[Over the past 30 years, I’ve seen plenty of motorcycle riders in the ER and the ICU with all types of injuries, minor and serious. Being a witness to that has sure helped me keep a focus on rider safety, and I’ll be sharing here each month some of what I’ve learned….and what I think. Ride safe, Douglas County HOG!]

Edition #4.  Ride Like You’re Invisible – Part 2

Last month, we talked about WHY drivers so often fail to see us on our motorcycles.  There are actual physiological reasons that make us invisible to them, such as saccades, selective attention, blind spots, and contrast blindness, and then there are plane old stupidity reasons such as distracted or impaired drivers.  It’s not always just inattention; and it is in many ways up to us to make ourselves more visible to them.

Now let’s talk about how we can increase the odds of being seen while we’re riding.  We can break this down into three main categories:

1.      Lights.  There are lots of lighting options on a motorcycle, and lights out front and in the rear of the bike are both important.  Even LED options for the saddlebag latches and sides are available.  Obvious front-of-the-bike actions include keeping the headlight on at all times, and many advocate always keeping it on the High Beam setting during the day.  Many motorcycles have “running lights” that stay on all the time, and they can help to draw a driver’s eyes your way. 

     The old fashioned single brake light can be greatly expanded with LEDs onto the back of the saddlebags and onto the bottom of the rear fender, and Custom Dynamics makes a nice module that allows various strobing patterns for brake lights; it’s one of the first upgrades I did to my Road King.  The bigger and brighter the brake lights are, the more likely someone will see you as they approach from behind, especially after dark when there are all kinds of lights attracting the eyes of car drivers.  And strobing lights will be even more likely to be seen.

     LED lights are brighter than the old regular lights, and so are more visible.  Premium LEDs such as those from Harley-Davidson or from Clearwater Lights can produce 3000 and up to 10,000 lumens (really really bright, and these lights project a long ways down the road), and they make the various LED light options for all Harley-Davidson models; there are kits to attach running lights on the fork/fender area or on the crash bars.  Many feel that a triangle of lights – headlight and running lights – out front, especially when they are bright LED lights, give a rider the best chance at being visible to cars.

2.     Color.  Recall that one of the reasons we are invisible to drivers is “contrast blindness,” where we essentially blend in with the background instead of contrasting and standing out from it.  Bright colors – red, orange, yellow – draw more attention than the usual blue jeans, black helmet, and black jacket on a black or dark motorcycle.  I ride with those common, dark, non-contrasting colors much of the time, but I’m looking for some red and yellow riding shirts now, and I just got a pair of bright orange gloves……every little bit can help.

3.     Positioning and movement.  How and where we ride, relative to the road lanes and the car traffic, can affect our visibility to drivers. 

Movement tends to attract the eyes of a driver; if a car is stopped to your right and is waiting to enter your road, positioning yourself to the inside of the lane will produce more relative movement in that driver’s eyes than if you were riding the outside of the lane.  Some even recommend a little swerving left and right to attract the eyes of someone who is about to pull out onto your road.  If an oncoming car is about to turn left across your lane, positioning on the inside of your lane and not tucking up too close to the car you’re following gives that oncoming driver more opportunity to see you, especially if you have the bright LED lights that grab attention. 

Remember that the majority of fatal motorcycle accidents are caused by vehicle drivers, not by the motorcycle rider, and in about a third of these crashes, the car driver reports not seeing the motorcycle.  If we want to stay healthy and alive, we have to help these folks to see us!

Brighter, more lit up, loud colors, optimum positioning, movement….all of it is important.

I never want to look up from the pavement and hear, “Sorry Mate, I didn’t see you!”

Arlen Stauffer

MD, DCCC Member

 ’22 Road King Special Rider