Let's Ride (19 page)

This situation is so lethal that you should always scan for a possible escape route in case you need one. Choose the side of the road that will give you the most room to maneuver, which will usually be the side of the lane that is farthest away from oncoming traffic. When you do stop, don’t pull right up behind the vehicle in front of you; that way, if someone behind you doesn’t stop, the emergency escape route that you identified as you entered the intersection won’t be blocked by the vehicle in front of you.

It’s important to always leave yourself enough room to maneuver whenever you stop, whether you’re at an intersection or not. Even when you have to stop because freeway traffic stops moving, monitor the traffic behind you. Make sure you have room to move forward, even if that means you have to ride between parked cars. That way if someone behind you doesn’t stop, you’ll have at least some sort of clear space to use for getting out of the vehicle’s path.

To do this, your bike will have to be ready to go. When you sit at an intersection, or anytime you have to stop where there is traffic around you, make sure you leave your bike in first gear, with the clutch lever pulled in. That way if you need to get out of someone’s way in a hurry, you won’t lose any time shifting into gear. Remember, a split second is the difference between living and dying.

Leaving my bike in first gear has been a hard habit for me to adopt. When I started riding, motorcycles had foot-operated clutches and hand-operated shifters. The shifters would be operated with a lever attached to the gas tank that was connected to the transmission with linkage rods that ran down from the tank. These shifters never really worked well because of all that sloppy linkage, so we used to get rid of the linkage and use levers coming straight out of the transmission for shifting. We called them “suicide shifters.”

Using a suicide shifter meant that we had to push in the clutch with our left foot and reach down and shift with our left hand. This was an awkward operation while moving, but when a bike was stopped, keeping the bike in gear while holding the clutch pedal down with one foot bordered on impossible. We had to shift into neutral before we stopped so that we could let the clutch pedal out and hold the stopped bike up with both feet. This habit became so strongly ingrained in me that to this day I have to remind myself to keep my bike in gear at a stop.

BLIND SPOTS

I
SUSPECT THAT POORLY
designed driver’s education programs over the past sixty or seventy years are responsible for a lot of the lousy driving habits we have today. I know they are responsible for the fact that, by my count, seven out of eight drivers don’t know how to use their side-view mirrors.

Side-view mirrors are a relatively recent tool in the United States. Europeans had them for many years, but we didn’t really start to get them on cars until the 1970s, and when we did get them, no one knew how to use them correctly. Especially driver’s ed teachers. Side-view mirrors are designed to cover the blind spots you can’t see with your rearview mirror, but for many years driver’s ed teachers taught kids that they were supposed to point the mirrors at their rear bumpers. For all I know, they still do. When the side-view mirrors are pointed at the rear bumper, the driver sees only the same area in the side-view mirrors as he or she does in the rearview mirror, and his or her blind spot is still as blind as ever.

The correct way to use side-view mirrors is to position them so that you can see what’s in the blind spots to the sides of your vehicle. But since most people haven’t figured this out yet, they’re still driving around with blind spots. And blind spots are deadly for motorcyclists. Never ride alongside the rear part of a car, because most likely the driver has no idea you are there. It’s best not to ride beside any vehicle if you can help it, but if you have to ride beside one, at least make sure that you’re riding in a spot where the other driver can see you if he or she bothers to look.

THE SOFT LANE CHANGE

S
OMETIMES WE PRACTICE LIFESAVING
techniques without even knowing we’re doing them until someone explicitly points them out to us. This happened to me when I read about “the soft lane change” in a book called
Ride Hard, Ride Smart
(Motorbooks: 2004), written by a fellow named Pat Hahn who coordinates public information and education for the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center.

What Hahn means by “soft lane change” is easing into a lane when you’re changing lanes rather than darting into the new lane. This will allow you and anyone else on the road time and space for mistakes. No matter how thoroughly you’ve checked the lane you plan to enter, there’s always something you might have missed, like a car in the next lane over deciding to occupy that same lane, or some fool weaving through traffic at 100-plus miles per hour.

