Safety Tips

Richard kesselus

This information was taken from the national motorcycle foundation
information.  Richard K.
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
No matter how many precautions a motorcyclist takes, and no matter how much
skill a rider has, there will inevitably come a time when they have to respond
to an emergency situation. This article will discuss a few possible emergency
situations, and how to react to them.
A motorcycle tire has exactly 100% traction. The things that require portions
out of that 100% are acceleration, braking and turning. What causes a tire to
skid is exceeding that 100%. For example, a rider approaches a curve at 40 miles
per hour. Upon entering the curve the rider realizes he is going to fast to
complete the turn. So he/she squeezes the brakes mid turn to slow down. The
rider has now used more than 100% of the tires traction. Both tires will now
skid out, and the bike and rider slide off the road. What the rider should have
done was slowed down enough before the turn to complete the turn without using
the brakes. However, since the rider was going too fast, they should have
leveled the motorcycle before squeezing the brakes. This would allow more
traction for braking and less for turning. Therefore, the tire would remain
within its allotted 100% traction level. In the same way, a rider should not
over accelerate while turning. The ideal turn is performed as follows. The rider
slows down before the turn enough so that they can slowly accelerate through the
turn.
In any situation, the goal is to maintain control of the motorcycle. There are a
few things that can cause a rider to lose control. Obviously, one of those
things would be running into an object or another vehicle. So to avoid doing
this a motorcyclist should master the ability to swerve to avoid obstacles.
Swerving is the same thing as turning, only with a lot more haste. To swerve,
you press down hard on the handlebars in the direction you want to go. Then you
quickly level the motorcycle by releasing pressure on the handlebars. This will
get the bike moving straight again. Finally, you put pressure on the handlebars
in the other direction to move back into place. The amount of pressure placed on
the handlebars will determine how quickly the motorcycle will swerve. It is very
important to not grab the brakes while swerving. Doing so will cause the
motorcycle to skid, and you could easily lose control.
.
In the unfortunate case that a motorcycle goes into a skid, there are ways for
the rider to correct it without crashing. If the rear tire goes into a skid, the
rider should immediately release pressure off of the rear brake. At the same
time, the rider should make sure and hold the front tire steady and straight.
Doing this should cause the rear tire to snap back into place and continue
rolling. The harder skid to control is a skidding front tire. Once again, this
is because it’s the lead tire and guides the entire motorcycle. A motorcyclist
doesn’t have very much time to react to a skidding front tire before crashing.
If experiencing a front tire skid, the rider should immediately release the
front brake and stand the bike as level as possible. If done quickly enough, the
front tire will begin rolling forward again and the rider can regain control.
Some other emergency situations can occur that are highly unusual such as an
animal running in out in front of your motorcycle. However, knowing how to
control the motorcycle in an emergency can prevent many accidents from
happening. However, the saying goes, “There are two kinds of riders, those who
have crashed in the past… and those who will in the future.” That is why it is
important to always wear proper equipment including a helmet, gloves, long pants
and boots

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