2Wheeltips

    I remember my first ride very well.  It was a warm summer day, we were to meet not far from my house and the group consisted of some 40 motorcycles.   As I pulled into the parking lot I remember the feeling of excitement and nervousness knowing that I was about to embark on a new journey that would take me into adventures I had never entered before: the roads we were going to take and riding in a large group for the first time.

    Riding in a large group can be daunting for a new rider but it doesn’t have to be if you are with the right group of riders and you follow some simple rules.  It is a very satisfying feeling riding with friends and sharing your experiences together, meeting at a location after the ride to talk over a nice meal before heading home. 

    The most critical piece of information that I can forward to you is to begin by choosing your company very carefully.  Do not go on a group ride through the twisties if you find yourself going wide through turns and crossing the center line when the bike gets a little fast for you.  If you are going out with people you don’t know, you may want to remind them before the ride that you are new to group riding and that you may ride slower than they are used to.  Ask that you ride near the front of the group so that you help set the pace.  You don’t want to get lost as they ride off without you or have to double the speed limit to catch up after everybody else has been scraping the chrome off their exhaust pipes through the turns.

    Don’t be shy.  Keep in mind that at any point you feel uncomfortable, give someone in the group a signal to let them know you will be cutting out of the group and heading home.  Just let the group know what signal you will use before you begin.   Be aware that you should carefully choose the location for departing the group so you do not confuse those behind you and possibly endanger others around you.

    Listen carefully to your group leader before the ride.  I can’t tell you how many rides I have participated in that someone didn’t listen to the pre-ride instruction or simply ignored it and created unnecessary headaches for the entire group.  If you find yourself in a group that gives no instructions before the ride explaining hand signals, group formation, scheduled stops, and additional pertinent information, I would advise that you skip that ride and wait for another day.  It is also a good idea to swap cell phone numbers with your group leader before you begin so that if you do get separated before during the ride you can eventually get in contact with someone to let them know if you need help or if you are just going to head home.  Always show up with a full tank of gas.  Experience has taught me that it can be frustrating to the entire group when they are ready to begin the ride and someone yells out that they have to stop for gas as soon as everybody pulls out of the parking lot. 

    Keep in mind that some group rides travel the highway to get to the entry point for the back roads.  If you aren’t comfortable with the highways, check with the group leader to see if the highways will be used either on the ride out or the ride home.  EZ pass is a wonderful invention.  Some parts of the country use different versions of the electronic toll payment system.  If you currently do not own one, I strongly suggest you get one as they make group rides so much easier when traveling long distances.   If you don’t have one and aren’t planning on getting one, make sure you have your toll money in an easily accessible place while you are riding.  Again, it’s frustrating and sometimes dangerous when the group has to pull off the highway waiting for you to catch up because you have to take off your gloves, reach into your pocket and fish for a twenty dollar bill, then wait for change and try to stuff nineteen bills into your wallet.  Find out ahead of time how the group will handle cash tolls.  Sometimes they will ride ahead at a pace just below the speed limit and you will be responsible for catching up.  This can be problematic because you lose your position in the group and end up directly in front of the sweep (last) position.

    Group formations are generally positioned two ways: either staggered or single file when staggered formation is not possible.  Staggered formation is simply all bikes riding in one lane; one motorcycle riding over to the left side of the lane the next bike is riding about one second behind and to the right side of the lane.  The following two bikes are riding the same position only two seconds behind the bike directly in front of them.   If you visualize the group looking from the top down, you could draw a zig-zag line from helmet to helmet along the group where the distance between the moving bikes is never less than two seconds apart from one motorcycle to the next directly behind them and never less than one second closer to the bike over in the opposite side of the lane.  If you are in the left side, you don’t want to be any closer than one second to the person to your right.  If you are on the right side, you don’t want to be closer than one second to the person to your left.

     One very common accident that occurs in group riding is an accordion style crash where a rider up front stops short and everybody behind piles up behind them.  This is usually a result of poor spacing and target fixation.  The time it takes for you to get to the person in front of you in the event of an emergency stop cannot be less than what it would take to either evade what’s in front of you or stop safely.  The reason for the one second between you and the person next to you is to allow enough room for an evasive maneuver.  If you are riding directly next to someone, you can’t use the entire lane if necessary without hitting the person occupying the same space. 

