There are many urban myths and misconceptions that float around regarding motorcyclists and the bikes they ride. If you get a group of motorcyclists together to talk about safety and crashes, chances are you’ll hear some of these incorrect assumptions and legends come up.
It’s a good idea to understand the statistics, so you can keep yourself as safe as possible when you’re out riding. You should do anything you can to increase your chances of avoiding accidents. No one wants to get hurt while riding, obviously.
And the old adage “it’s not if, it’s when,” regarding motorcycle crashes is one of the first urban myths we’ll get out of the way. We don’t need to even put it on the list. The fact is, no, not everyone who has ever ridden a bike gets into an accident. Many people go their whole lives without a crash. And do you know why? Because they’re experienced, learned things properly, and they take all the precautions to stay safe.
Some of these misconceptions will sound like baloney right when you hear them. But just remember that someone somewhere believed them – usually many people- and perpetuated the ideas long enough for it to become urban legends. Some of these myths you’ve heard so much at this point that you just assume they’re true. But when you look at the stats, you’ll see differently.
Here are many of the most common misconceptions about motorcycles.
1. Helmets Do More Harm Than Good
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Most countries have laws that require motorcyclists (and their passengers) to wear helmets or protective gear on their heads. There are some exceptions but for the most part, you need to wear a helmet. One myth or misconception about helmets is that they cause more harm than good—namely, that you are more likely to fracture your neck in an accident because the increased weight of the helmet will cause your head to move around. The reality is that most studies and statistics have found there’s a significantly lower chance of neck injury sustained by motorcyclists wearing helmets than those without helmets.
2. Helmets Block Your Ability To See Or Hear Danger
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Another common myth regarding helmets and motorcyclists is that they block your ability to see or hear danger. This is not true nor is it supported by statistics. Wearing a helmet actually does the opposite: the visor provides eye protection from wind and debris, allowing a rider to see better. It also cuts down on wind noise so the rider can hear better. Also, by decreasing the noise and wind pressure on the head, helmets actually reduce fatigue. Wearing a helmet does not increase the risk of having an accident. It certainly reduces the likelihood of serious injury if you were to get in a crash, though.
3. Racing Tires Are Safer Than Road Tires
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Racing tires are made of different compounds and have different properties than road tires, so they’re completely different from one another. They’re designed to work best when it’s really hot, in order to create grip, and they’re meant to stick like glue from one heat cycle. This works well on a dry road, but it can be dangerous when riding in the rain. Racing tires have fewer grooves than street tires, so they can’t channel water out of the way. A street tire will wear better, have more stability, and produce greater wet-weather performance. Also, road tires have better grip at normal temperatures, giving you consistent performance over many heat cycles.
About that, Lets Take A Look Of One Of The Better Tires For Different Weather Conditions:
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4. You Should Lay Down Your Bike If You’re About To Crash
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Most accidents happen so fast that the rider is simply not going to have time to think about laying their bike down. This myth is counterintuitive—it doesn’t make sense to crash every time you think you’re going to crash. This thinking comes from the idea that you’ll be safer at ground levels, rather than being thrown through the air. But if you try to slide into a vehicle, there’s a good chance you’ll end up slamming into it even faster. Also, rubber stops better than metal or plastic. So instead of laying your bike down, it’s better to try to reduce your speed as much as possible.
5. Conventional Brakes Are Better Than Anti-Lock Brakes
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A lot of testing has been done to show that even on clean, dry, flat pavement, experienced and skilled riders stopped in a shorter distance with ABS (anti-lock brakes) than they did with conventional or linked brakes. ABS makes riding safer, produces fewer crashes, and allows for shorter stopping distances. No matter how good of a rider you are, you can’t predict what the driver ahead of you is going to do or will force you to do. With ABS, riders can brake fully without fear of locking up their tires. ABS automatically reduces brake pressure when a lockup is about to occur, and increases it again after traction is restored.
6. Racing Tires Will Make Your Bike Faster On The Road
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This is simply not true. Motorcycle racing tires are way different than road tires, as we’ve already established. You are rarely going to get a set of racing tires up to the proper racing temperature out on the highway. And there’s a better chance that after you set off on your bike, you’re going to fall off at the first intersection. You should definitely stick to road tires for your bike when you’re on the road—or any surface other than track surfaces. Road tires were made for streets and highways for a reason and racing tires were made for the track for a reason. Don’t mix and mingle.
7. You Can Avoid Police Radar
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The theory here is that because your motorcycle is smaller than a car or truck, you will be able to avoid police speed radars easier. This is a myth that, hopefully, not too many people believe. Just because your bike isn’t as big as other cars on the road doesn’t mean you can dodge radar. A radar device can clock the speed of a baseball—so it can definitely clock the speed of your motorcycle. Also, today’s police lasers are extremely high-tech, efficient, and more accurate than in the past. It’s said that they are so good they can lock onto a flying insect and detect its speed!
8. Traction Control On A Bike Will Help You Go Faster
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This is partly true, but also mostly false. If you’re new to riding and you aren’t confident in your abilities yet, you probably won’t ever realize what traction control is doing for you. If you’re a determined, experienced racer and ride really hard all the time, highly advanced modern traction control systems might help you overcome certain human errors. It is more likely, though, that traction control is of most use to riders on the roads who find themselves in bad situations. Either way, it won’t help you go faster—that comes with experience and confidence in your abilities.
9. Underinflated Riding . . . (Wtf?)
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There’s this inane idea that new tires come with a coating that can only be removed by riding them for a few miles underinflated. Please don’t believe this because you’re going to hurt yourself. Most new motorcycle tires look like they have a coating on them but that’s because that’s what they look like when they come out of the factory mold. Never reduce the pressure in your tires to try and scrub them in! Riding on underinflated tires will cause them to flex, will damage the sidewall, and could potentially cause a blowout, which you obviously don’t want.
