When motorcyclists talk about safety and how to stay alive on the road, it’s usually some variation on how to brake or—even worse—how to lay ‘er down. The problem is that relying on emergency braking to get you out of trouble on your motorcycle is usually a really lousy strategy. Don’t get me wrong—learning how to use your front and rear brakes effectively is a critical skill every rider should develop and practice. And when all else fails, there’s no substitute for having a good DOT-qualified helmet on your head.

But relying on emergency braking or swerving to save your bacon is, I think, a dumb way to stay out of a crash. If a rider allows a situation to deteriorate to the point that he has to take emergency evasive action, he’s probably toast.

Here’s why: After detailed investigations of 900 motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles, the Hurt study (formally titled “Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures”) reported that the average time from the event that starts the collision sequence (such as a car beginning a turn across a motorcycle’s path) to the actual impact was 1.9 seconds. A nearly identical research project just finished in Thailand reported the time at 2.0 seconds. In both studies, three-fourths of riders had less than 3.0 seconds between the start of the accident sequence and the crash. And keep in mind that riders don’t always detect a problem the instant it begins. It may take anywhere from a quarter-second to a couple of seconds before something attracts the rider’s attention.

Once the rider’s attention is caught, reaction time begins. Most human-factors experts put average reaction time to traffic hazards at about 1.0 to 2.0 seconds, averaging around 1.5 seconds. If you swerve, add another half-second for the time delay due to countersteering and developing the correct lean angle before your motorcycle begins to head in the desired direction. Those delays leave little or no time for evasive action to succeed. About 30 percent of riders in the Hurt study took no evasive action at all, often because there was too little time. Even highly skilled braking usually won’t do that much to delay your arrival at the crunch point.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re going down the boulevard at the 35-mph speed limit when Joe Numbnuts turns left across your path. With reaction time and all, you’ve got one second left, so you do a highly skilled stoppie, bringing your speed down to 15 mph in that second. Your average speed during that one second was 25 mph, and you braked for 37 feet. If you hadn’t braked at all, you would have covered that 37 feet in 0.72 seconds. So your highly skilled stoppie and nerves of steel delayed your arrival at the crunch point by about a quarter of a second compared to doing nothing at all. Is that enough time for Joe to clear his big SUV out of your way? Usually not. And few riders have as much as 37 feet in which to brake. Even worse, when faced with death or a world of pain seconds away, most riders do a miserable job of braking and swerving.

The Hurt Report found that riders with formal training (mostly California Highway Patrol and LAPD motorcycle officers, who had very demanding training and tons of time in the saddle) were no more likely to use the front brake than Melvin who learned to ride from his Uncle Clem. Or taught himself. Nor were trained riders less likely to slide out or highside when trying to avoid a crash. The point: No matter how good you think you are, don’t count on overcoming the Pucker Factor when you’re caught by surprise and think you’re about to meet your Maker.

Instead of thinking you’re going to save yourself with your lightning-fast reflexes and well-honed skills, you’ll probably avoid a lot more trouble by working to prevent the situations where you have to rely on those skills.

1) Do all you can to make it easy for car drivers to see you. Probably 90 to 95 percent of car drivers who screw up say they never saw the motorcycle. Car drivers don’t want to hit you. Honest. But some of them need extra help to know you’re there. Do all you can to make it easier for them to see you. Use your high beam during the day. High beam is more conspicuous than low beam. Trading that cool-looking black leather jacket for something bright wouldn’t hurt, either. (The only intentional crashes we ever saw in the Hurt study were marital disputes on wheels, with one spouse on the motorcycle and one in the car. You figure the rest.)

2) Freeways are good; surface streets are bad. Areas around shopping districts are the worst. Limited-access roadways such as freeways are good because car drivers can’t turn across your right-of-way, so use freeways as much as you can.

3) In busy urban traffic, stay in the mix with the cars. Not out ahead of them; not behind. When you go through intersections where cross-traffic wants to use the pavement you own, stay right next to a car’s front fender so you’re not in the driver’s blind spot and use the car as a shield. This is especially true at night because it’s even harder for car drivers to distinguish a motorcycle from nearby traffic. Many riders who get picked off are the ones 30 yards ahead of a big clot of cars, or 20 yards behind.

4) Move away from potential hazards. If you’re alone when you come up to an intersection where a car is waiting to cross your path, the more lateral distance you put between your path and the other guy’s starting point the better. For example, if you’re nearing an intersection where a car coming from the opposite direction can turn across your path, move to a lane closer to the curb. It’ll make it easier for the car driver to see you, and give you more time to react, which is probably even more important than skilled braking.

5) Never assume the other guy has seen you. Keep your eye on a vehicle that’s positioned where it could violate your right-of-way. When you’ve decided the other driver has seen you and you start looking farther down the road, that’s the moment he’ll choose to turn.

6) Take it easy when you’re out carving canyons. As you approach a turn, pick out which rocks and trees look good to hit, because you don’t want to hit the unfriendly ones (which, actually, are all of them). If you need a little extra time to run through this mental drill, let off the gas. And remember that if you hit a post-and-rail barrier, which is used to decorate the outside of a lot of curves, it will probably break every bone in your body.

7) No booze before riding. None. Ever. Your risk of causing your own crash skyrockets when you drink and ride. Riders with more than one beer in their systems are about 40 times as likely to crash as sober riders. And a drinker’s favorite way to crash is by running off the road, which has a higher fatality rate than any motorcycle-car crash except head-ons because there are so many rigid fixed objects waiting to, uh, welcome you. Trees, fire hydrants, parked cars, culverts, the list goes on and on.

Split lanes on the freeway. It’s safer than trusting the guy behind you not to rear-end you. In the Hurt study, more riders on the freeway got nailed from behind while staying in their lane than riders who crashed while lane-splitting. But don’t go too much faster than the traffic flow and be really careful when coming up to a car with an open space in the lane next to it, especially if the lane with the space is moving faster than the one with the car.

9) Be patient with lost and distracted drivers. In residential neighborhoods, you should understand that the idiot in the car in front of you, the one who’s poking along at 15 mph, is looking for an address. Cool your jets and hold back, because the second you try to pass him, he’s gonna turn across your path into a driveway. The five or 10 seconds you lose waiting for this car to get out of your way is a lot less than the time you’ll lose waiting for the cast to come off your leg.

10) Don’t lay it down. You lose only about 8-10 mph every second you spend sliding on the ground while giving away your perfectly good skin. If you do a good job using both brakes, you can lose 15-20 mph every second you brake and save on band-aids, too. About the only time to put yourself down on the pavement is if you’re on an elevated curve (like a freeway interchange) and you’re about to hit the low outside wall. The wall is usually high enough to save your motorcycle but not high enough to keep you from flying off into the wild blue yonder. I’ve never seen a rider survive that fall. The government ought to raise those concrete retaining walls to at least chest-high.

11) A loud exhaust is not safer. By the time you’re close enough for a car driver to hear you, he’s already in your path. In fact, you run the risk that the driver will be so alarmed he’ll stop dead in your path. On the other hand, loud exhausts sure work wonders for pissing off the people behind you and making ‘em hate motorcyclists. If you’re serious about staying out of an accident, make yourself seen, not heard. If you just gotta have a loud exhaust, find another excuse for it.

Lucky for me, I learned these things from seeing thousands of other people’s crashes, because I think some of these strategies have helped me stay out of trouble on the road. This is fortunate, because I learned in my dirtbiking days that my own collision- avoidance skills usually suck. Seems that when things get really ugly I have this bad habit of puckering up.

