Riding skills

[pdedse]

A few random thoughts on this subject:-

I think one of the most important aspects of our riding is being totally honest with oneself regarding our abilities. To be fair, I'm reading a lot that suggests many here are doing just that.

On a connected note, during training I was taught to continually assess my riding. Evaluate what went well and what I could have done better.

I get particularly dismayed with myself should I not see a situation (hazard) soon enough when I had the opportunity. Such occasions are fortunately not too frequent but are very powerful reminders to myself that I must do better if I am to actively manage my own on road safety sufficiently.

Having undertaken advance driver/rider training here in the UK both in car and on bike, with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and RoSPA, two safety focussed organisations, I find I have developed a riding style that is smooth and safe whilst still making progress. However, it seems to me, these courses have had an unexpected consequence. Despite what I said earlier regarding lapses of observation, I am reasonably proficient in hazard perception, decision making, planning, positioning, travelling at legal speeds etc etc. But....... because of these risk minimising factors, I never seem to need to brake hard or abruptly change course to avoid a sticky situation. I have surely become deskilled in these essential elements of machine control! Not so when I was a kid blasting around the local highways and byways. Then it was all part of the thrill of motorcycle ownership. But now, do I have the ability to safely carry out an emergency braking manoeuvre? Or deftly change course in an instant? I very much doubt it! My thanks to Gecko for his post which reminds me I still need to practice the contingencies for when it all goes bad. It is probably a good time for me to get some suitable professional instruction/training to get me sharp again.

Can never have too much rider training.

Once a year it seems, I'm thinking of "whatever" and suddenly I notice a car coming from the opposite direction, with it's left turn signal on...and it slightly begins its turn, and then pauses because the driver see me. This bothers me, because I realize I could have noticed the car a lot sooner. I immediately say a silent "thank-you, kind, more-attentive-than-me driver" and will give a quick salute or wave in appreciation.

And then I realize, my motorcycling days could easily have ended right there a few seconds ago, I put my life in another driver's hands...which may very well have been texting!

The following scenario has repeated itself several times for me over the years: There are two lanes each way, with a shared center lane specificly used for turning left. I'm in the far right lane with a slow-moving car in front of me. I am behind this car, so it's difficult for an on-coming car in the middle turn lane to readily see me. I switch lanes from the far right to the open lane to my left, and that's when I see the on-coming car beginning to turn left in front of both me and the slow-moving car now on my right...except I've sped up and am not slow-moving.

I've become a lot more careful with overtaking a slow moving car in city traffic, but the above happened again just last week. This time, the on-coming driver wasn't in a hurry, patiently waiting for me and the slow-moving car to go by, so said driver could turn.

I wasn't going all that fast and I think I would have been able to stop if the driver had turned.

Still...."Thank-you, kind driver, for not being in a hurry today!"

[Olyrider]

I live outside Seattle. I avoid it as much as possible for many reasons, but am probably surrounded by a large percentage of “Seattle drivers” when on the interstates and highways. So riding my CB1100 puts me in their crosshairs. It has become a given that drivers will speed up to make a lane change in front of me 90% of the time. Or…make their left turn in a hurry to “beat traffic”.
Even though there might be 150 yards of open road behind me, they will speed up to merge in front of me. In order to squeeze into a space that doesn’t really exist. I always ride with a safe following distance in front of me so they take that space as their entitlement. I accept that everything about the vast majority of people nowadays is more selfish, uncaring and frankly dangerous than it used to be. This is magnified on the roads I am familiar with, but also in so many other facets of daily life.
I do what I can to reduce my risks, but they will never recede to become insignificant, IMHO.
Certainly the trend is going strongly in one direction with zero signs of abatement.
We can only do what we feel we NEED to do each time we leave our homes. Sometimes, what happens next is simply out of our control.

We are who we are.
We are where we are supposed to be.

[Tev62]

I am a member and Group Tutor in the local RoSPA safety organisation that Corynorhinus mentions. These types of organisations do a good job of making you understand potential road hazards and force you to evaluate your control decisions. e.g. gravel on a bend, change your line. This list of potential hazards is long of course and many are more complex than my simple example. The goal is to make this decision making process an easy, relaxed and habitual part of your ride and not a stressfully "fighter pilot" information overload bike session. I too have backed off the use of my brakes significantly over the years I have been involved as my rides get more controlled (I didn't say slower) but do regularly practice the application of the ABS on my bikes when the opportunity allows on a quiet stretch of road.

No one is immune from "crazy" though, all the training and attitude in the world isn't going to save us all. One of our experienced and respected colleagues was taken from us far too early when a car took a last minute decision to overtake the vehicle in front. It went straight into our colleagues BMW R1250RT, eye witnesses said he didn't have a chance in he** of avoiding the collision. He is gone now and that is that. These are things we know about when we ride two wheels but are willing to take the risk for. That just shows the complete draw of motorcycling.

[Cormanus]

Very sad story about your colleague, Tev.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Continuous training certainly improves the odds for survival.

But yeah, "crazy", it is like winning the lottery from he**.

[The Gecko_imp]

Very sad, tev, sorry!