We all know that motorcycling can be a bit dangerous at times, so anything that helps improve the odds has got to be a good thing, it occurred to me that collectively we’ve got hundreds of years of motorcycling experience so how’s about sharing your safety tips from riding techniques to safety gear and bike maintenance?, no matter how simple or obvious it seems, I’ll kick off with something that I always try to adhere to; Never overtake a line of traffic if there’s a junction or turning area to the right, in the last year I’ve seen two bikers almost come to grief doing this, one overtook me and a line of cars I front of me, half way along the cars one decided to turn right, the biker had to slam on and wobbled and skidded to a stop just in time, another was filtering too fast (approx 30mph) when a driver bored with waiting in the queue decided to do a U turn, same outcome, now if these riders had either just waited for there to be no right hand exits or in the second case slowed to say 15 mph they wouldn’t have had a problem, anyway hopefully we’ll get some useful suggestions?, cheers Mark.
Could be interesting to hear if teaching has changed over the years too. When I did my training (1980’s) one thing that always stuck in my mind was if there is a car waiting at a junction you are approaching try to make eye contact, so you know they have seen you.
Look for road signs and paint on the road, the more signs and the more paint the more risky the area. Always slow at a left turn junction if it's on a bend as you can't see what may be coming the other way turning right, and if you can't see them they can't see you. Expect everyone hasn't seen you. Make eye contact. Don't ride like a twat (unless you are moped racing).
Cars sitting in junctions, watch their roadwheels. If the wheel starts to turn then the vehicle is in motion.
Always keep a good distance to the vehicle in front, especially if it’s a van or 4x4, they block the vision of drivers waiting to pull out of side roads, they can also stop a lot quicker than you can!
Are you sure moving the thread to what I imagine is a lesser used part of the Forum is a good idea El Toro?
No.....I moved it from a Ducati section to a Rider Skills section because it’s Rider Skills specific and not Ducati specific. Obvious really isn’t it
Yes, I hadn’t realised that the title stayed in the “general discussion “ forum, I just thought it common sense that a safety orientated thread should be seen by the maximum number of people, which it still will be if the title remains.