Motorcyclist Jim Ouellet is one of the authors of the famous Hurt Report, “Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures,” and has been studying motorcycle accidents since 1975. He has examined more than 2500 crashes, testified in the U.S. Senate and various state legislatures, helped train investigators and supervised the Thailand study of 1082 motorcycle crashes. He is on the staff of the Head Protection Research Laboratory. He can be reached at jim_ouellet@yahoo.com.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: Avoiding Panic Braking and Swerving – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

One the great moments in a motorcyclist’s life is when he gets to ride that gleaming new bike home for the first time. Unfortunately, it’s one of the more dangerous moments too. Research, like the Hurt Report, indicates that riders, even experienced ones, on motorcycles that are new (or at least new to them) are more likely to be involved in a crash.

Unfortunately, the research hasn’t determined why. Let’s speculate a bit. New bikes are unfamiliar. They don’t steer quite the same as what you are used to. Their controls are positioned and shaped differently. Clutches engage slightly differently that your previous ride, and brakes and tires arrive at lock-up with less or more pressure. You sit on it slightly differently, and you use different muscles to steer, hold on during acceleration, and brace yourself while stopping. In other words, the movements and routines you used while riding that old bike need to be modified. You will need to adjust to the new bike. It takes time and miles, more of both if you don’t ride frequently. We have previously written about taking some time in a safe setting to learn how the new bike reacts. Taking a rider-training class is a great way to do this.

Prepare for your first ride on that new motorcycle by reading the owner’s manual before you ride the bike home. Find how the components work that are different from any previous bike you may have owned. This includes things like switches and instrument controls. For example, if you are buying your first Harley or BMW, the turn signal controls are probably more complicated than what you are used to. Instead of a single switch that initiates and cancels signaling, Harley-Davidsons use two buttons, one on each side. Push that side’s button to begin signaling. To stop signaling, you push the button a second time. That is, unless the self-canceling feature has already stopped the signaling, then pushing the button a second time starts the signaling cycle all over again. The work-around is to push the opposite button twice quickly when you want to stop signaling. The first push cancels the original signal if it’s still flashing (and starts the one you just pushed); the second push cancels the new one. With this system, you don’t distract your attention from the road to look at the instruments to be sure signaling has ceased. Be sure you understand other unique features—Kawasaki’s automatic neutral finder is another example—before they can distract or confuse you while riding.

Before you ride your brand new motorcycle away from the dealer, make sure it is adjusted to fit you instead of the factory’s test rider. Get the brake pedal set so you can cover it comfortably. Rotate the handlebar in its mouting clamps to a position where you can get maximum steering leverage and, comfort. Adjust the clutch and brake levers on the handlebar, so you can reach them, and better still, cover them, comfortably while riding. Adjust engagement points to fit your hands or feet or use the lever-position adjusters if the bike has them.Set the mirrors so their fields of view barely overlap behind you and give maximum view of the lanes next to you. Once set, make sure all the mirrors’ nuts are tight, since a mirror that suddenly swings loose is a major distraction. See our article on set-up for further tips on tailoring your bike to fit you properly.

Other adjustable components may include windshield, suspension, and headlight. Get a dealer’s technician to set these components up to fit you (you should be able to look over the windshield), and while he’s at it, ask about any other questions you have from reading the manual—toolkit access, fusebox location, how to check oil level (On the stand? Dipstick screwed in or just dipped?), where the idle-speed control is, etc.

Take it easy during your first weeks with a new motorcycle. Slow down in corners and avoid situations—like frantic traffic or riding in a group—that add to your workload. You should also deliberately get to know how your new bike works at the edges of the envelope. We have previously written that you find a safe place to learn how far it will lean before it drags and practice swerving and panic braking. Practice quick starts too, since there are situations when a hard launch is your best escape from disaster.This is also an especially good time to wear your most protective helmet and most visible riding gear to help ensure that you don’t have to use any corner of the bike’s envelope. Keep your headlight on high beam during the day to further increase your visibility.

Of course, there are other, and potentially bigger, reasons that riders crash on new bikes. You may be tempted to show off, always a bad idea, but even more so when the bike isn’t familiar. Just looking around to see if people are checking out you and your bitchen new bike means you aren’t paying attention to Job 1. And don’t even think about having a beer when you are going for a ride.

This isn’t to say that your new bike is just an accident waiting for a place to impact. We ride new bikes all the time, sometimes several on the same day, and don’t leave a trail of scraped-off parts and asphalt rash. But have taught ourselves to learn about and adjust to them quickly.

A new bike can also be safer. It’s likely to have better tires, brakes, and suspension than your old ride, so once you learn about it, set it to fit you, familiarize yourself with how it works, especially near its limits, and adopt a no-nonsense attitude about riding, your new bike will probably be not only more fun, but safer too.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: New Bike Safety – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

Traction is a concern anytime you are on a motorcycle. Some part of your mind should be addressing it whenever you ride. It is a primary issue when you are braking or cornering, a moderate concern while you are accelerating, and still of a little interest when you are riding straight at a steady speed. It can even be an issue when you stop and put your foot down.

Actually, it isn’t traction you are thinking about. Your mind is worrying about all those things that can eliminate traction—water, oil, coolant, diesel fuel, gasoline, sand, dirt, plasticized sealants, ice and tree sap, to name a few.

Your first line of detection is normally your eyes, but sometimes slippery stuff can be deceiving. Occasionally an oil slick looks like a tar patch. Sand can look like a slightly different pavement composition. Diesel fuel or coolant can appear as just a slight, nearly invisible sheen on the road.

Shade can hide a slippery hazard or actually create it. After a dewy night in our local mountains, the road sometimes stays wet and glazed until the sun reaches it. However, during the winter months, the low sun may never dry off some corners, and even in the afternoon riding into a shaded corner can produce a slick surprise. If it gets cold enough after the sun goes down, that leftover moisture can freeze. (Using one of those key-chain thermometers as a zipper pull on your jacket can provide information about whether temperatures are near freezing.) Even on a warm, dry day, a shaded corner can be hazardous, especially if you are coming from bright sun. The shade can hide sand or dirt, and I have seen more than one rider crash in a dark dusty corner.

Experience can help you learn the signs of slick surprises, but there are things you can do to help. For one thing, avoid polarized glasses, which can hide the shine of something slippery. Use your nose to smell spilled fuel, coolant and oil. (If you don’t know what coolant, oil and diesel fuel smell like, you should learn.) If you smell any of these things, you slow down and move away from the part of the road you suspect to be contaminated. Many times they are not visible.

Where Does the Goo Go?

Lubricants and other automotive fluids are normally the slickest stuff you’ll encounter on the road. Cars and trucks are the usual source of spilled fluids, though they used to leak a lot more. We were always advised to avoid the center of the road, where the oil usually fell, especially in heavy traffic areas and major intersections. That’s still good advice, especially when it’s wet. Heavy traffic areas that are covered and protected from the elements—tunnels and toll booths, for example—are almost always slippery when it rains. The rain doesn’t fall directly on the road surface to wash the oil away but instead drops off the wet vehicles that pass through, giving you that super-slick oil-on-water mixture. The curving tunnel at the west end of U.S. Interstate 10 where it becomes Pacific Coast Highway, which adds an off-camber turn to the equation, is a classic and scary example. Most riders will eventually encounter a toll booth on a rainy day, and if they don’t remember how slick they can be, they probably will when they put their foot down or at least when they accelerate away.

In corners, fuel or oil is likely to get thrown to the outside, so if you smell or suspect a spill, you can usually avoid it by staying to the inside. Staying to the inside also gives you more room to straighten up without running out of lane. On the other hand, moving to the outside as you enter a corner and staying there until you can see all the way through the turn allows you to look farther down the road and gives you more time and distance to adjust for any potential hazards. This latter approach is the one usually recommended, and if you enter the corner with some speed margin to allow you to tighten your line if needed, it gives you the most options.