    There are a million reasons why people crash; the one that always strikes me as being the one easiest to avoid is when a rider tries to keep up with the person in front of them and finds themselves outside their personal ability.  If you are out riding with the group and suddenly you find yourself in tight twisting roads, switchbacks, reduced radius turns where your pulse is rising, you start hitting the brakes because you keep heading for that center line, slow down! I mean slow down to the point where you feel comfortable entering the turns and exiting them.  The experienced riders understand that those roads aren’t for everybody and that there will be another day to ride those types roads.  One thing to keep in mind when out there is that you need to ride your own ride and not feel pressured by anybody or to ride beyond what is comfortable to you or your ability. 

    Another common mistake is that riders love to look at what they don’t want to hit.  It’s called target fixation and is a difficult habit to break.  While riding in a group, do not fixate on the person in front of you, do not stare at their back tire or tail light.  Keep your eyes on where you want to go, not where you don’t.  The same goes not just for group rides but for all of your daily riding.

    One debatable aspect of riding is when someone drops out of your group and leaves a space to be filled in.  There are some that feel that all of the motorcycles directly behind the open spot should slide up to fill in the position.  This may work when the group comes to a complete stop.  However, if this were to happen at speed, all of the motorcycles will have to pass directly abreast the bikes offset to them to fill in the space.  If any rider should need to change lane position to make an evasive maneuver, the result would be catastrophic.  In my opinion, it is much safer to shuffle left to right to avoid having to pass other riders in the same lane.  This should be discussed in the pre ride instruction to avoid confusion.

    Another important issue to remember when riding in groups is to remember the traffic laws.  It may sound silly, but if a light is red, it means stop!  Do not feel obligated to blow through a red light to keep up.  Do not ignore the stop signs to maintain the group's integrity.  We want the cars to share the road with us while we ride; we need to do the same for them.  Never assume that a car will stop simply because you are with a big group of bikes because most will not.  When following another rider, they may have enough room to make that turn before the Toyota comes barreling through from the left, but you may not.

     I find that the simplest way to look at group riding is to take all other riders out of the equation except for the two riders closest to you.  The rider offset to you in front is the person leading you, the rider offset behind is following you and is relying on you to lead them.  The rest is just traffic.  Obviously the riders other than those I just mentioned are important because they provide you with signals letting you know of hazards in the road and upcoming turns, stops, and setting the pace for the ride, but in order to reduce the workload it is easier to break your large group ride down into a small three person group within the large group. 

    An issue I have had over the past few group rides that I have participated in is that there has been a breakdown in communication at some point along the way.  A critical time in group rides is making turns where the entire group has the greatest possibility of becoming separated.  If you think of your group as the small three person set, when coming to a turn or fork in the road, check your mirror to ensure that the person behind you is still there.  If they are not, stop before making the turn so that when the rider behind you sees where they need to turn.  If this pattern is followed all the way to the front of the line, all the riders ahead will notice that the riders behind them are stopping and waiting for the person behind them.  Eventually everybody will catch up and the ride continues; think of it as a motorcycle bread trail.    

    It is advisable that an experienced rider with a good list of contacts, first aid kit and some first aid knowledge should ride sweep for the group.  Sometimes, bad things happen when riding with a group.   Something to keep in mind is to keep calm and focused on what is going on around you.  A good sense of situational awareness is a great asset.  As trained EMT’s, we were always taught that you need to keep yourself safe first.  The same holds true for accidents and breakdowns in group rides.  First and foremost is to ensure that you keep yourself out of dangers such as oncoming and passing traffic.  Do not panic, stop your bike safely and park it carefully, ride the bike to a smooth stop, and watch for hazards on the side of the road that could cause problems such as drop offs and soft shoulders.  Then deal with the problem calmly and think about what needs to be done.  Talk to those around you and come to a decision together that gets the best results.  Sometimes roadside repairs are possible; just make sure that the area is safe to work on the bike.  Never leave a rider alone to deal with a problem.  If it looks like the bike needs to be towed or it is going to be impossible to make a quick repair, it may be necessary to have the group continue on and have someone stay with the disabled bike and rider.

