Tag: control

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84. ‘All dressed up’ – coping with loose chippings

This is based on an article I wrote for the old ‘Survival Skills’ forum on a now-defunct bike forum back in 2007. Having looked over the text (which has had a mild rewrite for clarity) nothing I wrote two decades ago has changed; at least, not the advice about dealing with the freshly-load surface itself. However, what has changed, and changed significantly, is that we now have solid research evidence showing that chip seal isn’t merely an unpredictable low-speed stability problem — once fully cemented in place and when riding speeds are back to normal, it’s exceptionally destructive to rider clothing once things go wrong. It’s one of the harshest abrasion environments we’ll meet on public roads. That makes clothing choice for open-road riding to the fore. The danger is that riders who accept lighter kit because it’s “fine for ordinary road speeds” may be making assumptions that surface-dressed chip seal roads directly undermine. This shifts surface dressing and chip seal from being “a handling problem” to being “a personal protection problem” too, and that’s something all riders ought to be aware of.

‘All dressed up’ – coping with loose chippings

One worry that new riders have (and I guess a few more experienced ones too) is how to treat roads which have been ‘surface dressed’; this is the low cost repair where a new layer of chippings is simply spread on top of a layer of sticky resin sprayed on the old surface. The road is then re-opened with a temporary low speed limit and relies on the passage of vehicles to ‘roll’ the loose chips into the resin binder to form a permanent bond and create a durable surface. Eventually, a sweeper comes out and hoovers up the remaining loose chips. This surface is quite common on quieter UK roads. In France and the US, I’ve found surfaces treated this way to stretch for miles at a time, and is widely used in Australia and New Zealand where it’s known as ‘chip seal’. The locals cope, so we can too.

Most concerns focus on the loose chippings themselves, and on how each lane of traffic quickly becomes a pair of relatively clear wheel tracks with a ridge of loose stone between them, as well as another ridge along the centre line, and one more at the edge of the carriageway.

Generally speaking, riding in a wheel track makes sense since it’s usually the cleanest line and offers the most predictable grip. I’d normally pick the offside wheel track since it keeps us well clear of unexpected hazards on the nearside, and I wouldn’t attempt swapping lines on twisty road. On narrow roads where oncoming traffic could get close, I’d likely chose the nearside track though.

Either way, it avoids riding directly on the deeper ridges of loose stones, and it’s rarely as dramatic as people fear. Provided we avoid hard braking, excessive lean angles or handfuls of throttle, then we can treat the gravel in the wheel tracks much like any other low-grip surface..

If we genuinely have to ride though the deeper, loose material — maybe the road has only just been reopened to traffic — it’s still perfectly possible to ride through it. Counter-intuitively, trying to crawl along at walking pace can make the bike feel less rather than more stable. A modest, steady speed creates momentum and that helps stability. The bike may squirm slightly beneath us, but that movement is normal and self-correcting. The trick is to use the ‘brace position’ — the posture where we keep our upper body, shoulders, elbows and wrists loose to allow the bars to move around but lock onto the bike with the knees on the tank. This is the key — to stay relaxed and let the bike move under us. But keep good gaps and get braking done early and in a straight line. There’s often more grip available on loose chippings than riders expect, but sudden inputs overwhelm it quickly. Keep cornering lean angles modest, maintain a neutral or gently positive throttle, and wait until the bike is upright before accelerating.

If we need to cross a ridge of loose stones, do it deliberately. My tip here is to turn the bike as much as possible so as to cross the ridge as close to a right-angle and as upright as possible. It should go without saying, we should avoid braking or accelerating while in the deeper deposit.

Other hazards worth watching for include:

    • Piles of chippings mid-corner or at junctions, where traffic sweeps them sideways, and at downhill stops where stones fall from car wheel arches. Brake early and positively, then ease to a stop with minimal front brake pressure at walking pace.

    • Hidden potholes, sunken repairs, and speed humps, which can disappear completely under fresh stone. Visual clues are reduced, so read the wider road environment carefully.

    • Freshly laid high-friction surfaces (such as Shellgrip), which often shed loose aggregate initially. Treat them with caution until they’ve bedded in or been swept.

Finally, I’ve found that speed limits are often set unrealistically low and as a result they are widely ignored. If we ride too far below the prevailing speed, we’re simply inviting close overtakes and being sprayed with flying chippings. I’d recommend riding at something closer to the general flow, whilst leaving a generous gap to the vehicle ahead. That way we can avoid being pebble-dashed as we ride, and we’ll also have plenty of space to brake smoothly if we need to.

Surface dressing isn’t pleasant, but it isn’t a lottery either. With good observation, smooth inputs, and sensible decision-making, it’s just another surface — not a reason to tense up or tiptoe.

 

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72. Anger Management – dealing with road rage and red mist

This article explains the important distinction between red mist (self-induced risk-taking) and road rage (reaction to others) and the advice to recognise anger, avoid the victim mindset, and give control back to the reasoning part of the brain is entirely consistent with safety psychology. The core principle remains the same: control your response rather than the road, by anticipating situations that might provoke anger and giving our reasoning brain the opportunity to override instinctive reactions and avoid escalation.

Anger Management – dealing with road rage and red mist

From time to time I get asked if I have any solutions to what the issues known as ‘red mist’ and ‘road rage’. Of all the questions I’ve tried to answer, this one is probably the most difficult. Although my background is in science, I’m not a psychologist. Mostly what I’ve written here is what I know works for me on the occasions I feel myself getting a bit carried away with riding or acting aggressively if someone makes me angry. What I do know is the one thing we simply cannot do is let it take control. In particular, anger needs to be recognised for what it is – we are never far away from behaving like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. We never grow up, we just learn how to behave in public, yet there’s a limit to self-control. If we bottle anger up, it will simply build up until we ‘kick the dog’. Some unsuspecting and innocent party bears the brunt of OUR resentment.

First of all, we need to try to identify the problem. Whilst because ‘red mist’ and ‘road rage’ are both psychological states we might develop whilst riding, they are not the same.

Red mist is a state where we are no longer assessing risk realistically. Perhaps we begin to ride at higher speeds, pull off more overtakes, or corner with bigger lean angles than we would normally. Instead of this increasing our stress levels, as it would normally, we can actually get a ‘buzz’ from this kind of riding when everything seems to be ‘in tune’ and effortless. Maybe we begin to enjoy the thrill, maybe we start to justify our behaviour because we’re out to impress others – perhaps riding in a group, or even on an assessed ride. It’s a state that racers, and even professional drivers such as police or ambulance drivers can get fall into in pursuit of the ‘noble cause’ of responding to an emergency call. It’s something the professionals are warned about, but nobody tells the average rider how to look for the warning signs, we just get castigated when we fall into the trap.

Road Rage is a somewhat different psychological trap, and has been around since Daimler first stuck four wheels round an engine. If you want a classic literary example of a driver with road rage, think of Mr. Toad in “The Wind in the Willows”. Essentially, it’s aggressive behaviour around other road users, particularly when someone does something that irritates us, perhaps by impeding our progress. According to research on what annoys drivers, the main triggers for driver anger are:

  • tailgating

  • being cut up

  • inappropriate overtaking

  • undertaking on motorways

You’ll notice the word inappropriate. It’s nearly always a subjective view, where someone does something someone else doesn’t think they should have. Not too long ago, I was rounding a fairly gentle left-hander positioned around half-a-metre from the centre line when I spotted an oncoming car. I moved inward to the centre of the lane – a completely unhurried manoeuvre that in no way inconvenienced the driver coming the other way. Nevertheless, he found it necessary to swerve aggressively towards me, sound the horn and make rude gestures.

Road rage can be relatively low-level ‘shouty’ behaviour such as unnecessary flashes of headlights or use of the horn, or hand signals that aren’t to be found in the Highway Code so if we find ourselves doing those, it’s important to recognise what’s going on.

The problem is escalation. Hopefully we can shrug it off when others display that kind of behaviour towards us, but if we respond in kind, then the situation can rapidly move into aggressive tailgating, swerving towards other vehicles, or brake-testing the vehicle behind. Bikers have been known to kick cars or knock off mirrors, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the one who will come off worst in any argument of four wheels -vs- two is the rider.

Of course, our own view of what we just did is usually completely different. My position on the bend was – compared with a lot of advanced riders – rather restrained. I always aware that motorcyclists often appear impatient to other road users because of our ability to accelerate and overtake, or by taking up positions which a car driver finds inexplicable. Have a read of this:

“Aggressive drivers are careless drivers who want to get ahead of everyone on the road… [who] put their own convenience before anyone else’s safety. Other drivers may develop road rage, potentially violent anger, in response and retaliation to the violations they feel other drivers commit.”

Anybody here ride a bike because they think it allows them to make ‘better progress’ than “everyone else on the road”? Hmmm. We must never forget that when we share the roads, we are judged by everyone else’s standards of behaviour. What seems perfectly good and sensible riding to us may not appear that way to the driver we just passed or coming the other way. Simply because think we are a ‘better’ rider than they are a driver is not an adequate reason for ignoring what ‘the other fellow’ thinks about our riding.

So who’s right? The biker? Or the driver? If there IS an answer, it’s probably “neither of us”, but what I would say is that a really advanced piece of riding is not one that necessarily gains us ‘advantage’ but one that’s almost imperceptible to other drivers.

What really doesn’t help are smug statements like this next one:

“The truth is that no matter where you go, no matter how safe, careful, and considerate a driver you are, there is going to be someone on the road who is not. They’re going to challenge all the patience you have built up, possibly putting your life at risk… a road rager feels a certain degree of superiority over all other drivers on the road. They feel it is their duty to punish bad drivers and teach them “lessons”… their behaviour is equally selfish, immature, and dangerous.”

It’s positively complacent: “it’s not me that’s the problem, it’s everyone else”. This positively hinder our understanding. The fact is that road rage is not something ‘other people’ suffer from – anyone with a human brain is a potential road rager.

So, how do we keep ourselves under control when provoked? How do we detune ourselves when the buzz starts to get the better of us?

There are plenty of helpful-seeming articles online which usually start by saying something like:

“The best way to keep yourself from flying into an uncontrolled rage on the road is to remain calm and keep perspective. When someone does something you feel is careless or stupid on the road, you have to just let it go.”

Errrrr… but HOW??