What do you do if you see a strip of oil in a corner you will have to cross? Slow down and tighten your arc before you reach it and cross it as upright as possible with no brakes and the throttle in neutral. The oil will stay on your tires for a few rotations, so continue with caution, avoiding hard turns or braking. Of course, unless you have encountered one of those oil traps someone deliberately dumped in the middle of a corner (increasingly common in Southern California), the line of fuel or oil is likely to simply follow the bend of the corner all the way through. You will have to decide whether to ride inside or outside of it. In a right-hand bend, staying inside is usually the best idea, especially if you can see it goes all the way through the corner. In a left-hander, staying clear of the line of spilled fluid might place you too close to the oncoming lane, so you’ll have to decide if there is enough room to stay safely inside of it. In any event, the best approach is to slow down so your need for traction is reduced and you can straighten up to cross the slick as needed.

Slippery Subject

Lots of things land on roads and make them slippery, and some things are there permanently—manhole covers, metal bridge gratings, paint, railroad tracks, cattle guards and those plasticized sealants some road-maintenance agencies use to seal cracks. They offer little traction when dry and almost none when wet—and many of these metal items are the first places where ice forms on wet, cold days.

While some of these metal components could probably be designed to provide better traction, those plasticized crack sealants are clearly the work of some motorcycle-hating devil. While most tar strips are slightly slippery, the newer composites offer all the traction of the inside of an alligator’s nose. Sometimes you can avoid them, but other times they spread over a corner and seem to cover more surface than the regular pavement. The only thing to do in that case, especially when it’s wet, is slow down and call or write the local road department.

“Go soothingly on the greasy mud, for therein lies the skid demon.” That remark has been attributed to everything from Asian road signs and motorcycle manuals to Mark Twain. Whoever said it, it is good advice for motorcyclists who think the demon may be lying in wait. Slow down, straighten up and don’t accelerate or brake any more than you absolutely have to, and he’ll probably let you go.

Related Articles
Why You Need to Be Able to Drag Your Motorcycle in Corners
Riding in the Rain
Riders Who Zig
Lines Through Corners
Steer Clear of Trouble
Cornering Through a Crisis
As the Turn Tightens
Avoiding Obstacles in a Turn
Slippery When Wet

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: Maintaining Traction to Avoid Skids and Slides – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

For more than a decade, the primary thrust of American motorcycle-safety efforts has been getting riders to take rider training courses. Some states require them for young riders before they can be licensed. Federal transportation agencies recommend them. Many bikers’ rights groups have advocated them as an accident-reducing alternative to helmet laws. Some insurers offer a discount if policy buyers have recently completed one. The motorcycle industry has backed the concept and spent big bucks to create the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) to support rider training with curricula, instructor training and even management. Harley-Davidson has created the Rider’s Edge training program to train riders at facilities operated by its dealers. Motorcyclists have supported rider training by paying fees to support state programs with their license renewals.

There is one little problem no one has talked about, however. Research shows those basic rider training courses don’t have much effect. The only measured difference between training course graduates and those who start riding without any formal training shows up during the first six months, when those who take the course suffer somewhat fewer lapses—events such as crashes and tickets—than unschooled riders.

Skip School?

So should you pass on taking rider training if you have the option? For new riders, the answer is absolutely not. Besides improving your chances during those first few months, the controlled environment and structured curriculum of a training course is a much safer and less stressful learning environment than the alley behind the dealer where I had my first exciting rides and the information you are getting is based on hard facts, not what your buddy tells you.

One likely benefit of rider training for beginning riders—and one that wouldn’t necessarily show up in a study of trained versus untrained riders—is its filter effect. The MSF Basic RiderCourse is a great way to find out that you and motorcycling aren’t meant for each other without actually buying a bike or risking a friend’s ride. As far as I know, this effect hasn’t been studied, and it varies by the instructor and the facility. There are some facilities and instructors that send a significant percentage of would-be riders home before the course is over, and there are always some course participants who say “this isn’t for me,” even if they successfully complete the course. Those dropouts seem to be people who are likely to turn up as statistics, and the main lesson they learned from rider training (“Don’t do it!”) at least kept them out of the motorcycling column.

As an aside, let me comment on an issue relevant to a debate raging in the rider training realm. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation has begun managing some states’ rider training programs and appears to be positioning itself to take over others. I have one big concern about this trend. Because the MSF is funded by motorcycle makers, one of the organization’s unspoken missions is to bring more people into motorcycling to create motorcycle buyers. That aim conflicts with the filter effect of rider training and makes me uneasy.

But new riders shouldn’t believe that a rider training certificate brings immediate mastery of motorcycling. Basic rider training teaches you how to operate a motorcycle and a little about what you might encounter. But it does not teach you about what it’s like to constantly be overlooked by other drivers, how to see events down the road that might bite you, handling the excitement of rounding a corner to find a deer or oncoming driver in your lane, or a hundred other possibilities that you learn to see and anticipate with experience. You learn basic motorcycle operation in controlled conditions. That’s it.

To Train Or Not?

So I believe that new riders should take a training course. How about other potential students, such as the many riders returning to motorcycling after a lengthy hiatus? If you have forgotten where the clutch is or last rode a hand-shift sidecar, then yes, a basic rider course will return you to confident basic motorcycle operation in a safe environment and remind you of some of the realities of riding. For those who want to refresh their skills before buying a motorcycle, the basic courses are also the way to go because the bike is normally supplied (though it will probably be smaller than the motorcycle you will buy). If you still feel confident in your ability to operate a motorcycle without significant stress and you already have a motorcycle, then take an MSF Experienced RiderCourse or other advanced course.

We also advise new riders to follow up on their basic course with an experienced rider course, usually about six months after they start riding regularly or in the spring after a winter layoff. The experienced-level courses, which aren’t available everywhere, will reinforce the lessons learned in basic training with the added perspective of street experience, discourage bad habits you might have developed and expand on your skills and strategies. A good experienced-rider course helps you grow and develop confidence as a motorcyclist. In talking to relatively new riders who have taken both classes, riders who have recently started riding get more out of an experienced-level course taken during the first year than they do from the basic course.

For no-longer-new riders, I think training continues to be valuable. If you have never taken an advanced skills course, I heartily recommend it. I always get something out of it. I know lots of riders who were anxious before they took it, fearing their skills were inadequate or that other riders would be much better. But I have only talked to one rider who didn’t enjoy it, and that sounded more like an issue with the instructor than with the course itself. It is worth taking every couple of years.

If you are willing to stretch yourself a bit, try a racetrack school. These will allow you to explore your motorcycle’s lean limits and gain confidence in cornering and braking without dodging curbs, cars and construction zones. You can find a listing in the “Back to School” story in the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Back To School?

The subject of recurrent training was raised by MSF president Tim Buche at the Fifth International Motorcycle Conference in Germany last September. After addressing the disappointing results of research on basic rider course graduates, Buche proposed “safety renewal,” which would involve continuing training beyond the initial motorcycle course. (See the complete paper at the MSF web site.) He also wants to study the real-world success of riders who have extended their training beyond the basic course. He announced a research project in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that would study and compare three groups of riders. One group would have no training, one would have taken the basic course and the third would have taken additional training beyond the basic course. He wants to look at more parameters than previous research.

I do believe training that reinforces the lessons you learn in the basic course and on the street is valuable, and I also think advanced courses have helped me. Other riders who have taken them have told me the same thing. However, I have reservations about the proposed research format because riders who voluntarily seek out recurrent training have demonstrated a greater interest in safety than riders who don’t. Riders who go voluntarily out and get more training would seem to be more inclined to ride safely. I also wonder about the credibility of any training study sponsored by an organization with a stake in the training business.

I suggest that you do your own research. Take one of those advanced MSF courses or a racetrack course and see if you learn something that helps you in traffic, in turns or simply in confidence. Be sure to tell us and your riding friends what you find out.

When he’s not attending the School of Hard Knocks, Friedman answers e-mail at art.friedman@primedia.com or ArtoftheMotorcycle@hotmail.com.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: Motorcycle Training classes may not be affective – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

A major new in-depth study of European motorcycle accidents has been published, and while some of the findings skew some when applied to other geographical or cultural areas and we question some of the methodology, it’s still worthwhile reading for any motorcyclist who likes his skin the way it is.

