Tips for Dealing with Emergencies When Riding a Motorcycle

If you’re riding a motorcycle, you’re bound to encounter different emergency scenarios on the road that will force you to react swiftly to prevent an accident. It could be a tire blowout, wildlife crossing the road, loose material on the surface, or a slippery road due to snow or rain.  

But how exactly should you react? Well, in this article, we’ll give you tips on how to deal with different emergencies when riding a motorcycle. Let’s jump right in!  

Encountering Obstacles on The Road

If you suddenly encounter an obstacle, you have two options: safely steer to avoid it or ride over it if you don’t have enough time to avoid it. If you’re taking an emergency steer, here’s what you should do:

• Reduce the speed of your motorcycle.
• Counter-steer and lean towards the direction you want to go.
• Position your motorcycle on the safest side and stay in your lane.

However, if you want to learn counter-steering a motorcycle, you should practice as much as possible at a parking lot until you’ve mastered the maneuver. As you gain more experience riding a motorcycle, counter steering at high speeds should come naturally.

But if you don’t have enough time to counter-steer and avoid small obstacles like debris on the road, it may be safer to ride over. But before you proceed, you should slow down, tighten your grip on the handlebars, and lift yourself slightly off the footrest to reduce impact. As you approach the obstacle, you should shift your weight slightly backward while accelerating gently to take pressure off the front wheel.

Flying Objects

It’s not unusual to get hit with flying objects such as cigarette butts, insects, and stones when you’re riding a motorcycle. To reduce the impact, we recommend you wear a full-face helmet especially if you’re riding at high speed. If you’re hit by a flying object when you’re on the road, try to maintain control of your motorcycle and pull off at a safe place as soon as you can to assess the damage.

Wildlife Crossing the Road

If you’re riding in rural areas, you should slow down when you spot animal crossing warning signs — especially at dusk, dawn, or at night. However, if you’re riding and encounter an animal on your path, the best course of action would be to apply emergency brakes and stop. In most cases, swerving may not be the best option since you’re likely to hit another vehicle or object.

But if the animal is small and you can’t stop in time, you have a better chance if you brace for impact than swerve. On the other hand, if the animal is too big and you don’t have enough time to stop, you could take your chances and swerve if the path is clear. Another option would be revving your engine and blowing the horn to scare away the animal.

Tire Blow Out

In case of a tire blowout, the last thing you want to do is press the brakes. Instead, you should do the following:

• Reduce your speed while hanging tightly to the handlebars.
• If it’s a front tire blowout, move your weight towards the back of the motorcycle. But if the rear tire bursts, you can maintain your position.
• Try to steer straight until you gradually stop on the side of the road.
• Once you’ve stopped, inspect the bike for other signs of damage.

The same safety procedure for a tire blowout should apply if your motorcycle starts to wobble.

Stuck Throttle Emergency

If the throttle gets stuck and you can’t slow down the engine, you should take the following measures:

• Ease off the throttle and engage the clutch.
• Turn off the engine using the kill switch.
• If your motorcycle doesn’t have a kill switch, squeeze the clutch until you can slow down and turn off the engine with the key. Alternatively, you can stop the motorcycle using the brakes.

Once you’ve safely parked your motorcycle, make sure you get it repaired before you hit the road. 

Chain Break Emergency

If your motorcycle chain breaks, the engine will rev up but the rear wheel will lose power. It’s also possible for the chain to jam the rear wheel and before you know it, your motorcycle is skidding out of control. In such a scenario, you should try steering the motorcycle toward the direction you want to go and apply the brakes smoothly without engaging the clutch and downshift to slow down the motorcycle.  

Reduced Visibility

If you have reduced visibility on the road due to bad weather, you should reduce your speed and increase the following distance to at least five seconds so you can have more time to react. Additionally, you should make it a habit to brake and signal earlier than usual when you’re experiencing reduced visibility. If the weather is too bad making it dangerous for you to ride a motorcycle, it would be safer to take a break and continue when it’s clear.