Safe Riding

When I tell people I'm a motorcyclist, a common reaction is to say that motorcycles are so dangerous. During my hospital internship rotation at the Emergency Department I found that there was a special colloquial term attributed to motorcycles - "donorcycles." Yes I will admit there is an added danger to riding a 2 wheeled vehicle without an external body frame to absorb the impact of a crash, but I also will say riding motorcycles is not something everyone should do.

If you think about vehicular accidents logically, starting from cars and then progressing towards motorcycles you will realize why there are so many accidents. Out of the population of car drivers there's a portion that never should have received their licenses because they are terrible driver - people that have gotten into multiple accidents. Of the motorcycle population, some of these riders are derived from the multiple car crash population. With the dangers of riding and the necessity to be very vigilant and precise while riding a motorcycle, these people with terrible motor coordination encounter hospital visits almost a few months within having received their motorcycle license.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation provides incredible safety instruction and will help save rider's lives. In the courses they offer they teach you situational lessons that you may never have thought of on your own. For example, when riding in a lane there are 3 sections to the lane (left, center, right). Riding on the left side is the safest after the first rain because oil and water mixtures, which will make the rider fall if ran over, will be in the center, and riding on the right side will create the need for the driver in front of you to check his passenger mirror before seeing you (most likely on the left they will check the driver's side mirror). Another example is a reaction to the most common motorcycle accident - passing through an intersection with cars that have a yielding green. Motorcyclist should be aware of this fact and be extra cautious when passing through intersections keeping a keen eye on that yielding car. If it starts to turn, be prepared to quickly swerve right and then left and accelerate out of the situation.

Many people tend to freeze under pressure and lose control of the situation. If the rider takes control of the situation there's less of a chance that they will find themselves in a crash. And of course full gear should be warn all the time when riding a motorcycle, just in case there is a crash.

The Not So Intuitive Methods of Countersteering & Leaning

In a car one turns the steering wheel to the right to turn right, on a bicycle one pushes the left handlebar away to make a right turn at slow speeds, on a motorcycle under approximately 10 mph the steering is operated like a bicycle, but over approximately 10 mph in order to turn right one needs to press against the right handlebar. This is the phenomenon of countersteering - pushing on the handlebar on the side in which you wish to turn.

The video above explains countersteering visually and is a great resource for new riders. It is also very important to look "through the turn" as many experienced riders would say because it allows your body to position and prepare for what's to come ahead.

Motorcycles are also known for leaning when countersteering. Unlike 4 wheeled vehicles which can change the angle of the front two tires in respect to the back two tires to initiate a turn, in a 2 wheeled vehicle the front tire stays in line with the back tire and the side walls of the tires are used to grip the road.

In a motorcycle lean the rider first repositions his or her seating so that their buttocks is half off of the seat  and the rider positions the head around the area of the mirror in the direction desired to turn. Upon pressing on the handlebar side using countersteering the motorcycle will naturally lean in that directions and the tire sidewalls will take care of the grip to make sure the rider does not crash. The reason for the natural lean is because by positioning the body off-center in the direction desired to turn, the center of gravity is changed more towards the the rider's new body position. In order to stabilize itself, the motorcycle leans initiating the turn.

http://www.michelinmotorcycle.com/index.cfm?event=pilotpower2CT
The Michelin tire company depicts the lean angle capability of one of the model tires they manufacture and is a good example of how far sportbike tire technology has come.