Called the MAIDS (Motorcycle Accident In-Depth Study), the study looked at 921 Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) crashes during 1999 and 2000 in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. The teams gathering the data reconstructed each crash, interviewed witnesses, inspected the involved vehicles, and, when permitted, examined the medical records of injured riders and passengers to identify all the factors that contributed to the crash and its outcome.

Researchers employed (at least in part) methodology developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for on-scene in-depth motorcycle accident investigations to maintain consistency in the data collected in each sampling area. This also allows results to be compared to those from other areas and groups that used the same methodology.

The investigation included a full reconstruction of the accident; vehicles were inspected; witnesses to the accident were interviewed; and, subject to the applicable privacy laws, with the full cooperation and consent of both the injured person and the local authorities, pertinent medical records for the injured riders and passengers were collected. From these data, all the human, environmental and vehicle factors, which contributed to the outcomes were identified.

It also studied 923 riders in similar situations who did not crash to measure exposure (or case-control) data. (The authors explain exposure measurement thus: “This exposure information on non-accident involved PTW riders was essential for establishing the significance of the data collected from the accident cases and the identification of potential risk factors in PTW accidents. For example, if 20% of non-accident involved PTWs in the sampling area were red, it would be significant if 60% of those PTWs involved in an accident were reported to be red, suggesting that there is an increased risk of riding a red PTW. On the other hand, if none of the PTWs in the accident sample were red, it would be an interesting finding, needing further study.”)

The full study is available online at http://maids.acembike.org / and requires you to go through a free sign-up process. The highlights of the study’s findings follow.

Before the Crash

Many riders worry about being rear-ended, but as in past studies, these researchers say that prior to the crash, 90% of all threats, both from traffic and the environment, were in front of the motorcyclist. The Hurt Report had similarly large number.

When riding a vehicle which required a license, unlicensed riders were “significantly” more likely to crash. This is another reminder not to loan your motorcycle to your buddy who used to ride, and, again, it confirms the results of previous studies.

Less than five percent of the accidents involved alcohol use by the motorcyclist. The authors acknowledged that that figure “is low in comparison to other studies, but such riders were more likely to be involved in an accident.”

No one style of motorcycle showed up excessively in crashes. However, the authors found that “modified conventional street motorcycles were found to be over-represented in the accident data.”

A welcome finding for many cruiser riders is likely to be that motorcyclists “between 41 and 55 years of age were found to be under-represented, suggesting that they may have a lower risk of being involved in an accident when compared to other rider age categories.” However, “When compared with the exposure data, 18 to 25 year old riders were found to be over-represented.” This tracks with previous studies and suggests that the rising number of older riders involved in U.S. crashes might be due simply to a rising number of older riders. However, that assumes that older European and U.S. motorcyclists have common traits as riders. Not that I care—I’m already over 55.

Accident Causation

Human error is still the primary cause of motorcycle crashes. In 37 percent of cases, the primary accident contributing factor was a human error on the part of the motorcyclist. In 50 percent of the crashes, the driver of the other vehicle was deemed to have made the primary error.

In 70 percent of the two-vehicle crashes, the other driver failed to “perceive” the two-wheeler, causing the authors to classify this as a primary accident cause. The motorcyclist’s failure to see the other vehicle was listed as a secondary accident cause. Drivers of other vehicles who were licensed to ride motorcycles were less likely to overlook a motorcyclist, a finding which mirrors previous studies.

Traffic control violations (such as rolling a stop sign or traffic light) were made by the motorcyclists in 8 percent of the crashes and by drivers of the other vehicles in 18 percent.

Go with the flow: Although excess speed is often blamed for crashes, the authors of this study found that a speed differential—going either faster or slower than other traffic—was a contributing factor. This speed differential showed up in 18 percent of the crashes. Those who wonder about the zealous speed enforcement in America will find this statement by the authors interesting: “There were relatively few cases in which excess speed was an issue related to accident causation.”

The authors noted that in 13 percent of the crashes, the accident-involved riders chose a poor or incorrect collision-avoidance strategy. In a third of the crashes one party or the other “failed to account for visual obstructions and engaged in faulty traffic strategies.”

Weather caused or contributed to 7.5 percent of the accidents.

The small stuff: Vehicle defects, mostly tire failures, contributed to less than one percent of crashes. A roadway maintenance defect caused the accident or was a contributing factor in 3.6 percent of the accidents studied. Still, it’s worth looking at your tires every ride.

The Crash

Riders most frequently collided with the roadway or, most often, the other vehicle. In 60 percent of the accidents studied, the “collision partner” was a passenger car.

Those roadside barriers designed to contain out-of-control cars create substantial hazards for motorcyclists if they hit them. The authors noted that such impacts cause “serious lower extremity and spinal injuries as well as serious head injuries.” This issue was raised in American by the National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety

In 70 percent of the crashes, impact speed was under 50 km/h (about 30 mph).

Once again, “helmets were found to be an effective protective device to reduce the severity of head injuries.” Just over 90 percent of the crashers wore helmets (this was Europe, where riders haven’t gotten their panties in a knot about helmet use as a symbol of freedom), but about 9 percent of those helmets came off in the crash because they weren’t fastened or fit properly or because they were damaged in the fall.

Over half the injuries (56 percent) to riders and passengers were to arms and legs, and most of those were minor (abrasions, cuts and bruises). Wearing proper gear reduced but did not entirely prevent these minor injuries.

Avoidance Maneuvers

As in the Hurt Report, which studied motorcycle crashes in America a quarter-century ago, riders did a poor job when they had to stop and/or turn in a moment of panic. In almost three-fourths of the crashes, the rider attempted some pre-impact avoidance maneuver, and about one third of those lost control of the motorcycle as a result.

The authors noted that in 13 percent of the crashes, the accident-involved riders chose a poor or incorrect collision-avoidance strategy. In a third of the crashes one party or the other “failed to account for visual obstructions and engaged in faulty traffic strategies.” Again, this confirms what previous studies have shown: Riders need to position themselves so that potentially conflicting traffic can see them, and they should dress to make themselves standout visually.

Some accident-avoidance scenarios “involved skills that were beyond those that typical drivers or operators might currently have. This is often due to the extreme circumstances of some of the accident cases, including an insufficient amount of time available to complete collision avoidance.” An example of this might be the Randy Scott-William Janklow crash, where Janklow ran a stop sign at a high rate of speed giving Scott, who had right-of-way, little chance to react and few maneuvers that might have saved him.

Where is Ours?

Motorcycle groups led by the American Motorcyclist Association have been pushing for a study like this in the United States. Such a study provides substance for motorcycle-safety efforts. The landmark Hurt Report arrived a few years before American motorcycling experienced an accident decline that continued for more than a decade. Certainly what Harry Hurt, Dave Thom, and Jim Oullet (the report’s authors) taught us helped motorcyclists to ride smarter and enabled those responsible for creating motorcycle-safety programs to make informed decisions.

The MAIDS project was funded by the Association of European Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) with the support of the European Commission and “other partners.” However, such support does not seem to exist here. Today’s American politicians are uninterested in spending the pittance that a fresh study would cost, even though over 3000 motorcyclists died on American highways in each of the last few years. And unlike the auto industry, which funds regular safety research, the motorcycle industry seems unwilling to pay for something that might cause it problems.

In the meantime, maybe we can learn not to make the mistakes that tripped up 921 European riders.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: MAIDS Motorcycle Accident Study: Lessons from 921 Crashes – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

Most motorcyclists have heard of countersteering. If you have been riding for any length of time, you have probably hashed it over in benchracing sessions. The subject is usually covered in rider-training courses, too. Not always, though. I attended a California Highway Patrol training session for motorcycle officers back in the early 1980s and noticed that the subject was not mentioned. When I asked about it, the instructor told me, “It just confuses them.”

