Much has been said and written about the recent and continuing growth of motorcycling. There are lots of new and returning riders hitting the streets (hopefully not literally), and we hear from many of them. The typical query pertains to a choice of bike or gear, but with increasing frequency I hear from new and born-again riders who ask what they can do to stay safe.
Most of these riders have heard and applied the usual advice about taking a new rider course from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or a state agency, and they have gotten licensed, but they recognize that a beginner's course is just the tip of the iceberg, and that learning how to control a motorcycle is much different from learning how to operate it safely.
The concern is quite valid. New motorcyclists crash more than those who have been riding for some time, and the first six months appear to be especially dangerous. So what actions can a new rider (or for that matter, an experienced one) take to make life on two wheels safer?
Be Conspicuous
Many motorcyclists will be surprised to find this at the top of my list of things to do to stay safe, but the key issue in surviving among those much larger vehicles is to be seen by their drivers. My bright orange helmet does more to keep me out of harm's way than any other traffic strategy. It is also the easiest measure to exercise, since it is completely passive once it's on.
Bright colors may not be stylish, but they are good for your health (if only by keeping your blood pressure down). When other drivers see you, you spend a lot less time demonstrating your swerving, braking and swearing skills.
Black, by far the most popular color for motorcyclists, isn't the worst possible hue, but it's way down there. Olive drab, gray, camouflage patterns and other dull colors are worse, but black doesn't jump out at all, and at night it is the worst choice. The best options are those eye-catching colors in the red-to-yellow range, and they should be bright; a dull yellow is not as effective as a bright yellow. Fluorescent colors are the most effective. I have even seen eye-catching fluorescent blue and green helmets. Finally, you want a big, uninterrupted section of that color. A complicated scheme of several bright colors is less effective than a continuous patch of a single bright shade.
Where should that bright color be? Since most collisions occur with a vehicle that started out in front of you, it should be on the front of the vehicle or rider. A yellow touring fairing (such as that on the Gold Wing 1800) is hard to overlook, but a small patch of yellow in the same area isn't as effective. More likely, you will wear your conspicuity. The Hurt Report found that riders wearing bright jackets crashed less frequently. Recently, a New Zealand study reported that riders who wore white helmets instead of black helmets got punted off the road less often. It noted that bright colors seemed to be even more accident-preventative. From my experience, a really bright helmet is the best approach. Wearing an equally bright jacket seemed to have less effect in traffic than the bright helmet, even though the jacket's eye-catching area was larger. My presumption is that the helmet's height has some effect, since people can see it over cars around you. Reflective panels on a helmet or jacket are eye-catching at night.
Use your headlight, too. Running the high beam during the day (but not at night in urban scenarios!) makes you stand out, and you can further employ your headlight's eye-grabbing tendency by using a headlight modulator, which flashes the high beam.