Better use a Real Good Motorcycle Tire!
10. 18-25-Year-Olds Are At Most Risk
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There is some truth in this because novice riders certainly run a higher risk of injury due to lack of experience and the majority of novice riders are in the 18-25 age bracket. But according to the NHTSA’s latest findings on motorcycle fatalities, the biggest group of riders to meet that criteria in the US are in the 40-55 age bracket. NHTSA has been tracking this information for about 15 years, and more than 40% of all rider fatalities in the US, from traffic accidents, had an average age of 42 years old. So if you’re a younger rider and are planning on buying your first bike, tell that statistic to your relatives or family when they try to dissuade you.
11. Buy The Bike Of Your Dreams As Your First Bike
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The theory here is that if you buy the bike of your dreams as your first bike, you’ll learn to ride it sooner or later. All you need is experience. Wrong. This obviously depends on what your dream bike is but before you spend big bucks on the coolest ride out there, check your budget. More important than the bike, arguably, is the safety gear you’ll need. And not just a helmet—gloves, boots, and good riding leathers are a must. Once you have those things squared away, then you can worry about what bike to get. Also, just because you have your heart set on a particular bike, doesn’t mean you should get it straight away. Do your homework first and buy something that matches your abilities.
12. Your Motorcycle Will Make You Irresistible To Women
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We’re not sure how many people believe this narcissistic idea—hopefully, not many. Chances are, if you were irresistible to women before you bought a bike, you might be even more so when you have one. But you won’t become that way overnight just because you have a bike. No, if you have oil under your fingernails all the time and your leathers smell ripe after eight hours of riding or she thinks your helmet hair is good looking, it’s probably because she rides, as well. Otherwise, don’t get the idea in your head that owning a bike is going to change you—it might change your confidence level, sure, but not who you are as a person.
13. People Who Ride Motorcycles Are “Low-Class“
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This is by far one of the most demeaning and most perpetuated myths about motorcyclists out there. In truth, people from all walks of life ride motorcycles. There has been a shift in the way people think in recent years, thanks to high profile riders like Norman Reedus and Jay Leno. If you head to a bike rally, though, you’ll see a mix of laborers, military veterans, doctors, service workers, lawyers, and others. The pastime of riding a motorcycle transcends the boundaries of race, gender, and class. That’s one of the beauties about riding motorcycles: it’s all about the freedom of being on the road on two wheels.
14. Small Objects On The Road Will Make You Crash
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There are many people out there who believe that if you run over as much as a pebble on a motorcycle, you’re doomed, and you’ll go flying into a ditch never to be seen again. This is simply not true. If this were true, you wouldn’t see any motorcycles on the road. If you run over a small rock on the road, you’ll feel much of what you feel in a car – you bump over the rock and keep going. If you run into a patch of loose gravel, however, or a pothole, you might experience problems. But those aren’t small objects, are they? And if you know how to ride properly, you should be fine.
15. Using The Front Brakes Flip You Over The Handlebars
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The idea here is that you should stay off the front brakes if you want to stay on your bike because you’ll flip over the handlebars thanks to the physics of using the front brakes. If this were true, bikes wouldn’t have front brakes at all. And while it is possible, it’s not likely. It sounds correct, though: you squeeze the front brakes and momentum carries the back wheel up and over. But today’s bikes have larger, more powerful brakes on the front than they do on the rear. Riders don’t fly over the handlebars when the brakes are depressed. In fact, they have more control braking from the front than they do from the rear.
16. Other Drivers Don’t Care About Motorcyclists
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This is an untrue and pretty heartless urban myth. Other drivers do not want to hit you! Most of the near-misses come because they don’t know you’re there, sometimes even when you’re right in front of them, in plain sight. Being smaller and more elusive than a car, you could be hidden by glare or obscured by the car’s roof pillars or other traffic. Not all drivers think motorcyclists make the effort to look extra hard to stay in plain sight, so you should definitely help make it easier for drivers to spot you. This comes back to wearing bright colors, especially on your helmet or jacket. Run your high beam during the day, maybe. Think about things that can hide you from drivers’ vision, and avoid those things.
17. It’s Better To Stay In Your Lane Than Split Lanes
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In most parts of the world, motorcyclists split lanes all the time – pretty much everywhere that traffic is heavy. But in the US, many people act like lane-splitting is foolish and incredibly dangerous. But if they actually followed the statistics, they’d see that that isn’t true. Study the one place in the US where it’s legal – California – and you’ll discover that it’s actually slightly safer to lane-split than it is to stay in the lane in heavy, slow-moving traffic. Still, many motorcyclists berate other riders when they do it because they don’t realize that they should actually be endorsing it!
18. It’s Safer On The Street Than On The Interstate
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The idea here is that slower is safer – but that’s only really true after an accident begins. Controlled-access roads (or interstates) are inherently safer because all the traffic is going the same way, and there are no side streets or alleys from which you can pop out. There are no pedestrians and fewer roadside objects to run into if you go off the roadway. When you’re going down the road at 70 mph, side-by-sidewall, it might feel sketchy when you’re right next to the whirling wheels of a semi truck, but you are actually safer on the interstate than when you’re going half that speed on a city street or even a country road, where things pop out at you all the time.
Know More Motorcycle Myths?
Let us know in the comments below!
To be continue…
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Moust of all, Remember that Always You Can:
Choose Your Destiny!
Original Article: https://bit.ly/3mzCdaz
