How to avoid common motorcycle crashes
Riding a motorbike safely requires both skill and good judgement. This is why many of us ride bikes. The successful use of these abilities makes us feel good and we are keen to be the best.
Accident studies show that the most common types of motorcycle crashes are:
- failure to negotiate bends, especially on country roads
- other vehicles pulling out into the path of motorcyclists
- collisions at junctions
- collisions while overtaking
- loss of control, due to poor road surface or high speed.
Motorcycling is a skill for life and like any skill, it needs to be practised, honed and developed. If you haven’t been out on your bike for a while, ease yourself back into riding gently and think about refresher training.
When you’ve had a good safe ride, think back to how your skills and knowledge made it good. But where it wasn’t so good, or perhaps you had a near miss, did other issues like group pressure, lack of practice, tiredness, distraction, anger, or stress get in the way?
Try to learn lessons from experience to improve your skills and your enjoyment of motorcycling. An assessment ride, such as BikeSafe or an advanced driving group, will reveal any problem areas. Make sure you are the best rider you can be and ensure that you have the skills and ability to deal with any situation by getting further training from an accredited provider.