     In the event of a crash, do not be afraid to call an ambulance.  Sometimes the rider may be in shock and not realize the danger they are in.  Internal injuries can sometimes not show themselves until much later and in certain cases can be fatal if left untreated.  Do not cave into the pleading of the rider to refuse medical assistance when common sense tells you otherwise.  The bike can be replaced or repaired later, just take note of all the facts that may be needed hours or days later; write them down.  These may include contact info for the fallen riders’ family, what medical facility the rider is being taken to and where the motorcycle is being taken for storage. 

    Group riding can be an awesome experience, especially for the first time.  Remembering to ride your own ride helps when more experienced riders feel like showing off their motorcycle skills and keeps you from riding beyond your ability.  Breaking down the large group into a small group helps reduce your mental stress.  Finally, when choosing a group to ride with, stay away from the showboats; let them impress the kids.  You, on the other hand, should stick with more responsible, level-headed individuals.  Go out there and share some memories!

A new rider is faced with a tremendous number of fears: from simply stopping the bike to the dreaded left turner.  Does that guy see me or is that person going to pull out of the parking lot in front of me?  In the past few months, I have spoken with a few new riders and they all have one particular fear in common; riding at highway speeds.  What I would like to address here are some points that may help you overcome these fears. I will also compare city riding to highway riding. 

Riding on the highway is actually considerably safer than riding around your suburban neighborhood.  If you consider that every parked car is a potential threat due to your inability to see behind or in front of the car parked on the side of the road.  It is possible for a child, adult or pet to come running out from between two parked cars.  In addition, you may not see that narrow driveway beyond the car parked on your right as a car comes speeding out without looking.  Obviously the list of dangers goes on, but I think you get the idea. 

When riding on the highways, all the cars are going in the same direction at pretty much the same speed.  If you have trained yourself to look far enough ahead as well as looking on your rearview mirrors, most moving threats can be seen within enough time to react.  A benefit of being on two wheels is because you are much narrower than the cars around you, avoidance is much easier as you have a full lane to maneuver if you see someone wandering into your lane.  Here are a few tips that make my highway riding safer and have worked for me. 

Stay out of the far right lane, vehicles entering and exiting the highway tend to do so without consideration for cars let alone motorcycles.  As you pass by an exit ramp and a car on your left realizes they are about to miss their exit and do a hard right across your lane, chances are you will not live to smack the driver in the head.  When vehicles enter the highway, more cars are doing the 3 lane change direct from the onramp, again if you are in the far right lane passing the onramp and a car decides to do this without looking, it’s unlikely you will be walking away. 

Drivers today are distracted more and more by electronic devices; we all see it regularly, and those people create a larger threat to us. It’s a smart idea to give the drivers around you a quick glance to see where their attention is.  If you see drivers talking on the phone, texting or playing with their GPS, simply get away from them by slowing down, speeding up, or just changing lanes taking you out of potential harm’s way. 

Riding along the highway can be a great experience.  You get to your destinations quicker if that is your goal, you have the ability to travel much farther and[you can] explore places nowhere near your normal ride radius.  One of the most common dangers on the highway is construction.  They say there are two seasons in the northeast, construction and winter.  You will eventually find yourself in a construction zone regardless of the area you live in.  Remember to observe the speed limits and watch for areas of loose gravel and where resurfacing is taking place.  Often times you will find yourself behind dump trucks and construction equipment spewing rocks and sand in your path; use special care when following these dastardly trucks and give yourself plenty of room.  Sometimes a road crew will grind off one lane and pave another, leaving a difference of three to four inches between lanes.  I caution you to not attempt to change lanes if you see this regardless of how gouged up your lane happens to be or how tempting that fresh pavement looks.  As soon as your front tire touches that big incline, the bike will slam to the ground, and at highway speeds.  Let’s just say bad things will happen.

Keeping yourself visible is critical in maintaining a good level of safety.  It is not simply good enough to wear your big bright neon vest (if you choose to wear one), but it is more important to maintain good lane position and at the appropriate speed.  You may think that riding down the middle of the road is good enough, however it reduces your visibility to the vehicles in front of you and also helps you blend into the vehicles behind you.  In addition, by riding in the center on the lane can increase the size of your blind spot within your rear view mirrors.  I recommend riding along the wheel tracks of the four wheel vehicles on the road.  A common danger on the roads today is debris from littering, things falling off of trucks and cars as well as tire pieces from blow outs on cars and tractor trailers.  Four wheeled vehicles can straddle the debris and if you are following a little too close to the car in front of you, you will not have time to react to it.  There is less likelihood that the debris will be in the wheel track as opposed to the center of the lane.

