Motorcycling is a gentleman’s art, thus it has its etiquettes. One need not be a douche if he possesses a bike. Keep your space and give space. You are not the king of the road, there are many kings. So what should be the ideal code of motorcycling? Let’s see. There are some useful tips from bikers across the world.
The basic One: Never take your eyes off the road. Distraction is the path to destruction.
- Do not, ever, get touchy with another person’s ridind machine without permission. Ever.
(Came out of a gas station and found another rider sitting on my Heritage Softail “to see what it was like”. Seriously, in what world is this acceptable behavior?)
- Hero, Royal Enfield, Harley, Honda, BMW, whatever… There is never any good reason to mock another biker’s ride. We’re all on two wheels (sometimes three); we’re all brothers and sisters of the road, let’s look out for one another.
- Leave your comments about helmets and safety gear on the forums. It’s not your brain, it’s not your skin. There is no good reason to create animosity out on the road. All these arguments creates a distraction when we should all be paying attention to the road.
- Know your limits! Often when riding in groups, you’re tempted to ‘keep up’ with the lead riders, and can get pushed into maneuvers you may not be ready for.So if a group is outpacing you, feel free to ride at the back, right before the sweep rider.
- On roads where there’s a lot of bends, a narrow lane, or low sight distance, ride single file, with enough distance between bikes such that if anyone has a problem, the riders behind won’t have to ride off the road or into opposing lanes to avoid them. Staggered formation is good for wider roads with more visible “sweeper” turns. Two-by-two (parade) formation is only for very slow rides or organized bike runs.
- Never (ever!) split through a group of riders, no matter how slow they are. Treat them as one long vehicle, and pass as such where safe. If they’re cool and/or observant, they might open up a space for you to leapfrog past, but they’re not obligated to do so.
- Don’t make your bike noisier than it already is unless you don’t ride it on public roads. Corollary: If you have a noisy bike such as every Harley ever ridden off of a lot, put a better muffler on it. Making so much noise you scare babies and wake up neighbours isn’t cool or a safety feature.
So next time when you get on to your machine, try and follow the ideal code of riding.