Older adults riding motorcycles

Joe Hovel 2008

Many older adults either make a dream of their youth become reality later in
life, or return to riding a motorcycle after a long break. Sadly, the instinct or
sixth sense of youth for avoiding trouble doesnt seem to return or maybe
younger peoples reaction speed is quick enough to get out of trouble oh,
and of course that absolute faith in their own indestructibility - is no longer
there.
What older riders have to do instead, is to replace these attributes of youth
with logic, foresight, training and practice.
The following issues identify some of the aspects that can be addressed to
increase our safety on the road.
Some of these show parallels to flying thats not surprising. Both sports
activities rely on a persons judgement and concentration with little tolerance.
In fact, statistics tell us that riding a motorbike is far more dangerous than
piloting a sports aircraft. Aviation people often say that the most dangerous
aspect of flying is the drive to the airport. If you go there on a bike,
statisticians would faint.
Frame of mind
Most of us consider motorcycle riding as a release from stress and an
enjoyable pastime. One of the likely reasons for this is that it takes enough
concentration and focus to prevent thoughts straying to all the other issues in
our lives. Its simply not possible to review the dynamics of a meeting at work
or your financial affairs while riding the Black Spur or Great Ocean Road!
If you cant find the focus on riding and learn to switch off the extraneous
concerns that are possible while driving a car, dont ride a bike or you might
not survive it.
When you are ill, dont ride a bike illness affects concentration. If you are too
tired to concentrate, dont ride a bike the fresh air wont wake you up for
long!
Situational awareness
While riding down the road, it is far more important on a bike to have
situational awareness than in a car. The term is from aviation, where similar
issues are considered continuously. From aviation also comes the expression
to be ahead of the plane we need to adopt this attitude and be ahead of
the bike.
What this means for us is to be aware of whats potentially going to happen
next, as far ahead as is possible to anticipate. The idea is to look and
recognise distractions and points of interest for the car ahead of us, the car
before that, the car coming toward us and even the car behind us or
overtaking us.
Riders whove had an accident often say things like he hit the brakes and
turned off right in front of me, I had nowhere to go, couldnt do anything but hit
him. When asked did he or she find out why the driver stopped and turned
off, the answer is often yes, there was a fruit stall on the side of the road, or
yes, he tried to turn into the driveway of a bottle shop at the last moment.
This is what Im referring to: when drivers to do something really unexpected,

it is only unexpected for someone else. So its important to get into their
head, see what they are seeing, recognise what might be taking their interest,
anticipate what might take their concentration away from the traffic around
them.
Eyes in your back
Part of situational awareness is knowing whats happening behind you. It is
possible to train yourself to see the rear vision mirrors in peripheral vision
more or less continuously. Otherwise or as well develop a habit to look in
both mirrors every few seconds. Pilots refer to scanning their field of vision:
developing a habit to systematically look around the sky in front of them, their
instrument panel and both sides. Bike riders do well to do the same: every 5
or so seconds, scan from the left road side to straight and far ahead, then the
right road side, then the mirrors, then the instruments.
That way, you should always know whats happening behind and around you.
In addition, never change road position or line without checking the mirrors
and a head-check next to you on the side you are moving towards.
Position, position
To allow for the unexpected to have the most space to happen, its important
to position the bike on the road to give everything else as much space as
possible.
A recommended position on a straight road is somewhere between and 1
metre from the centreline of the road. That way, someone on the side of the
road is no danger if they open a car door without looking, a child running into
the road has at least a few metres to stop and turn back, a car backing out of
a parking space will have a chance to see the bike before backing into its
path.
A compromise position has to be reached when someone is coming in the
opposite direction: swerve to around the centre of your lane, to give the other
driver a chance to swerve into your lane while answering his phone, changing
radio stations or trying to read a road sign.
Riding in a group has additional hazards: try to keep the 2 second gap intact
as a minimum distance between riders, that way if the rider in front of you
does something unexpected, you will at least have a chance to respond
safely.
Try to stagger your positions on the road so that you can see whats going on
two bikes ahead of you and two bikes behind you.
Riding side-by side at speed looks impressive, but consider it an advanced
skill. It requires both riders to know each others riding style very closely.
There is little margin for error 1.5m or less apart.
Knowing when to stop
If anything ever happens in front of you that you didnt anticipate, or
something sneaks up on you from behind you didnt know about, STOP. Your
concentration isnt as good as it should be. Accidents happen because riders
continue beyond their level of concentration. Pilots call this go on-it is
continuing when clear-headed, concentrated judgement would suggest
otherwise. No timeline or appointment is important enough to take chances
with your life.

Focussing on the way out of trouble

There is a really strong psychological control that makes us focus on one
thing at a time when stressed, to the exclusion of other options a sort of
tunnel vision. On a bike, when confronted with an emergency, it is very easy
to focus on the accident, rather than focus around the problem. When
confronted with an unexpected obstacle, many riders can only see the
obstacle, not the space around it.
Also, few riders are confident at counter-steering, pushing the handlebars
towards the spot to be avoided. This action throws the centre of gravity in the
opposite direction, making the bike lurch away from the spot. The action has
to be repeated in the opposite direction very quickly to bring the bike back to
the line of original travel. Its possible to avoid a space at short notice, but
varies with the speed travelled: the slower the bike is travelling, the larger the
deviation can be (within reason if you do this at walking speed, you just fall
over).
Capability of the bike
Few non-competition riders ever find out the absolute capabilities of their
bikes on all kinds of surfaces (dry, wet, gravel, dirt). As a result, many
accidents are reported where riders run off the road when an expert rider on
the same bike would have easily been able to stay on the line. The occasional
rider simply gives up, not having faith in the adhesion of their tyres, the
capacity of the bikes handling or the capacity of the brakes, or doesnt know
how to control the bike at unusual attitudes or angles.
Its a good idea therefore to find some of these limits without hurting yourself
or the bike. Attending a track day, an advanced riders course or an
introduction to racing session. Alternatively, find an open space (a car park on
a Sunday, a straight lonely country road or similar) and find out what the
brakes can do in a nice straight line at various speeds. Then try this again
after a downpour. Learn the bikes handling at low speed go as slow as you
can and do figure eights, preferable approaching full lock! Then try to do this
at faster and faster speeds. Feel what the differences are of sitting upright
compared to hanging over the edge of the seat GP style. Get a sense of
what the bike feels like with the rear wheel skidding straight, then while turning
gently to one side and the other. See what control you can exert with the front
wheel skidding. Ask someone to teach you to do a stoppie (maybe on a bike
you can afford to drop).
Capability of the rider
Once you have found your limits on your bike (even accidentally with a severe
shot of adrenaline racing through your veins), never approach them again on
a ride. Always leave yourself a comfortable margin so that you know you can
push the envelope in an emergency without wishful thinking and without a
severe anxiety attack.
When you see older riders going hard, they are much less likely to be on the
edge of theirs or their bikes limits than a young rider. Follow an older rider
instead of a younger rider in a convoy youre less likely to hurt yourself.
Equally, try to follow a bike similar in capability to your own, rather than the
latest super sports model. If you then find yourself at the limit of your comfort

zone, you will know at least that the bike is able to go around that bend at that
pace on the line of the rider youre following.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of skills and considerations for people
with slowly increasing reaction times. Keep learning as you grow more
experienced and older.
When I was very young, a very old motorcyclist who I rode with once said that
if you get through the first 10,000 successive kilometres without an accident,
you can consider yourself a safe rider. it took me several starts to get
there.
Start counting again after a break of more than a couple of years.
Keep the shiny side up and the black side on the road and enjoy the ride.
Joe