I did some reading around the topic and it seems that at the most fundamental level, the issue is at least partly down to how the human brain has developed. The most primitive part of the brain, sometimes called the ‘reptilian brain’ because we share it with crocodiles, is designed for survival rather than reasoned thinking. It’s around 300 million years old and its basic programming is ‘react or die’. The first mammals with more advanced brains only appeared around 100 million years later, and the human brain which gives us our flexible reasoning capabilities is only around 200,000 years old. But even in our human brain, that primitive reptilian brain always on the alert and it cannot distinguish between a real threat demanding instant action and a scary surprise that turns out to be nothing significant when we have had a moment to think about it. Whenever we’re shocked, there’s a conflict as the ancient, hard-wired fight and flight response of our reptilian ancestors is pitted against the flexible reasoning responses of our ‘new’ human brain.

So when we react instinctively and without thinking – and sometimes violently – we’ve let the reptilian brain take control.

Now, if you’ve read any of my other writing on the so-called ‘survival reactions’ – the totally inappropriate reactions that kick in when we suffer SURPRISE! on the road, you may begin to see something of a connection.

Not only do we need to try to defuse our own responses when we feel provoked, but we need to understand how not to provoke road rage in others.

I’ve long stopped looking at the road as a place where everyone should “do the right thing” because I’ve learned the hard way that when a dangerous situation arises because someone does something wrong, that’s guaranteed to make me angry. And no-one using the roads is perfect. Not you and not me, and not even the most highly trained riders. We all make mistakes, and many of the dangerous situations really are the result of a simple error of judgement. There but for the grace of god, etc..

So I’ve learned to try to predict the situations where drivers could put me at risk – the classic SMIDSY near-miss is a good example – and to see it coming before it happens. If we’re expecting something to happen, our reasoning brain deals with the fall-out and won’t give the reptilian brain chance to take over – we’ll simply say to ourselves: “I saw that coming”.

And what if we’re the unlucky rider greeted with an inexplicable display of aggression by another road user, like that driver who didn’t like my cornering line? Maybe we were behaving in a predictable manner. Maybe we’ve just surprised them. Or perhaps we’re on the receiving end of some ‘second-hand anger’ after the previous rider triggered the response we just saw. It doesn’t make the driver’s aggression right, but it does make it a little more understandable. Try not to get riled.

Most importantly we need to get out of the ‘victim mindset’ where we believe that all other drivers on the road are out to get us. They aren’t. Drivers are mostly relatively careful around motorcyclists – it’s just that our reptilian brain is far better at noticing the rare occasions when another road user puts us at risk than our reasoning brain is at spotting the far more common moments that drivers keep well clear of us.

If we do start to slip into red mist or aggression, we need to recognise it for what it is. We MUST acknowledge it. Only then will the reasoning area of the brain re-establish control, and decide what, if anything, we are going to do about it. But don’t ignore red mist or anger. Once we realise we’re not acting like a grown-up, breath deeply, count to ten, think it over and move forward.

And if I had to sum up my advice in one phrase? It would be:

“Start looking for the positive on the roads, tune out the negative.”

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63. Dealing with hairpins

Hairpins are just a type of corner. True, they go on longer than other bends, and they usually involve a gradient change, but the essentials remain the same. Nevertheless, they throw many riders off their game. The article provides a practical, step-by-step guide, integrating uphill and downhill considerations, braking, throttle control, line choice, and slow-speed balance.

Dealing with hairpins

Whilst we have a lot of interesting technically tricky roads in southern England, a road feature that few of us are likely to experience until we visit Europe is a hairpin bend. In an example of how demand creates supply, after a number of emails asking for help with dealing with hairpin bends, I wrote first of all this article, then put together some routes that include hairpins for practical training purposes. Though there are hairpins in the more rugged parts of the UK, you might be surprised to know that I’ve found ‘secret’ hairpins for my advanced rider training courses in Buckinghamshire, Oxford, Kent and Surrey. Aside from the London-based course, the only location I’ve not yet found a hairpin – and I doubt I will – is Essex. Surprise, that! And of course, I also know a few for my courses in mid-Wales. So if you want a practical follow up to reading the article, I will cover hairpins on my Performance: SPORT two-day course, but can also offer a short two-hour Basics: HAIRPINS course. Hairpins are great fun to ride but can also become a real problem area if we don’t plan how to deal with them.

So, “how should I deal with a hairpin bend?”.

The broad answer is “in the same way as any other corner”. After all, the elements that make up a hairpin – ‘entry’, ‘turn-in’ and ‘exit’ – are common to all corners. A good starting point – once again – is to apply the standard Survival Skills approach, and to understand how, where and why we might make a mess of them. Once we understand that, it’s not difficult to apply the ‘reference point’ approach and my standard ‘Point and Squirt’ cornering technique to any hairpin.

So where to start?

As mentioned, just like any other bend a hairpin has:

  • a way in – the ‘entry’ to the corner where we have to steer or run off the road

  • a way out – the ‘exit’ where we’re upright again and headed for the next bend

And we can make the standard cornering mistake on hairpin; if we turn in too early then we run wide later.

So you should already have have had a lightbulb moment about the most common problem. The most significant difference between a hairpin and an ‘average’ corner is that the hairpin just goes on a lot longer than normal. Just as on ‘ordinary’ bends, if we ‘turn-in’ too soon, we are guaranteed to run wide on the other side of the hairpin, but with the added problem that if we run wide when we’re on the outside of the corner, we’re unlikely to end up in a hedge but hit a wall of rock or drop over a cliff. The latter is the uniquely scary factor on a mountain road.

But there’s a second problem. A hairpin is – by definition – on a hill. So we’re either cornering uphill or downhill. It all sounds very obvious but unless we’re used to tight corners on hills, we tend to get the balance and timing of our deceleration and throttle inputs in a mess.

And hairpins are often fairly tight so can demand the same sort of slow approach and control we’d apply turning left or right into a junction. If we get the braking / throttle timing wrong AND get on the wrong line AND make a mess of our slow control, we’ve often succeeded in destabilising the bike right in the most awkward part of the corner.

Yet there’s NOTHING about a hairpin bend that should frighten even a CBT trainee, except perhaps the height. (I suffer a bit from vertigo, so I’m in full sympathy with anyone who gets disoriented by looking a 100 metre sheer drop off the edge of the road.)

Mental issues aside, from a technical point of view, what’s a hairpin but a kind of U-turn?

The only significant difference is that we ride into it from speed, rather than start from a standstill (so we need to brake first), and that we accelerate out again rather than come to a standstill (so we need to twist the throttle), but everything else is standard U-turn technique:

  • bracing the knees against the tank to maintain a good posture, keeping the upper body loose, avoiding leaning on the tank, and having loose shoulder and neck so we can turn our head easily

  • slipping the clutch and balancing the forward drive against the rear brake

  • looking as far around the turn as possible

  • using a counter-steering ‘nudge’ to initiate lean into the turn

  • using counterweighting to keep the line tight whilst maintaining enough speed for balance

  • getting the bike upright again at the end of the turn

Let’s break down what we need to achieve stage by stage, and here’s a bit of good news. Unless we already live on top of a mountain, we’ll have to go up before we come down again, so the uphill hairpins give us a chance to practice before we come to the more awkward downhill ones. A second bit of good news it’s unlikely (except in wooded areas) that we cannot see the hairpin coming from some distance. Abroad, make sure you know what the sign for a hairpin is too, just in case it’s not so easy to spot.

As with any corner, the first requirement is to match speed to the radius of the bend ahead, with a bit in hand in case it’s tighter than it looks (or we can see).

  • Get into position for the turn itself. Just like any other bend, we use a wide approach but here’s my first tip. On the OUTSIDE of the turn (and even if your more experience mate is “showing the lines”) DON’T RIDE RIGHT TO THE EDGE. If we’re on the edge of a sheer drop, our mental focus is on staying ON the road. A couple of metres IN from the edge takes a lot of that pressure off. If we’re on the inside of the turn, using all the road is safer but we do need to watch for other vehicles (and I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Here’s my second tip.

  • Once in position, DECELERATE EARLY. Don’t rush up to the bend and brake at the last moment even if your more experienced mate ahead of you is doing that. Slowing early really is a key point. If we’ve sorted our speed early, we won’t be worrying about running out of road, and that means we have the mental freedom to drag our eyes away from the sheer drop and look up and around the curve to see where the hairpin takes us. We need a full turn of the head to do this, so we don’t want to be look round and up the hill just as we’re trying to steer. If the terrain is open, we’ll get an overview of how sharp and steep the turn is, and whether any vehicles are on the way down to meet us at the hairpin – more on that in a moment too.

Third tip.

  • Get into a low gear in plenty of time whilst still upright. Second gear is usually right on the wider hairpins, but it may be necessary to select first on really tight, steep corners. But DON’T OVERRELY ON ENGINE BRAKING – even going uphill, we’ll probably need to bring the speed right down so I’d advice using both brakes even if it’s only lightly. There’s a second reason – we’re going to need the rear brake in a moment and it’s far easier to remember to have a foot on the pedal if we’ve applied both brakes on the way up. And there’s a third reason – it’s good practice for downhill.

The fourth tip is this:

  • get off the brakes and ON THE THROTTLE whilst still upright. We’re going to need the power to drive us round the bend against the slope.

Now we’ve got the speed right, and we’re about to turn into the hairpin itself. Fifth tip:

  • Remember all those U-turns you did on basic training? It’s EXACTLY THE SAME MANOEUVRE, just uphill! Slip the clutch on the really tight ones and remember, the REAR BRAKE balances the THROTTLE to fine-tune our speed just as when we practiced slow control round the cones. With the rear brake ready to control the speed, come off the front brake, look right round the turn, and drive the bike uphill with the throttle.

Sixth tip.

  • Apply a counter-steering ‘nudge’ to get the bike to lean and then use counterweighting (where the rider sits UPRIGHT and pushes the bike DOWN) to help maintain speed around the corner itself – don’t try to ride too slowly or the machine will start to wobble. To get the bike to turn tighter, it’s tempting to ride ever-slower. But there’s a point at which any machine ceases to balance itself, and from then on, we’ll struggle to hold any kind of a controlled line. So to keep a tight line on a hairpin, use counterweighting. We lean the machine IN, but keep our body UPRIGHT. The bike’s extra lean has the effect of needing less space to turn but at the same speed.

