Experience on a motorcycle can make preparation for familiar journeys feel routine. You may know your bike well and have travelled the same Yorkshire roads many times before. However, familiarity doesn’t remove the possibility of something changing from one journey to the next.
Preparation still matters because you can’t assume you’ll encounter the same riding conditions every time. Instead of seeing preparation as something you only need for unfamiliar or demanding rides, make it a habit that supports safer everyday journeys.
Here are three ways to make preparation part of your motorcycle journeys in Yorkshire.
1. Check your motorcycle before setting off
Use a consistent pre-ride check to make sure your motorcycle’s ready for the journey. In practice, that means checking its condition rather than assuming everything remains as it was on your previous ride. A routine check gives you an opportunity to spot a fault before you encounter its effects on the road.
The POWDER check gives you a memorable framework for inspecting your motorcycle before setting off. Following the same framework each time also gives your checks a consistent structure, rather than leaving you to decide what to inspect before each journey.
A few checks before you set off can prevent a detectable fault from becoming a problem during your journey.
2. Refresh your skills regularly
Preparing your motorcycle is only one part of the picture. Keep developing your riding skills even if you’ve already got years of experience. Time spent riding gives you experience, but maintaining your skills requires you to continue using and developing them.
Regular development helps you maintain the skills you use to recognise changes on the road and decide how to respond to them. The IAM RoadSmart Advanced Rider Course gives experienced motorcyclists a structured setting in which to practise and develop their riding skills.
Rather than treating experience alone as preparation, you can continue working on the abilities you rely on while riding. Experience is most useful when you continue to develop the skills that support it.
3. Know what to do if a collision happens
Even with preparation and experience, a journey might not always go to plan. So, decide in advance what your first priority would be following a collision.
Without that preparation, you’d need to make the decision while already dealing with an unfamiliar situation. Knowing your priority beforehand gives you one less decision to make at that point.
Recording what happened when it’s safe to do so gives you information from the event itself. That information could prove useful if you subsequently want to explore your eligibility for a motorcycle accident claim, rather than leaving you to rely solely on your memory of the event.
Thinking ahead means you’ve got less to work out from scratch if a collision occurs.
Wrapping up…
Safer motorcycle journeys depend on making preparation a habit rather than an afterthought.
Before your next ride in Yorkshire, take a moment to consider whether you’re prepared for the journey ahead. Making that consideration part of your routine means you’ve already thought about your readiness before you encounter something unexpected on the road.
What could you do now to feel better prepared for your next motorcycle journey?