Want to Switch to a Motorcycle? Here Is Some Safety Advice

What happens when you collide into a car with your own car? Perhaps you’ll jolt forward a bit and maybe you’ll suffer some scratches or bruises. Unless it was a high-speed collision, your airbag and seatbelt will protect you from a nasty injury. Now let’s replace your car with a motorcycle. You’ll probably fly off the vehicle because you don’t have a seatbelt, you’ll probably be launched a couple of feet into the air and land on the harsh road. Oncoming cars might bump into you depending on where you land, you might break a bone or two, or worse, you might just not get back up.

Riding a motorcycle is a dangerous game if you aren’t prepared for it. In fact, motorcycle accidents are the most common form of accident on the road because it takes a great amount of responsibility to ride one safely. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also not without its risks. If you’re serious about riding a bike, then here are some essential safety tips that you need to learn.

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Ride defensively

Before you made the switch to biking, you probably took a course in defensive driving and you learned all about the dangers of motorcyclists. Some of them are crazy lunatics that completely disregard you and the traffic, but in the event one of them swerves into your car, it’s not you that’s going to be injured, but the motorcyclist. Even though it was probably their fault, you still have a responsibility to watch the road and drive defensively so that in the event a motorcyclist does collide into you, you have enough evidence to prove that you were not at fault so that you won’t feel stressed out at the situation.

Now let’s reverse the situation. There are going to be disgruntled drivers that won’t pay you attention, so it’s also your responsibility as a motorcyclist to watch around you. You need to be wary of oncoming cars, cars behind you, and cars coming from the sides. Don’t think for even a second that drivers are going to spot you a hundred percent. Always ride defensively and don’t assume others will care about your position on the road.

Learn the nuances of your bike

When you slam the brakes on your car, you typically lean forward but your seatbelt stops you from going head-first through your windshield. On a bike, if you slam the breaks, you’re going to potentially tip your bike and fly off it spectacularly. There are some nuances like this about riding a bike that will have to be re-learned from the ground up. You can’t make a panic stop on a bike like you should in a car because the vehicles just work differently.

Handling different terrain is also going to be an issue. For instance, trying to rid your bike on travel is terrible and in most cases, you’ll lose all the grip on your tires. It’s important that you readjust your senses when you switch to a motorcycle, so take it slow, gradually learn what your motorcycle is capable of, and stay safe.