Riding Tips During Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month

Regardless of the historical enmity between drivers and riders, unexpected meetings usually have the same ending: plastic bits in the road, hospital bills, or worse.

With the riding season fully underway in all 50 states, it’s a good time to remind everyone that May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. Beyond the usual talking points about proper gear, good rider habits, including motorcycle riding tips, and situational awareness, a couple of statistics tell the story.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 6,218 motorcyclists were killed on American roads in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s up from 5,932 in 2021, a 4.8 percent increase. (View the official National Highway Traffic Safety Association report). Generally speaking, traffic injuries and fatalities have climbed in the post-pandemic era. For the motorcycle category, the increase is likely due to increasing ridership as well as a return to previous traffic levels. Let’s throw in a little ubiquitous smartphone use when driving by distracted drivers while we’re at it.

While this month is also aimed at driver awareness, riders can take matters into their own hands by recommitting to the habits and practices we (hopefully) learned in our first motorcycle riding course. Robin Dean, an MSF riding coach in five states with Total Rider, Clutch Motorcycle School, and the state(s) of Illinois and New Mexico, fielded a few simple questions from Motorcyclist.

What’s the easiest thing riders can do to stay safe?

“The easiest thing a rider can do to stay safe is practice what they’ve learned through reputable training providers. Be self-aware. Know your limits. Know that safety awareness month means we must accept responsibility for ourselves and our choice/actions.”

What do you preach to experienced riders?

“Experienced riders know the value of maintaining a steep skill-to-risk offset. The mantra I just mentioned [above] still applies. Doing so means representing the motorcycling community better and thus, giving non-riders more reasons to keep an eye out. Experienced riders can build on their training with next-level teaching. Maybe it’s an MSF Advanced RiderCourse, or low-speed performance maneuvers via the Lock and Lean program, or even high-speed track curricula like the California Superbike School or Yamaha Champions program.”

Do loud pipes really save lives?

“Loud pipes don’t ‘save’ anything, though I admit I like and have a loud exhaust. However, it’s worth asking: What do loud pipes ‘look’ like? Deaf people drive too. Even for the non-hearing impaired, that noise is being expelled behind the bike, not up front.”

Thanks for your POV, Robin. Although motorcyclists are an impossibly diverse community with wildly different reasons for riding, we can all agree on one thing: Stay safe and upright so that we can forever debate our various disagreements and strong opinions after a great ride.

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