of you if they think their car will fit in the gap, so check what’s going on in front of him (slower traffic, intersection) and don’t think because he’s aware of you, you’re safe. Also keep an eye on your own rear view mirrors because there might be a bike behind you!
You have to try and think for everyone else on the road. Being pro-active when you’re riding will save your life. Look for drivers checking his mirrors, it might indicate he’s planning to change lanes. Even a passenger studying a map or pointing towards a turn off or road sign should set alarm bells off.
Try to get an idea of whether the driver are aware of you. If you think he’s not, slow down and prepare for evasive action.
Be aware of what the traffic around you is doing, it the one lane is moving slower than the other and a gap opens up, someone will try to change lanes to get into the gap.
If there’s an intersection coming up, or a shop/cafe/garage you can bet some idiot would want to make a last minute dive for it and that’s when they forget to check what’s behind and next to them.
When riding along and there’s cars at intersections, slow down to the same speed as other traffic. I like to cross intersections or green robots with a car just in front of me, in the other lane if there is one, it makes me feel less vulnerable. If the road is busy people will take chances and bikes are faster than cars and people will think the gap is big enough. Because they expect you to be riding at the same speed as cars – they’ve grown used to judging distance with cars.
Check the front wheels of cars at intersections, it’s often the easiest way to tell if a car is beginning to move. Always think – if this guy does this I’ll do that – have escapes routes ready and ride from one scenario to the next. Make certain you’re at a speed where you can control the bike in an emergency.
Listen to the voice of reason. Call it intuition if you’d like. When I refuse to listen to this little voice, I invariably get into trouble. Just before I begin to do something foolish on my bike I get that “feeling” it’s dangerous. OK so that is the same feeling (fear) that you get before you jump out of a plane with a parachute and that’s relatively safe, so you have to at least take notice of the voice.
Always cover the levers in traffic. Two fingers on the clutch, two on the brake, all the time. And a foot covering your rear brake, its often safer to use in traffic than the front brake because you can swerve if you have to.
Always try to be conscious of what’s going on around you. Don’t let your mind wander or look at people when you should be looking where you’re going.
You can get rear ended easily. And it hurts more when you’re on a bike. So why are you not watching behind you when stopped at traffic lights? I’ve been rear ended in my car twice. Both times I saw it coming but couldn’t do anything because there were cars all around me. On a bike it’s easy to ride between cars so make certain you can do it if you have to. Don’t park with your front wheel inches from the car in front of you. Keep to the side of the lane (I use the inside) because the soul crapping himself in the car that’s about to hit something would also be looking to miss you if he can. Try not to be a sitting duck, have an escape route.
Don’t brake hard for a changing robot in front of a fully loaded articulated truck. I’m not even going to explain why not. If you don’t know why, well, stop reading and don’t go near your bike until you figured it out. You can reason with the cops later if you have to.
Never trust green light intersections and driving through them at speed. People jump robots. When the light changes for you, don’t immediately assume it’s a chance to practice your drag racing skills. There might be someone jumping the light or a truck that couldn’t stop in time. Check left and right. Then go.
Always wear protective clothing. I’m not saying don your leather or kevlar suit for riding to the café for cigarettes. But I’ve often seen people on their daily commutes with windbreakers and sneakers, or even slip-slops. I had a stern talking to from a guy on crutches because I wore flip-flops once and he said he was wearing sneakers when he had to brake hard and thought he was losing the front and instinctively put his foot out, at highway speed. His ankle snapped like a matchstick.
Make certain whatever you’re wearing are suited for motorcycling, those safety boots will certainly protect your foot and ankle nicely but they have to stay on to be able to do that. Wear jackets and jeans at least. And of course a proper helmet.
Make certain your bike is in good condition and you’re comfortable on it. Don’t go riding to “see what it can do” because most new bikes can do things we’re not up too. It will have you going into a corner way to hot because of the acceleration, then laugh when you panic and decide to pick it up and go straight. That’s a stupid, stupid thing to do. And still everybody does it. I’ve done it on at least two occasions and was very, very lucky not to crash. I think it’s a basic survival instinct. But all you’re doing, at best, is swapping what looks like an imminent crash to you for a certain one. You’re basically taking a bigger risk to stay on your bike only a couple of heartbeats longer. If you panic and stand the bike up during a turn - maybe you went in to fast or spotted gravel/oil/diesel on the road surface - you’ll go off roading or end up in the wrong lane and being squashed like a ripe grape.
