Tag: observation

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42. Living with Lifesavers

 

Even with modern mirrors, rear-view cameras, and blind-spot warning systems, the lifesaver over-the-shoulder check remains essential and with increasing use of cycles and e-cycles and ‘micro-mobility’ solutions like e-scooters, even a motorcycle is vulnerable when turning left or right. Technology can alert us to vehicles we might otherwise miss, but it does not remove the responsibility to confirm our blind spots in real time. Combining mirror checks with a brief chin-to-shoulder glance fills the gaps in situational awareness, especially in multi-lane traffic or when vehicles accelerate unexpectedly. Practising these lifesaver checks until they become automatic ensures that riders are less likely to be caught by surprise — No Surprise? No Accident!

Living with Lifesavers

For a lot of riders, the last time they make a lifesaver over-the-shoulder check is the moment they turn back into the test centre in front of the examiner. The reason for making the over-the-shoulder observation is explained early on in CBT – it’s to see into the two problem areas to either side. This area is behind our peripheral vision, yet not far enough back to show up in the mirrors. The blind area is quite big enough to hide another motorcycle and even a car can go missing alongside us. The chin-to-shoulder check ‘clears’ this area with a direct observation. So after all the effort that basic trainers go to, from CBT right up to the moment of the test, why do riders start dropping techniques that are intended to increase their riding safety?

In my article about rear observation, I mentioned that in some cases riders have been told to “forget all that stuff you learned – it’s only for passing the test”. Here’s the really disappointing thing. I’ve heard it from people training advanced riders.

I mentioned that when taking post-test training, the trainee is often introduced to the concept sometimes known as ‘mirror history’. The idea is that if we look in our mirrors frequently enough, we’ll know exactly what’s around us and have complete situational awareness without needing the over-the-shoulder check on basic training.

So the big question is: “can we rely on mirror history?”

Let’s think about what a mirror check achieves. We take a snapshot of the situation that exists at the exact moment we look in the mirror. Two mirror checks are thus two snapshots. Just like comparing two ‘before and after’ photos, we don’t know what happened in the gap between the two. And that means any decision we make on the basis of a sequence of snapshots is, simply put, an informed guess.

How good is our informed guess? The answer is that it’s only as good as our checks.

Hopefully, you can now see that there are three problems with relying too heavily on mirror history:

  1. the first is the frequency of our checks. If we leave long gaps in our rear observation, then pretty much anything can be happening behind us and we simply won’t know about it.

  2. the second is that we can forget what we saw, particularly when traffic is moving in queues. A vehicle can slide forward into the blind spot and if it sits there long enough, we can forget that it was visible some seconds ago and now isn’t where we can see it – I’ve made that mistake myself.

  3. the third is that mirror checks can fail to show a rapidly-changing situation that is about to put us at risk.

It might seem that to solve the first problem we simply need to ‘up’ the rate of mirror checks. Easy to say, not nearly so easy to achieve. The moment that a situation developing in front of us begins to cause us concern, what’s the first thing that goes out of the window? Yes, it’s mirror checks. It’s all very well to say that a skilled rider wouldn’t forget but even experts make mistakes under stress. The answer is not to rely on memory but make a real-time sideways check.

On motorways, riders sit alongside vehicles in their blind spot then wonder why the driver starts to move into their lane. The reason may not be that the driver “didn’t look” as we’re so keen to assume, but in fact “looked, saw and forgot”. So it shouldn’t be a big surprise when we find vehicles in our blind spots that we forgot were there.

And sometimes we’re just looking in the wrong mirror when a situation develops. Some years ago I was following another biker in my Nissan Serena people carrier. We were both in the middle lane of the motorway, and he was looking for a gap in the outside lane to overtake a slower vehicle we were catching. So he was making regular mirror checks to see what was coming up in the outside lane. Meanwhile, we’d just passed an on-ramp and I noticed a car accelerating very rapidly indeed down onto the main carriageway. The Mercedes shot straight through the inside lane, and at the moment the rider made his final mirror check before moving out into a gap to his right, the Mercedes was aiming for the same gap, and crossing through the middle lane behind me.