I can understand that. The concept of turning the front wheel one way to go the opposite way certainly is counterintuitive. Those of us who started riding before there was rider training probably had to grasp the concept by ourselves, and perhaps we did it subconsciously. And some people never quite realize that you steer left to go right and vice versa. In fact, I have heard some longtime riders insist that that’s not the case, that motorcycles steer the way the front wheel is initially turned. I have also heard bicyclists deny that a bicycle steers this way. The issue is also confused by the fact that you can steer a motorcycle by leaning, as anyone who has ridden any distance with their hands off the bars (a practice that can lead to disaster if you hit something in the road or have a flat tire, I need to point out) can testify. Some motorcyclists will tell you that shifting your body weight is the primary way to steer a motorcycle.

However, the depth of some motorcycle riders’ confusion about motorcycle steering really shows up in accident investigations, which reveal the tendency of some riders to fail to turn or to actually turn the wrong way when confronted by a hazard that suddenly appears. This doesn’t happen in the majority of crashes, but it does happen often enough for the Hurt Report to note it. Typically, the hazard is a vehicle that has pulled into the motorcycle’s path.

So why does a rider fail to swerve or actually turn into the intruding vehicle? It is hard to know exactly. After all, this rider has been successfully turning his motorcycle in the direction he wanted to go since he started riding. When it really counted, why did he do the wrong thing?

One factor is probably target fixation. We tend to go where we look, and it’s hard not to look at the SUV that’s wandering into your path. But I believe you can teach yourself to focus on your escape path, and those who have taken even basic rider training have likely heard an instructor tell them to “get your eyes up” or “turn your head and look where you are going.” Practicing that will not only make your normal turns smoother, it will also help you learn to look at your exit from a dicey situation.

In a recent poll on this site, almost two out of five respondents (38 percent) said they had never taken any sort of rider training, and two-thirds of that group said they started riding before rider training was available. The fact that you have gotten away with it doesn’t mean there aren’t rider-training lessons that can save your bacon (and your Hog’s) when you ride into a traffic crisis. I have been riding pretty intensely for more than 40 years and still benefit from my back-to-school days, in part because it at least makes me reconsider some of my riding habits through the eyes of a detached professional. One thing I readjusted when I went through a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) program many years ago was what I did with my eyes. I started training myself to look at the paths around obstacles rather than the obstacles themselves. This conditioning has been priceless when someone lurches in front of me unexpectedly, leaving me with little distance to react.

But just because you know where you want to go doesn’t mean you have the skills to do so. Do you regularly practice hard swerves at the speeds you typically ride? If you aren’t comfortable making a sudden hard swerve, you probably won’t attempt one in a moment of panic, even though it could be the only action that might avoid a collision. Again, signing up for rider training, preferably an Experienced RiderCourses(which only one in nine poll respondents had taken), will get you started.

However, regular practice—as often as every ride—is what actually keeps the sudden, controlled hard swerve in your bag of accident-avoidance tricks, and makes it familiar enough that you instinctively use it in an adrenaline-addled moment.

Practicing swerves is probably the best remedy for any tendency you might have to steer the wrong direction in a moment of panic. Although shifting your body weight to help direct and steady the swerve is certainly useful, to get that instant, substantial change of direction, you must countersteer—hard, precisely and instinctively. When you practice that zig, you should also follow up with a zag, since in the real world swerving around something is likely to send you out of your lane.

Since we at the magazine constantly have to get on and quickly adapt to test motorcycles we have never ridden before, I have developed a routine of making a quick, hard zig-zag at the first opportunity, usually within a few minutes of pulling away. On cruisers, this normally means dragging both floorboards in rapid succession without leaving my lane. This exercise tells me how precisely a motorcycle steers, what sort of pressure is required to make it steer quickly, how well controlled the suspension is, what sort of ground clearance it offers, how predictably the motorcycle steers, and other clues about how it will behave. It is also good practice for me. I normally like to be going at least 30 mph, and most cruisers are comfortably doing a quick left-right-left floorboard-scraping routine at 70 mph while staying within one lane. You don’t make this sort of quick direction change by leaning off the bike; you must lever forcefully on the handlebar.

The other reason riders probably fail to swerve (other than freezing in a panic, which regular practice might also prevent) is hard braking. A motorcycle, even one with antilock brakes, can’t turn and brake hard at the same time. If you have taken an MSF class, you may have heard the traction-pie analogy. If you are using 90 percent of your available traction to brake, you don’t have another 30 percent left to turn hard. In addition, a motorcycle that’s braking hard, particularly a cruiser, probably resists turning. This means a rider must decide in a split second whether to brake or swerve, and if he swerves, in which direction. If you aren’t comfortable with a hard swerve, you may instinctively hit the brakes, even though swerving might allow you to avoid the obstacle while braking just means you hit it at a lower speed. In addition to making you comfortable swerving, practicing teaches you what kind of room you need to execute a swerve and lets your mind rehearse making that split-second decision about whether to brake or change direction.

Many cruiser riders tend to feel they are safe riders because they don’t ride particularly fast, but this belief lulls them into a complacency that can bite them when they must react immediately to a pop-up hazard. You need to keep those life-on-the-edge skills sharp, even if you rarely use them. The two major avoidance maneuvers are swerving and braking, but unlike braking practice, practicing hard swerves involves little risk of crashing. And swerving might be called on more often. I recently saw a statistic that 55 percent of fatal highway accidents involve unintended lane changes, and I know I have certainly dodged a lot of Dodges. But those lane changers are usually the easy ones to avoid. The car that appears in front of you without warning and stops is the challenge that will really test your abilities. If you practice swerving ahead of time, you will know how to swerve, be able to do it instinctively and be able to judge whether swerving is a viable option under the circumstances.

And that swerving practice is even kind of fun.

Motorcycle Cruiser’s Senior Editor/Web Editor gets mail at Art.Friedman@primedia.com or at ArtoftheMotorcycle@hotmail.com.

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For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: Motorcycle Countersteering – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

About once a month a report appears on my desktop courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transpor-tation. Its formal title is the Updated Motorcycle, Moped and Scooter Fatalities Report. It’s an archive of last rides—a sterile and cryptic assessment of all fatal motorcycle crashes year-to-date, each one as witnessed through the eyes of the investigating police officer. I scan the report—date, time of day, location, presence of alcohol, weather condition, helmet and endorsement. I pause over the description.

Updated. For the first three and half decades of my riding career, I was oblivious to the hazards presented by deer and other animals on the road. Even though I ride frequently in the mountains, went to college in Wisconsin, and have ridden tens of thousands of miles in deer country, much it after dark, I had encountered one elk and a few cattle actually on the road and seen one deer. Animals simply weren’t a consideration for me until one night in the coastal mountains of Southern California, when a smallish mule deer leapt down onto the road from an embankment on the right. I hit it at about 40 mph just as it landed, punting it across the road and down a steep cliff on the opposite side, fortunately without crashing. Around that same time, a coworker from Sport Rider hit another deer at a higher speed, splitting the deer in two and crashing. The rider walked away mostly because he was wearing good protective gear and a lot of it.

Since then, I’ve had increasingly frequent deer encounters, so far without further contact. In November, riding on a road in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains just after the sun went behind them, I was almost hit by a deer bouncing off the front of an oncoming SUV. The other driver and I both stopped and pondered about how to stop the suffering of the animal, but it died before he could carry out the idea of running over its head. Less than a mile up the road, I came upon two more deer simply standing on the road. They didn’t move as I approached, and I stopped about 50 feet away. After I honked and revved my engine, they finally got off the road. Months before (fortunately in a car), I had encountered a big mountain lion on the same road after dark. It seemed quite willing to challenge the car for the road and was in no hurry to leave, even when we stopped 20 feet away.

