I am going to state up front that I’m biased about the point of this article. I’m a commuter. I see my motorcycle as a replacement for a car and my FJR 1300A is my primary transportation.

That being said, I know that a lot of people motorcycle for enjoyment, and a very very dedicated few motorcycle for the skill involved in order to do so well. I definitely appreciate the mastery perspective, which is one of the reasons I decided to write this piece.

Motorcycling as a pursuit, as a culture, can often be divided into halves. Cruisers vs sportbikes. No- or low-gear wearing squids vs ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) power rangers. US-made bikes vs foreign-made bikes. V-twin vs inline 4s.

There are varying degrees all along the spectrum, of course. There are a growing number of riders here who are “half the gear, all the time” for example, and wear a helmet, gloves, a jacket … and shorts. Or whatever. You get the idea.

One area that has really purchased a lot of my “riding meditation” time lately is racers vs commuters.

I belong to a message board, and right now it is pretty dominated by guys who like going fast and riding very precisely. They aren’t hooligans or squids. These guys have taken multiple riding courses, and have read many books / watched many DVDs on race-style riding. They have full protective gear and have been riding for years.

Yes, they are interested in going fast. They are also interested in the techniques of riding, both at high speeds and at very low speeds. They study

• trail braking
• up and down shifting to maximize power and speed
• how to establish a good line during a turn
• body positioning, including getting their ass off of the seat at the right time and dragging a knee
• making tighter and tighter U-turns at low speed without putting their feet down

I respect their desire to get better, and I also appreciate the pursuit of the perfect technique. But I am not this type of rider.

I’m a commuter, and instead I focus on the skills and techniques of riding safely in traffic. For example, I study the art and technique of changing lanes at speed on a highway filled bumper-to-bumper during rush hour. I am completely disinterested in knee dragging on the street, because the world is not a professionally maintained track. There might be something in an upcoming turn that I can’t see, and if I am fully committed to a line and leaned over to the utmost there is no room or time for a correction.

I try to improve my technique at these sorts of things:

• Anticipating the driving behavior of other motorists
• How to avoid cars that pull out in front of me at intersections
• Riding in the rain or other sub-optimal conditions
• Keeping from being rear-ended at a stop light
• Staying physically and mentally relaxed so I can ride longer distances during a single day

and many more — none of which are particularly sexy but all of which help to keep me commuting on a motorcycle as safely as possible.

There is some bleed-over of these skills and desires. Yes, going fast is fun. Yes, racer-motivated motorcyclists want to avoid being run over. Learning to brake hard, or to brake as much as possible in a turning situation, are skills that both types of motorcyclists would learn. My contention is that we’d learn them for different reasons.

Racer-motivated riders will learn to “trail brake,” or to lightly use the brake during a turn, in order to bleed off slight amounts of unwanted speed, settle the suspension, and set the bike up for a faster exit. Commuting-motivated riders will learn to trail brake in case they need to slow down on an off-ramp due to an accident or an obstruction in the road.

Learning to lean the bike over to encourage better turning is vital to both types of riders; however race-riders may push the lean envelope more.

Throttle control to a commuter means being able to navigate through stop-and-go traffic without putting one’s feet down too much. To a racer, throttle control means putting as much power to the ground as possible without lifting the front wheel up. Same techniques, different desires, different applications.

I am not saying racing-motivated riders ride unsafely; what I am thinking is that there’s one sub-set of motorcyclists who are driven to increase their skills. Of that sub-set, there are two sides to that same coin: people who want to learn the techniques of riding as fast as possible, and those who want to learn the techniques of riding as safely as possible on the street.

I knew the car was going to be trouble as soon as I spotted it. I could see the left rear passenger window was covered by a sales sticker as the Toyota sedan sped up the highway on-ramp.

Great, I thought to myself, someone taking a test drive during rush hour.

The Toyota merged onto the lane next to me. I could see the driver chatting with the passenger, waving his right hand excitedly. The car was rapidly approaching the car in front of it, and I knew the Toyota driver wasn’t paying any attention.

I started doing all of the things I’ve written about before: I moved over to the left side of my lane, I put my finger on the horn, and I turned my head so that I could watch traffic in front of me as well as the Toyota to my side. I put the Spring Hypothesis to the test. Sure enough, the car started to come into my lane without signaling as soon as the driver perceived the car in front of him.

Beep-beep-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!! my horn sounded. The car jerked right and swerved back into its original lane.

I kept my speed and moved ahead in traffic. I looked in my side mirror just in time to see the Toyota cut off an SUV behind me. The SUV flashed its lights and I heard another horn go off.

Even though I identified a source of danger, anticipated a dangerous situation, and reacted appropriately, I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Now I had to deal with my mind and body’s reaction to what happened.

Here’s how to deal with the emotional and physiological issues that come from surviving a near miss.
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So you’ve done all you can. You identified a potentially bad driver and adjusted your speed appropriately. You changed your lane position. You made sure there was a clear exit path (or a semi-clear one that you could blast through in an emergency). You are doing the Admiral Akbar and have one eye on the threat and one eye on traffic in front of you.

Then you start getting more nervous. The person is talking on their mobile phone with their left hand. They aren’t looking at their left mirror and aren’t moving their head. Their car is coming up to a semi truck, and you are worried that they are going to change lanes due to the Spring Hypothesis.