Naturally, because it was behind me, the rider couldn’t see it in his mirror. He started to move into the outside lane but the car was already in the gap and accelerating. The driver hit the horn, the rider was taken completely by surprise and barely swerved back out of the way.

Now, we can point the finger at the Merc driver but the biker needed to confirm his mirror history – he absolutely NEEDED to turn his head chin-to-shoulder to clear his blind spot. This is the role of the lifesaver. It’s to give real-time information that updates our situational awareness.

Is it dangerous to look over the shoulder at speed? An objection often raised against blind spot checks before committing to an overtake is that it’s dangerous to take our eyes off the car ahead in case it brakes suddenly. I don’t think it should take anyone long to work out that if we’re worried about looking away from the vehicle ahead, we’ll almost certainly struggle to make decent mirror checks too, and it’s unlikely our forward checks will be much better. There’s a simple solution – don’t follow so close and don’t try to force overtakes in restricted spaces. In any case, the quickest and most reliable way to make this final shoulder check is to combine it with a mirror check – follow the glance in the mirror with a chin-to-shoulder check.

We fill in the missing information by combining the two checks, and it only takes a moment longer than looking in the mirror alone.

In the example above, following into the shoulder check AFTER the final mirror check would have taken the rider a fraction of a second but it would have given him that vital update and filled in the gap in his mirror history. His informed guess nearly killed him.

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37. Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Some newer motorcycles are now fitted with rear-view cameras and blind-spot warning systems, often using flashing lights or screen icons to indicate nearby vehicles. These can be helpful additions, particularly in poor visibility, but they do not change the fundamentals of rear observation. Cameras flatten perspective (as I’ve discovered with car interior mirrors) and can still leave lateral blind areas unobserved. Blind-spot warning systems are advisory only: they may not detect motorcycles, cyclists, or fast-closing vehicles, and they cannot judge intent or timing. Riders should treat these systems as prompts, not permissions. They may reinforce what the mirrors are already telling us, but they are no substitute for correct mirror use combined with a properly timed shoulder check. Good situational awareness remains a rider skill, not a software feature. Don’t delay or omit a shoulder check because “the light didn’t flash”. In short: these systems supplement situational awareness; they do not create it.

Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Around three years after I started riding I demolished my beautiful Honda 400-Four in London. How? I was looking back over my right shoulder when the driver on my left cut across the one-way system in front of me. I was still looking the wrong way as I hit the rear of the car. Not surprisingly, I have been a bit cautious about timing shoulder checks and even mirror checks ever since. But what makes for good rear observation? There’s a lot of confusion out there. Why? Several reasons. What learners are taught changed dramatically as recently as 1997, and advanced groups tend to take a different approach anyway. And of course riders of all flavours forget what they learned. And then there’s the faulty thinking that what’s taught on test is “just for learners”. Throw in some dubious magazine articles, the wonders of YouTube and the internet generally, and the result is almost as many ideas about rear observation and what’s ‘right’ as there are riders. So I’m going to apply a slightly different approach – I’ll review the reasons riders get confused, then rather than say “this is what to do”, we’ll look at just WHY we need to know what’s around us to come up with some better answers.

WHERE DID THE CONFUSION COME FROM – At the time I started as a motorcycle trainer, the old DSA motorcycle test actually required that test candidates had to make a full ‘look-behind’ rear observation. Using mirrors wasn’t good enough – that’s why test candidates used to take the mirrors off for the test, to force themselves to look behind. Before slowing or braking, before indicating and before turning, test candidates as late as the mid-90’s were required to look right back over their shoulder.

Even more unbelievably, the test candidate had to look over the RIGHT shoulder before turning LEFT. I will categorically state looking right before turning left is almost completely worthless. More than anything else, it was probably being trained to make this rearward check that convinced a lot of riders that what was learned for the test was a complete waste of time!