So that sets us up ready for the most complicated part of the hairpin – it’s halfway round which is nearly always the steepest part of the turn, and most pronounced on the inside of the corner. This is where the engine is likely to bog down if we’re not driving it against the rear brake. If we are holding the bike on the rear brake, we simply ease the brake off to add drive. But be ready – as the bike comes out of the steepest part of the turn, we will need to ease the brake on again to stop the machine picking up speed and running wide. Once upright AND ONLY WHEN UPRIGHT do we ease off the rear brake and accelerate away up the hill.

So the rear brake turns out to be vital to the slow control needed to negotiate an uphill hairpin. For many riders, this use of the rear brake is the missing link.

Here’s the seventh tip.

  • In the wrong gear? Don’t try to change gear mid-hairpin because the bike will stop dead and fall over. Instead, slip the clutch – and you CAN slip the clutch in top gear if you have to.

The other common error is to try to ’round out’ the corner with a mid-corner apex and a sweeping line that maximises the radius. The trouble is, even a minor error will have us running wide on the exit, and that’s not great news if there’s a sheer drop under the front wheel. So the eighth tip is that we MUST avoid cutting into the corner too early:

  • So under power, stay on the WIDE LINE until we can see BOTH SIDES of the stretch of road leading away from the hairpin. This is our ‘turn-in’ point, where (if clear) we CAN cut across to straighten out the final part of the corner. As I said earlier, it’s exactly the same technique as we’d use on any other blind corner. And if we do encounter another vehicle coming down as we go round, keeping wide is much safer. The deep-in, late-turn ‘Point and Squirt’ line I teach on my Survival Skills advanced motorcycle riding courses absolutely works on a hairpin.

Once we’ve solved uphill hairpins and understood the need to drive the bike right round the turn, but NOT to try to accelerate too early, then suddenly downhill hairpins make more sense too. It’s the same approach. Once again, it’s all about making sure we give ourselves plenty of time to pick our line, set our speed, get the bike turning tight whilst using the rear brake to stop the bike picking up speed and running wide. Rather oddly, it’s going downhill for some reason causes a lot of riders to be very tentative with the brakes. But there’s no run-off on the average hairpin so it’s absolutely vital we are confident to get our speed off because downhill hairpins are all about ‘slow in’.

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with keeping the bike in a low gear, we MUST have sufficient confidence to use the brakes to set our speed. Even if you’re riding a BMW GS with a shed-load of engine braking, once the throttle’s shut there’s no more engine braking left. But even if the brakes are only on lightly, it’s now easy to fine-tune our approach speed, because it’s easy to misjudge deceleration downhill, thanks to gravity.

And don’t forget, whilst gravity also pulls us down around the corner itself, if we were using both brakes down the hill it’s much easier to remember to keep a foot on the rear brake to control our speed round the tightest part of the corner. Just as we did when going uphill, don’t release the rear brake until the bike is all the way round and upright again – let it off too soon and the bike WILL pick up speed and start to run wide. Once again, slip the clutch if needed on a really tight turn but don’t coast round.

Here are tips nine to thirteen:

  • whether up or down, try to minimise gear changes between hairpins. It’s less thing to worry about and if we let the engine rev we’ll get good drive up and good engine braking down

  • if we have a clear view and other traffic allows, we can cross to the ‘wrong’ side of the centre line to open out the hairpin where it’s really tight, and then pull our line back onto our own side as we exit the bend – it’s better than turning-in too tight and running wide later

  • coaches and lorries coming the other way will to need a lot of road to get round the hairpin – if the road’s narrow, it may be best to stop short and let it complete the turn first rather than to try to compete for space

  • if we’re being tailgated by another vehicle through the bends, back off on a straight and let the driver pass

  • remember we’re dealing with bends. That means polished surfaces, rippled tarmac and fuel spills. After rain (or snow) expect water to run across the hairpin, and watch out for gravel or stone chips torn out of the surface

And tips fourteen to seventeen help if you’re riding in a group:

  • ride at YOUR pace, not the leader’s or the rider ahead

  • leave sufficient space so that you can look around and see where the road goes, whilst leaving plenty of space in case they make a mess of it

  • don’t follow the rider in front, and let them get far enough ahead so that they are not a distraction, hold back and let them finish the hairpin before you get there

  • don’t copy the rider ahead but ride your own ride. If you rely on them the guy ahead to get it right and they don’t, so will you.

Eighteen, nineteen and twenty:

  • understand that if we are nervous about hairpins, getting the first few wrong will make us REALLY nervous about the rest of them. That means tenseness, and tenseness destroys control. Take the time to get the first ones right.

  • we’re heading to the mountains, it’s a very good idea (tip nineteen) to practice a slightly different style of U-turn – ride into them from speed so braking is necessary, and leave them by accelerating away. I use a ‘box’ exercise to help with this. That way we can build in some practice BEFORE we leave.

  • don’t forget that building ANY SKILL RIDING SOLO is NOT the same when riding TWO-UP, particularly when it’s loaded with gear – the bike WILL respond differently loaded and the best time to discover this is in Tesco’s car park, not as we hit the first downhill hairpin and wonder why we’re struggling with the turn.

Working your way through those should help you prepare for your first experience of the hairpin bend.

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62. Do you need to blip the throttle on a downshift?

Sometimes I am baffled as to why certain techniques get treated as ‘only for learners’ and this is one – easing the clutch out on down-changes versus the ‘advanced’ technique of “blipping the clutch”. There may be classic machines with gearboxes that reward a blip on downshifts, but modern motorcycles rarely need them. With the increasing focus on motorcycle noise, which has led to bans on some roads in Europe, unnecessary high-rev blips increase noise, so that’s another reason to favour easing the clutch.

Do you need to blip the throttle on a downshift?

In case you’re not familiar with what I mean by a ‘blip’, it’s a little tweak of the throttle, just as we pull in the clutch lever, to raise the revs momentarily. And there’s always an argument about whether or not we need to ‘blip’ the throttle on a down-shift, with many experienced riders telling novice and newly-qualified riders that it’s a skill they need to learn. Why?

The usual argument in favour is that it matches the engine speed with the road speed ready for the lower gear, and it thus kinder to the gearbox. I’ve seen it argued that blipping the throttle stops the dogs in the gearbox clashing as they engage, thus resulting in a quieter and mechanically more sympathetic change. Maybe that’s true, but I’ve never broken a gearbox and most of my bikes have reached high miles. A couple have gone over 100,000 miles and one despatching GS500, which must have done more gear changes per mile than most, lasted to over 140,000 miles. I’m not saying the reasoning is wrong but in terms of wear and tear on a modern bike, I doubt it’s anything the average rider needs to worry about.

A second argument is weighted towards ‘spirited’ riding, where riders are generating a lot of engine braking to slow the bike, so changing gear at relatively high revs. It’s true if we do that and dump the clutch again, it can momentarily lock-up the rear wheel as the lower gear ratio tries to spin the engine faster. It’s why some machines have slipper clutches. So a blip of the throttle helps avoid this lock-up. But to be honest, I’m rarely riding that rapidly on the road that I need to avoid this issue.

A third argument is that if we don’t blip, but let the clutch out slowly, we’re ‘reverse loading’ the clutch. Imagine slipping the clutch from a standstill. It’s doing the reverse, and that supposedly wears out the plates. Well, that GS500 was on its second clutch, but my 80,000+ Hornet is still on the original, despite lots of gear shifts.

At number four is my favourite explanation. “Blipping is a more skilful technique”. Says who? And why is making life more complicated automatically equated as greater skill? And it IS more complicated, and having spent many years training riders, it’s actually quite a tricky skill to master. Remember, the usual reason for selecting a lower gears is because we’re slowing down. We may be braking to slow, and now, if we want to blip, we have to make a wrist movement to open the throttle at the same time as we have our fingers pulling on the front brake lever. If we don’t this right, each tweak of the throttle also give the front brake an extra tug. And now the bike slows in a series of jerks rather than a smooth progression. Not so easy, after all. So many riders – including some with a lot of experience – dispense with braking entirely to rely on engine braking alone. Now, to lose a lot of speed, they end up forcing the bike down into unnecessarily low gears because it’s the only way to generate the deceleration that would have been achieved far more easily with the brakes.

So, let’s backtrack and see what we’re actually trying to achieve. The answer is a downshift, where the transition between gears is made smoothly.

Once we figure that out, it should be obvious that just HOW we accomplish the smooth shift is less important than making the shift smooth!

There’s a much simpler way, and we teach it to new riders; we pull the clutch lever in, shift the gear, then ease the clutch back out so that the clutch slips initially as it spins the engine up to the higher speed. Whilst the clutch smooths out the gearshift, we can focus on using the front brake effectively without the complication of trying to tweak the throttle. It’s much easy to brake smoothly.

Why this slipping technique is frowned on in certain circles I have no idea. After all, we have to slip the clutch to pull away. The clutch is there to smooth the transition between gears, and can equally well be used on down changes as well as up changes.

My own opinion is that for a road rider, the technique is a bit of a hangover from the clunky old gearboxes of yore. It was certainly useful to get a smooth shift on some 70s and 80s Moto Guzzis and BMWs I rode, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time I rode a Japanese bike that really NEEDED a blip of the throttle for a smooth downshift. It’s also useful on the track, where we are downshifting at high revs.

Now, that’s not to say that raising the revs momentarily is NOT useful in certain circumstances. Personally, I do twist the throttle slightly to lift the revs a little, but then I’m rarely trying to use the front brake at the same time – if for some reason I’m having to brake hard, I tend to leave the gears for later and focus on getting my speed off. But a little blip also helps to match revs when maintaining speed – perhaps when downshifting to a better gear prior to overtaking, or ready to climb a steep hill.

When I do blip, I don’t give the throttle a big twist sending the revs rocketing skyward. It’s a subtle movement with a subtle result. It’s always seemed to me that the big handful approach is not only obtrusive in terms of environmental sensitivity, it’s ham-fisted too. And it’s just as unlikely we’ll match the revs accurately as if we simply dumped the clutch on a closed throttle. If the back tyre is playing hopscotch, then it’s likely we’re shifting at too high revs and mis-matching our blip to the clutch movement.

If you do want to learn to blip on a down change, remember the object of the exercise is NOT to bounce off the rev-limiter on every blip, but a subtle adjustment of the revs upward to allow the smoother selection of the lower gear. Don’t shift when the revs are too high either – so long as the motor is spinning somewhere around the middle of the rev-range, that’s about right for the road – we have the ability to generate more engine braking as needed, or we can accelerate away again. The easiest way to develop the technique is to roll off the throttle earlier than usual (remember to keep an eye on the mirrors) so that the brakes aren’t needed, then it’s relatively easy to practice the blipping technique without getting the front brake in a a tangle.