Without looking, without any signals — that the driver made consciously, anyway — the car is coming into your lane.

What do you do now?
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One of the most feared motorcycle vs car accidents is being rear-ended at a stop. I am not sure how often this actually happens, but every time I read about an incident like this or see pictures it makes my gut turn. The scenario goes something like this:

A motorcyclist is stopped at a sign or traffic light. A motorist isn’t paying attention and slams into the back of the motorcyclist. The offender is usually in a car, but I read about someone being hit by another motorcyclist. The photos were ugly.

Here’s how to do the best you can to avoid being rear-ended at a stop.

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Ah … motorcycling on beautiful days. The sun is shining, the temperature is warm but not too hot, and the skies are clear. It reminds me of a quote from Conan the Barbarian, when the Khan asks his warriors what is best in life:
The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.

WRONG! CONAN!

Beautiful days can be dangerous. Everyone else is enjoying the wind in their hair and a falcon at their wrist instead of paying attention.

Here are some reasons why you need to be extra careful when the weather seems to be co-operating.
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Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar had one important talent: he knew when something was a trap. You should be like him, too. Always be on the look out for typical spots when people are acting stupid on the road. For example, if someone is talking on their mobile phone with their left hand, don’t expect them to look to their left properly when making a lane change (for more examples, see my Random Motorcycling Tip #10: How to Avoid a Lane Incursion).

Okay, so you’ve acted like the Admiral and spotted the trap. Now what? Let’s examine our Mon Calamari friend for what to do next.
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Ten months ago I purchased Apollo, my 2009 Yamaha FJR1300A.

Ten thousand miles later, I have a few thoughts on what has been an almost perfect motorcycle for me.
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The European Safer Urban Motorcycling group put out a booklet recently entitled “Protective Equipment for Riders” (get the English language version here) which attempts to educate scooter and motorcyclists on the benefits of wearing protective gear.

There’s an accepted acronym among serious riders — ATGATT — which stands for “All The Gear, All The Time.” This phrase means wearing gloves, jacket, pants, boots, and a helmet specially made for motorcycling or scooters.

The real debate for us ATGATT folk isn’t “should I wear a jacket,” but “what’s the relative protection of textile versus mesh?” or “is nylon mesh more or less dangerous than wearing polyester mesh,” or “how long can one reasonably expect to slide in 1.5mm goatskin leather without wearing through to the skin?”

And boy would I love for an independent lab to test my old buddy Wayne’s MotoPort kevlar gear.

I hoped that the booklet by eSUM would address some of these questions. You might think buying “all the gear” to wear “all the time” would be the end of it, but in reality it’s just the beginning. There is a shitload of materials, types of armor, brand name materials, rebranded materials, and exotic stuff out there. My Rev’It Cayenne Pro has ceramic-plated textile in high skid areas. That sounds bad ass, but has anyone independently tested this?

Unfortunately, the “Protective Equipment for Riders” pamphlet only states the obvious: you should wear protective motorcycle gear. I hate to say this, but motorcyclists are in one of two camps. They either wear all the gear, or they don’t. No one really needs convincing, and motorcyclists are do-it-my-own-way as a bunch, and you can’t tell us what to do. We have to make up our own minds to do something. The decision to wear enough gear to be called a Power Ranger may be the result of research, or it might be because someone went down at 25MPH and had to deal with road rash for months.

The eSUM book is basically worthless. It either speaks on deaf ears to those who won’t wear gear no matter what facts are put in front of them, or preaches to the choir who has more detailed questions.

I’d hoped to put together an independent testing lab for motorcycle gear, and maybe someday I’ll do just that. In the meantime, motorcyclists only have anecdotal evidence from those of us unfortunate riders who “live tested” their gear.

It’s an odd time of the year to commute on a motorcycle. The temperature changes so much between the morning and the evening that it’s hard to dress appropriately. It was 53°F when I left the house this morning, and 77 when I came home. Wind chill put the ride in at 42°F – 50°F, which was too warm to run my heated gloves, but too cold to just use my grips.

Luckily I have some silk glove liners from Tour Master, and they are an inexpensive, if fragile, way to bridge the temperature gap.
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I wrote about how to spot unmarked police vehicles in Virginia a little over a year ago. There are some tell-tale signs, and it’s helped me manage my speed many times.

I commute about forty-five miles a day. My route includes several different highways, and each highway has different speed limits. A blue Ford Escape (first generation) was following behind me this morning. As I merged onto one highway from another, I noticed a black Chevrolet Impala in front of me.

I slowed and started running through my checklist:

• Dual exhaust: yes.
• License plate holder: no.
• Dealer sticker / label on the back: no.
• Multiple antenna: yes.

I slowed even more, and maintained a respectable distance behind the black Impala. The blue Escape got impatient, and rocketed by me, doing probably 75 in a 55 zone. As he passed by, I noticed the small flashing lights in the back window of the Impala.

The Chevy picked up speed and closed with the Escape almost instantly. The flashing lights came on, and the Ford pulled over about a quarter of a mile later.

I resisted the urge to beep my horn a few times, but I couldn’t help but chuckle inside my helmet. All of the signs were there, the Ford’s driver was just to impatient or ignorant to look for them.

Keep alert out there :)