If you know what you and your bike as a team are capable and comfortable with, you won’t panic and there will be no stupid actions under panic. So don’t wait until the midst of an emergency to learn how to perform the moves that will save your life. Learn to counter steer, brake as hard as you can, corner as fast as you can. Force a stubborn bike into leaning further to make a corner. It can almost certainly lean more than you think.
If he can go around that corner at that speed, so can I, right? You might be right, but not necessarily. He might be riding a well set-up bike on excellent tyres. He might have ridden around that corner a million times. He might be out of control and about to plunge into some abyss or embed himself into a car when he runs wide on the outside. Don’t overestimating your ability.
Don’t speed in town and think that because you’ve learned emergency and evasive moves at 50 km/h in a parking lot it’ll save your hide at 100km/h (or faster) on a crowded street. Actually, don’t speed in town. Ever. If you like living dangerously and speeding in town gives you a kick remember you might hurt me, my child or my dog. Or annoy me when I try to watch TV.
Don’t take riding advice from the wrong people and don’t ride too fast on unfamiliar roads. Never try to do tricks you saw someone else doing. Well, that’s maybe a bit harsh. Rephrase that to, be objective about riding advice from other people, adjust your speed on unfamiliar roads and be careful when trying stunts and tricks. There.
Never believe that (barring a LeMans-style ‘running start’) there is a difference between ‘track only’ techniques and street-worthy techniques and neglect to learn them. Track riding will build your confidence and make you aware of your bikes limits. And your own.
Never, for a moment, believe that the rules of the road don’t really apply to Sportsbikes thanks to their superior performance potential. Some rules might not apply but the rules of gravity, averages and Murphy still do. If this is what you think, the next logical step will be to start believing that all the car drivers on the road understand and support this notion, and then you’re on a slippery slope.
Never let ego affect your riding. Heheheh. This is possibly the toughest one. So who’s not going to take the bait if someone challenges you around your favourite set of bends? We all do. I’ll just say we’re all wrong and shouldn’t do it and leave it at that.
Never overestimate your ability and start thinking you’re any good. There’s always someone faster than you. Accept that there are certain things you can and cannot do. Even if other people can do it, you should accept it if you can’t (yet). Then there are things that you can do, but shouldn’t. Just because you can ride a pass faster than everybody else doesn’t make you a god. In fact, you now have a responsibility not to bait less skilled riders into trying to keep up with you. You will have to live with the guilt if he crashes.
Never think you know what you are doing, because even if you do, you don’t know what everyone else is doing. Best you can do is try to anticipate their moves based on what they’re seeing in front of them. If you can see what they’re seeing you can anticipate their next move. When you get good at this you’ll start wondering when a driver is going to brake for an obstacle and chuckle when he finally wakes up and panic.
Don’t think about other things like lunch, girlfriends while you’re riding. When your mind wanders it’s being kept busy by other thoughts and not doing what it needs to be doing while you’re riding – identifying hazardous situations and working out solutions. When you catch your mind wondering, think, if that car had swerved in front of me while my mind was wondering, I wouldn’t have noticed it in time. Or why didn’t I see that indicator coming on, my mind was wandering. Make yourself aware of the danger your wandering mind put you in.
If you must buy the most powerful bike you can afford as a first bike (or second or third…) or if you upgrade to a superbike, at least be careful until you know the bike well (it can take months) and make certain you wear protective gear at all times because the odds are stacked against you under these circumstances.
Remember you’re buying a lot of bike and it will catch you out because nothing you would have ridden or imagined up to that point could prepare you for what it’s capable of. Bikes will gladly ride over a cliff at 250km/h or attempt a 90 degree corner with gravel on the surface at full throttle if you tell it too – they’re stupid that way. My favourite compasison is bike V donkey. Even donkeys wouldn’t do it (lets just pretend they could, OK) so if you’re going to let whatever you ride er, .. take you for a ride – get a donkey to be on the safe side. We all know how cerebrally challenged donkeys are. Remember what you ask for is what you get on a bike, so make certain you know what you’re asking for and that it is in fact what you want.
Never get a bike that is physically too big for you. If you stop at a stop street and fall over because your foot can’t touch the ground the bike is too big. If you can’t push it around it’s too heavy.