Changing lanes can be safe or dangerous depending on how you do it and the actions you take prior to it.  When you need to change lanes, it is crucial to make certain the lane next to you is clear.  Looking in that mirror is not good enough because cars and trucks are easily missed in that blind spot.  You must look over your shoulder fully prior to that change, turn on your indicator and look again.  Now check your mirror to see if anybody decides they want to occupy that spot first by speeding up behind you. Once you have determined that you can safely make the lane change, accelerate and lean the bike to get the bike over into the lane position you want to be in.  Cancel your indicator and continue to look down the highway at a safe speed.

One trick I use while riding on the highway is that I check the distance of the front tire of the car that poses the greatest threat to me to the line between us.  I will constantly scan the road ahead and behind while continuously monitoring the distance between that wheel and the line.  If for any reason I get the suspicion that the driver is about to change lanes or veer into mine, I will hit the horn and change my position.  Obviously, we don’t want to ride in a driver’s blind spot, but with the crowded roads and highways today, sometimes we simply cannot get enough space around us.  Using good common sense and lane positioning can reduce your risks.

Your ability to juggle your attention to various threats and itemize them into what poses the greatest danger to the least and continuously shuffle them in your mind so that you can take the appropriate action is what makes an excellent motorcyclist.  It is often referred to as situational awareness and plays a huge role in motorcycle safety.  Riding down a highway at 70 mph may seem more dangerous than your neighborhood, but it doesn’t have to be.  The most difficult part is simply maintaining attention and not falling into the trap of complacency.   

Not everybody rides a one thousand pound machine that is less susceptible to crosswinds.  A small 250 cc cruiser is much lighter than a 1300 cc bike.  The weight and profile of the motorcycle do make a big difference in how the machine handles in heavy winds.  Use your judgment when choosing to take to the highways because they tend to have large spans that leave you wide open to heavy winds.  If you are faced with some severe cross winds, the key is to not over compensate for the oncoming breeze.  Simply lean the bike slightly into the wind and feel the feedback from the bike.  Generally speaking, as the gust passes, the bike will begin to steer in the direction of the lean.  You need to use small inputs into the steering of the bike to maintain your lane position and reduce the lean when you feel the wind speed drop off.  Some highways will actually issue motorcycle bans when the wind speeds are too high. 

Another thing to remember while riding the highways (or any road for that matter) is to leave your pride at home.  If you get cut off, or someone does something stupid, it will not pay to chase them down or start waving your middle finger at them.  You don’t know who the driver is or what they are capable of and you may anger them to the point of them simply driving over you.  If you think it won’t happen, you’re wrong; I know of a few people that this has happened to, and some are no longer with us.  The driver will simply say that they didn’t see you and they go home to their family, you don’t. 

I love riding the highways, I have traveled all over the Eastern United States already with my wife and we have seen some amazing things.  Because I use my motorcycle to commute to work I am forced to ride the highways daily.  While everybody in their cars complains about the commute, I will often times seek the longer route home and set the cruise control on the bike and enjoy the ride.  Sometimes it’s just nice to enjoy a long straight stretch of highway.  If you are looking to expand your riding experience to include the slab, I highly recommend going out early on a Saturday or Sunday morning when traffic is very light.  You will get a better feel for what the speed feels like without the cage around you.  Just be careful of animals like deer that may be out at those times and enjoy the ride.

    A golf instructor once told me that in order to achieve an efficient swing every time you must allow your muscles to remain loose.  Grip the club softly because tight muscles are slower than loose muscles and you’ll never achieve a decent club head speed with stiff muscles.  You become fatigued when having a real firm grip and it becomes impossible to achieve a smooth swing.  What does this have to do with riding a motorcycle?  Funny you should ask.  Recently a friend brought up a good observation when it comes to new riders, and it is also a very common problem with new golfers, and it is where the two are very similar.

