Top 5 MISTAKES Beginner Riders Make in TRAFFIC in 2024

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There is a ton that goes into riding motorcycles but one of the MOST DANGEROUS is when you get out into traffic and have to deal with all the other motorists on the road. Today, I'm giving you guys 5 tips that, if followed, will keep you much safer while you're out there riding!

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Gear Featured in this Video:
Gloves: REAX Superfly 2 Perforated imp.i104546.net/5gEZo3

chaseontwowheels
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Something I very rarely do is put my bike in neutral at red lights. I might if there's no-one to the rear. But once they're within 100 meters or so, clunk it in first and keep an eye for people not keeping an eye on me.
When I started riding my buddy with a few more years experience said "just pretend everyones trying to kill you, and plan for that." its served me well.
Ride your own ride if you're out with buddies and they're riding too fast for you, dont push the skills you dont have yet, you'll see them at the next red or gas stop. When we're riding with coworkers we put the newb upfront and say ride at whatever pace you're comfy with, dont try to impress anyone.

gingernaut
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Been riding for 15 years. It’s always nice to hear the basics from time to time as a refresher. Been a long time viewer, since the days of your R6. Keep it up! 🎉

BitMoto
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Your videos are excellent, entertaining and informative. This one is no different. I've been riding for almost 30 years now and have never had a serious incident and never had an incident I didn't cause myself. I was very fortunate back in the 90s when I was young and dumb, that I took a motorcycle safety course with an excellent instructor who hammered these points home. I'd like to add that when I am at a red light and NOT in front, I plan my escape route. EVERY time. I may pull to the left or to the right and watch my mirrors for the traffic behind me. Getting rear ended and crushed in between vehicles is life changing if not fatal. I saw a motorcycle COP get killed this way a few years ago. Tragic. I'll ram my bike and myself in between vehicles in front of me in order to avoid getting rear ended and crushed. I don't stop watching behind me until there's at least three or four vehicles back there or the light turns green and we're moving. NEVER. 

If I ever feel there's a situation or area that I am going where I can't mitigate the danger due to extreme traffic or construction or whatever, I DO NOT GO!!!! Go around. Even if it takes you a full day. Your life is not worth the risk! I ride all the time like I'm invisible. ALL THE TIME. I started riding when I was very young. I was very lucky on multiple occasions. These days, I encourage young people to get a few years of driving a four wheel vehicle under their belt before they ever decide to take on a motorcycle. You learn how people drive, how to predict what other drivers are going to do, and how to tell if they can see you or not. These skills only come with experience. MANY of us have been lucky. Way too many young men and women have NOT been so lucky. Get some experience.

Another thing I do that keeps me safe is I avoid road rage and stupid incidents at all costs, no matter how wronged I was or whatever my perception of the offense was. There's lots of ignorant videos online of motorcyclists chasing down some vehicle that they feel wronged them. Let it go, 100% of the time, without fail, no matter what it was. I don't give people the middle finger or antagonize them in any way, no matter how much they might deserve it. If you need to go a different way or get off the road, DO IT. NEVER EVER engage a driver in anger. NEVER!!!! There is always somebody crazier than you and you never know what somebody might do. Even the biggest bikes on the road are no match for a Honda Civic. You will lose every time if they use their vehicle against you. Your life isn't worth a momentary incident. NOT EVER.

I'm almost 46 years old and have only been injured on my dirt bikes in the past. I have hundreds of thousands of miles under my belt. I have a wife and kids that love me and depend on me and need me in their lives. But like you all, I feel the need to ride. So... do it safely so you can return each and every single time to your loved ones, without fail!!! I am confident that I can ride until I'm too old to sling a leg over my bike, using the methods in this video as well as the ones I have mentioned, and never get injured or killed on my bike by somebody else's mistake.