Your riding style ties in nicely with your bike. You have to adapt your riding style to the bike. There’s nothing like experience. If a rider underestimates the power of the bike and over cooks a corner then fixates on that big rock ahead, he’s doing things wrong and heading for certain disaster. Firstly, he overestimated his capabilities, then underestimated the bike or the road challenge and now he’s panicking and can’t tear his eyes away from an obstacle. The same will happen if you think you’re going around a corner like a MotoGP rider and try to see if the blond in the convertible notices thus turning your attention away for a split second.
Experienced riders will not attempt the same speeds on unfamiliar roads as the ones they ride frequently. It’ll have them coming in too hot into unfamiliar corners or going to fast for changing road surfaces. Same experienced riders should be careful not to become over confident.
Never defer maintenance to your machine. If you’re lucky it will only break down and you’ll have to call someone to come and fetch you and the bike. If you’re not, your brakes could fail, chains can snap and bearings could seize. All of these can have you in big trouble.
Don’t fiddle with your suspension if you don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t let other people fiddle with it, even if they claim to know what they’re doing. Always set the suspension settings back to stock on a second hand bike or if you’re not happy with the way it behaves. Don’t make drastic changes and don’t change more than one thing at a time. Don’t try track settings you got in some book on your street bike. In fact, ignore most of what you read in magazines unless it’s the standard settings.
Be careful with the tyres you choose. Some are made for cornering but are unstable at high speeds. Some are made for high mileage and wouldn’t handle so well. Know your tyres and keep it in mind when you ride. Never mix tyre makes and compounds unless you know what you’re doing. Change your tyres before the thread is all gone. It’s senseless running the tires to the canvas to get the most miles out of a tire.
Make certain you know how far the bike can lean. This doesn’t mean going to Killarney and making notes of what the racers on the same model manage. Your bike is different and you’re different. If you regularly run wide in a turn before the bike leaves marks on the tar or your knee touch down you don’t know what your bike can do, and you’re looking for trouble – and being a wuss.
Group riding poses unique challenges. A simple rule of thumb is that as the number of rider increases so does the testosterone, thus reducing the general IQ of the entire group.
Be careful and considerate when riding with less experienced riders (don’t laugh at them or run into them is always a good start). Be careful riding with people above your skill level and never try to keep up.
You’ll make more friends if you don’t go riding to aggressively and competitively. There’s usually some form of peer pressure to keep up. Learn to laugh it off. You’ll make up lost time quicker than you think. Think of excuses while you’re on your own.
Never try to overtake somebody “on the brakes” or “duck up the inside”. If you lose it, you take him with you and that’s frowned upon. Use the outside if you must pass someone an make certain he’s aware of you.
Target fixation (staring at that pothole your bike seems drawn to like it’s a giant magnet) can cause momentary lapses of concentration. You’ll need to tear your eyes away because even if some magazines will have you believe a certain bike can go round corners on it’s own it can’t. As I said, bikes will happily run into brick walls if you tell them too. Get a donkey.
You have to look THROUGH a turn, especially when your entrance is, er.. “less than optimal”, which would indicate too fast or all wrong for some reason. This is one of the hardest things to learn and actually do. It must be some kind of instinct. We’ve all been taught to “keep our eyes on the ball” and it’s the absolute worst thing to do for speed sports.
There are also some general rules about biking that I should probably include:
- Be careful not to drop your sportbike while trying to put it on a pit/ rear wheel stand and smash the plastic – it’s expensive.
- Try not to get your fingers caught in the rear sprocket when lubing your chain [ouch].
- Never drink and ride. Ever.
- Always unzip your leathers to pee
- Try to learn some of the mechanics of your bike – like where the battery and fuses are hidden.
- Try to ride as often as you can
- Carry a cell phone
- Never ever read the shit that other people write about “what you’re doing wrong” and believe any of it
Lastly, about speed, ask yourself: “Self, what does fast really mean to me and what is it worth?” How much are you willing to sacrifice to keep up with your riding buddies? Your pinkie, your legs, your life?
And a last, very serious thought. Never, ever even think about putting a pillions life at risk. Sportsbikes are uncomfortable for pillions and it’s better that way. Few things can be as frightening as sitting on the back of a Sportsbike with the rider doing stupid things.
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