In fact, I agree this check was pointless AND dangerous. Even if we manage to avoid dragging the bars around with us, causing a wobble, looking right back over the shoulder takes time. A couple of seconds. Even at urban speeds, that means we’re covering a considerable distance – twenty to thirty metres – looking the wrong way. It was exactly this kind of look that led to my own crash.

It sounds pretty unbelievable now because even a half-decent set of mirrors will gather much the same information as this old-fashioned full turn of the head, in a fraction of the time. But it was only with the introduction of Direct Access in 1997 that the DSA finally realised motorcycles had been fitted with mirrors for decades and allowed test candidates to use a combination of mirror use combined with more judicious blind spot checks. I still remember being informally ‘tipped-off’ to this change by the examiner. Mind you, even the IAM weren’t consistent on this – I have a older (but not THAT old) version of the IAM book that shows a rider doing the full-on look-behind check captioned as ‘the lifesaver’. That’s not what would have been taught on basic training since 1997.

GET THE BEST FROM THE MIRRORS – Mirrors are there for a reason – to find out what’s behind us. Whilst some mirrors still give a good view of our elbows, most can be set up to give reasonable rearward view. Set them up to give the best coverage – I tend to have the offside mirror up to give a more ‘wide angle’ view, whilst the left is angled behind – after all, I rarely need a view of the pavement. But I can change that on motorways or when in London to deal with multiple lanes going the same way. Mirror extenders that bolt-on between the mirror and mount can improve the view on some bike. Don’t forget, mirrors are convex. That offers a wider angle view but distort distances, making vehicles appear further away than they really are. Be cautious on a new machine until you have got used to judging distance and speed. Mirrors should be checked often enough that we’re not taken by SURPRISE! One tip – I avoid aftermarket mirrors if I’ve broken one because original mirrors are generally optically superior and balanced even if they do cost. Cheap mirrors often distort view and vibrate. I think it’s worth spending the extra.

SHOULDER, HEAD or BLINDSPOT CHECKS – Even the best mirrors have blind spots – so do the fancy rear view cameras as it happens, even if they eliminate the one between the shoulder blades. A police car once tried to hide when I was on my GSX-R750, and it’ll certainly hide another motorcycle, which should make you wonder why other riders persist in following in another bike’s wheel tracks. We can usually ‘clear’ this blind spot by tucking in an elbow (it’s how I let the police driver know I’d spotted him) or rocking our head from side to side.

The others are over the shoulders to the the left and right. Vehicles can lurk in this blindspot so we have to be careful when turning into side roads, manoeuvering round roundabouts or changing lane on one-way streets or dual carriageways. There is only one solution to blindspots (hence the term blindspot check) and that’s a physical turn of the head (hence the term head check) to see what’s alongside us and in the mirror’s blind area. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of confusion about just how, when and where:

riders who get confused about the difference between the full-on look-behind observation and a chin-to-shoulder blindspot check and may – usually during an advanced course when memories of the bike test resurface – try to look too far round

riders who say that ANY head check is dangerous

in the middle is conventional advanced practice, where newly-qualified riders can be actively discouraged from making a blind spot check – the argument is that if mirror checks are frequent enough, nothing can sneak up so relying on ‘mirror history’ (that is, remembering what we saw in the mirrors a moment ago) will be good enough but having been surprised often enough by vehicles – usually motorcycles – that had slipped into my blind spot unnoticed, I’m not convinced

Remember, it’s not a full-on look behind, simply a turn of the head sufficient – chin to shoulder – to see into the blind area (hence the term shoulder check). Anything further back should be visible in the mirrors. So head, shoulder and blindspot checks are more or less interchangeable.

A further advantage to a physical head movement is that it might alert another driver that you are about to do something.

