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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Let’s face it. Motorcycling is a dangerous activity. If you have training, gear, and experience motorcycling might be less dangerous than if you have none of these, but the fact of the matter is you never know when something unexpected is going to happen. A truck could run a red light and smash you to bits. That lady eating with both hands and steering with her knees might drift into your lane too fast. Hell, you might even get hit in the face by a bird and go down on an isolated stretch of highway. And let’s not even get started on forest rats — I mean — deer.

You can do one of two things: continue riding as if nothing can touch you and forgive any preparations, or do the most you can to mitigate your risks and prepare your a potentially serious or fatal accident.

I’m a “preps” kind of guy. I try to find a balance between doing the things I want to do and being as ready as possible for unfortunate circumstances. On one hand, you can’t be crippled by fear and not do the things you want, but on the other hand you have to a plan.

Here are some of things I do to prepare for the worst.
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“When I ride, I keep my head on a swivel,” my Motorcycle Safety Foundation course instructor told me over four years ago. He went on to describe how his eyes were always darting around, and he was constantly looking behind him and to the sides. It sounded super vigilant, and super safe. I wanted to be super vigilant, and super safe, so that’s what I did.

A few years (and a few thousand miles) rode by, and I realized that I didn’t really feel any safer with my head spinning around, eyes fleeting everywhere. Quite frequently I would look to my right, then my left, and notice that traffic had locked up their brakes in front of me. I found that the more anxious I was with my riding, the more fatigued I became. I started to relax my body more while riding, and that included how I looked at the world around me. My eyes and head stopped moving so much, and while my eyes were mostly straight ahead, I never fixated on any one thing for too long.

I seemed to ride better, anticipate things more accurately, and react to situations more quickly. I chalked it up to experience and riding with more confidence.

Little did I know that my day job would explain how I could see everything by looking at nothing.
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Riding in the rain on a motorcycle happens to just about every rider. The difference is that some of us ride in the rain on purpose, while other motorcyclists get caught in a downpour by accident. If you’re the former, here are some tips for keeping your pants dry during foul-weather commuting.

• Gear up. The most important thing, obviously, is wearing waterproof motorcycle gear. You’re going to need:
  • Textile pants with a waterproof liner
  • Waterproof motorcycling boots — regular waterproof boots aren’t a good option because they are usually not tall enough to prevent upspray (more on that in a minute). Furthermore, they may not hold up in a crash as well as boots built specifically for motorcycling. Also make sure your boots have a gaiter on the inside to help keep water out of the openings along the side of the boot. I personally prefer buckles to zippers, but if your boot has a zipper make sure there is a gaiter behind the zipper, too. I wear Sidi On Roads (available at NewEnough).
  • If you are really concerned about staying dry — or you motorcycle during the colder months — you should buy a separate set of waterproof overpants. I own a jacket and pants set of Frogg Toggs Elite Highway (Amazon.com). It makes a huge difference when riding in torrential rain. It is also important for keeping me safe and warm when it’s cold out. You may stay dry when your waterproof textile jacket gets waterlogged, but the wind of riding at highway speeds plus a low ambient air temperature will make you cold in a hurry. It’s uncomfortable at best, and dangerous at worst.
• Tuck your clothes in when going out in public. Fold your pant hem flat against your leg. Put your pant leg inside your boot. If you don’t do this, water upspray from the road my find its way past the various hem contraptions of your motorcycling pants and soak your “real” pants. This is particularly irksome if you are wearing jeans. Demin will rapidly transfer any water absorbed at the hem up your pants. I figured out “the tuck” the hard way after wondering why my knees were wet — it was from my jeans absorbing water on a three-hour ride in the rain.

If you ride street a lot, you may have encountered this type of driver before: someone who rides their brake pedal as if their life depended on it. Accelerate, brake. Go downhill, brake. Go uphill, brake. On-ramp, brake. Brake, brake.

It’s frustrating and dangerous at the same time. Motorcyclists need every bit of advanced warning to avoid trouble. If someone brakes all the time it can lull you into a sense of complacency or make you so nervous about the car in front of you that you get tunnel vision.

The most important thing to discern is why this person is braking. Is the car in front of them also panic braking? Do they look lost? Are they trying to signal you (I’ve had cars to this to me to “help” when a law enforcement officer is in front of them)? If they are just being stupid or timid, you have a Braker on your hands.
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I wrote about how I merge onto the highway on my motorcycle last month. Now that you’re on the horse, we’re going to discuss the dismount. Here’s how you can stay safer when exiting the highway.

You really have to look out for two things when leaving the highway: cars also trying to exit and your turn entry speed.
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