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Safety: Tips
The safety tips on this page come from the pages of the Motorcyle Safety Foundation Web site. Their site offers many more valuable tips, including several professionally produced videos; you are encouraged to visit their site by clicking on the logo to the right.
Quick Tips | Group Riding | Alcohol
Be visible:
- Remember that motorists often have trouble seeing motorcycles and reacting in time.
- Make sure your headlight works and is on day and night.
- Use reflective strips or decals on your clothing and on your motorcycle.
- Be aware of the blind spots cars and trucks have.
- Flash your brake light when you are slowing down and before stopping.
- If a motorist doesn’t see you, don’t be afraid to use your horn.
Dress for safety:
- Wear a quality helmet and eye protection.
- Wear bright clothing and a light-colored helmet.
- Wear leather or other thick, protective clothing.
- Choose long sleeves and pants, over-the-ankle boots, and gloves.
- Remember – the only thing between you and the road is your protective gear.
Apply effective mental strategies:
- Constantly search the road for changing conditions. Use the Search, Evaluate, Execute strategy (SEE) to increase time and space safety margins.
- Give yourself space and time to respond to other motorists’ actions.
- Give other motorists time and space to respond to you.
- Use lane positioning to be seen; ride in the part of a lane where you are most visible.
- Watch for turning vehicles.
- Signal your next move in advance.
- Avoid weaving between lanes.
- Pretend you’re invisible, and ride extra defensively.
- Don't ride when you are tired or under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
- Know and follow the rules of the road, and stick to the speed limit. Know your bike and how to use it:
- Practice. Develop your riding techniques before going into heavy traffic. Know how to handle your bike in conditions such as wet or sandy roads, high winds, and uneven surfaces.
Remember: Give yourself space. People driving cars often just don’t see motorcycles. Even when drivers do see you, chances are they’ve never been on a motorcycle and can’t properly judge your speed.
Motorcycling is primarily a solo activity, but for many, riding as a group -- whether with friends on a Sunday morning ride or with an organized motorcycle rally -- is the epitome of the motorcycling experience.
Here are some tips to help ensure a fun and safe group ride:
- Arrive prepared. Arrive on time with a full gas tank.
- Hold a riders’ meeting. Discuss things like the route, rest and fuel stops, and hand signals (see diagrams on next page). Assign a lead and sweep (tail) rider. Both should be experienced riders who are well-versed in group riding procedures. The leader should assess everyone’s riding skills and the group’s riding style.
- Keep the group to a manageable size. If necessary, break the group into smaller sub-groups, each with a lead and sweep rider.
- Ride prepared. At least one rider in each group should pack a cell phone, first-aid kit, and full tool kit, so the group is prepared for any problem that they might encounter.
- Ride in formation. The staggered riding formation (see diagram ) allows a
proper space cushion between motorcycles so that each rider has enough time and space to maneuver and to react to hazards. The leader rides in the left third of the lane, while the next rider stays at least one second behind in the right third of the lane; the rest of the group follows the same pattern. A single-file formation is preferred on a curvy road, under conditions of poor visibility or poor road surfaces, entering/leaving highways, or other situations where an increased space cushion or maneuvering room is needed.
- Avoid side-by-side formations, as they reduce the space cushion. If you suddenly needed to swerve to avoid a hazard, you would not have room to do so. You don’t want handlebars to get entangled.
- Periodically check the riders following in your rear view mirror. If you see a rider falling behind, slow down so they may catch up. If all the riders in the group use this technique, the group should be able to maintain a fairly steady speed without pressure to ride too fast to catch up.
- If you’re separated from the group, don’t panic. Your group should have a pre-planned procedure in place to regroup. Don’t break the law or ride beyond your skills to catch up.
- For mechanical or medical problems, use a cell phone to call for assistance as the situation warrants.
NOTE: All JaxHOG rides are alcohol free. Riders who appear impaired before a ride will not be allowed to ride with the group. Anyone who consumes alcohol during a ride will be asked to leave.
Theory: Alcohol And Motorcycles Are Incompatible
- At a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.01 to 0.04%, judgment begins to lessen, the drinker is less critical of their own actions, reaction time is slowed, and indications of mental relaxation may appear.
- At a BAC of 0.05 to 0.07%, judgment is not sound, thinking and reasoning powers are not clear, and the ability to perform complex skills is lessened.
- At a BAC of 0.08% or above, judgment and reasoning powers are severely hampered, and the individual cannot complete common simple tasks without error.
Proof: Statistics From Recent Studies (by NHTSA, Florida, Kentucky, and Australia)
- Having any alcohol in one’s body increases the chance of crashing by five times.
• Having a BAC greater than 0.05% increases the risk of crashing about forty-fold. - 46 percent of all motorcyclists killed in crashes were using alcohol.
- One fourth of all fatal alcohol-related motorcycle crashes involve motorcyclists running off the road, overturning, or falling from the motorcycle rather than striking another object.
Explanation: Alcohol Affects Your Ability To “SEE”
- SEE is the acronym for MSF’s strategy to help motorcycle riders maintain a safety margin as well as remain ready and able to respond properly to traffic situations. SEE stands for:
- Search for hazards that might lead to trouble.
- Evaluate how the hazards might interact to create risk; prioritize multiple hazards to deal with one at a time.
- Execute an action to maintain a margin of safety.
- Alcohol affects these three human elements of safe motorcycle operation by impairing your vision (Search), judgment/decision-making ability (Evaluate), and coordination/reaction time (Execute).
Recommendation: Plan Ahead
- Riders should never mix alcohol with riding. Even low, legal limits of BAC increase your risk while riding a motorcycle.
- Riders who are away from home and decide to drink should either (1) wait until their BAC has returned to zero before riding, even if it means staying overnight, or (2) leave the motorcycle in a secure location and find alternate transportation home.