To perform a soft lane change, first check your mirrors and blind spot to make certain the lane you want to move into is clear (as you would anytime you change lanes). Next, signal your lane change (again, just as you would anytime you change lanes), but instead of moving from the center of the lane you’re in to the center of the next lane, just move to the line that divides the two lanes and hold that position, leaving your turn signal on. Before you move all the way into the next lane, once again check your mirror and glance over at your blind spot to make certain you didn’t miss something or that some kid with a fast car and a death wish isn’t zigzagging through the lane.

Leave your turn signal on while you do this. If you’ve missed something and there’s a car you didn’t see, the driver should have realized your intentions by this point. The person will most likely either honk his or her horn at you or move over to let you in. Either option is better than getting hit by the other vehicle.

You’ll complete the lane change only after you’re absolutely certain that no other vehicle is vying for the same space. Don’t turn off your turn signal until after you’ve safely completed the lane change. All of this should happen in a matter of seconds, which is a lot longer than you might think, but the extra time taken could mean the difference between you getting where you’re going or you ending up in a hospital or a morgue.

You should practice soft lane changes not just every time you ride a motorcycle, but anytime you operate any vehicle on public roads. This is the surest way to avoid hitting hard-to-see vehicles while changing lanes, such as motorcycles, for example. If you always practice soft lane changes, the life you save may be my own.

PRESERVING SAFE SPACE

O
N A BIKE YOU
don’t have fenders and bumpers and safety cages and crumple zones to protect you in case of an accident. Instead, you have flesh-and-blood legs and arms that are no match for three tons of sport utility vehicle. Because you are so vulnerable, you need to keep as much space as possible around you.

You do this by safely positioning your bike on the road. Always put your bike in the position that gives you the best view of the road ahead of you. Don’t follow vehicles too closely, because in addition to blocking your view of the road ahead, tailgating takes away valuable time for you to react in an emergency. This is especially true when following a truck. If you find yourself following a truck, make sure to keep extra space between you and the truck. Better yet, make sure to choose a lane in which there are no vehicles in front of you, if that is at all possible.

If traffic is too heavy and there are no clear lanes available, stay to the right or the left of the lane so that you can see past the vehicles in front of you. Avoid riding in the center of the lane because in addition to affording the least visibility, that is the slipperiest part of the lane. Car engines, transmissions, and radiators are located between the car’s wheels, and most of the slippery liquids that drip from a car on the highway build up in the center of the lane. The wheels that pass on the edges of the lane tend to keep the wheel tracks clean and free of slippery buildup, so you’ll get your best traction there.

As you become more familiar with traffic patterns you’ll learn to make traffic work for you instead of against you. On multilane roads you can position your bike in the right lane so that vehicles in the left lane will block oncoming drivers making left turns from hitting you. This is a skill that will require you to be able to read and assess a situation instantly, and you need to be confident of your riding skills and reaction times.

On occasion this will necessitate riding more aggressively than you might normally so you can keep up with fast-moving traffic, or even ride a little faster than the rest of traffic, but this isn’t always a bad thing. Some studies have even shown that a motorcyclist riding just a bit faster than traffic is safer than a motorcyclist riding slower than traffic or even just the same speed as traffic. That seems to be the case in my experience.

This doesn’t mean you’ll have an excuse to ride as fast as you want. The key here is to ride
slightly
faster. As we mentioned earlier, deviating from traffic flow is a sure way to get into an accident. If you’re riding slightly faster than traffic, you’re doing so because you’re trying to increase the safe space around your motorcycle. You’re speeding up to move into a free space in traffic and avoid getting boxed in by other vehicles. Always try to find a spot in traffic that provides you with the most room possible. Sometimes this will mean you have to change lanes to find one with more safe space in which to ride, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be zipping in and out of traffic like a lunatic. You’ll be changing lanes safely and sensibly, using the soft-lane-change method described in the last section.