MIRROR BLIND SPOT CHECKS – So how do we make them? Let’s start by asking some key questions:

what am I looking for – the presence (or absence, come to that) of other road users

why am I looking for it – the reason we are looking is to decide if there might be a conflict between what we want to do and what the other driver might do

where am I looking for it – the clue is in the name, we’re filling in the gap between peripheral vision and what we can see in the mirrors, very roughly backward from the line of our shoulders, hence the ‘shoulder check’ name

when am I looking for it – simple enough, before we move away, signal, change speed or change direction

Gathering this information is called taking ‘Rear Observation’ in the language of basic and post-test training. So to sum up we combine:

a rearwards look right behind ONLY when moving off

regular and sensible use of the mirrors

'shoulder checks' (sometimes called 'head checks') which are looks into the blind areas to either side

By doing so, we develop what’s called ‘Situational Awareness’.

WHICH WAY TO LOOK – Since the old DSA system of looking right when turning left completely confused many riders, I tell trainees just use common sense:

look in the direction you are about to move - right before moving or turning right, left before moving or turning to the left

look into any space that's big enough for another vehicle to squeeze into (and don't forget that could be a cycle or a scooter!)

THE REAL LIFESAVER – Probably the most important shoulder check, and one that fully deserves to be called a Lifesaver, is a final blindspot check that confirms it’s safe to take up a different position. It’s usually over the right shoulder before turning right into a side road, but it could be to the left too – for example, before exiting a roundabout after a right turn, and I’d check before turning left too. Many trainers say it’s unnecessary but I remember where I might have overtaken you when I was a courier, and there are cyclists to consider too. It’s also important to check before changing lanes on one-way streets and multilane roads, or where lanes merge back together. The lifesaver CONFIRMS our other observations. The key point is timing. We must make this check BEFORE we start the manoeuvre. If we’re already halfway into a manoeuvre and then look, it could be too late. So, the term ‘lifesaver’ really explains WHY we carry out a shoulder check!

COMBINING MIRRORS and SHOULDER CHECKS – Understand that a shoulder check is NOT a substitute for a mirror check, nor vice versa (whatever you might hear about mirror history). Whilst we often only need the mirrors to discover what’s behind us, it’s important to check the blind spot when we need to know what’s alongside. To save time, don’t make two separate observations, but combine the two – look in the mirror and then turn the head a little further to make the blind spot check. It takes just a fraction longer.

MOVING OFF FROM THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – There is one exception to the ‘only turn the head enough to see into the blind spot’ idea, and that’s when moving off from the side of the road. On CBT and on the Module One and Two parts of the DVSA bike test, the test candidate IS expected to ‘take rear observation’ before moving off, and this is the full-on, right behind look. It’s safe enough at a standstill. (And as a reminder, if you’re reading this before taking the bike test, you MUST look behind you ANY time you ride the bike in the off-road areas! You’re even supposed to look behind before pushing the bike out of the imaginary garage. On Mod One, if in doubt, look behind.) Nevertheless, on the road I would still combine this check with mirrors – check the mirrors first, THEN make the final check behind. But which mirror? If the road behind is straight, then looking in the right mirror before making the final rearwards check makes sense. But if the road curves to the LEFT behind, the right mirror won’t show anything useful and there’s a risk that we won’t see anything looking over the right shoulder either. When I was a basic instructor, one of the examiners had a habit of getting the trainees to pull up on a left hand bend (probably because it was the only place where there was room to stop for the ‘move off again’ exercise rather than any malicious intent) and it wasn’t unknown for a trainee to look over the right shoulder and not see anything. The curve in the road meant the car coming up behind was behind their left shoulder. A check in the LEFT mirror was therefore a very good idea.

PRACTICE – Work on rear observation so that it becomes automatic. Constantly ask yourself what is behind you – if you don’t know at all times, you need to improve your rear observation! But be aware that just looking isn’t enough. We need to understand what we’re seeing and be ready to act on that information – situational awareness. And there’s one final caution to add. Be certain it’s safe to look away from the road ahead, even if all that’s needed is a glance in the mirrors. This is often forgotten by new riders – like myself all those years ago – and not emphasised enough by trainers. We must time rear observation carefully, and any time there’s something more interesting going on in front…

…then keep your eyes ahead. If I’d known that, my 400-F might have finished the journey in one piece.