Anyway, during the last few years, my awareness of animals, particularly deer, has risen, as has my interest in avoiding them. This seems to have coincided with a general increase in the deer population nationwide and a resulting rise in collisions with deer. People spend more time in rural areas, since more people are moving out of cities. There is a deer-vehicle crash every eight minutes in Michigan. Of course, deer aren’t only animals vehicles hit. During the past year, I have read of motorcycle collisions involving moose, bison, cattle, dogs, and other animals, but deer are the most common impact points. In a few areas, deer collisions outnumber all other accidents. About 150 Americans a year die as a result of 700,000 collisions with deer, which reportedly cause over a billion dollars in damage.

A disproportionate number of those fatalities are motorcyclists. The Wisconsin DOT site devoted to the deer problem says that while only 2% of car-deer collisions were fatal to humans, 84.9% of the motorcycle-deer crashes involved human fatalities. (This percentage has increased in recent years.) The deer do even worse. Wisconsin also sponsors the Deer-Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse (DVCIC), which has a variety of information on the topic.

The DVCIC site also looks at a number of strategies for reducing deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) including fencing, roadside repellants, reducing deer population through hunting and other means, managing roadside vegatation, in-vehicle warning systems, alternatives to road salting (which attracts deer), and other ideas, but there is not a lot of encouraging information

At the moment there is no clear method of avoiding those accidents short of staying at home under the bed. (And one Minnesota reader has told me that he simply does not ride at night because of the deer issue.) One company as created a deer-detector that flashes lights when deer are sensed near that section of road, but the device is new and probably too costly for widespread deployment. Roadside reflectors seem to have some promise, perhaps because the reflected light causes deer to freeze before they reach the road. Deer whistles? So far, there isn’t much research that supports their use, but they don’t hurt or cost much either. There is a discussion of the studies that have looked at deer whistles on this page, which found some that even indicate a slightly negative effect from whistles.

I started doing research and asking people who drive a lot at night in deer country for their advice. Some of it was familiar, but I picked up some fresh pointers too.

Because your choice of riding gear is as important to making motorcycling fun as your choice of motorcycle, Motorcycle Cruiser magazine includes regular articles about riding apparel. The right gear makes motorcycling safer and more comfortable through a wide range of conditions. Yet apparel-buying decision may be based on little more than what the wearer sees while standing in front a mirror. Consider a riding jacket. Most riders buy on style, but a real riding jacket should do much more than look good. With a bit of augmentation (layering), it should actually increase your comfort throughout the range of temperatures you ride in, serve your needs on the road, prevent damage to your machine, ward of gravel and bugs, and on that day when something goes wrong, provide significant protection from abrasion and even impact. That’s the difference between a motorcycle jacket, and good-looking but functionally empty jacket.

Be Cool

You can actually be cooler in a solid crash-resistant motorcycle jacket than in a T-shirt in hot weather, but the jacket must have good venting in places where the moving air touches it. If you ride behind a large windshield, that means that it must have vents out on the sleeves, perhaps even on the outside of the sleeves. I have a Firstgear jacket, for example, with a unique scoop on the outside of the forearms to catch air flowing around the shield. If you don’t have a windshield, then large vents in the upper chest, such as the tuck-away panels on some Vanson jackets, are a cool solution. What goes in must come out, so the jacket should have exit venting on the back too. If you are buying a jacket just for warm weather one of the mesh motorcycle jackets can actually keep you cooler while moving than riding in just a shirt.

Those vents can be a liability on cold rides, so if you plan to use a mesh or vented jacket in a wider range of temperatures, there should be some means of sealing them. An insulating liner increases a jacket’s cold-weather utility. A longer jacket, especially one with some sort or belt or elastic waist, will reduce the drafts that can blow up your back and chill your kidneys.

Various other design features can expand a jacket’s temperature range. If the front closure features a snap-down flap over the zipper, you might be able to get air flowing through by unzipping the jacket most of the way but using the snaps to keep yourself fully covered. Sleeves that close with a zipper plus a snap can provide a similar option to keep the closure intact but let some air flow through.

The Fine Points

Massive zippers, fancy snaps or big chrome buckles may look cool, but they can also scratch your bike’s paint, especially on the tank. Sleeve zippers and snaps will also come into contact with your bike more frequently than you might suppose. However, don’t abandon these kinds of closures in favor of a knit cuff. The problem with knit-style cuffs, often found on aviator-style jackets, is that they permit the sleeve to ride up your arm if you are sliding on it in a crash. The sleeve should close snugly enough that it can not pull up and expose your forearm. You probably want some adjustability in the cuff area though to accommodate additional layers of clothing, watches or gloves. A closure using hook-and-loop material (such as Velcro) can provide great flexibility. Our preference is for a system that uses hook-and-loop material or snaps to adjust the size combined with a zipper (independent of the adjusting system) for closure. The the least convenient cuff systems are those where you must zip and adjust each time you put the jacket on. This is also true of waist adjustments. The adjustments help you accommodate varying layers beneath, but I’d rather just zip the jacket and not have to mess with the belt each time I put it on.

Jacket length is also an issue. Short jackets tend to be the most popular from a styling standpoint, but I have noticed that few experienced riders use them as their primary jacket. Short jackets have a tendency to pull up in a slide, leaving you exposed between the bottom of the jacket and the top of your pants. I prefer a jacket that reaches my hips, since it is less likely to ride up that far in a slide. It also keeps breezes from blowing up my back on colder rides.

Remember that anything you want to reach while riding must be accessible to your left hand, so change pockets for tolls, map pockets, etc. should be on the right side. Zipper pulls should be large enough to grip with heavy gloves. If you are planning on mating the jacket to pants, it’s nice if it comes with a zipper for that purpose, though that can be sewed in later. One feature I find indispensable when I’m not using the jacket is a hanging loop.

Motorcycle jackets offer a wide variety of collar styles, including some that zip off. I prefer a tall collar that I can leave open when the weather is warm or closed snugly to fend off cold or bugs. If the collar uses a tab-type closure that fastens with hook-and-loop fastener, the hook portion should be on the tab with a loop patch that allows you to fold the tab inside the jacket when it’s not in use. This will prevent the hook section from snagging your helmet strap.

Wear Protection

Soft, supple fashion leather may look good in the showroom, but it provides no real abrasion protection, a fact that will become painfully obvious when you are sliding along the asphalt at 50 mph. It also marks the wearer as a pretender, not a real motorcyclist. That heavy, motorcycle-weight leather may not hug your curves like the paper-thin stuff, but it will break in and become quite comfortable in a few rides. Though you will pay more, riding leather will also last far longer than the fashion-weight stuff.

Armor may seem, well…unseemly, until you need it, then it might prevent broken bones or perhaps even internal injuries. Apparel with armor might look and feel lumpy when you first wear it; although the looks won’t change much, we have learned that most armor molds and moves to fit the body it’s wrapped around. Though meaningful research is just beginning on what sort of body armor is most effective, it stands to reason that the kind of armor built like a helmet, with an outer shell to spread out the impact load and a layer of slowly resilient foam, is the best bet. However, almost any sort of padding is likely to improve on the impact-absorbing capabilities of leather or cordura.

Leather isn’t the only suitable material for motorcycling. Aerostich pioneered protective riding gear made from synthetic materials, and other firms have followed. The Aerostich suit also serves as an example of easy entry, useful features, custom construction, and accessible repair facilities, all points worth considering. The Aerostich suit uses a coated material that can keep you dry in a brief rainstorm, though the coating also blocks air movement. A similar suit from Motoport is not coated, making it significantly cooler in hot weather. To get rain protection, you’ll need the firm’s liner or a rainsuit worn over it.

Getting into Your Pants

Jeans, especially heavy ones, do offer some protection in a crash. They are substantially better than light slacks and a wolrd ahead of shorts. They may also offer a good level of comfort, protecting your legs from wind and sun and allowing some air to flow over your skin. The only way you are going to get better wind flow with protection is by wearing mesh pants over shorts.