KCChief
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1) All the gear all the time.
2) Never drink and drive
3) Ride like your invisible
4) At all stops, plan escape routes, and tap your brake lights watching to see if the driver behind you is stopping
4) Keep you bike mechanically sound, especially good tires with proper tire pressure
5)Use that horn. A short toot of the horn may save your hide.
6) Don’t, ”Hot dog”. Showing off can kill.
7) When riding with others remember to always know your destination and ride within your limits. Road time vs speed. Trying to catch up to other riders can be deadly. The rider your catching up to may hit a turn at 40 mph and you catching up may enter that same turn at 60 mph. Bad things can happen with this.
8) Keeping a safe distance from vehicles in front of you. Vehicle lengths can be counted by when the vehicle in front of you passes a stationary object and as the vehicle passes that object count one thousand one one thousand two, etc. til you pass the same object. My rule of thumb, at least five seconds till I pass that object for a safe distance. It’s all about having reaction time to avoid accidents.
One of the biggest hazards on the road today are drivers distracted by their cell phones. Personally I’ve had two accidents from distracted drivers. One was a lady who ran a red light and I was fifth in line on my green with traffic already way in motion. Fortunately I caught her out of the corner of my eye and avoided a total t-bone. 2nd. was sitting in very slow traffic and the lady behind me got bored, fixated on her cell phone and slammed me into the car in front of me. Both times I was on my Ural sidecar and that tank of a motorcycle rig saved my hide. I find living in an urban city setting that my best bet is getting up early in the A.M. and riding out of the congestion to the country roads. Coming back home I’m always faced with city traffic. I constantly scan my surroundings and I try my best to be safe. Motorcycle has been a part of my life for over fifty years of riding. It’s in my blood…

mldiode
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There are reasons to appreciate such unplanned delays. YES they do happen for a reason. I am a long haul trucker, and have been one for last 30 years. Some years ago in Nebraska I pulled into a Truckstop to quickly use the restroom and snacks and a drink then get going. On the way out of the parking lot this flatbed driver pulled out in front of me because he HAD to be in a bigger hurry than me. Suffice it to say I verbally expressed my frustrations for the 20 second delay.

Going down the freeway about 15 minutes later, I got in a dust storm so bad I couldn’t see the front of my Volvo 770’s hood. So from 65mph I started to slow down and feel for the rumble strip as nobody could see where we were going. I thought I saw a brake light come on so I decided to stop. I got on the CB and started to broadcast what was going on and that I was stopped on the shoulder with everyone else.

About 5 minutes go by and after several repeats a driver said God must have been watching over me. I said I agreed and wondered what prompted his comment. He said he had a police scanner and the officer that walked by called out my truck number….as not being involved. “In what?” I asked.

He said I wasn’t going to believe it but relayed their report accordingly. He said the brake light flash I saw when I stopped, was that car in front rear ending a vehicle in front of him, 3 people dead. The vehicle BEHIND my bumper was rear ended from behind me when he stopped. Rear ended by a U-haul truck, the vehicle behind me 2 fatalities. I was pinned between 2 car wrecks and 5 fatalities…that occurred about 15-20 seconds in front of of me and about 10 seconds after I stopped. HAD I NOT BEEN DELAYED BY THAT FLATBED in the parking lot for those 20 or so seconds, or waited a few seconds longer to leave the store, I could have caused one or both accidents.

I can’t say how many delays I had over the years by a few seconds here and there only to come on an accident that just happened seconds earlier that had I not been delayed those few seconds I would have been involved. So remember, those delays happen for a reason, we might not always know why, but try to be grateful when they do. Not easy these days, but we gotta try anyway huh?

stevek
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Just started watching The bad part about #1 drivers see the gap and most times they speed up to pass you and go around you, you don’t want cars to go around you to get in front of you, they did this all the time when I was on my smaller e moto. We want cars to notice us all times and to respect our presence on the road and my experience this is more important than worrying about what could possibly be in the middle of the road

obeii
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Kudos for the editing. The HUD effects were pretty neat!

matvarela
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The amount of people running red lights where I live is unbelievable. People blatantly ignore red lights so often it's worth waiting a extra few seconds after the light turns green before moving on. Throw in the people who always go near lane to far lane while making a left turn and you have yourself and old fashioned clusterfuck.

bajacore
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Constantly evaluating your situation. Identifying potential issues, and then dismissing them just as quickly when past. Finding escape paths incase X or Y happens. The focus needed to ride safely (or more accurately, safer) does take a higher mental capacity, but in a good way! Probably another reason why riding a motorcycle is a great mental health activity in that it helps you sort of forget about the other stresses of the world while you focus on the ride, and give your brain a little reset. Thank you, motorcycles!