 

 

Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Around three years after I started riding I demolished my beautiful Honda 400-Four in London. How? I was looking back over my right shoulder when the driver on my left cut across the one-way system in front of me. I was still looking the wrong way as I hit the rear of the car. Not surprisingly, I have been a bit cautious about timing shoulder checks and even mirror checks ever since. But what makes for good rear observation? There’s a lot of confusion out there. Why? Several reasons. What learners are taught changed dramatically as recently as 1997, and advanced groups tend to take a different approach anyway. And of course riders of all flavours forget what they learned. And then there’s the faulty thinking that what’s taught on test is “just for learners”. Throw in some dubious magazine articles, the wonders of YouTube and the internet generally, and the result is almost as many ideas about rear observation and what’s ‘right’ as there are riders. So I’m going to apply a slightly different approach – I’ll review the reasons riders get confused, then rather than say “this is what to do”, we’ll look at just WHY we need to know what’s around us to come up with some better answers.

WHERE DID THE CONFUSION COME FROM – At the time I started as a motorcycle trainer, the old DSA motorcycle test actually required that test candidates had to make a full ‘look-behind’ rear observation. Using mirrors wasn’t good enough – that’s why test candidates used to take the mirrors off for the test, to force themselves to look behind. Before slowing or braking, before indicating and before turning, test candidates as late as the mid-90’s were required to look right back over their shoulder.

Even more unbelievably, the test candidate had to look over the RIGHT shoulder before turning LEFT. I will categorically state looking right before turning left is almost completely worthless. More than anything else, it was probably being trained to make this rearward check that convinced a lot of riders that what was learned for the test was a complete waste of time!

In fact, I agree this check was pointless AND dangerous. Even if we manage to avoid dragging the bars around with us, causing a wobble, looking right back over the shoulder takes time. A couple of seconds. Even at urban speeds, that means we’re covering a considerable distance – twenty to thirty metres – looking the wrong way. It was exactly this kind of look that led to my own crash.

It sounds pretty unbelievable now because even a half-decent set of mirrors will gather much the same information as this old-fashioned full turn of the head, in a fraction of the time. But it was only with the introduction of Direct Access in 1997 that the DSA finally realised motorcycles had been fitted with mirrors for decades and allowed test candidates to use a combination of mirror use combined with more judicious blind spot checks. I still remember being informally ‘tipped-off’ to this change by the examiner. Mind you, even the IAM weren’t consistent on this – I have a older (but not THAT old) version of the IAM book that shows a rider doing the full-on look-behind check captioned as ‘the lifesaver’. That’s not what would have been taught on basic training since 1997.

GET THE BEST FROM THE MIRRORS – Mirrors are there for a reason – to find out what’s behind us. Whilst some mirrors still give a good view of our elbows, most can be set up to give reasonable rearward view. Set them up to give the best coverage – I tend to have the offside mirror up to give a more ‘wide angle’ view, whilst the left is angled behind – after all, I rarely need a view of the pavement. But I can change that on motorways or when in London to deal with multiple lanes going the same way. Mirror extenders that bolt-on between the mirror and mount can improve the view on some bike. Don’t forget, mirrors are convex. That offers a wider angle view but distort distances, making vehicles appear further away than they really are. Be cautious on a new machine until you have got used to judging distance and speed. Mirrors should be checked often enough that we’re not taken by SURPRISE! One tip – I avoid aftermarket mirrors if I’ve broken one because original mirrors are generally optically superior and balanced even if they do cost. Cheap mirrors often distort view and vibrate. I think it’s worth spending the extra.

SHOULDER, HEAD or BLINDSPOT CHECKS – Even the best mirrors have blind spots – so do the fancy rear view cameras as it happens, even if they eliminate the one between the shoulder blades. A police car once tried to hide when I was on my GSX-R750, and it’ll certainly hide another motorcycle, which should make you wonder why other riders persist in following in another bike’s wheel tracks. We can usually ‘clear’ this blind spot by tucking in an elbow (it’s how I let the police driver know I’d spotted him) or rocking our head from side to side.