    A motorcyclist needs to be aware of a million different variables; the situation that you find yourself in is dynamic and fluid.  Anything can happen at any time and riding requires a tremendous amount of concentration; sometimes your response can be the difference between a simple inconvenience and a trip to the emergency room or worse.   Most experienced riders are comfortable on their bikes and are relaxed.  The way their hand wraps around the grips is loose; allowing smooth responses and inputs into steering the bike also adjusting throttle and braking.  Where the experienced riders tend to make the mistakes is because of complacency and over confidence; they assume they have enough time and miles under their belt to simply know better or that they have the ability to outride the laws of physics. 

    A newer rider has more of a tendency to hold the handlebars with all his or her might, hoping that doing so will somehow enable them to react quickly when in fact, the opposite is true.   Also the fear of what could happen manifests itself in holding the grips with white knuckles and being overly cautious of what could be.  A good habit to get into is to learn to relax while still remaining aware and sharp.  A result of holding the grips too tight is that after a while, you will begin to feel fatigue in your shoulders and eventually your upper back.  If you are on a long ride, this becomes more dangerous because now your focus is shifted from the hazards around you to the pain in your back, shoulders and hands.  Coupled with hand fatigue which might cause you to let go of the grip, this could be a disaster in the making.

    Remember the tight muscles?  Those tight muscles make it impossible for you to react quickly and smoothly.  You may recall from your BRC class that it takes one half second to take your hand from the throttle to the brake lever and another half second to squeeze the brake.  If you find yourself having to make an emergency stop, those tight muscles will not only reduce your reaction time considerably, but also cause you to snap off the throttle and slam on those brakes, almost guaranteeing a massive loss of traction and inevitably, because you are now panicked, the bike will more than likely go down.  In addition, slower turns are no longer smooth and safe, but become choppy and abrupt usually resulting in a wider turn than what you had anticipated, possibly causing you to cross the center line or even leave the road surface altogether.  Faster turns will be more difficult and efficient counter steering becomes impossible because you can’t lean the bike smoothly possibly creating a situation where you take the turn way too wide.

    Worst of all, you just don’t look cool.  Your shoulders up around your ears and your arms straight out make you look like a scared mouse in a helmet. Definitely not cool.  Just remember to relax.  You know how to ride; just stay focused on what’s going on around you and loosen up those hands.  Stay focused, not afraid. You might even find that you can go the extra hundred miles and still come home smiling, ready to go out again tomorrow.  

    What was the first thing you thought of when you heard the words “counter steering”?  I remember what ran through my mind; is that even possible?  What a counter intuitive thing to try and figure out.  You want me to go barreling down the highway and turn the bike by “counter steering?”  So I did a little research into this mysterious technique and honestly, I got more confused with every article, explanation, and video.  To my amazement I found that the ability to perform counter steering properly was pretty much written off as something that comes naturally.  The general consensus was if you can ride a bicycle down a hill, then you already know how to do it. 

I’m sorry, but that’s not going to fly, especially experiencing some close calls of my own and after speaking with a few newer riders, listening to their definition of counter steering and watching some of my friends lean their 800 pound cruisers through the turns.  Even at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation classes, they preach that you should look, lean and roll on the throttle as you take the turns, but what does that mean? 

As I gained my experiences riding, I found myself pushing the envelope a little more as time progressed by upping my speed in the turns and tried just leaning the bike more.  I simply did this because that’s what all of my instructors had been telling me.  But to just lean the bike didn’t improve my cornering ability; it just made the bike lean more in a wide arc that usually resulted in me having to slow down through the turn or worse, crossing the center line.  For me, this was completely unacceptable.  I needed to find out what I was doing wrong, I didn’t like making the same mistakes over and over, I wanted to improve my riding skills, and become a safer rider at the same time. 

The answer came to me like a bolt of lightning during a practice session in a parking lot while trying to do some slow speed turns.   I began forcing my bike to lean more by pushing hard on the grip down on the side I was trying to turn the bike.  In other words, it was like I was trying to push the bike to the ground to get it to lean over.  It takes a lot of time to master [this technique] and is part of the progression in Ride Like A Pro, but this was the answer I was looking for. It was the “lean” and the counter steer all in one.  As I turned my bike in sharp turns, I was actually performing the equivalent of a counter steer and my bike was making sharp turns so tight I was surprising myself.  The simplicity of making the bike do the work, without having to use the weight of my body to get the bike to roll and turn to the left and right was a huge find. 

