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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It can be a struggle to keep your helmet visor from fogging up at this time of year. Your dome, nice and snuggly warm from your house, makes contact with the cold air outside. For some of us, putting a warm face into a cold helmet stored on the bike makes things even worse.

All of a sudden you’re caught in a Catch-22: if you raise the visor to clear the fog your face gets cold. If you lower the visor to keep your face warm the visor fogs.

What can you do? Here are a few tips that work for me, and a few things I’ve tried that didn’t work.
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“Congratulations,” my Motorcycle Safety Foundation course instructor told me after finishing my class. “You are now qualified to ride slowly around a parking lot. Stay off of the highway.”

After feeling confident enough to putter around my neighborhood and surrounding suface streets, I took to the highway. I live a good 15 – 25 miles from the majority of my friends and my place of employment. The highway is vital for me to get anywhere on two wheels, and before long I was zipping along with the rest of the world.

I often prefer riding on the highway to surface streets. Yes, the stakes are higher: crashing at 65+MPH is going to result in a more spectacular get-off than, say, 40MPH. However, traffic flows (usually) in the same direction on the highway, and I don’t have to worry about people making left hand turns in front of me like you do a surface street intersection.

Still, you have to deal with lane incursions, rapid deceleration due to accidents or emergency vehicles entering the highway, and worst of all, on-ramps and off-ramps.

Here are a few tips to staying safe when approaching an on-ramp.
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Tires are pretty important on an automobile. They help you do everything from speed up and slow down, maintain traction, and helps to keep your car at its optimal fuel efficiency. The nice thing about a car tires is that, generally, there are four of them. Motorcycles are immediately handicapped by only having two tires. To top it off, motorcycle tires are much more narrow than a car’s tire. This results in a smaller contact patch with the road, which affects braking and handling.

Worse yet, if you have a blow out or catastrophic flat on a motorcycle you are pretty much hosed, especially if it’s your front tire.

It is critical to make sure your motorcycle tires are inflated properly, and boy was I surprised to learn how rapidly and frequently my tires lost pressure.
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I’m not entirely sure if single vehicle accidents or multiple vehicle accidents are more common with motorcycles in the US right now. A single vehicle accident is when you lose control of the bike somehow and crash your shit up. These comprise the majority of the accidents I know about, usually in the form of taking a corner too fast. I see this type of accident as easily prevented, especially if you ride frequently. Not only do you get more experience when you ride a lot, but you may be less compelled to “cram in” all the good emotions of riding by hauling ass on the weekends — and ending up in a ditch.

Multiple vehicle accidents are the ones I am concerned the most about as a commuter. I also count smashing into deer or other animals as “multi-vehicle,” because really, who doesn’t hate deer? These are also the accidents that really piss off the motorcycling community. Just yesterday, a fellow member of an FJR forum was t-boned in an intersection by an old woman who ran a red light. Even though they are in the (perceived) minority, accidents involving an outside influence loom the largest in everyone’s mind. Even if most of the time it’s our fault by taking a 15MPH curve at 45, the accidents involving being rear-ended or turned in front of are larger specters.

Here are some techniques at avoiding being struck by a vehicle when you are approaching an intersection.
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Backing up is one of those things you totally take advantage of in a car. Yeah, you have to be careful, but you don’t have to worry about losing your footing and dropping your car on its side.

I’ve yet to drop a motorcycle while backing up, and I think it’s due to the following:

• Wear appropriate footwear. I wear Sidi OnRoad motorcycling boots. They have a good sole for traction, and a little bit of ankle support. The “preferred” footwear of squids worldwide — sneakers — is the opposite of what you should wear. No support, little traction, and very flexible.
• Avoid putting your feet on treacherous ground. Candidates for a “bike nap” include gravel, a patch of oil on the road (particularly at gas stations or intersections), or slick reflective paint on the road.
• Take baby steps. I probably take a four inch stride when I back up. There have been times I’ve slipped on gravel, oil, or a wet painted surface but my short stride prevented me from losing control. The worst is when you take such a long stride as to end up on your heel. All of your weight is on a very small surface area, and the natural tendency of the leg at that position is to carry momentum away from the body, making the situation even worse.
• Keep the bike upright. Try not to tilt the bike when you are backing up, especially if you have the handlebars turned. The natural tendency is to lean on the handlebars are you turn them, so be careful. For example, if the handlebars are locked at full right, avoid pushing on the right grip. This will tilt the bike to the right, increasing your chances of dropping the bike as you unintentionally manipulate the center of gravity.
• Go easy on the brakes. If something does go wrong, resist the urge to grab a handful of front brake. This will lock the front wheel. The only time I’ve come close to having an “incident” while backing up was when I had the front fully turned and started to slip. I panicked and clamped down on the front brake. It caused the bike to jerk, momentum to stop, and all of the sudden I had a 600+ pound bike to support with one leg. P90 came to the rescue and I kept it up, but I was stupid. Don’t be like me.
• Look down.. If you are backing straight up, look straight down at the gas tank. Looking over your shoulder may make your body lean and/or turn, and next thing you know you are going in a direction you did not intend.

In most things involving a motorcycle, the key is to take it easy. Don’t be in a rush. Don’t push it — if you feel uncomfortable, take a second. Rest, get your bearings, stop sweating, whatever. And when you’re ready again, take baby steps. It’ll work.