The others are over the shoulders to the the left and right. Vehicles can lurk in this blindspot so we have to be careful when turning into side roads, manoeuvering round roundabouts or changing lane on one-way streets or dual carriageways. There is only one solution to blindspots (hence the term blindspot check) and that’s a physical turn of the head (hence the term head check) to see what’s alongside us and in the mirror’s blind area. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of confusion about just how, when and where:

riders who get confused about the difference between the full-on look-behind observation and a chin-to-shoulder blindspot check and may – usually during an advanced course when memories of the bike test resurface – try to look too far round

riders who say that ANY head check is dangerous

in the middle is conventional advanced practice, where newly-qualified riders can be actively discouraged from making a blind spot check – the argument is that if mirror checks are frequent enough, nothing can sneak up so relying on ‘mirror history’ (that is, remembering what we saw in the mirrors a moment ago) will be good enough but having been surprised often enough by vehicles – usually motorcycles – that had slipped into my blind spot unnoticed, I’m not convinced

Remember, it’s not a full-on look behind, simply a turn of the head sufficient – chin to shoulder – to see into the blind area (hence the term shoulder check). Anything further back should be visible in the mirrors. So head, shoulder and blindspot checks are more or less interchangeable.

A further advantage to a physical head movement is that it might alert another driver that you are about to do something.

MIRROR BLIND SPOT CHECKS – So how do we make them? Let’s start by asking some key questions:

what am I looking for – the presence (or absence, come to that) of other road users

why am I looking for it – the reason we are looking is to decide if there might be a conflict between what we want to do and what the other driver might do

where am I looking for it – the clue is in the name, we’re filling in the gap between peripheral vision and what we can see in the mirrors, very roughly backward from the line of our shoulders, hence the ‘shoulder check’ name

when am I looking for it – simple enough, before we move away, signal, change speed or change direction

Gathering this information is called taking ‘Rear Observation’ in the language of basic and post-test training. So to sum up we combine:

a rearwards look right behind ONLY when moving off

regular and sensible use of the mirrors

'shoulder checks' (sometimes called 'head checks') which are looks into the blind areas to either side

By doing so, we develop what’s called ‘Situational Awareness’.

WHICH WAY TO LOOK – Since the old DSA system of looking right when turning left completely confused many riders, I tell trainees just use common sense:

look in the direction you are about to move - right before moving or turning right, left before moving or turning to the left

look into any space that's big enough for another vehicle to squeeze into (and don't forget that could be a cycle or a scooter!)

THE REAL LIFESAVER – Probably the most important shoulder check, and one that fully deserves to be called a Lifesaver, is a final blindspot check that confirms it’s safe to take up a different position. It’s usually over the right shoulder before turning right into a side road, but it could be to the left too – for example, before exiting a roundabout after a right turn, and I’d check before turning left too. Many trainers say it’s unnecessary but I remember where I might have overtaken you when I was a courier, and there are cyclists to consider too. It’s also important to check before changing lanes on one-way streets and multilane roads, or where lanes merge back together. The lifesaver CONFIRMS our other observations. The key point is timing. We must make this check BEFORE we start the manoeuvre. If we’re already halfway into a manoeuvre and then look, it could be too late. So, the term ‘lifesaver’ really explains WHY we carry out a shoulder check!

COMBINING MIRRORS and SHOULDER CHECKS – Understand that a shoulder check is NOT a substitute for a mirror check, nor vice versa (whatever you might hear about mirror history). Whilst we often only need the mirrors to discover what’s behind us, it’s important to check the blind spot when we need to know what’s alongside. To save time, don’t make two separate observations, but combine the two – look in the mirror and then turn the head a little further to make the blind spot check. It takes just a fraction longer.