The proof came when I took the bike out and began riding through some nice curved roads.  I slowed the bike to a comfortable entry speed and looked through the turn.  I rolled on the throttle and pushed the bike under me without leaning my whole body with the bike by pressing down on the grip in the direction of the turn.  I realized that I was extremely comfortable throughout the entire turn and looked for more situations to try out my new found technique.  The beauty of my new find was that the curves and turns were less threatening to me.  I was also surprised to discover that I seemed to have a lot more lean in reserve than before learning this, and the turns that would scare me before, were easy to navigate.

If you can, imagine yourself straddling a bicycle standing upright with your feet flat on the ground.  Now picture yourself lightly pulling up on the left grip while pressing down on the right grip causing the bike to lean. The only difference between that and counter steering is that your press is down and forward in the direction of the turn.  The harder you press, the tighter you will turn.  One thing to keep in mind is that while performing these techniques, keep your muscles nice and loose, as it enables you to perform them so much more smoothly because remember, “Smooth = Cool”.   A death grip on the handlebars will do nothing but impair your ability to react quickly and fatigue you a lot faster than normal.  You want to keep your eyes level with the horizon (tilt your head to do this), which is one reason why simply leaning your body doesn’t work so well because it’s nearly impossible to keep your eyes level with the roadway while leaned all the way over.  I found that trying to keep my spine perpendicular with the road surface or my shoulders parallel allows me to work the bike beneath me, again, allowing the bike to do the work. 

Once you have found what works for you with counter steering, you’ll find that you are less fatigued when riding the windy roads, and even lane changes become easier.  You can snap your bike to different lines and avoid obstacles that much more efficiently.  Learning to counter steer correctly makes riding much more enjoyable.  It will also improve your ability to ride safely.  I hope this answers the question of what counter steering really is. So get out there and work on your counter steering.

    Have you ever been watching television where they show the camera view from the police cruiser while the cop is talking to the person he has pulled behind when suddenly the cop either narrowly escapes being struck or is hit by a passing motorist?  Or have you ever walked down a hall and caught the eye of the person coming towards you and before you know it, you are both doing the hallway shuffle in an attempt to get around each other?

 Although you may not have given much thought to the dance you do every now and then, it may have crossed your mind to wonder “how the heck, with all those lights going, did that person not see the cop car on the side of the road?”  Believe it or not, the answer is quite simply that the person did see the cop car, as you saw that person in front of you in the hall.  You looked at some part of that person, usually their eyes, and focused on them as you approached.  The driver simply locked his (or her) focus on the cop car and drove directly at it.  Our mind works in strange ways, but subconsciously when we focus on something, we tend to move in the direction we are looking at whether we are walking, driving a car or riding a motorcycle. 

When it comes to riding as beginners, we tend to over-think what we are doing because it is a new experience.  We know the dangers and listen to all the horror stories.  We focus on the things that we know could hurt us because these are the things that we want to avoid; a patch of gravel, a curb, or a vehicle we are trying to avoid. 

In Proficient Motorcycling©, David Hough states that one of the most common reactions a motorcyclist will make when confronted with a vehicle making a turn in front of them is to simply steer the bike directly into the very car they are trying to avoid.  I have seen it myself while riding on my very first group ride and have seen it plenty of times since.  We are all victims of it at some point especially when we first begin riding.  What makes all the difference in the world is realizing what it takes to get out of those habits of focusing on what you want to avoid.

Next time you are driving your car and making turns, pay close attention to what you are physically doing.  What becomes apparent is that you start looking through the turns and you aren’t focused on the things in front of you.  If you see something that you need to avoid, you pick a path around what you want to miss.  The difference between driving a car and riding a motorcycle is that it has become second nature to most of us as we drive our cars.  An example of what happens when you become fixated is to watch a very green driver trying to park his (or her) car in a parking lot when they have absolutely no clue as to how to perform a simple task.  It may take them twenty tries to get the car parked because they are so focused on the car next to them that they keep parking too close or crooked.  