ghostontwowheels
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I'm constantly pressing my indicator (blinker I'm British lol) button I've been riding for many years now and if I could off any tips wear your protective gear I see so many people riding in shorts and T-shirt when it's sunny and know from bitter experience what a mess the road makes of your knees even with jeans on my left knee has a huge scar from gears ago. The main one is wear gloves first thing you do when you come off is put your hands out, I actually gave a young girl on a scooter some spare gloves I had because nobody had told her how important gloves are (here in the UK you can ride up to a 125cc without a full licence you have to complete a basic training course and display L-plates you can't really fail the course so people are let lose with very little training and some 125cc bikes will do 80mph) this has turned into a ramble now but keep putting these videos out even older experienced riders like me learn from them
Thanks for the tips

edwardharris
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I am a novice rider! I only ride in the dirty / grass LOL. Today after watching your video I rode in the street for half mile (with traffic) and I watched ever car front tire and avoided the center lane! appreciate your video.

PaulEllisBIGDATA
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Avoid that blind spot from cars, watch open lanes for people sliding over left/right, skip neutral at traffic lights unless there's already 3+ Cars standing still behind you and avoid manhole covers and white stripes (especially when wet) like the plague. And don't be scared to use the oomph your bike has to get into a better position with more space around your bike. These tips made the biggest difference for me when learning to ride and getting my bike license.

KindOldRaven
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I find it interesting that most often the advice is “go faster”. It is just as effective to roll off the throttle a little to drop back out of a blind spot, flash the brake light a couple of times for those that may be behind. My daily commute has traffic patterns that make the accelerate ahead out of a blind spot the more prudent choice and dropping back out of the blind spot the more prudent choice. On the way home, the lane I need to be in has a lane to the right that is the exit ramp from one highway/merge onto a highway, a short distance down the road it is an exit only, my exit is shortly after, so traffic in that lane may merge into my lane or may exit. Passing people, through their blind spots with a high likelihood of them merging into my lane is not prudent. I drop back behind them in case they choose to merge, and that leaves me staggered in front of the car behind them so they can see me if they are going to merge. But certainly, if I am going to pass a vehicle, I will always give it a little extra to minimize that time in the blind spot

kevindowell
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I started with a 250cc dirtbike, then a 350cc four cylinder Honda, then a 750cc Honda, then I rebuilt a '74 850cc Moto Guzzi. I've taken the motorcycle safety course twice during that time. I agree with what you have indicated here, although my preferred lane position is to the left of center. This gives me the most room to move away from oncoming traffic. Also, NEVER trust someone's turn indicator, always consider that they have forgotten to cancel it. Take nothing for granted, and ride like everyone is out to get you.

eyeofthetigger
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Looking ahead and careful through intersections are my biggest focuses with more traffic.

johnhernandez
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Really enjoyed the drone shots and the graphics on this video, very clear and informative.

I would argue that positioning yourself on par with the car's driver to avoid being in their blindspot is not as efficient as positioning yourself further ahead so they see you past the a-beam(?). Reason being you're still gonna be hit if the driver swerves into you regardless of the reasons being still not seeing you, or if they "have to" due to obstacles in the road like animals, trash, someone pulling out in front of them etc.

🤘💪💪

jongsanim
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When I started a city job years ago, I was required to take a defensive driving course which was conducted on their facility. Our instructor gave us a tip as a car driver I never forgot and still use. To eliminate most of your car's blind spot, when adjusting side view mirrors, put you head against the driver's side window, then adjust that mirror. And when adjusting the passenger mirror, position yourself in the center console of the car, then adjust the mirror.
Most people have their mirrors in a way that they can see their own car in it. But, when adjusting them this way, you are pointing the mirror to the lane next to you, which is what the mirror is for.
You'll find that as soon as you lose the car in your rear view mirror, it will already be visable in your side mirror, essentially eliminating most of your blind spot. Of course you should still physically turn your head, but this helps tremendously.
I don't know why this isn't taught everywhere, because it makes no sense to see your own car in the side mirrors.
I'm about to get my motorcycle license, so I'm not familiar with how riders adjust their mirrors, but this tip might help motorcycles, as well. Lmk if it does.

itsalwayssomething
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I always avoid being in blind spots, or even being beside cars/trucks at all, if I can avoid it. The only thing is that especially guys in bro-dozers seem to think you want to race them, when all I am trying to do is create some space between me and other traffic, and there a a LOT of bro-dozers where I live.

petersluik
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Pass the cars, don't ride next to them if you can avoid it.

SheepDogNumber