MOVING OFF FROM THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – There is one exception to the ‘only turn the head enough to see into the blind spot’ idea, and that’s when moving off from the side of the road. On CBT and on the Module One and Two parts of the DVSA bike test, the test candidate IS expected to ‘take rear observation’ before moving off, and this is the full-on, right behind look. It’s safe enough at a standstill. (And as a reminder, if you’re reading this before taking the bike test, you MUST look behind you ANY time you ride the bike in the off-road areas! You’re even supposed to look behind before pushing the bike out of the imaginary garage. On Mod One, if in doubt, look behind.) Nevertheless, on the road I would still combine this check with mirrors – check the mirrors first, THEN make the final check behind. But which mirror? If the road behind is straight, then looking in the right mirror before making the final rearwards check makes sense. But if the road curves to the LEFT behind, the right mirror won’t show anything useful and there’s a risk that we won’t see anything looking over the right shoulder either. When I was a basic instructor, one of the examiners had a habit of getting the trainees to pull up on a left hand bend (probably because it was the only place where there was room to stop for the ‘move off again’ exercise rather than any malicious intent) and it wasn’t unknown for a trainee to look over the right shoulder and not see anything. The curve in the road meant the car coming up behind was behind their left shoulder. A check in the LEFT mirror was therefore a very good idea.

PRACTICE – Work on rear observation so that it becomes automatic. Constantly ask yourself what is behind you – if you don’t know at all times, you need to improve your rear observation! But be aware that just looking isn’t enough. We need to understand what we’re seeing and be ready to act on that information – situational awareness. And there’s one final caution to add. Be certain it’s safe to look away from the road ahead, even if all that’s needed is a glance in the mirrors. This is often forgotten by new riders – like myself all those years ago – and not emphasised enough by trainers. We must time rear observation carefully, and any time there’s something more interesting going on in front…

…then keep your eyes ahead. If I’d known that, my 400-F might have finished the journey in one piece.

Posted on

29. Avoiding diesel and other slippery spills

Unusually this is an area where things genuinely have improved for motorcyclists. Improvements in commercial vehicle design, tighter fleet maintenance standards, and just possibly a faster clean-up of reported spills mean that streaks of diesel on roundabouts and bends are now far less common than they were in my courier days, even in the early part of my instructing career. Police collision data has long suggested that fuel spills are blamed for more crashes than they actually cause, and reduced exposure has only reinforced that trend. However, this does not mean slippery contaminants have disappeared altogether. We still need the same level of anticipation, observation, and margin — if anything, newer riders are likely to be less aware of the issue than those of us with a long backstory of dodging diesel. And it’s always worth remembering that ANY liquid will have less traction that the dry or uncontaminated tarmac.

Avoiding diesel and other slippery spills

My first introduction to the slippery nature of fuels spilled on the road came soon after I’d taken my 125 up to London. I stopped at a pedestrian crossing, three bikes came flying past me, turned right and promptly formation-crashed. As I pulled away, the 125 span the back wheel. Even that early on in my riding career I knew that wasn’t quite right and took the corner rather more slowly than the other bikes. A truck was parked halfway up the hill with a split tank and some fireman throwing bags of sand around it. The slick reached right down the hill to where the bikes had crashed. That was a while ago, and on purely observational evidence, it seems to me that fuel spills are much less common than when I was a courier. Moreover, evidence from police accident investigations suggests that despite the popular belief that oil and diesel cause bike crashes, the real crash numbers are low. That might be why in a long discussion on the problems of diesel on one of my favourite forums most of the correspondents had mates “who have crashed on diesel”, yet surprisingly few actually put up their hands and said “I’ve crashed on it myself”.

Nevertheless, it’s as well to be on the alert. As with all hazards, the first thing to consider is where we might find it, secondly how to spot it, and thirdly and to have some idea of what to do if we do spot ANY oil, diesel or petrol spill – they are ALL slippery.

Where might we find diesel and petrol (it’s slippery too) spilled on the road? The obvious answer is where vans, trucks and buses start with full tanks. And that means ports, industrial estates and bus depots, particularly in the morning. Leaving aside the random spills from a split tank, or from the van that had taken off its sump on high kerb round a traffic-calming ‘pinch point’ (it didn’t get far but left quite a slick for half a mile), keep an eye open where vehicles change direction – corners, junctions and particularly roundabouts are likely problem areas.