To sum up, my conclusion is that like many techniques, there’s no clear cut ‘yes, we must’ or ‘no, it’s not necessary’ answer. It’s neither right or wrong, but one more technique to learn and use when appropriate.

So… blip if you want to… learn to blip if you can’t… but don’t feel there’s a problem if you don’t.

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53. The five most important things I learned as a courier

I might argue that this article has aged better than a few formal training courses from the same era because it is grounded in exposure to risk rather than theory. These lessons were learned in the days before traction control, cornering ABS and driver-assist systems became commonplace, but the fundamentals have not changed. Modern technology may reduce the consequences of mistakes, yet it does nothing to improve anticipation, judgement or decision-making under pressure. I still see my time as a courier as spent in an informal lab testing theory against real-world hazard management. The common thread running through all five points is not speed, but control of space, attention and stress — the same factors that still separate riders who consistently get home safely from those who rely on luck.

The five most important things I learned as a courier

Some years back, I was challenged to put some tips together based on what I’d learned back in my despatching days. It didn’t take much head-scratching to come up with the following short list:

1) Learn to use the brakes hard, then stay in practice… the last emergency stop that most riders make before they find themselves in the middle of a crisis is the one in front of the examiner. That might be ten years ago, and a very bad time to discover we’ve forgotten how is in the middle of an emergency. Practice practice practice. Practice wet and dry. If you change bike, see how it responds on hard braking. If you change tyres, find out how much grip they have. If you change pads, bed them in, test them out and discover whether they respond the same way as the last lot. There can be surprising variation between batchers.

2) Learn when not to use the brakes… we’ll all experience an “OhmigodImgoingtodie” moment. Instinct is screaming at you “STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP”. But hitting the brakes hard stands the bike upright which may take us straight into the very situation we were trying to avoid.Very often our best route out of trouble is not stopping but changing direction – bikes are pretty small, can change direction quickly and fit thru small gaps, and lean much further than most riders can cope with. But to change direction, we need to understand HOW to steer (counter-steering is the answer), then to practice adding more and more steering input to generate a quicker and quicker change of direction. Practice is the only way we’ll learn this technique and just how much we can trust that front tyre (more than you might expect)

3) Learn to search… most road safety literature – the USA’s MSF course excepted – talks about ‘observation’. The problem is observation is passive. It implies we simply swing our gaze around till something interesting catches our attention. A few moments watching most riders and you’ll see they don’t actually look for anything in particular. They’re hoping their attention is drawn to hazards – the danger is that if they don’t see them until they are a real threat, they’ll suffer SURPRISE! and then survival reactions kick in – see the target fixation tip for more on this. So what we need to do is turn passive observation into a focused and active search. We need to know WHERE to look and WHY we’re looking for it. It’s no good knowing that side turnings are a place that must bike collisions happen but hoping we spot them, we have to search for them – we need to actively seek out road signs, gaps between parked cars, breaks in the lines of house roofs, white paint at the side of the road, dropped kerbs and so on. Searching to either side of our path helps us being taken by SURPRISE!

4) Hang back to make better progress… as a courier, I always wanted to get where I was going with the minimum of delay conversant with keeping the risks down. Most riders follow far too close, and then they don’t look any further ahead than the vehicle in front – next time you’re following another rider look to see when his or her brake lights come on – if it’s a moment after the car ahead, they’re watching that vehicle. Opening up a gap not only gives us a safer following distance and opens up a better view of the road ahead, it also frees our attention to start searching beyond the car ahead. And this is how a good courier will make progress. Rather than simply looking to overtake it, the courier’s planned where they’re going next too. When filtering, the courier will know when to hang back as the impatient riders overtake into a dead end or get stuck outside traffic turning right. Hanging back gets you further ahead mentally and physically.

5) Discover that slow is fast… too many riders think that being on a bike means they should be at the head of the queue. Ever heard anyone say “if I sat in the queue I might as well be in a car”? I have, regularly. But it’s not the right approach. Because they’re in a hurry, they’re stressed and prone to mistakes. And mistakes lead to spills. That’s no good to a courier because a bent bike means no earnings. And no earnings meant no food or rent money. There’s nothing wrong with using gaps where it’s sensible to use them but I would also slip back into the queue when it got too tricky or too risky to overtake or filter. My aim as a courier was always to flow unobtrusively through traffic, neither wedging myself into impossible gaps nor forcing drivers to slow down to let me through. It might have cost me a few seconds, even minutes, but being restrained and patient minimised stress and anxiety and helped me to stay relaxed. Being relaxed meant I could ride for long hours. And that meant the tortoise nearly always overtook the hare in the end.

Summing up: None of these lessons require you to ride for a living, or to ride fast. What courier work teaches is not aggression or risk-taking, but economy: economy of effort, economy of stress, and economy of mistakes. The aim is to arrive unruffled, unhurried and upright, time after time. Riders who chase gaps, sit on bumpers and ride with a constant sense of urgency often believe they are making progress, but in reality they are burning attention and increasing risk. The courier mindset is the opposite. Control your speed, create space, stay relaxed and plan ahead, and you will usually find that you arrive sooner — and far more consistently — than riders who mistake haste for skill.

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51. Target Fixation – Question and Answer

Although this article was first written back in the early 2000s, the underlying problem it describes has not gone away. Modern explanations would frame this as stress physiology rather than evolutionary mismatch. Target fixation is now better understood as a stress-driven narrowing of attention that degrades both decision-making and fine motor control, rather than a simple bad habit. Modern bikes with ABS and traction control reduce the consequences of panic inputs, but they do not prevent the psychological trigger that causes riders to freeze, stare, and steer poorly. The solutions remain fundamentally the same: earlier anticipation to avoid surprise, deliberate visual strategies to direct the bike where you want it to go, and sufficient confidence in braking and steering to prevent fear from taking over. Modern coaching combines teaching riders to notice physiological cues (holding breath, locked arms, fixed gaze) with a more deliberate visual drill that replaces simply “looking away” with a more proactive visual targeting to focus on the exit.

Target Fixation – Question and Answer

If you’ve read Keith Code’s ‘Twist of the Wrist’ books, you may recall he talked about ‘Survival Reactions’. He described these as the unwanted but instinctive attempts to preserve us from harm, that work against our learned responses. For example, we may have spent hours working on a nice progressive squeeze when practicing emergency stops, but in a real-life crisis, it’s hard not to revert to a sudden grab and stamp on the brakes. I crashed precisely this way several times till I got the hang of it. It’s not an accident modern machines are fitted with ABS. Panic grabs can be worked on, but rather more subtle is another of Code’s Survival Reactions. It’s called ‘target fixation’. If you want to know more, read on.

Q I’ve heard quite a lot about something called target fixation, but I don’t know what it is?

A Target fixation is the state we find ourselves in when we can’t drag our attention away from a hazard on the road. It nearly always occurs when the there’s a threat of personal harm, maybe from hitting something hard like a car, from running out of road in a corner or because we’ve just spotted a patch of diesel – because it’s a threat, we look at it.

Q But it seems obvious to me that if there is something dangerous in front of you, you ought to look at it?

A Obvious – but wrong! Right from basic training we tell trainees “you go where you look” because that’s how we get there. It works… except in an emergency.

Q Alright, so the basic theory is to look where you want to go, but why does this work? We can’t steer the bike with our eyes so what do you mean?

A Given half a chance, any hazard will grab the whole of our attention, and instead of finding a way out of trouble we freeze and go deeper into it. Essentially this is a passive reaction to a hazard. We need to find a safe route past the threat so instead of having our attention drawn towards what we don’t want to do (hitting the car, running out of road mid-corner or losing control on the diesel) we need to snap our focus to the way OUT of trouble instead. Is there a route past the car? Can we look around the bend and lean over more to get there? Is there clear tarmac past the diesel? We need to recognise the threat of target fixation if we to find a way out of trouble.

Q I still don’t get this. Surely it’s easy to avoid a hazard?

A That’s the theory in a lot of road safety literature. In practice it ignores the way the brain works under stress. As I mentioned, Code identified target fixation as an instinctive reaction to danger which overwhelms rational decision-making. After the event – usually when we’ve got over the adrenalin of the scare – it’s blindingly obvious we were target-fixated, but mid-emergency it’s incredibly difficult to overcome because the brain is hardwired to avoid danger. Unfortunately, these reactions evolved several million years before anyone invented a motorcycle. That’s why they are completely inappropriate.

Q OK, so I know I shouldn’t, but I still can’t seem to do anything else but look at what I’m going to hit?

A Whilst advice to look away from the hazard is valid, we actually need to prevent the instinctive target fixation in the first place. And to do that we need to understand something about the trigger – ie. what state of mind sets off the survival reaction in the first place. At the most basic level it’s fear of being hurt. So the moment we start to think that our space is being squeezed by other road users, that we’re running out of room in the corner, or that we can’t avoid the slippery surface, we’re setting up the conditions in which survival reactions and target fixation will kick in.

Q So I need to improve my observation?

A Sort of… because the earlier we see a hazards, the less that can take us by SURPRISE! And it turns out that it’s SURPRISE! that’s the trigger for these survival reactions. As soon as the situation ahead develops in a way that we weren’t expecting, SURPRISE! kicks in, and then we’re at risk of triggering the survival reactions.

So observation is part of it – we need to be aware of what’s around us – road layout, road surface, other vehicles and so on – but we also need to know what we CAN’T SEE. And then we need to ask the “What if…?” question to anticipate what might happen next. Motorcycle Roadcraft says we need to consider “what we can reasonably expect to happen”. In fact this isn’t enough. We need to expect the UNREASONABLE. If we only ever expect what usually happens, we’ll be caught out by what doesn’t normally happen. It’s too late to think when the car pulls out, because we will trip those survival reactions. We have to be holding in our heads a plan to deal with that car long before it starts to move. Similarly, we need to anticipate that the easy-looking corner ahead will tighten up or that the far side of the roundabout has a diesel slick over it. It’s running through “What if…?” scenarios before they become real that prevents SURPRISE!

Q So I’m scanning and planning. But running into corners I still freeze on occasion. What else can help?

A A bit of lateral thinking. You wouldn’t be freezing if you were confident in your abilities to get out of trouble. So going back to basics, everything we do on a bike involves either a change of speed or a change of direction. If we aren’t confident with steering, braking and to a lesser extent accelerating, any threatening situation that relies on these skills to get out of trouble is going to scare us. For example, on my Survival Skills Performance courses I am regularly helping riders who find themselves struggling with cornering. What I usually find is either a lack of confidence with the steering or a lack of confidence with the brakes. Sometimes both.

