Safety First !! - Motorcycle Rider Safety

From www.Motorcops.com

Over the next couple of weeks I will be discussing "Motorcycle Rider Safety" Since this is such a broad topic, I will return to this topic several times in the near future.  But, for now lets talk about what safety can mean while riding a motorcycle. When someone says to you "Ride safe" what exactly does that mean to you ? Of course this is a very vague term, but to the motorcyclist a bell should go off in your head, and you should not only know what it means, you should go into that mode of thinking once you fasten your helmet.  Well, this is a summary of what safe riding means to me. 

1.   Defensive Driving

Driving defensively as opposed to what most NJ drivers do, which is the exact opposite (driving offensively), is something which comes with experience. If you're a new rider the trick to survival is to gain this experience as fast as humanly possible. Why ? because learning on the street by trial and error is a much to much dangerous classroom. How then are you supposed to accomplish this task ? There are several ways to gain the necessary experience you need to survive. One way is by riding with a mentor. Someone responsible, who has been riding for years, someone you admire and has survived.  Another way is by reading books on the subject and gaining the needed experience from the person(s) doing the writing. A third way is by taking a serious training course with an organization that is certified in teaching motorcycle riding skills. Of course a combination of these methods would be the best of all worlds.  Sometime, you can directly transfer the defensive driving skills you've learned while driving your car to the bike.  The only problem with this are the rules of physics. The fact that your motorcycle is about less then 1/3 the weight of a car, 3-5 times faster, much more maneuverable,  can stop quicker (most times on dry ground), and here is a biggy, MUCH HARDER to see. All of these factors combine to make Defensive Driving on a motorcycle the number 1 priority following COMPETENCY !!  I discuss competency in great detail in my upcoming book "Motorcycling 101 - The 20 - 10 edition", being released at the end of August. In the book, I discuss the  4 levels of learning, I give exercises and examples of the competency levels as you practice.  How YOU must be objective about how well you are riding or how well you are not riding. In my next post, I'll talk more about riding competence, Defensive driving and Motorcycle Rider Safety. The ultimate goal is to have FUN (which is what Riding is all about), and to be safe while doing it. This is going to get good, so click on the "Follow" button at the top of the page in order to get each post as I write them. Until then, Live to Ride, and Ride to Live !!

JYNorflet
MotorcycleCoach.Blogspot.com
MotorcycleCoach@Gmail.com - Send you suggestions & comments
Twitter.com/MotorcycleCoach
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIP

Never carry a passenger on your motorcycle as a beginning rider. A second person can completely change the dynamics such as how the bike stops, starts and steers. Always Look, Listen and learn while riding.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------