If you are buying pants for protecting your lower region, consider the points above about heavy leather and the need for cuff closures that won’t ride up. I am amazed at how often I see people riding in chaps or pants made from fashion-weight leather in hot weather. You get all the lack of cooling with almost none of the protection of serious leather. Chaps that leave your glutes uncovered also make me scratch my head, since most falls leave you with third-degree monkey butt. Instead of chaps, look for overpants with full-length zippers, which make them at least as easy to put on as chaps and provide significantly more protection than open-butt chaps.

Decide how you expect to wear the pants before you go shopping. Will they be worn full-time on the days you ride, and have only underwear beneath? Will you put them on and take them off during the day and wear them over jeans? If so, what will, you have in your jeans pockets? Take the pocket contents along when trying on overpants. Will you be able to reach things in your pockets? If not, where will you put wallet, keys, etc.? Make sure the pants are easy to get on and off if they are to donned and doffed at roadside and that they will roll up into some storable form to strap to or tuck away on your bike. Armor will make this harder, but leaving it out will make falls harder.

Full Coverage

Of course, the best protection comes from a one-piece riding suit. The epitome of street protection and motorcycling functionality is the one-piece Aerostich suit. It is made from heavy materials that provide perotection from the elements and in a crash. Armor panels provide some protection from impacts. There are plenty of reports of people who have crashed at speeds over 100 mph and come to rest with their bodies and Aerostich suits intact. A one-piece Aerostich is almost as easy to don as a jacket—just step into one leg, zip up the mail zipper and the other leg. Its only shortcoming is its limited temperature range, since it doesn’t vent too well and requires layers to keep you warm. There are one-piece suits from other btrangs that also provide excellent protection, and Aerostich and others other two-piece suits.

Buying Boots

Unless you are buying boots with some armor over the anklebones, you probably aren’t getting any special protection with motorcycle-specific boots. However, one of the many waterproof boots can extend your comfort in the rain, and a motorcycle boot’s sole design can improve your riding experience in other ways. Most of all, the sole should provide good traction when you plant it in oil or sand at a stop, to prevent you from tipping over. This is a big problem with cowboy boots on motorcycles; with their smooth soles, they desert you when you need traction on a slick surface. A deep rubber sole can also absorb some vibration. Some motorcycle boots now offer venting, which you might also get with a lace-up style boot.

It can pay to have your motorcycle available while shopping for boots. That’s because the boot should work with your foot controls. Boots with a vertical face on the fronts of their heel blocks can limit your options in terms of foot position on footpegs. A ramped heel block may allow you to reach the brake and shift levers more easily. Short-legged riders may find that boots with thick soles (not tall heels) can help them to plant their feet more securely at a stop. (Some also have thicker soles added.)

There is some research that indicates that heavier boots, by increasing the pendulum effect of the foot on your leg, may increase the likelihood of leg fractures in an accident.

I have flat feet, and finding boots that are comfortable to walk in can be a challenge, but they are out there with the other features I want — easy entry combined with secure fit so they don’t fling off in a crash, waterproofing, enough flexibilty to shift and brake, and not too much bulk.

Velvet Fist in the Iron Glove

After a helmet, a solid pair of gloves is the most important protection you can wear while riding. I have heard too many tales of riders who have ground all or part of a finger or thumb off in a crash. A solid glove can at least slow this down.

The best way to have a glove for every situation is to have several sets of gloves. I think the minimum for a serious rider is three sets—a light vented pair for summer, a middleweight pair for in-between weather and a heavy insulated pair for cold rides. I have a box of gloves in the closet, perhaps 20 pairs, and almost every set get used at some point during the year.

Features all motorcycling gloves should have in common are substantial materials, rugged construction, a solid retention system and comfort. For lighter gloves, deerskin or goatskin is a supple and comfortable yet tough material that resists abrasion. Look for seams sewn with tough thread material (turning the gloves inside out may make this easier to examine) and a retention system that holds the glove firmly in place once it’s tightened (so that it is not flung off in a crash). If a glove is initially stiff, it will probably soften up and conform to your hand with wear. Gloves that bunch up in the palms will soon become a problem when wrapped around a handlebar. Gloves that are pre-curved—that is, shaped as if ithey were beginning to grab the grip—are less likely to build up in the palm.

My preference for summer gloves is a perforated solid-leather (deerskin or whatever) type. The part-fabric types don’t seem strong enough to stay together reliably in a crash. These days you can also find gloves with armor and wind-catching vents from several makers. Fingerless gloves are little better than no gloves at all. If you have seen the remains of hands of people who have endured crashes in fingerless gloves or just the sun- and windburn on riders who have used them on long rides, you’ll leave them in your weight room. They have no place on motorcycles.

Some middleweight gloves are waterproof, which is a worthwhile feature. As with heavier winter gloves, the extra material shouldn’t make the gloves too stiff or bulk up the palm areas.

Added Warmth

If you want the ultimate in warmth for your hands, consider electric gloves. However, don’t buy the gloves until you have the electric vest. All the brands of electric vests that we have tried make a huge dent in cold weather, and by warning your vital organs, they also get your extremities warmer as well. If cold impairs your riding pleasure or control, an electric vest can raise your temperature dramatically and transform an unpleasant experience back into riding fun.

Hat Trick

This article has not discussed helmets, but a good helmet is vital. A helmet is the only piece of riding equipment that can actually save your life in a crash. Even better, it can be difference between spending your life in a wheelchair sucking meals through a straw or living a normal life. I am always amazed at riders who say they are less comfortable riding without a helmet than without one. As our article on picking a helmet points out, if you spend the time and money to buy and adapt to a comfortable full-coverage helmet, it will actually make riding more pleasant by reducing fatigue and noise, protecting your eyes, sheltering you from rain and bugs, providing a controlled flow of air on hot days, making your head warmer on cold days, and keeping the wind and sun from dehydrating you. Riders who have spent the time to try a lot of helmets have all found some that fit them very comfortably, and I don’t know any who are more comfortable at speeds above 45 mph, with a good helmet than without it. We have noticed at big cruiser rallies that more riders have stopped following the flock and wearing no helmets or non-DOT novelty beanies and are choosing instead to wear real DOT helmets with actual protection.

Dress to Prevent Accidents

Wearing gear that makes you comfortable and prevent fatigue by blocking wind and noise can help you ride more safely. However, there is an even more dramatic way of dressing to avoid accdents: wear bright colors. Accident causation studies have frequently noted that motorcyclists with light and bright-colored helmets and jackets are less likely to be involved in accidents. Other drivers should see us, but sometimes they don’t try hard enough and sometimes the job is made difficult by glare or obstructions that obscure their view. I usually wear a bright orange helmet, and notice a difference when I am wearing something less visibile in traffic. Other drivers are considerably more likely to overlook me. A bright jacket also helps. The colors that seem to be most effective are orange, yellow, white, red and perhaps pink (though there isn’t much pink motoprcycle apparel out there). Motorcyclists like the fact that dark colors don’t show dirt and perhaps contributes to a bad-ass image, but bright colors are a simple, passive way of avoiding getting flattened.

Around here, new bikes show up all the time, and so does clothing. However, the bikes eventually go back, but when we find apparel we like, we hang onto it. I have a couple of jackets that I still wear that are in their third decade, and most of us have proven pieces of apparel that go along on the long rides, when space is limited and we need to have clothing we can depend on to keep the ride comfortable—and come through in a crash—under a wide range of circumstances. Hopefully, you have or will find those core apparel items too.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

For evaluations of, comparisons of, and shopping advice for motorcycle gear and accessories, see the Accessories and Gear section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

Photo Gallery: The right motorcycle apparel – Surviving the Streets – Motorcycle Cruiser

It’s one of those heart-stopping moments. You’re drumming along in the farthest left of five lanes on an urban interstate highway when your engine just flat stops. No preliminary fade in power or a sputter of warning. It just goes blah, and a surge of adrenaline reams out your arteries before you can catch your breath.

