5 tips for defensive motorcycle riding

Safe riding involves not only avoiding errors of your own but also anticipating and responding to other drivers’ errors. This is crucial, because human error contributes to 98 percent of auto accidents each year. While you can’t control how others drive, you can take it upon yourself to practice defensive riding.

What is defensive riding?

Defensive riding for motorcycle riders means preparing and operating your motorcycle in a way that emphasizes awareness and safety. A key element of this is anticipating what other motorists will do, even if they’re wrong.

Review these five safety tips and use them as a foundation as you become a more defensive rider:

Tip 1: Wear protective motorcycle gear

Leather jackets, heavy boots, and rugged gloves are just some of the items of clothing many people associate with biker culture. But biker apparel isn’t just about fashion—it serves a double purpose to help keep motorcycle riders safe.

Motorcycle helmets and gear

The CDC estimates that about 750 lives each year could be saved if all riders wore motorcycle helmets. A helmet is by far the most important piece of equipment for helping you stay safe on your bike, but other pieces of gear—like body armor, gloves, and knee and elbow braces—are crucial as well.

Motorcycle apparel

Shoes that cover the ankle, full-finger gloves, leather vests, and eye protection don’t just look cool, they can also help protect you from the dangers of the road. While these clothing items won’t necessarily stop you from being involved in an accident, they can help limit your injuries.

Tip 2: Check your bike before riding

While human error is the top reason for accidents, even the best riders are only as good as their machines.

To promote safe, defensive driving, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) created the T-CLOCS Inspection Checklist. Make sure to perform this six-point check before riding:

• Tires and wheels (T): Check for obvious issues like flat tires, bent spokes, and cracked rims. Also look for less visible issues. Check your air pressure (especially in colder weather) and be sure your brake pads are in good condition and can each stop wheels from rolling on their own.
• Controls (C): It may sound obvious, but it’s impossible to be a safe rider if you can’t control your vehicle. Make sure: 
  • Your handlebars are straight and turn freely
  • Your levers and pedals are in good condition and well-lubricated
  • Your cables and hoses don’t have frays, cracks, kinks, or leaks
  • Your throttle moves freely and snaps closed
• Lights and electronics (L): Verify that your headlight, tail light, and brake lights are intact and bright, that your turn signals are operating correctly, and that all exposed wiring is clean, snug, and not fraying. Take this opportunity to adjust your mirrors and reflectors and ensure they’re clean and intact.
• Oil and other fluids (O): There are five fluids that you should check: engine oil, gear oil, hydraulic fluid, coolant, and fuel. When you check these five fluids, verify not only that they’re at the appropriate levels, but that the hoses are free from leaks and cracks.
• Chassis (C): Check that the frame is straight and not cracked, the suspension is smooth and lubricated, the chain or belt is securely mounted, and all the nuts and bolts are secure.
• Stands (S): Finally, confirm both the center and side stands are straight and secure. Your stands should have enough tension to stay in position while also springing into place when you’re ready to use them.

Remember: Defensive riding isn’t just an action, it’s an attitude toward safety that extends to how you care for your machine.

Tip 3: Follow the rules of the road

Many of the human errors that cause accidents are simple misjudgments: stopping too abruptly, sitting for a split second too long at a green light, or practicing poor posture that slows down response time.

However, some errors represent failure to follow the rules of the road. Here are some actions you can take to help ride safely and legally.

Obey traffic laws

While speed limits apply to every vehicle sharing the road, motorcycles typically accelerate much faster than passenger vehicles due to their unusually high power-to-weight ratio. Because it’s relatively quick and easy to accelerate on a motorcycle, many motorcycle riders find themselves speeding without realizing how fast they’re truly going.

In addition to the universal rules of the road, motorcycle riders have to be aware of some unique traffic laws. For example, the regulation of lane sharing and splitting. Lane sharing is the legal practice of riding side-by-side with another motorcyclist in the same lane. Since motorcycles have a much smaller footprint than other vehicles, lane sharing helps riders share the road more efficiently by using the space of the entire line.

Lane splitting, on the other hand, is the practice of using the space between lanes to pass other vehicles. It’s illegal in most states because of the risks involved, so be sure to check your state’s laws before lane splitting.

Use hand signals

Over the years, bikers have established an informal set of widely understood motorcycle hand signals that allow you to communicate with other riders. While these kinds of acknowledgments are informal, they also serve a defensive riding purpose.

For example, the two-fingers-down acknowledgement gesture shows other riders that you see them, are aware of their position, and will ride with their safety in mind.

Here are a few other hand signals bikers use to communicate with their road-mates:

• Left turn: To indicate an upcoming left turn, extend your left arm straight out from your side. This is an analog equivalent of a turn signal and is required by law in some states when your blinkers aren’t working.
• Right turn: You may assume that if you extend your left arm to indicate a left turn, you’d extend your right arm to indicate a right turn. This isn’t the case—keep your right hand on your handlebars at all times. Instead, indicate a right turn by bending your left arm up at a 90-degree angle with your fist toward the sky.
• Stop: Extend your left arm out and down at a 90-degree angle with an open hand, showing your palm to whoever is behind you.
• Slow down: To signal that riders behind you should slow down, extend your left arm with your palm facing down and move your arm down.