The best technique I can suggest for eliminating target fixation is to understand the benefits of it by performing u-turns in a parking lot at slow speed.  It’s just like the u-turn box that you practiced in the basic rider course, but this time we aren’t going to set a perimeter.  You are simply going to find an area large enough to give you plenty of room to do some slow speed turns.  Ride forward in first gear and when you are ready to make the turn look over your left shoulder and pick a target behind you off into the distance, the further away the better.  Using clutch and throttle control and if you need to, drag the rear brake a little, initiate the turn while maintaining focus on that point.  The trick is to do this u-turn without shifting your focus away from your target.  Eventually, you can begin using the area that you would normally drive down and try avoiding the painted lines in your u-turn.  What you will find by continuously practicing these maneuvers is that knowing how using target fixation in a positive way allows you to understand when it is happening in a negative way.  In addition, when there is an obstacle in your way, you rapidly shift your focus from that obstacle to the new path that you need to take; whether it’s to get around a pothole or avoid a collision, you learn that the bike really does go where you want it to.  The same technique is used while turning at high speeds.  Looking through the turns, looking as far ahead of you and where you want to exit the turn, and not concentrating on the curb, centerline or oncoming traffic, prevents you from focusing on that one point closest to you and riding directly for it.  You will realize just how eliminating target fixation on the things you want to miss is guaranteed to make you a better rider. 

    I was at a casual dinner meeting with some of my bike riding friends late last week, and as is inevitable with most motorcycle discussions, we found ourselves talking about accidents. Since I began riding a little over a year ago, I found that the forensics of motorcycle accidents have always intrigued me.  I use all the lessons learned from these individuals and store them in my own personal memory bank for future reference in the event that I may someday need to work my way out of a similar situation.  Now, I am not an expert by any means, I am simply another “new” rider who has the ability to comprehend most things presented to me rather quickly and the best way to apply those new tidbits of knowledge;  it’s how I continue to learn something new every day. 

    This discussion we had involved a gentleman who unfortunately has found himself without his motorcycle for a very large chunk of this near perfect riding season due to a mishap and the required repairs on his steed.  I was surprised that this guy had been riding for a number of years, but was almost completely uneducated with regard to motorcycling.  His “accident” or crash was completely self induced and fortunately involved nobody but himself.  I left the dinner meeting that night and started to replay his words through my head trying to figure out what he did wrong besides the obvious and why, during a right hand turn at speed his motorcycle came crashing to the ground.  I took out all the other opinions such as “he may have hit some gravel” or “probably loose sand on the road when you made the turn”.  This biker did say that during the turn he felt he had taken it a little too fast for his comfort and tried to slow down in the turn.  Now before all the experts start screaming “Well there you go! That’s your problem right there, he hit the brakes!!” Let’s figure out what really happened and what we can do to not repeat his mistake and make us better riders out on those roads.

   After talking with this biker to get some additional information I realized what had happened.  As with most people who ride without considerable practice or training, they take for granted that when you hit the brakes the bike stops and when you roll on the throttle it goes faster.  Unfortunately it isn’t that simple.  This person had not honed his skills in  more than a few areas, but we are going to concentrate on what I feel is the single most important skill that all riders need to have, the one that will, without a doubt, save your life one day, and why I feel it is the main reason why his bike is in the shop today.  I am talking about braking. 

    The reason why my friend crashed his bike was because as he entered the right hand turn he wasn’t using his head and eyes to look through the turn and took it too wide.  The speeds we are talking about were, according to him, about 20 mph.  As he leaned the bike and tried to make the turn he began to cross the center line and head for the opposite side of the road.  He fixated on where he didn’t want to go and panicked.  He grabbed for his brake and in his heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, excited state, he slammed the brakes causing the pads to clamp and lock onto the rotors and lost any available traction, causing his bike to come crashing to the ground.  I am not going to tell you that it’s okay to hit the brakes in a turn; there is a correct way for slowing down, and that is to do it before the bike is leaned over, but that is a discussion for another day.  What I would like to bring to your attention is how to become familiar with your bike's brakes and begin practicing emergency stopping. 