Q So how does that cause me to freeze?

A Simple. On the courses I run, it turns out that the rider isn’t really going too fast, but just thinks he/she is! And because the rider thinks “I’m going too fast” it kicks off the target fixation and frozen steering which is another survival reaction. So having scared themselves, on the next bend not only are they very slow, but they turn into the corner far too early, which leads them to run wide on the exit to the bend, setting off target fixation. So it all becomes a bit of a vicious circle. It goes wrong because you expect it to go wrong.

Q OK, I believe you. So what can I do to improve my cornering now?

A Not surprisingly my first suggestion would be get some training. On my cornering courses, as soon as we work on more positive use of the brakes and steering to get the speed off quickly and to change direction rapidly, the problem usually vanishes. Knowing that the bike can be slowed and steered around the bend removes the trigger for the target fixation.

If you can’t get yourself onto a Survival Skills training course, then my advice would be to work on braking. You should know how to do a decent emergency stop. Practice that skills off-road till you can do really good ones, and then just apply the same basic approach (without pulling up quite so hard) on the road. Learning to sort your approach speed on corners is the only way you’ll learn how to judge your braking. You don’t have to brake harshly, just avoid rolling off and coasting into the bend. Get moderately competent at that and itt’ll take away the fear of running in too fast. Next learn all about counter-steering, then go and practice quick steering exercises. Start off-road with some swerves, then take what you’ve learned out on the road and get confident at making rapid changes of direction in bends. In both cases, start slow and cautiously, then build up the speed as your control gets better. But if you really don’t know how to do a safe emergency stop, get some professional help!

And if you really want to fix cornering, find out about the Survival Skills ‘Point and Squirt’ approach to cornering, which is all about going in deep, and making a slower but more rapid change of direction when we can see where the road goes next, before accelerating upright out of the corner. Having the reference points that I teach – ‘landmarks’ if you like – means you always know exactly what you’ve going to be doing and where you’ve going to do it. So it’s a positive approach, where we ‘seize the corner by the scruff of the neck and shake it out the way we want to to go’ approach, rather than a passive, “where is the corner taking me?” response.

Q How do I know I’m getting it right?

A Simple – apart from not scaring yourself so often, you’ll find you’re more relaxed on the bike.

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49. The ‘Point and Squirt’ approach to corners

This particular article has its origins in some heated debates that took place online on my regular bike forum. The core problem it addresses — riders committing to a corner before they can see their way out — is still one of the most common precursors to serious road crashes. The debates concerned the difference between what some called ‘conventional’ cornering lines, and what I have been teaching since 1997 as the ‘Point and Squirt’ technique. Point and Squirt has its origins in a series of articles published in the 1980s in the old Motorcycle Sport and Leisure magazine, one of which showed some cornering diagrams which featured a ‘late apex’ line. I’d long since realised that running wide on the exit to bend was best avoided and the late apex line got me thinking, and also experimenting – not just with late apex, but with a quicker steering input to make the best use of it. That was something that went pretty much against the grain at the time. It was usually stated that machine inputs should be smooth. The trouble was, smooth was usually interpreted as ‘slow’. But the fact is that quick steering inputs can be also smooth. It’s all in the timing. I developed over many despatching miles, and when I started training it was a natural way to cover cornering. Point and Squirt remains relevant precisely because it is based on vision, timing, and options. The fact that modern bikes accelerate harder, steer faster, and forgive more errors only increases the importance of when riders choose to turn and apply throttle.

The ‘Point and Squirt’ approach to corners

Let’s go back to basics. Riding a bike requires us to be able to:

  • change speed

  • change direction

That’s all that the machine itself can do. Of course, there are other issues:

  • managing stability

  • managing risk

But it’s our ability to change speed and direction first and foremost that allows us to manage stability and risk in a bend. So what I teach on my Survival Skills Performance cornering courses is all about getting these basics right.

Here’s the first point to consider. It’s easy to get a motorcycle to either change direction OR change speed. We can mix-and-match, but it’s not so easy. So whenever we can, it makes sense to separate the braking and acceleration forces from cornering forces. On the approach to a corner we can achieve that quite simply – we get all deceleration, whether by closing the throttle or braking, completed upright before the corner. Once we’ve finished steering – which is the moment the bike is clear of the curve and upright again – we accelerate positively. So it’s this late turn-in and the upright acceleration which gives the technique the ‘Point and Squirt’ name.

What we don’t try to do is ‘chase the Limit Point’ by accelerating whilst still leaned over in the curve, as it says in ‘Motorcycle Roadcraft’. With Point and Squirt, when the machine is leaned over, it’s ONLY having to deal with the cornering forces.

Now, here’s the second point. To minimise risk, we need to respond to hazards, whether that’s the shape of the corner itself, the presence of other vehicles and places they could turn, the state of the road surface and possible stability problems, or other issues such pedestrians and animals. To manage the risks posed by those hazards, we have to SEE them – or at least realise that we CANNOT see them! So until a mid-corner hazard forces a change of position on us, our line around the bend is dictated by what we can see. The line that gives us the best view of the road ahead is what I call the ‘Vision Line’, and we follow it from the moment we enter the corner to the point at which we can clearly see where the road goes next. To maintain the view, we usually position ourselves towards the outer edge of our lane, just so long as we don’t put ourselves at risk from oncoming vehicles (on a left-hander in the UK) or blind entrances or debris at the edge of the road (on a right-hander).

And thirdly. We need to know where we are in a bend – we need some kind of road map. And this is where I borrow from track technique – we can define ANY corner in terms of:

  1. the ‘entry’ – where the bend forces us to steer or run off the road

  2. the ‘turn-in point’ – where we can see the exit

  3. the ‘exit’ – where we’re upright again and pointed to where we want to go next.

Once we realise that committing ourselves to turning-in to a corner when we can’t see our way out of the bend is liable to lead to us running wide later in the corner, then it’s fairly obvious that we should only turn-in and attempt to widen the line around the final part of the corner when the view opens up for good. It’s this view of the way out – the exit – that locates the ‘turn-in point’. Using a late ‘turn-in point’ minimises the risk of turning in too early, and running wide later in the bend.

Why the controversy? Firstly, I was told “it’s in Roadcraft already”. It isn’t, although there are common elements such as the wide ‘vision line’. But the Point and Squirt approach emphasises the advantage of separating from the steering the inputs that make the bike do a ‘rocking horse’ on the brakes or under power. It also emphasises the late turn-in, late apex line. And it requires a moderately quick steering to make the direction change when the view opens up. Whilst it’s always possible to interpret ‘Roadcraft’ that way by reading between the lines, none of these elements are made explicitly clear as they are in Point and Squirt.

A more negative view was that Point and Squirt is a racing technique. Because I was talking about braking rather than simply rolling off the throttle, it was assumed that it must be all about dashing up to the corner before braking late and hard, and that the late ‘turn-in’ would result in the rider banging the bike over on its side before firing it out with a handful of throttle and wheelspin. Clearly that’s NOT what I’m suggesting. Of course, if we want to, we could brake later and harder, then maximise acceleration out of the turn, but getting through the corner quicker isn’t the raison d’etre. A moment’s thought will show that because Point and Squirt is about views and lines, it works just as well with a police-style ‘acceleration sense’ approach to riding.

What else? “Point and Squirt line’s ‘late apex’ requires a big steering input which could destabilise the bike.” It’s true that Point and Squirt gets the bike turned over a shorter distance, but if we’re travelling a little more slowly, it’s not a problem – in any case, there’s nearly always plenty of grip available to steer the machine, mid-corner it’s braking and accelerating grip that’s in short supply. We also get the bike upright sooner which is a benefit.

And “by taking a very late apex and making a more rapid change of direction, a rider is prevented from reducing the severity of a bend by ‘maximising the radius of the corner’.” Whilst in theory, this wider line ‘works the tyres less hard’ – that’s the very explanation given in a West Midlands BikeSafe video, the reality of what riders do with a wider line is very different. We all use it to carry more speed, not lean over less. The benefits are non-existant! What was really ironic in the West Midlands video was that having explained the benefits of the maximum radius line, the police rider then demonstrated a sequence of perfect Point and Squirt lines!

A more reasonable response was that it doesn’t apply to all corners. I’d totally agree, but I’d point out that it all comes back to the view. If we can see clearly right through the corner from one end to the other, then there’s no need to delay our ‘turn-in’, and we can indeed open out our line to ‘maximise the radius’ but in the UK at least, it’s rare to find a corner where there is nothing blocking our line of sight. Turning in too early means we’re relying on guesswork to figure out where the road goes. Even then, the wide exit means our steering must be spot on. If we get it wrong, we’ll run wide. What defines Point and Squirt is that delayed ‘turn-in’ which is controlled entirely by our view of the way out of the bend. That means it applies to any corner where we can’t see the exit on the way in, which happens to be most bends in the UK. And it’s also an excellent way to negotiate mountain hairpins where running wide could be catastrophic.

Nothing about Point and Squirt is particularly unique – you can find elements of it in various different books. What is unique is that way it’s all put together, and how it pulls all aspects of cornering – assessment of the bend, managing risk along the way, choosing a line and timing machine inputs – into one neat and self-contained system.

Funnily enough, right in the middle of the big online debate Andy Ibbott used his MCN column to explain how to “Separate throttle and steering and never run wide again”. Covering precisely the theory behind Point and Squirt, he stated:

“We need to get the bike pointing in the right direction before applying the throttle”.

My point exactly!

 

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48. Ever gone into a corner too hot and had it tighten up on you?

Over the years I’ve been a rider coach, I’ve done a lot of thinking about my riding, and I’ve realised I’m both a realist — that is, someone who accepts the world as it is, not as it should be — AND a pragmatist — someone who’s actions are based on what’s been shown to work. Running wide on blind bends remains a leading cause of serious motorcycle crashes, and no amount of technology can compensate for horribly misjudged entry speed or unseen and dramatic changes in radius. In fact, improved grip and electronic safety nets may encourage some riders to commit harder and later, increasing the risk when the road tightens unexpectedly. Superior tyres, better suspension and rider aids do not — and this is crucial — remove the geometric reality of running out of road. The solution is still the same as it has always been: conservative entry, delayed commitment, and a willingness to revise the plan mid-corner without panic.