Poor road conditions or poor weather conditions will require additional time to respond to unexpected events, so you’ll need even more safe space in such conditions. You can get that safe space by slowing down, giving yourself more time to react. Debris on the road will also require you to slow down to give yourself more reaction time and thus more safe space.

You’ll even need to be aware of the safe space around you when you park your motorcycle. Since motorcycles are so hard to see, someone might consider a parking space you’re occupying empty and try to park in it. You may be standing there, putting on your helmet and gloves, and the next thing you know you’re looking at the undercarriage of a Dodge Ram. When you pull into a parking space, position your motorcycle so that it is as visible to other drivers using the parking lot as possible.

BRAKING PRACTICE

O
NE OF THE MOST
dangerous situations in which you can find yourself is one in which you’ve locked up your brakes. At that point your tires have zero traction and the slightest twitch or sneeze or even blink on your part will put you down on the ground. The best you can hope for is a low-side, which is a crash where you just lay the bike down without flipping it over, but you’re just as likely to go over the high side.

To avoid locking up your brakes, you need to know the traction limits of your bike, and the only way to really find out where those limits are is to test them. This practice itself is somewhat dangerous, but there are ways to do it that make it less dangerous. First off you’ll need to find a safe place to practice, like a large, empty parking lot with clean, smooth pavement, somewhere where you can safely accelerate up to speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour. Once you reach that speed, practice stopping as hard as you can. Remember that your front brake does most of the work.

Keep stopping harder and harder, and eventually you’ll brake so hard that you lock up one of the tires. If your brakes are functioning properly, this will almost certainly be the rear tire. Immediately ease pressure on the brake pedal until the tire is once again turning freely. If you were only going 20 to 30 miles an hour when you started, you should have slowed down enough by the time the rear wheel locks to avoid crashing.

Once you’re accustomed to using both brakes hard, practice the same drill using just the front brake. At the slightest hint of the front tire locking up, release the front brake. If you lock up your front brake, you will most likely fall down, even at low speeds. Once you’ve got a feel for this, go back to practicing with both brakes. You’ll notice that your stops are both shorter and more controlled, even after just a few practice stops.

Do this several times, and by the time you’re finished, you’ll be able to feel what your motorcycle is doing just before you lock up your brakes. Your hands and feet will tell you when a tire is about to lock up. This will help give you an instinctive sense for just how much braking force you can apply in a real emergency situation.

Braking is such an important skill that you need to keep practicing it, even after you’ve mastered the basics. When you’re out on the open road approaching stop signs, first make certain that no one is behind you. Once you’ve determined the road behind you is clear, practice stopping hard on different types of roads and road surfaces. Don’t brake to the point of locking up your tires, but do try to stop in as little distance as possible. That way when a deer jumps out in front of you or some fool doesn’t see you and pulls out on the highway just as you’re approaching an intersection, hard stops will be second nature for you. Instead of panicking and having a life-threatening crash, your instincts will take over and you’ll be much more likely to come to a safe stop.

RIDING IN THE RAIN

I
F YOU RIDE A
motorcycle, you will get caught in bad weather, even if you live in the desert. It’s part of the deal you make with the world when you decide to become a motorcyclist. If you prepare properly and know what you’re doing, it’s not as terrible as you might think. But riding in the rain does increase your danger level.

Having a good rain suit helps to reduce some of the danger. If you’re warm and dry rather than wet, cold, and miserable, you’ll be much more focused on the matter at hand, which is, of course, safely riding your motorcycle. Rain suits are either one- or two-piece suits made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or nylon. The one-piece suits do a better job of keeping a rider dry because they don’t allow rain to seep in at a rider’s waist, the way a two-piece suit can. On the other hand, the two-piece suits are easier to put on quickly at the side of the road.