Street D'fense - Defensive riding tips

[hagrid...]

Bounce - That's why I have a the Roadcrafter one piece as well, it's a great suit and well worth the money.  Because it get over 100 degrees here, I bought a Alpinestar summer jacket for short casual rides just around town.  I tried wearing it on a couple of agressive sport rides, but I felt totally uncomforatable not having the full protection.

Hagrid...

[hagrid...]

#17 Don't jump on your bike after getting into a fight with your significant other, or to blow off steam.  Take a walk around the block first. Riding a sport bike requires focus and a clear head. You'll enjoy the ride much better and you want risk hurting someone or yourself, and more important, your bike... LOL...

Hagrid...

[R_DAWG]

#18

Watch out for slipper surfaces such as crosswalk lines or lane markings, try to drive in between them especially on a corner in the rain.

ps. everyone might already know this

[EADG4]

Why would you leave it locked?  A sliding tire doesn't stop the bike as well as a rolling tire does.

If the rear locks, I remove a little bit of rear brake pressure until it hooks up again.  Of course, all of that assumes that both wheels are still more or less in alignment.  If not, you can use steering and body english to get the rear end back where it belongs.  Then start removing rear brake pressure gradually until it hooks up again.

I definitely think you should practice locking it and leaving it locked...so you can learn how to steer the bike like that to keep the rear end under you.  But your end-goal should be max braking force out of both wheels...which means that neither wheel is locked.

Bad choice. If your rear tire locks, yes you lose some braking power, it it more than likely will slide out somewhat on you. But what happens when it slides out, and then you let off the rear brake to get it rolling again? It snaps back into line. Good luck holding onto that-that screams high-side. Better to leave it locked (dragging the damn wheel WILL still slow you down somewhat) and stay upright, than to lose it and stop that way. Seems more painful to me.

[skywalkeRR]

I know this is a very old thread,  but just wanted to thank everybody for the great tips.  I think another thing to mention is making sure clothing and gear is as bright and obvious as possible. May be common sense, but I see way too many people wearing "cool" urban camo jackets and seemingly trying to blend in with the road. I wear an orange black white and red helmet, black jacket with florescent reflective orange stripes, and if I carry a backpack I keep a reflective florescent belt around it and any gear on the back. It's sad that so many non-bikers think the highway is their living room couch, and cars just seem to keep being more and more quiet and relaxed giving the drivers more opportunity to not pay attention. 

[South African]

(19)

Never think you will make that gap (20 cars ahead of you) while driving in the wrong lane, before the on-coming traffic gets to you.

You give it gas to get to the gap ASAP not thinking of the speed you are going and when you arrive at you gap (to squeeze in between the cars), the back wheel locks up and you over shoot the gap… What now? My friend, now you have to squeeze in between the car next to you and the on-coming truck (On a narrow road).

That is some scary sh!t…