Advice: Reading the road

If you listen to your mother, then riding a motorcycle is more like a ghost train at a theme park, you never know when things are going to jump out of nowhere and scare the living daylights out of you. And, while in some respects that may be true and good advice, there’s actually a whole lot of information to be garnered from your surroundings which can and will make you safer on the road. You just need to now what you’re looking for.

A surprise makes us do silly things. We react immediately according to our instincts without sufficient time to think and assess. And depending on our skill and experience, those immediate reactions while travelling at speed on a motorcycle, could either be extremely helpful or land us on our bums.

It’s pretty easy to blame the item or situation that surprised you – be it another vehicle, an animal or changing road conditions – but if your brain can identify a potential hazard early enough you’re going to greatly reduce the risk of coming unstuck.

In a car we have climate control and music to create a familiar and comfortable environment in which we can be relatively relaxed in, but on a motorcycle your senses are instinctively heightened – you notice more, hear more and even smell more – so we’d be mad not to put that to good use.

Little things dotted around the place can give us valuable clues to what dangers may or may not lay ahead. Full garbage bins along the side of the road, for example, indicates that there just may be a garbage truck stopped on your side of the road just over that blind crest which is rapidly approaching.

Or the fresh-looking horse poo that you negotiated safely just back there probably means there’s a horse or two being ridden at the other side of that blind corner.

Or that long line of cars all waiting to exit that sports ground almost definitely means there’s some fed-up and frustrated drivers willing to make a silly decision and pull out in front of you and into a gap that isn’t there.

If you can read the signs and be prepared, the element of surprise will be reduced, and with more information and more time, you’re going to make a smarter, more considered choice if presented with a think-quick situation.

As well as a heap of small clues which can indicate what’s ahead, there’s a lot of really large things which can give us a heads up as to what lies ahead, too. Learning to read the natural landscape, for example, can make an otherwise blind crest or corner more visible.

Imagine you’re approaching a crest; you can’t see what the road does on the other side of it, but directly ahead you’ve spotted a chimney. Straight away this tells you the road must veer off to either the left or the right – it’s a fair assumption the house hasn’t been built in the middle of the road – so you’d reduce your speed to something appropriate to negotiate an upcoming corner that may have otherwise caught you by surprise.

Depending on the environment, it may even be possible to determine which way the roads veers and already be set-up for a left- or right-hand bend before you actually see it.

You might notice a tree line which indicates the direction of the road, more roofs or chimneys might be an indicator, even a ridge line along a mountain. Like any skill on the bike, you get better and quicker at reading the environment around you the more often you do it. Remember to use it as an indicator rather than fact, and always be prepared for things to still jump out of nowhere.

We’ve all had it drummed into us that we need to be looking well ahead, and it’s something we all do. It’s a good idea to look as far ahead as possible and set yourself some conscious guidelines around speed and distances, depending on your experience.

On an open 100km/h country road with very few trees or undulations in the landscape, you might be able to see up to a kilometre or so ahead of you. You can see, either through other traffic travelling on the road or through some of the tips outlined above, where the road goes.

So other than perhaps a few road surface or wildlife surprises, you’re comfortable to sit on the 100km/h signposted limit. If, however, you find yourself on a country road, but this time in a heavily wooded area with hills and undulations, the farthest point you can physically see on the road ahead is constantly changing and, at the same time, so is the time you’ve got to pull the bike up, or be presented with a think-quick scenario if required.

So it’s not a bad idea to adjust your speed according to the farthest point you can physically see, to put yourself in a situation where you’re comfortable being if things unexpectedly turned pear-shaped.

As if all that looking forward isn’t taking enough of your attention, it is just as important to get in a habit of regularly checking your mirrors so you’re building a full 360-degree zone of awareness around you and your bike. A far too high proportion of motorcycle crashes in Australia are rear-end affairs and it’s just as important to be aware and have enough time to take well-considered aversive action if and when required.

This article was originally published on January 2, 2019.