   Like I mentioned earlier, I personally feel that familiarity with your bike's braking system is probably more important than anything else once you begin riding seriously .  The statistics state that nearly one quarter of all motorcycle accidents (in the US) involving another vehicle are left hand turners cutting in front of a motorcycle.  While you have options available to you that may include swerving around the front or back of the car turning in front of you, you need to be aware of what is on the other side as well as predicting the actions of the other driver.  Is he going to speed up to try and make the turn before you get there, will he panic and slam on the brakes, is there another vehicle on the other side, do I need to cross into oncoming traffic to get around him?  These are just a few things that you need to process before making that decision.  What I recommend is attempting an emergency stop to reduce your speed and the amount of kinetic energy from the weight of your bike and your velocity.  Even if it comes down to a collision, I would rather do it by slowing to 5mph than sliding into the other car at 30.  You may be asking "what about dumping the bike?"  Trust me when I tell you that rubber on pavement will slow you a lot quicker than steel and plastic sliding along the asphalt.  What we are looking for is a controlled stop at maximum braking pressure without skidding or especially locking up the front brake.  "How could this have helped the guy from crashing his bike," you may ask?  The truth is that if he was familiar with how his bike reacts to braking and was comfortable with applying brake pressure at various levels, he may have been able to slow his bike enough and still keep it upright.

    So, let’s get back to your favorite parking lot, and this time you need to be wearing your best suit of armor.  Practicing this can be a little tricky at first because there you really need to understand what your bike is telling you as you begin practicing this life saving maneuver.  Please start slow and as you begin to read the feedback from the bike, you can start ramping up your speed a little.

    Firstly, you need to find a lot big enough that allows you to get up to speed and more importantly enough room to stop.  If you can’t find a lot big enough, take it to a commercial area that may be empty on the weekends and find a road that has no traffic and no debris that could impede your traction.  What you want to do is begin with getting up to around 20 mph and at that point begin applying pressure to your front brake gradually increasing pressure and at the same time applying some back brake pressure.  As your front forks compress gradually increase pressure on your front brake while adding some more to your back brake.  Remember that during this, your weight has transferred considerably to the front tire and you have quite a lot of traction in the front.  Generally, you can apply more brake than you think.  What you are looking for is getting to the point where you believe that any harder and the brakes will lock up.   In addition you must be squeezing the brake progressively, not slamming on the brakes, and not applying and releasing and reapplying.   

    If you manage to lock up your rear brake, do not release the pedal, just ride out the skid until you stop.  If you lock up the front, release the brake lever immediately, don’t even think about the maybes... just release the lever.  The reason you should ride out the back skid and not the front is because when the back brake locks up, the bike has a tendency to drift the rear to one side or the other.  If you release that brake while the bike’s front and rear tires are not in direct line with the direction you are going, the bike will snap to that track and throw you off like a bucking bronco known as a high side and this could result in a hospital visit.  If the front tire locks up, you have just used up all the necessary traction to hold your bike upright, you cannot counter steer, or even hope to balance the bike without any traction for your front tire.  You may as well be parked on a sheet of ice.  You will know if the front tire skids by getting an immediate mushy almost rubbery feel to the handlebar.  At the same time it will fell like the handlebar wants to snap to the left or right.  You only have a few fractions of a second to release the brake lever before your motorcycle is on the ground and you are lying beside it with full knowledge of what it feels like when the front brake locks up.

     The point to this exercise is to begin getting familiar with the brake limits of your motorcycle.  If you are in a panicked state and need to hit the brakes, chances are that you are going to go for the brake lever with everything you have to stop that bike.  Your muscles will be stiff and you will react by applying too much brake pressure too early.  If you know that under your present circumstance you need to stop the bike quickly but calmly and know exactly how to do it, you can do it while remaining upright and confident. 

    As part of my motorcycle workout routine, I incorporate this into a series of different maneuvers to ensure I remain proficient.  In addition, on my way home from riding every day, I will go down a street, look in my rearview to ensure there is no traffic behind me, and do at least one emergency stop.  I cannot understate the importance of good braking practices.  I live in New Jersey and there is nothing that scares me more than the thought of a huge white tail deer running in front of me; it has happened a few times.  There is no way to accurately predict the path of a deer so trying to steer around it is out of the question. 

     Being aware of my braking ability and ingraining into my mind that when I need to stop quickly it must be done methodically prevents me from locking up my brakes when all I need to do is slow down.  It would be a shame to lock up my front brake and drop my bike at a high speed, potentially causing injury to myself and most likely damaging my bike, because I didn’t practice this critical exercise.