Riding Safe on the Street

Riding a motorcycle is dangerous, a fact that keeps many people from riding. When cars are added to the situation, riding becomes even more life threatening. I commute on my GSXR everyday in Los Angeles, surrounded by some under skilled and overly distracted drivers on a regular basis.

The mentality one rides with makes a huge difference between getting home safely and dying. When changing lanes or turning, drivers typically check for the absents of cars rather than the presents of bikes. This explains why so often drivers simply "don't see" bikers. Regardless of who's at fault in an accident, we the rider suffer the physical consequences.

Two years ago one of my few friends who rides was in an accident and lost his right hand. He was going straight and an oncoming car pulled out in front of him while making a left turn, a very common and dangerous type of motorcycle accident. This experience made me drastically rethink how I ride on the street. Very simply my mindset is, "ALWAYS ASSUME THE CAR DOESNT SEE YOU!". If you operate as if every car is about to turn in front of you or come into your lane, you'll be prepared and able to avoid the would-be-accident. This obviously will slow you down a little and the majority of the time the car will see you and this will feel unnecessary, but the small percentage of the time when they don't makes this 100% worth it.

We we can see in this video while it's clearly the SUV drivers fault, had the biker operated under the assumption that EVERY car DOESNT see you, he could have avoided this accident.

Because its something we do so frequently, we start losing our ability to accurately asses the level of risk involved in riding. This can be deadly. Signing up for a MSF class not only lowers your insurance costs, but will teach you lessons that will keep you safer. (Never ride parallel to a car while exiting the freeway, speed up or slow down to stagger your position in relation to the car incase said car decides to exit last second without seeing you, this way you won't get sideswiped at a high speed). Even for those who aren't into racing, spending a track day working with an instructor can teach you life saving skills in a safe and controlled environment.

One of of the most common types of accidents is riders attempting to use a machine that's beyond their skill level. A 600cc bike in the hands of a newer rider is a very bad idea. With all the great entry level options these days, this happening kind of baffles me. But that's exactly what happened in this next video. While this wasn't the riders first bike, he clearly wasn't skilled enough to be riding a new R6. While he blames the wind for pushing him, several things are very clear in the video. 1, he misses the apex and picks a bad line going through the turn. 2. He doesn't adjust his line to correct his trajectory when he needs to. 3. He fixated on the object he doesn't want to hit. 4. Instead of leaning further (or at all) and giving it more juice, he gets on the brakes, hard. This causes the bike to go upright, widening his turn even more. 5. It wasn't because of the wind, it was user error.

I'm very happy that this guy is okay and this is one of the more scary POV crashes I've seen but it was all very preventable. Everyone who rides should invest the time studying about how it's properly done. There are amazing FREE resources online that teach this. Twist of the Wrist 2 is on YouTube and while the acting is laughable, it's still a great educational tool for even experienced riders. Ride safe and remember, it CAN happened to YOU, so ride accordingly. Lastly, Hi-Viz gear helps drivers notice you and an upgraded headlight will not only have a similar effect but will help YOU see better.