Safely Riding Your Motorcycle in the City

Love the thrill of riding your motorcycle through busy downtown districts? Or do you like the ease of commuting into the city on your bike instead of your car? Riding a motorcycle in the city can be extremely enjoyable, but it also presents you with some hazards. Pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, trucks and buses are all on the road with you in a metropolitan area. This is why it’s important to ride your motorcycle with care on city streets.

Gina's Motorsports of Monee is proud to be your Chicagoland motorcycle dealer. Whether you’re sticking to the suburbs or heading into the big city, it’s important to know how to ride your motorcycle safely and responsibly in high traffic areas.

1. Make Yourself Visible

The first step you’ll need to take is to make yourself visible. While your black leather jacket looks cool, it makes you much harder to see against the gray backdrop of roads and concrete buildings. You’ll become especially difficult to spot when riding at night, during storms, in fog or near dusk, too.

Choose high-visibility garments in bright colors like safety orange and neon yellow to make sure you’re visible. An orange safety vest like construction workers wear can be worn over your standard motorcycle gear, or you can invest in reflective gear in a lighter color. Apply reflective tape to your helmet and your bike so that you’re even more visible.

2. Scan the Path Ahead

Don’t just focus on the road directly in front of you. You’ll want to be checking out the path ahead and looking at all lanes of traffic to make sure that you’re aware of the conditions of traffic and how they change. Other drivers may become distracted or fail to utilize turn signals, and you may come across obstacles in the road that you’ll need to avoid. Knowing how to maneuver in advance will help you stay safe.

3. Look For Escapes

Use the agility of your motorcycle to your advantage and determine paths you can take to escape from a dangerous traffic situation. It’s dangerous to brake too hard and fast on a motorcycle as you could be thrown from it, so weaving around obstacles is usually better, even if you end up on a grass median or on a highway shoulder.

4. Remain in the Open

Road congestion is common, especially in crowded downtown areas, but it’s smart to try to steer clear of it where you can. Keep your bike in open spaces on the roads and don’t ride on the bumper of any other vehicles or in a tight cluster with fellow bikers. Spread out so that you can all see and be seen more easily.

5. Watch Your Left Side

Motorists in the United States drive on the right side of the road, which means you’re more vulnerable on your left side. Drivers in left-turn lanes may not always obey traffic laws and could pull out into an intersection without watching for you. When you yourself make a left turn, you’ll want to watch oncoming traffic to be certain no one will hit you.

6. Be Aware of Road Conditions

Rain, sleet, snow, ice, gravel and oil can all make the road slippery and challenging to cross. When the weather turns bad, you’ll need to slow down your speed significantly and keep yourself moving in as straight a line as possible. Watch for potholes, steel plates, loose gravel and oil slicks in the road, too, as these present much bigger dangers to a motorcyclist than they do a car driver.

7. Remain Calm & Collected

Aggressive drivers are dangerous drivers whose behavior is unpredictable and often frightening to others. Aggressively riding your motorcycle is the same. You want to be cautious and assertive without being aggressive and expressing your frustration through risky maneuvers. Don’t ride on the shoulder, sneak between cars or swerve lanes suddenly. You’ll endanger other motorists as well as pedestrians and bicyclists when you act in this way. Remain calm and exercise caution while you ride and you’ll have a much better and safer experience.

Still looking for a motorcycle? Check out the new and used motorcycles for sale at our dealership in Monee, IL. Gina’s Motorsports of Monee proudly serves Kankakee County and all of the Chicago metropolitan area.