Ever gone into a corner too hot and had it tighten up on you?

Of course you have – you’d be a very lucky rider if you hadn’t. I’m a realist. That’s why my training courses are called Survival Skills. Remember, any bend can get worse out of sight and this is a classic biking problem – the ever-tightening corner that just seems to go on and on. Unfortunately, by the time we spot the bend is tightening, it’s often too late, and we’re going to run wide. If we run wide on a right-hander (in the UK) we will run off the road. It’s a common bike crash. But if we run wide on a left-hander we’ll cross the centre line. If we’re lucky, nothing’s coming the other way and we get away with it. But if we’re unlucky, we meet a Scania coming the other way. Running wide into oncoming traffic is a major killer on roads not just in the UK but anywhere in the world. And it’s worth mentioning that when we hear about head-on collisions between a bike and a car on a bend, whilst riders often assume it must have been the car driver on the wrong side, it’s nearly always the rider who’s crossed the line.

I’ve yet to meet the rider who doesn’t make mistakes, so whilst it’s easy to say it’s a mistake we shouldn’t make and that a good rider would avoid getting sucked into a corner too fast, the fact is that it’s often not so easy to spot a decreasing radius corner until it begins to tighten.

‘Limit Point’ analysis is no use if the bend tightens out of sight – we’ll already have set our speed based on what we could see before we commenced leaning. And one technique I would advise anyone on two wheels to avoid is what’s sometimes called ‘chasing the Limit Point’. It’s normally explained with a statement such as:

“The Limit Point moves away from you, telling you that the corner is beginning to open out, so you can get back on the gas and chase the limit point out of the corner.”

‘Beginning to open out’. Think about that for a moment. What happens if we’re NOT seeing the end of the bend? What if the bend suddenly tightens up again? Now we’ve been conned into accelerating towards a second apex in a corner that’s not over yet. In fact, hardly any of our rural bends are actually smooth corners, they are nearly all complex shapes with multiple radii in a single bend. So rather than try to add speed as the bend appears to open up, ask yourself “how could this go wrong?” If we can imagine a decreasing radius, downhill, off-camber corner with a wet surface that’s covered in loose gravel lies just beyond the point where the bend appears to open out, it’s a good incentive to delay acceleration until we really can see our way out of the corner and down the next stretch of road which has completely straightened out. This will avoid the “OhMiGod the corner’s tightened up again and gone downhill and it’s off-camber and… etc” problem!

In fact, the best clues to dodgy corners are nearly always the road signs, specifically the red and white triangular warning signs. They are placed to warn us about hazards that have caught others out and are often out of sight. So the moment we spot a bend warning sign, particularly when it’s backed up with a SLOW marking, it might be a good idea to go into a corner a little slower than the Limit Point might have suggested. And if we’re lucky enough to glimpse a black and white chevrons sign, that’s almost certainly where the corner gets awkward.

It may be the Worst Case Scenario, but that’s what we have to plan for on every single blind bend. And we do that not by setting our speed to the ‘distance we can see clear and stop’, but by using the Limit Point to set our entry speed considerably lower, so we have a built-in safety margin in case the bend gets worse just out of sight. A cautious entry speed allows us to deal with a tightening bend by adding leaning angle, rather than hitting the brakes immediately. Apply the Survival Skills approach to riding once again – anticipate where things will go wrong, and don’t assume you’ve got everything right until you’re upright and accelerating away again.

But even a cautious rider, looking for trouble in bends still won’t get every bend right, and so right now we’re looking at a bend that needs some quick revisions to our line and lean. What are our options for getting out of trouble mid-corner?

Here’s our first option, which often mentioned on post-test training courses. Stand the bike up, brake in a straight line and then lay it over again. Hmm. It needs some room, even though once upright we can brake very hard indeed. And if we’re already on a wide line around the outside of the lane, we’re don’t have the space to straighten up – we’re straight off the road. So there’s a variation on the theme where we actually turn TIGHTER before we stand the bike up – this way we can maximise the straight line braking distance. But unless we absolutely have to lose a huge amount of speed – or stop – then if we have the room to lean in, pick up, brake hard, and lean in again, we probably could have made the bend in the first place. And if we don’t get the bike slowed enough…

…we’ve just guaranteed we’re going to run out of road. So although I’ve mentioned this option first, it’s really to move it to the back burner, behind some alternatives.

So are there better options? I mentioned above that we if we’re going to maximise the space for upright braking, we need to tip into the corner first. If we have this additional lean angle in hand AND we’re confident enough to use it, we could just keep the throttle open – which stabilises the bike – and keep the bigger lean angle going right through the rest of the corner. This should deal with a corner that tightens just the once, onto a sharper radius, so long as we didn’t make the mistake of turning-in too early.

But what about a corner that progressively tightens up? We can only increase the lean angle so much before we run out of ground clearance. So we may have to exploit some basic cornering physics – a motorcycle cornering at the same angle will turn on a tighter line if we reduce the speed. These are techniques we explore on the Survival Skills Performance: SPORT two-day advanced riding course.

So how do we reduce speed to turn on a tighter line?

The simplest solution is shut the throttle. The bike WILL slow, and it WILL turn tighter (provided we’re not going downhill at the same time). Don’t slam it shut as that will destabilise the bike, but roll off smoothly – this allows us to cope with the change in steering geometry. We can help out a little by applying the rear brake, but if we’re already generating engine braking, there’s often not a lot the rear brake can achieve before the rear wheel starts to lock, triggering the ABS or skidding on a non-ABS machine.

So if we need to tighten the line even more, then there’s only one way left – and that’s to apply both brakes together. The weird thing is that we see racers braking into bends all the time, yet the technique is frowned on in bike training. It’s true there’s a risk, because sudden applications of the front brake mid-corner can make the bike sit up and go straight on – which isn’t what we want particularly on a left-hander – or if we’re really hamfisted, we can even lock the front wheel.

So the point I’ll make here is that most the crashes happen as a result of a panic-grab, when the rider is surprised by events, rather than through a controlled application. Braking into bends is actually surprisingly easy just so long as we ease the front brake on to allow us to adapt to the geometry change. Here’s the big plus. With the brakes on, we’ll lose speed very rapidly – and as the speed comes down, our line tightens equally rapidly. So we rarely need to brake hard to adapt to a decreasing radius corner, just smoothly and progressively.

So to sum up, if we enter corners mentally blind to the possibility of them getting tighter out of sight, that’s when we’re most likely to arrive too fast AND to make the panic-grab at the front brake that causes all the problems. But if we are more pragmatic and anticipate that what’s out of sight could get awkward, then we’re far more likely to respond in a controlled way to a decreasing radius corner when we do get it wrong.

By admitting we can make mistakes in judging the radius of a corner, we have taken a huge step to improving our risk management and margins for error out on nice twisty roads.

Our first problem is how to read the radius – the tightness if you like – of a corner from far enough back to get our speed right. One of the techniques you may have heard about is to use the ‘Limit Point’ (sometimes called the ‘vanishing point’ or ‘distance point’ – it’s all the same thing). The idea is that we enter a bend at a speed that allows us to stop before the road vanishes around the corner.

But there are three problems:

  1. at any one moment, the Limit Point is just a single snapshot of what we can actually see. It cannot give us any clear idea how the bend ahead might change – nor can it warn us of other hazards. If we wait till we have a series of these snapshots suggesting the bend is tightening up, it’s likely we’ll react far too late to the decreasing radius.

  2. focusing too much on the Limit Point actually pulls our attention down and away from the longer view where we look BEYOND the point at which the road itself vanishes and pick up clues about the road’s future path.

  3. if the bend does tighten, we may have to brake mid-corner – something usually frowned upon, but actually an essential skill. How’s your mid-corner braking technique?

If we rely too much on the Limit Point to make an educated guess about where the road goes beyond what we can actually see, it’s a bit like making a weather forecast – the further ahead we forecast, the less accurate it’s going to be. Do we really want to commit ourselves into a corner on what is effectively a guess? I don’t think so.

To overcome this problem, advanced rider training often focuses on getting riders to pick eyes up and look further round the corner – we may see the back of the hedge on the inside of the corner, buildings, telegraph poles, trees, even the tops of approaching vehicles and the speed they enter and leave the bend. Clues are just that – they’re not definite knowledge, but they can help us make an informed guess about what’s beyond the Limit Point.

But in my experience hardly any trainers mention an obvious clue – road signs! If the council have gone to the trouble of sticking up a triangular warning sign, painting SLOW on the road and putting a black and white chevron ahead of you, don’t you think the road engineer is trying to tell you something? And that you should pay them some heed? They don’t just tell us the direction of the bend, they tell us that other people have been caught out in the past. And the more effort that’s been made, the more dramatic the change of speed or direction is likely to be.

Once we’ve realised that, then instead of trying to figure out how fast we can go into a bend, we need to recalibrate and instead think about what might make us slow down (or even stop).

OK, so all that might help us avoid running into a decreasing radius turn too fast, but I’m a realist. We don’t get every bend right, and so we need ways of getting out of trouble mid-corner. That’s why my training courses are called Survival Skills.

So how do we do this? Well, if we’ve followed the advice above, we can go in, increasing our lean angle to follow the tightening bend. But what if we’re running out of lean?

Then there’s only one solution – to lose some speed, because slowing down means the bike automatically turns tighter at the same lean angle. So how do we slow down?

If we’re lucky, we can simply ease the throttle shut in a smooth roll-off. . If we’re not so lucky we are going to have to brake. The usual suggestion is to use only the rear brake. Unfortunately, if the throttle’s already shut, then we’re not going to scrub off a lot of speed this way – try too hard and there’s a real risk locking the rear wheel. And that’s disconcerting even with ABS.

So that leaves both brakes together. So one suggestion is to pick the bike up, brake in a straight line and lay it over again. Errr, yes. Well, if you have the room that required, you could have made the bend in the first place.

Another option is to brake with the rear. Unfortunately, you can’t scrub off a lot of speed this way, you still compromise stability and there is always the risk of locking the rear, and if you aren’t careful, having the rear overtake the front.

So what about the front brake? This is where trail braking becomes important. So long as we’re not already sliding the front tyre, there’s some braking grip available. So long as we apply the brake gently and progressively, we can exploit it to add to our rate of deceleration.