At that moment, you need four hands and six eyes. Unless you want to get stranded on the center median for what could be hours, you need to make your way to the right shoulder. So, simultaneously, you signal, hold in the clutch (to keep yourself from slowing down any faster than you must), fish for the petcock lever in case your bike ran out of gas and jiggle the two possible controls that might have prompted an ignition failure—-the kill switch and the main ignition switch. And all the while you must check traffic and wave your right hand to convey distress.

This is even more fun if you’ve blown a tire…

Mechanical devices fail. A bike that develops a problem a block from home on a quiet residential street is an annoyance, but a failure on a busy road is often a crisis that demands as much attention as oil in a corner. And a breakdown on the road can present a raft of additional challenges.

Gremlins Getcha

Readers often think that test bikes given to magazines are exquisitely prepared machines that make bikes sold to consumers pale in comparison. Sometimes, the opposite is true. Several years ago I picked up a test bike and rode it a few blocks to the freeway, merged with traffic and proceeded into the left lane, where it promptly blew the rear tire. Thanks to some luck and attentive drivers behind me, I quickly made my way to the right shoulder. After a phone call and a short wait, a truck arrived to retrieve me and the bike. A new wheel with a tire was mounted. On my next attempt to get back to the office, a loose coil wire disconnected a few miles later and we repeated the process. Another tester had a bigger adventure when his oil drain plug dropped out shortly after he left the distributor.

On another occasion I was riding along marveling at the amazing fuel mileage of a Harley-Davidson. I was calculating my approximate mileage—nearly 60 mpg—when the bike sputtered as I arrived at the confluence of Southern California’s two major southbound interstates. I reached down and moved the petcock handle to the reserve position. It took a few seconds for me to realize the engine wasn’t going to restart. I had to merge right (against traffic trying to merge the other way) to reach a shoulder that, thanks to construction, was not quite as wide as the bike I had. It turned out the little tube in the petcock body, which sticks up to create a reserve supply of fuel, was no longer in place.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to avoid becoming a speed bump, you need to have the thought that you might suddenly lose power in heavy, fast traffic. Somewhere in the back of your mind, there should be the beginning of a plan to deal with this possibility when you are in such a situation.

Exit Strategy

In general, it is better to head for the right shoulder of a limited-access roadway, since it is usually wider, away from the fastest traffic and more accessible for anyone who comes to help. If there are emergency phones, they are usually on the right shoulder. And if you need to walk for help, you can do so. If there is heavy traffic, however, don’t try to cross from the left shoulder to the right one. Wait for help. Of course, if there is an exit handy, try for it. If you have lanes to cross to get to the shoulder you chose, you must react quickly, pick your gaps in traffic immediately, move aggressively and clearly communicate the urgency of your situation to other drivers.

Then there is the matter of what to do when you roll to a stop. First, make sure you are out of danger. Get yourself and, if possible, your bike as far from moving traffic as you can. Don’t endanger yourself to protect your bike. The shoulder of a highway is a hazardous place. I am amazed at how often drivers plow into the back of police cars pulled over onto the shoulder in broad daylight. Night time, the setting or rising sun in oncoming drivers’ eyes and other vision obscurations increase the chances you won’t be seen. Don’t assume because you are out of the main travel lane that someone won’t come down the shoulder. If there is room to get off the shoulder, do so. If this means finding something to support your sidestand on soft soil, find it. In the example above, I leaned my bike on its right handlebar against the concrete retaining wall, then climbed over the wall and walked back upstream, so that if someone hit the motorcycle, I wouldn’t get tagged in the process.

Getting well away from the roadway may be even more important at night. Even sober drivers can have trouble judging where the edges of dark roads lie. Add curves, precipitation, fog or a tired or inebriated driver, and he may believe that your lights are those of a vehicle moving in the center of the road ahead and he should follow. There are two theories about using your lights after dark on the roadside. One says turn your lights off so disoriented drivers can’t try to “follow” you. The other says keep your lights on so drivers can see and avoid you. Turning on hazard lights or a turn signal may at least alert a driver that something is there. If I had to choose which signal to use, it would be the one corresponding to the shoulder I was on. That way, a driver coming to the scene will think there is a person on a motorcycle preparing to turn and will go around him on the other side. If there is a second bike, shining your headlight on the bike ahead may help drivers recognize that both bikes are stopped and off the road. And having signals or hazard flashers blinking on all the stopped bikes amplifies the warning. When riding in a group at night, if we stop at the exit of a corner or just past the crest of a hill, we try to send a couple of bikes back to turn on their flashers to warn drivers to pay attention.

Fix or Flee?

Once safely off the road, you have to decide whether you intend to fix your problem or seek assistance. Repairs require that you identify the source of the problem and have the necessary tools and components to make the repair. The most common on-the-road failure, a flat rear tire, requires a means of getting the wheel raised off the pavement, tools to remove the wheel, tire irons, a replacement tube or patch and a method of inflating the tire again. Also, you can try a can of flat fix, but that can damage your tire too. At night, you’d need some light. Even if you have a buddy who can take the wheel assembly to a shop for repair, you still need a method of supporting the bike and tools to remove the wheel.

If you need assistance, call someone, such as a friend with a truck or a roadside service organization or hope for assistance from a passerby. If you carry a cell phone, it may be your best line of summoning help, especially in urban areas where people seem less likely to stop and offer assistance. It also can be useful if you have phone service in a remote area. It helps if you have the numbers of people you’ll call already programmed into your phone (or PDA) or a list of emergency phone numbers. This is useful if you call from a pay or emergency phone. (When I ride locally, I have a list of about a dozen friends with trucks that I take with me.) However, the farther from home you get, the shorter your list becomes. In that case, you need to find a local shop, garage or emergency roadside service to retrieve you and your ride. Many owners clubs now offer roadside assistance, andthe Auto Club offers roadside service for motorcycles to members for an additional fee, or at least it does in Southern California.

Far from Home

Out here in the West, there are still truly remote roads far from cities, with virtually no traffic. I love the feeling of having all that asphalt and scenery to myself, of being far from anyone else. At least until something goes wrong… If your bike breaks, you can sit beside these roads for hours and never see another vehicle, especially at night. There is usually no cellular service, and the nearest source of assistance may be hours on foot. And these days you can no longer count on every driver who passes to stop and help someone who is obviously stranded. Even 30 years ago, I spent two hours on a road in northern Michigan where traffic was light, but far from absent, before some other motorcyclists stopped to offer aid. A cop went by without acknowledging my attempt to flag him down. If you ride isolated roads where you might get stranded, be prepared to fend entirely for yourself, perhaps overnight. At the minimum, that means having water and warm clothes, and you may want protection from the sun.

I have also heard too many tales of motorists who have run off of roads, crashed and been unable to move. Some were discovered by a road crew or passerby. A friend of mine was riding down a road in Wisconsin when he thought he saw a handlebar sticking up from the ditch. He went back to look and found a 60-something rider who had come out of a driveway on the other side of the road, run completely across the road, fallen in the ditch and was trapped under his H-D Sportster. Despite steady traffic, the disabled rider had been there for a few hours when my friend came to his aid. Another rider told me of using a whistle to summon help in a similar situation. A cell phone might be a lifesaver in such a situation. However, the old lifeline method, where you tell a family member or friend exactly where you are going and when to call for help if he hasn’t heard from you, is still effective.

Back in the early 1970s, my touring kit included the tools needed to deal with a seized piston on my Kawasaki 500 triple. I used it on a couple of occasions too. Modern motorcycles break so infrequently that we don’t really consider such eventualities. Carrying the tools to make major roadside repairs on today’s complex motorcycles probably doesn’t make sense, but, giving some thought to your plans for dealing with problems on the road can still be a lifesaver.

Related Articles
What to Do When Your Motorcycle Won’t Start
Roadside Flat Tire Repair
The Magic Bag

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

For more articles on how to maintain and modify your motorcycle, see the Tech section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.

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