Top Tips for Safe and Secure Motorcycling on Streets

Riding a motorcycle on streets is always a risky and irritating affair. During this, people all around the world seem to be in front of you and needless to say, they are in hurry. Being a responsible motorcyclist, it is your duty to stay safe and avoid the unexpected hazards as much as you can.

We bring you top 12 tips you should keep in mind in order to keep yourself safe while riding on the streets:

1. Observe Head Movements of Other Riders:

This is one of the simplest and most effective techniques to avoid an accident. It is pretty obvious that a rider, before taking a move, would rotate or move his head for sure. Either towards the rear view mirrors or towards any other direction on the road, a rider can never change his road activities without spinning his head. So, take a note of that.

2. Stay Alert with the Brakes:

While riding on streets, you never know when you need to press the brake lever. Since most of the times, an accident happens in just fraction of seconds, hence it is really beneficial to cover the front as well as rear brakes by one or two fingers and the right toe respectively. 

3. Ride in a Lower Gear:

In congested and tight city traffic, it is necessary to have an ample amount of power in hand. To meet this purpose, always ride the bike keeping it in a lower gear in order to pace up and step forward effectively. The higher one on the other hand, is beneficial for delivering a better fuel economy and riding on longer stretches.

4. Keep yourself Noticed:

Being on the road, it is very essential to be in the eyes of other riders, drivers and pedestrians. For this purpose, you need to get noticed from a distance and that can be fulfilled by wearing a bright coloured jacket and a helmet. Being on a dull and darker side will get you ignored many a times by others that can eventually lead to some dangerous hazards. 

5. RVMs help a lot, but not completely:

The rear view mirrors are great lifesavers and do avoid plenty of accidents. You do not need to look back again and again as the convex mirrors project the image right in front of you. But is it completely sufficient? No. Some blind spots are not traced by the rear view mirrors, which becomes a cause of concern in many cases. Hence, next time you ride in a congested situation, first see the rear view mirrors followed by looking at your shoulder to see the vehicle in that blind spot.

6. Avoid Risky Exits:

Many times it happen that a vehicle moving ahead of you takes a sudden turn unexpectedly. In that case, it is beneficial to stay behind the vehicle and wait for that exit to pass away. It is not in your hands to teach the driver of another vehicle to give a signal before taking such turns, but the safety of your life is indeed.

7. Ride with Continuous Scanning:

This one is a basic and simple technique to avoid any hazard. While riding your motorcycle in congested areas, keep scanning your environment, which means everything. Try to keep an eye on each and every element that comes in your range like the rear view mirrors, left and right of the road,  instrument cluster, etc. Moreover, keeping an eye on a particular spot for long can also invite troubles, so better avoid it.

8. Observe the Surface:

While riding, use your eyes as a safety equipment. Look for any spilled liquid like fuel, antifreeze or coolant that make a surface appear as shining pavement. Moreover, keep yourself alert of mirage that appear in times of summers and look like water spilled on the road, which is actually not. For practicing safe biking, you can also see for gravel and sand that can also put life of a rider at risk.

9.Cancel turning blinkers when not in use:

A blinking turn indicator gives others on road the signal that you are about to take a turn. Many of us sometimes forget to cancel it off that unintentionally give other riders a turning message. So, it is advised to cancel the turn indicators each time you are done with taking a turn, even when the road is empty.

10. Keep your escape route in Mind, always:

Motorcycles are lightweight, quick and occupy lesser space. So, we advice to always keep in mind an escape route that you can follow in case of an emergency. Moreover, changing or doing alterations in your escape route will be even more beneficial and never let you fall weak in front of a hazard.

11. Ride in Open Spaces:

While riding on the streets, there are always some spaces between other vehicles that can be used. Riding in these spaces can put you away from other vehicles and hence reduces the chance of any mishap. Also vary your speed time to time so that you don’t get invisible with the flow of traffic.

12. Stay in One Extreme Direction:

When you are in heavy volume traffic, it is better to keep your bike in either left or right direction in order to stay not right behind of the vehicle in front you. Doing this has another benefit. If the car behind you fails to apply brakes at the exact time, then you won’t be bumping your rear into it. 

Thats all folks. Ride safe and dont forget to wear a helmet. As they say, cars have bumpers but bikers have bones.