“I’d never commute by motorcycle. That’s way too dangerous.”
“It rains too much to commute by motorbike.”
“Drivers make motorcycle commuting too scary.”
“It’s inconvenient to commute by motorcycle because I have to change all my clothes and it takes forever to gear up.”
I’ve been a daily motorbike commuter now for about 3 years. Rain, sun, wind, and occasionally just a little bit of ice (on the rare snow day I either work from home or grab a car share to get to work). I’ve heard all sorts of reasons not to commute by bike from fellow motorcyclists. My commuting reality is rather different than the perceptions of motorcyclists who don’t regularly commute by bike. I’ve found that the regular riding in varying and unpredictable traffic, pedestrian, and weather conditions is a great way to hone my skills. My slow speed riding has absolutely improved, as has my ability to scan, identify, predict, decide, and execute my way through traffic downtown. What might be surprising is the number of close calls with cars or pedestrians I have. The number’s so small, I can’t actually remember each one, but in three years I’ve had fewer legit close calls than I can count on one hand. To be fair, my measure of a ‘close call’ is probably significantly different than the casual rider’s measure – there’s a lot of average crazy out there that happens so regularly and I’m so used to it that it doesn’t register as a ‘close call’.
One of those legit close calls was the other day, when I was nearly to my office. I’d just turned onto a one way that I turn on to every day – crossed the super bumpy Max tracks and Max barrier (big monstrous concrete turtles designed to remind cars they can’t drive on the left side of the street) like I always do and there I was. Almost next to a parallel-parked car that hadn’t signaled its intent to pull out into traffic. As it was pulling into me. In a nanosecond I registered the headlight of the Max train in my mirror, estimated the amount of swerve room I had to avoid being smacked and avoid the oncoming Max train, and swerved just enough to avoid the car (and that came down to a matter of a couple of inches) and the train tracks. All without actually thinking about the actual swerving – it’s all muscle memory. My one loss of control was me yelling at the top of my lungs “what the FUCK?!?” at the driver, who had the decency to look absolutely terrified as he clasped his hands in front of him, bowing his head in apology. I rode off, perfectly calm as I navigated my way the last few blocks to work. I’m pretty sure he learned to do a head check before pulling out. And I spent the day replaying it to figure out what else I could’ve done better to be mentally prepared.
I say mentally prepared because I practice evasive maneuvers a lot. In parking lots. Around sewer covers and potholes in the street (seriously, if there’s not a ton of traffic, I’ll treat those covers as swerve obstacles and alternate right and left hand swerves as I’m rolling down the road). In the occasional refresher training classes – I try to do one every other year at the very least. A fellow moto-blogger I follow (Loryn of RIDEWELL) recently wrote a great post about advanced motorcycle training and why every rider should keep training. It’s because keeping your reflexes sharp so you don’t have to think when you need to take evasive action is one of the best things you can do as a rider. Second best (in my humble opinion) is to ride your motorbike to work, on errands, any time you can and in any weather you can. Consistent time in the saddle keeps those skills you learn in training sharp, and it keeps those observational and mental skills much sharper too. That keeps you, the rider, much safer and much more confident when you have to handle the crazy. Because there’s a lot of the crazy out there.
Oh and on the inconvenience factor…an Aerostich Roadcrafter solves that problem. You’re welcome :).
Note: Photo is me taking an offroad skills course from PSSOR several years ago. Even if you don’t regularly ride offroad, taking an offroad skills course can really, really boost your street skills by giving you confidence in handling less-than-optimal traction conditions, like wet roads covered with slippery wet leaves.