But of course, it’s always better NOT to need technically-demanding techniques like this, and a better answer is not to be able to “get out of trouble” but to use an approach to riding that tends to keep us out of trouble. And that’s why the ‘slow down in, cautiously round, fast out’ approach to bends pays off. If we enter a corner with lean angle to spare, we have the option to start using it and to slow down at the same time if things turn bad later on. But if we’re cornering close to the limit, well, there’s not much of a margin for error, is there? .

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46. Six Tips for riding in strong winds

Modern riders benefit from weather apps with real-time wind forecasts, even GPS alerts, and which make planning safer and more precise. But the physics involved in the interaction of motorcycle and windy weather hasn’t. And there’s nothing that modern electronic aids can do either, when the bike’s hit by a sudden gust from the side. Rider knowledge and skill is still the only way to go.

Six Tips for riding in strong winds

Most years, Britain is battered by winter storms, and even in the autumn we’re increasingly being affected by the decayed remains of Atlantic hurricanes that still produce strong gales. Even in mid-summer, a thunderstorms can generate surprisingly strong, if localised winds. And of course it’s always windier on the coast or high in the hills. So what are my Survival Skills tips and the best way to deal with strong winds? As always, the first stage is to plan ahead. Before anything else, watch the forecast. That might seem obvious but what looks like nice morning weather out of the window can change in a couple of hours to a gale-wracked afternoon and it might be a good idea to travel another day. Maybe we can take the car or the train. But what if we have to ride? Here are some handy Survival Skills tips for riding in strong winds.

REMOVE LUGGAGE IF POSSIBLE – don’t forget that luggage on the rear of the machine acts as a ruddy great sail – top boxes can really destabilise a bike in strong winds. A magnetic tank bag can be blow clean off the tank too – don’t ask me how I know (I always tether a tank bag to the keyring fob with a carabiner now). If it’s possibly to take any bags and boxes off, do so. Baggy clothing and rucksacks aren’t a great idea either. If there are cinch straps on sleeves or legs, tighten them up. And if we’re going to carry a passenger, get them to sit as close up as possible so there’s no big gap between rider and pillion.

PLAN THE ROUTE – defore setting off, do some route planning. Try to find roads that are not so exposed. A roads are generally more sheltered than motorways. Roads in the lee of hills will be less windy than roads along the top. It may be possible to plan the route so that on exposed roads the strongest winds are behind us, rather than from the side. And we may need to change route mid-ride. Many years ago on a despatching job to Northampton, a windy Chrismas eve morning turned into a full gale by mid-afternoon. The M1 was a real struggle – I recall a furniture lorry being blown up onto two wheels as I passed it. Rather than attempt the M25, I came back through central London. It turned out the newly-opened Dartford bridge was closed anyway. By the time I was back out on the M20 and heading home in Kent, the wind had dropped.

SPOT THE PROBLEM AREAS – once on the move, do a bit of amateur weather forecasting. The strongest winds often blow around squall lines and thunderstorms, so spotting a tall, dark cloud with a tell tale-rain shadow beneath it should ring alarm bells. Look ahead and figure out where the wind will catch us:

exposed roads, particularly motorways

high bridges

open roads

coastal areas

roads across mountains and along mountain valleys

gaps between buildings and hedges

as trucks pass

below high rises in cities

etc etc – I’ll leave it to you to think of other examples.

WORK OUT WHICH WAY THE BIKE WILL BE BLOWN – usually it’s in the direction the wind is blowing, but there are three exceptions:

passing trucks – if the wind’s coming from the far side, we’re suddenly sheltered and we’re actually sucked in towards the truck, then as we get level with the cab, we’ll be suddenly blown away again

halfway down hills – there’s usually a back eddy where the wind suddenly reverses direction. The M20 halfway down Wrotham Hill is notorious for this

alongside high rise building – the building deflects the wind so it blows in the opposite direction at groundlevel is in the opposite direction, so we can be hit by winds which change direction through 180 degrees in a few metres in city centres

Other problems? Look out for fallen branches and general vegetable detritus blown from trees. Wheelie bins get blown into the road. Fences may come down. I’ve even seen a shed collapse into the road.

STRATEGIES TO SURVIVE – so if we know when and where we’re likely to be blown of course, we can at least prepare:

ride on the side of the lane which gives us the most room to be blown sideways

keep well away from high-sided vehicles, and give a good clearance to those coming the other way – they’ll be pushing the wind in front of them

don’t try to hang onto the bars – instead, keep the shoulders, elbows and wrists as loose as possible but locking the knees against the tank and brace our back. That way when we’re blown around on top of the bike, we won’t take the handlebars with us, and it’s much easier to steer a reasonably straight course

be ready to steer into the wind

remember counter-steering – if the bike is being blown TO the left, we need to steer INTO the wind by pushing on the RIGHT handlebar end.

Strong, sidewinds are knackering. I had to ride 200 miles due south across the Mohave Desert with a 50 mph wind coming from the west. Absolutely NO cover from the wind. My arms, shoulders, and back burned by the end of that ride. The only way I made it was by hanging my backside off the side of the bike facing the wind. Try it, and you’ll find it helps the bike to steer into the wind. And that means a little less effort in holding a constant degree of steering into the wind.

I can’t emphasise how important it is not to ride with stiff arms. If we’re hanging on for dear life, every time our upper body gets buffeted, we feed that straight into the steering and we make all the wobbles and weaves much worse. Keep elbows loose but the wider we hold the bars, the more leverage we have to steer into the wind and the less ‘push’ we have to make which means it’s less tiring.

DO WE SLOW DOWN – there’s often a suggestion that if we slow down, we feel less ‘blown about’. Well, that may be true into a headwind but if the wind comes from the side, we might feel less buffeting on our chest. But the sideways component of the wind remains exactly the same, plus we lose the benefit of how straightline stability increases with speed. There’s a trade-off where too fast becomes a problem because we get blown off the road quicker than we can deal with it but it’s certainly possible to ride too slowly in wind – the clue is we’re wobbling all over the place.

Some bikes are better at handling wind than others. Part of the problem is the design of the front wheel. Harleys with solid disc wheels have a bit of a reputation for being unstable in crosswinds, and so did the 80’s Hondas with the ‘Banana Comstars’ – I had an XBR500 and this was an absolute pig in high winds – I could feel the wind blowing the front wheel around and trying to yank the bars out of my hands.

I can’t claim riding in strong winds is fun. If we have to ride – as I had to on that journey back from Northampton – we can’t stop the bike being blown sideways, but like most things, there are strategies for dealing with the problem. It’s hard work, but with a bit of thought and forward planning it need not be quite so scary.

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44. Carrying a pillion passenger – Question and Answer

Riding two-up fundamentally changes the dynamics of the motorcycle — weight distribution, braking, acceleration, cornering, and balance. If we’ve never carried one, it’s very easy to underestimate how much a passenger affects the ride. Electronic aids such as ABS, traction control, and semi-active suspension help, but they do not replace smooth throttle control, progressive braking, and careful cornering. Getting on and off a bike and knowing how to sit and hold on are far from intuitive to a new passenger. Modern aids such as Bluetooth intercoms can improve things, doing away with the need for shoulder taps, but cannot replace clear instructions before getting on, or practice. Plan rides conservatively, allow extra distance for braking, and give rider and passenger time to build confidence before attempting long trips or high-speed manoeuvres.

Carrying a pillion passenger – Question and Answer

It’s an experience – and an experiment – that nearly every rider will go through at one time or another, but the first time we put someone on the back of our machine, we’ll should realise we’re actually taking on a very serious responsibility. Suddenly, someone else’s life is in our hands. Yet it’s surprising just how few riders do think it through. We’ll have state of the art riding kits, but a battered old abandoned helmet that won’t fit is dug out of the garage then handed to the passenger. We’ve got all the protective kit, yet the passenger has to make do with whatever they can find in the cupboard. There’s absolutely no excuse for this. If you haven’t got proper riding kit for the passenger, they shouldn’t be on the back of our bike. And if you’re reading this as a potential passenger, if your pilot won’t take your riding kit seriously, how do you think he or she is likely to treat riding with you on the back? Having heard Brittany Morrow’s story about her recovery after falling from the back of a bike after going for a spin with a guy she barely knew, it made me think again about carrying a passenger, and I’m not exactly a big risk-taker.

Question I’ve been riding a couple of years and I reckon it’s time to take a passenger. What should I look out for?

Answer First thing is to find out whether your passenger has been on the back of a bike before. Then ensure that the passenger is properly dressed for the job, knows how to sit and hold on, and knows some ground rules.

Q OK, so what should my passenger wear?

A Assuming you are properly dressed, they need the same gear as you’d wear! Passengers are commonly given an old lid that’s been kicking around at the back of the garage, but really they should have their own helmet. If you are using a borrowed helmet it MUST fit! Make sure they know how to do the helmet up and CHECK! I’ve seen people stuff the strap up the side of the helmet or have the strap so ridiculously loose it’d pull off over their chin – give assistance if required. Then make sure they understand how to take care of it.

Next up is a pair of decent gloves, sturdy boots, and proper trousers & jacket – even for a short ride, these are a must. Don’t EVER give anyone (Scotsmen included) a lift if they are wearing a skirt! If wearing lace-up boots, make sure laces are tucked away. Scarves too – you may laugh, but my brother nearly strangled a friend when a long scarf caught in the chain.

Q What do I need to show my passenger before we go?

A Make sure the passenger knows where to put their feet! It may seem another stupid tip but I once spent several hours removing melted boot from the silencers on my CX500 after a passenger rested her feet on them, after I’d forgotten to fold down the footpegs!

Explain that they have to hold on, and show them where and how. They can hold onto the rider (preferable for novices) or onto the grab rail. Don’t assume they know. They may try to hold onto the bodywork or the rear light lens – I’ve seen it happen.

Q So how should they sit on the bike?

A Facing forwards, astride the seat, feet on the footpegs. That’s the answer to the DVSA test question. But they should aim to sit reasonably close to the rider to prevent wind getting between rider and passenger, and shouldn’t lean back on a top box, unless it’s specifically designed for the purpose – on a Harley or Goldwing. The mounts aren’t strong enough, nor is the subframe designed to take the weight of a passenger leaning on it. They’ll break.

Q So is it best to hold onto the rider or the grab rail?

A It depends on the the pillion’s preference and experience, and the type of bike. Whichever they choose, it is important they feel relaxed and comfortable, and vital that they do hold onto something on at all times.