Combine a roundabout with exits marked INDUSTRIAL ESTATE and we should be on alert. Back when I was a trainer in Lydd, my homeward route took me round the Ashford ring road, which has a dozen industrial estates round it. Just as I was slowing for a right turn at one of the roundabouts, a guy on an R1 flew past signalling right as well. Knee out, he vanished around the back of the island but never reappeared. Going round rather more cautiously, I avoided the big streak of diesel and stopped to lend a hand. Rider unhurt but bike rather sad, having flipped over after sliding into the kerb. I left him arranging a van ride home. If we’re apply the ‘stop in the distance we can see to be clear’ rule, don’t forget it applies to road surface too.

Another good rule-of-thumb is that diesel spotted on one corner will probably reappear on the next. Another courier followed me carefully round one left-hander leading out of one London square as we both avoided the diesel. He overtook me, and promptly crashed on the left-hander leading into the next square just few hundred metres further on. As I stopped to help him untangle the bike from the railings, he said: “I didn’t expect diesel on that bend too”.

Err, right. So where did you expect it?

Most spills either come from overflows on over-filled tanks (much rarer now) or when drivers forget to put the filler cap on. Don’t laugh – I forgot to put the bike filler cap on once, because the tank bag covered it. A lapful of fuel reminded me, but the driver won’t know. The fuel is likely to be be spilled outwards so look for it on the outside of the lane – near the centre line on a left-hander or the kerb on a right-hander. But don’t forget a oncoming vehicle could slosh it our side of the centre line on a right-hander too.

Watching the surface is one reason for not trailing a vehicle ahead too close. If we see temporary slippery road signs or even police SLOW triangles, take care – it could be a spillage or even accident ahead, and there may well be a slippery cocktail of detergent, diesel, engine oil and antifreeze on the road.

See if you can spot the spill. In the rain, oil produces the familiar rainbow effect. It looks scary because the rain washes the oil right over the road, but in fact the rainbow effect is produced by a layer just one molecule thick. A single drop of oil can produce a big circular rainbow patch. It’s slippery but not lethal – the tyres will cut down to the surface. But if we see the rainbow right across the road, then it’s a bigger spill. Try to see which way the rainbow’s being washed – the source is probably in the other direction and that’s the area to keep clear of.

Unfortunately, in the dry, there’s no warning rainbow. The best advice I can give you is that fresh oil and diesel is very wet-looking and very shiny. It’s looks like ‘very wet water’ for want of a better description. A big diesel spill in the dry can often be smelled. So use your nose. A dulled black streak is almost certainly an old spill, and unlikely to be particularly slippery. But it’s worth knowing that if it rains, old spills can be ‘reactivated’, particularly by a short shower after a long dry spell.

Don’t forget petrol can also be spilled. It’s just as slippery as diesel but harder to see – it looks like water. Whenever possible, keep clear of any unusual wet-looking patches.

Interestingly, in that forum discussion, there was little useful advice, beyond declarations that “it’ll will have you off if you hit it” statements.

Ideally, we do want to stay off it if possible. It’s just a matter of having the speed and lean angle in hand to change line and direction. But sometimes we simply have cross a spill. It’s straightforward enough if we can avoid leaning and braking (the usual instinct) as we cross it, and instead keep the bike as upright as possible. For that reason if I find a spill mid-corner, I tend to steer INSIDE it, even if that means sacrificing my view round the bend. Why? I may have to cross it. If I’m on the inside, I can pick the machine up and cross it upright, before leaning over again back on clean tarmac. But if I’m on the outside and need to cross it, I actually need to increase my lean angle. Not a good plan. And don’t forget that the tyres will take a moment to clean off – don’t bang the bike straight over on its side, but ease it over.

Look ahead, think ahead, plan ahead, and oil and diesel should be no more than a minor – if potentially dangerous – irritant.