If the passenger is confident enough, and the bike has a decent grab rail, then holding that is my preferred option. It detaches the passenger from the rider which may be less confidence inspiring, but it allows a more rigid and stable position for the passenger to deal with both acceleration and braking. The passenger also has more room, and with a better view past the rider, is more likely to be ready for braking, accelerating or cornering.

But if they have never been on a bike before, my preference is for them to hold on to the rider, around the waist of the rider. However, it may not be that easy to grip a riding suit if the rider accelerates, and under braking the rider will be supporting the passenger’s body weight. It also has the drawback, depending on the bike, that they may not be able to see what is about to happen as they will be close to the rider.

Better yet, the rider can wear a ‘body belt’ with a pair of handles. The belt may not be elegant but it’s confidence-inspiring for the novice passenger under acceleration, and helps ensure they move with the rider during cornering, and gives them some way of bracing themselves against braking too. Gripping tight with the thighs can help and gives you some feedback from the pillion.

Some people recommend what I’ve heard called the “brace” position, with one hand on the grab rail and the other bracing in front either on the tank or the seat. I’ve not tried this personally, so I’ll leave it up to you to try.

If there’s one position to be avoided it’s advising the passenger to rest both hands on the back of the tank. There’s absolutely nothing to stop the rider falling backwards under acceleration, and this is exactly what happened to Brittany Morrow. Look her up on internet. I’ve worked with her on the New Zealand Shiny Side Up rider safety initiative and she’s a brave and inspiring woman.

Q Anything else before we set off?

A Explain that on acceleration they will tend to fall backwards, and under braking will slide forwards. Tell them that the bike does lean over, so they are not taken by surprise. You’d be amazed how many new passengers have never thought about that. Explain that in a corner, the rider will balance the bike, and all they need to do is relax and stay in line with the rider – and specifically warn them not to sit upright in a bend – most novice passengers do, so be ready for that. To help the passenger to feel more connected with the rider, tell him/her to look into the turn. All this might sound like a recipe to scare them, but it’s a damn sight scarier for a new passenger when the bikes starts moving and they don’t know what to expect.

Next, tell them how to get on. It may be possible to mount from the left simply by swinging the right leg over the seat but if there’s luggage on the bike or the passenger isn’t very tall, then they will have to mount the bike as if they were riding a horse – they will need to put their left foot on the left peg and stand on it, before swinging their right leg up and over the seat. They can place a hand on your shoulder for support but brace yourself in anticipation. It’s easier if the bike is upright and not on the side stand, but watch out for their weight rocking the bike from side to side – a heavy rider can exert quite a surprising force. Make sure they get on and off only when you tell them to. They should wait till you are ready, seated with your feet firmly braced, and ready for them. And yes, I have had a passenger try to climb on before I did.

When coming to a stop at a junction or lights, ensure the passenger knows they should not put their feet down – the rider will balance the bike when stopped – or to let go – if the lights change, you will need to accelerate away again. And tell them not to fidget around, particularly at slow speed.

Although it’s important not to distract the rider unnecessarily, some signals can help if you don’t have comms between rider and passenger. A thumbs-up can be used to show the rider the passenger is ready to move off. If they want you to stop or slow down, suggest a tap on the shoulder. But they shouldn’t make signals to other road users.

And double-check the passenger is comfortable and secure before pulling away.

Q What about stopping again?

A Remember to slow progressively, which means rolling off the throttle gently, then braking equally gently. Use both brakes, not just the front. In fact, you can use more rear brake than normal because of the extra weight gives the rear tyre more grip. More rear brake also helps keep the front forks from diving – the bike will ‘squat’ and stop more level which makes it easer for you to keep your footing. Remember, you have that extra weight to deal with, so smooth stops are essential.

With the rear brake in action, you’re going to have to put your left foot down. If you’re not used to that, some prior practice would be a good idea, or you’ll end up releasing the rear brake and making a sudden grab at the front to stop.

Coming to a stop, Make sure you stop upright, not leaned over, because if you come to a half leaning the bike even slightly, the extra weight whilst stopped can cause you to drop the bike. Look carefully where you are going to put your feet – is the camber too steep or is the surface covered in wet leaves? Been there, dropped it! And don’t try to ride at walking pace if you don’t have to. Every little wobble will cause the passenger to move around, and it makes it difficult to hold a straight line.

Once stopped, don’t be afraid to put both feet down. And finally, at the end of the ride make sure the passenger understands they sit still until you have the bike securely balanced – they should only dismount again when you tell them.

Q What problems might I come across?

A By far and away the most dangerous issue is losing the passenger off the back. My brother dumped me on the road behind the bike giving it a handful to impress his mates, just as I turned round to wave goodbye. It’s not unknown for riders to lose control as the passenger makes a despairing grab for them.

Not far behind is the sudden hard stop that has the passenger losing grip on the grab rail and sliding into the rider’s back. Suddenly you’re having to support not only your own bodyweight but that if the passenger too. Losing control is common. If the passenger is nutting you, you’re braking too hard.

The answer to both of those is gentle braking and acceleration!

The most common issue is caused by the passenger sitting bolt-upright mid-corner. The bike will try to straighten on, and you’ll have to lean over even further to get round the corner. So warn the passenger first, then take corners slowly so that you can lean in progressively and get round with no more than a moderate lean angle. Don’t bang the bike straight over on its side – what seems perfectly natural to you can seem positively suicidal to a novice pillion.

Alternatively, the passenger tries to help by leaning further – this tightens the bike’s line mid-turn, forcing a steering correction. In my experience, it’s usually other riders who don’t passenger much who fall for this one. Tell ’em to stop being so helpful and to sit still!

Q How should I change my riding?

A Simple – take everything with more care, but particularly when changing speed and overtaking. Practice smooth use of the controls and plenty of forward planning to avoid having to jam the brakes on or swerve suddenly. Pretend you have an egg balanced on the tank.

Two-up, you can’t brake as hard as you can solo, nor can you use anything like the same amount of throttle without losing the passenger off the back. What feels to you like perfectly moderate acceleration can be extremely frightening to a novice, so take it nice and easy. Hanging on with your feet in the rider’s armpits does not inspire pillion confidence. That’s a factor to remember when planning an overtake – if you aren’t sure, don’t go. And if you are filtering, don’t forget your passenger’s knees are probably the widest part of the bike.

The change in geometry of the bike will change the way the machine corners. The bike will be slower to change direction and you will need to work harder to get it turned. At low speed it’s tricky to keep the bike balanced. Some bikes are more badly affected than others – my old GS500E was almost unrideable two-up, but the XJ6 deals with a passenger well.

Give passengers time to get confident in your riding AND their ability to hang on.

Q How does braking differ with a passenger?

A If you’ve been taught to avoid the brakes and rely on throttle sense, you’re about to discover another weakness of this approach to riding – the extra weight of a passenger renders engine braking less effective so practice slowing and stopping with the brakes work, so you can use them smoothly.

As I already mentioned, the extra weight at the rear allows for more rear brake to be applied and you should aim to brake more gently than when riding solo to ensure the passenger can cope with the deceleration forces.

Ultimately, give yourself more time and space for everything, including when following other vehicles.

Q Anything I should adjust on my bike?

A Use common sense. If you are just taking someone a mile or two up the road, then the only thing I would check are the mirrors aren’t giving a good view of the road surface. But if you are setting off for the south of France then there are a bunch of things to check and adjust.

Tyre pressures – check the handbook but on many machines the rear tyre pressure should be increased.
Suspension – check the handbook but normally you will have to adjust preload and perhaps damping to cope with the extra weight
Chain tension – it might be worth checking the chain has not become too tight with a passenger and luggage aboard
Headlamp aim – if the back has sagged under the weight, the lights are now doing a good job of hitting the treetops – sort them out before it gets dark

Q OK, read and done all that, now I reckon we’re ready for the south of France

A Then make sure you both get a bit of practice in before you attempt a long trip. In particular, do some slow speed and braking practice before you mix it with traffic. You’ll find the bike handles very differently and you don’t want to discover that just as you approach the lights. It will also give your passenger time to get used to riding on the back. Having a comfortable, confident passenger will make the ride a lot more fun for both of you.

And don’t try to ride too far on the first few days – you’ll both be tiring more quickly riding two-up, but a passenger who doesn’t normally go on the bike will be knackered.

Q Ooo errrr – I took someone out on the back for the first time and I didn’t like it one little bit

A It just takes getting used to! Going at speed is generally no problem, but getting the hang of slow control, steering, accelerating and stopping is totally different with someone on the back. Keep practicing!

Q My arms ached after taking a pillion

A Your passenger might be nervous, but so are you! Relax and ease up those tense muscles.

Q Do I need a big bike to carry a passenger?

A Not exactly, if the videos from India are anything to go by, but you need a bike which is built for a passenger. There are several large capacity machines with such ridiculous pillion accommodation that I wouldn’t even try to carry one.

An obvious problem is the physical size of the machine. Tiny bikes will struggle to seat two large riders. Then there’s the seat – even large capacity machines can have a passenger seat the size of a pocket handkerchief, and then I wouldn’t bother. Another problem is the position of the footpegs, which can be at knee-crippling heights.

Rather less obvious is how the steering geometry copes with the extra weight at the rear. I was very surprised to discover my old GS500E wasn’t at all happy two-up. A big tourer like a Goldwing, a Harley Glide or BMW RT will be designed to carry two people from the ground up, have huge seats, comfy footpegs, and the suspension and steering geometry designed for the job. Plus the large lazy engines will haul the extra weight without even noticing it.

Sports tourers are usually perfectly competent two up tools, with reasonable accommodation for the passenger and a reasonable compromise in the way of bike set up, and only the occasional need to drop a gear to regain lost acceleration. A quick tweak of suspension and tyre pressures should be all that’s needed to set the bike up.

But generally speaking sports bikes aren’t great. Yes, I know you see people on the back of them all the time, but they usually look like a frog trying to hang onto a broomstick. They aren’t very comfortable, and the extra weight perched high up on the back of a relatively small, relatively light bike compromises the quick steering and finely tuned suspension. As the rider, you can compensate but it isn’t always much fun.

Q My mate can pull wheelies with his girlfriend on the back

A So what? With a passenger, you are responsible not only for yourself, but for him/her too. Your pillion is putting a lot of trust in you. Don’t abuse that trust by scaring the living s@#t out of them. Keep the riding smooth and you will both enjoy it. Don’t show off!

Q Where can I get a training course covering these point?

A Drop Survival Skills a line. I can run a short two-hour ‘Basics’ course covering these very points.