Motorcycle Safety Tips

Safety Tips

Safety For One

Jul 8, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Going Solo To Oyster Run? Unless you come with a group or meet on onsite, it can be hard to apply some of the best practices for safely riding in a group at an event like the Oyster Run, where there’s no set starting time, route, or “leaders.” Maybe you can form or join an ad hoc group to choose a leader and follower, arrange riders according to ability, run through a system of signals and so on. But if you can’t do that… Be sure you bring everything you need with you: Full tank of gas First aid kit Tools Cell phone Extra gear depending on the weather forecast Don’t show off by passing other riders or tailgating or trying tricks. Take frequent breaks, but don’t overindulge in alcohol. Enjoy yourself—and stop in to say hello at the Eagle Leather booth.

Safety Tips

Plan For: Fixing A Flat

Jul 7, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Tire Trouble In one interview Robert Patrick of Terminator 2, X-Files, and Sons of Anarchy fame told of riding in the Arizona desert when his back tire blew out and he contemplated riding on the rim to the next town several miles away before he remembered he had his cell phone and roadside assistance. So what do you do when you get a blowout? Pre-blowout your motorcycle may become harder to steer, or the motorcycle may start wobbling. Try to determine which tire has the problem and shift the weight to the other tire to reduce the loss of air. Slow down steadily and ease off the throttle to maintain maximum control. Avoid braking too hard since this will only make it harder to keep control. Do your best to remain in a straight line. Grip the handlebars tightly, keep your arms bent, and keep your focus forward until you come to a complete stop. Push your motorcycle as far as you can out of traffic. If you must cross traffic, make sure you do it safely. Once on the side of the road you can inspect the damage and call a friend or towing service as Robert Patrick did in Arizona. Have your tire repaired or replaced at a reputable business

Safety Tips

Summer Riding in the Bright Sun

May 5, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Protect Your Eyes While Riding Nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, even cataracts can cause glare. But the most common cause is bright light. And that’s the easiest to deal with. Keep the brightest light out of your eyes. Use protective lenses. You can get helmets with built-in visors, or goggles, or sunglasses. At Eagle Leather, we’ve looked at lots of products to find the ones best suited to motorcycle enthusiasts. Polarized lenses or visors diminish the amount of light that comes into your eye. Tinted lenses and visors work too. Dark colors, like brown, gray, or green, are intended for most everyday use and moderate-to-bright conditions. Light-color tints, like yellow, pink, or amber, are meant for low-to-moderate light conditions. Mirrored coatings are applied to the outside of sunglasses to reflect some of the light. Because of this, mirrored lenses are usually tinted with lighter colors. Protective lenses or visors are often coated with chemicals that can repel water, prevent fogging, and protect against scratching. You’ll want to be sure whatever eye protection you wear is shatterproof. Each type of lens has its advantages. Our expert staff will help you find just the eye protection that suits your needs—and your budget. Stay safe out there! - Mike

Safety Tips

Keeping Children Safe From Themselves

Mar 31, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week The Darndest Things On the last Friday of 2018, a toddler in Florida climbed into her father’s three-wheeled motorcycle, believed to be a BRP Can-Am Spyder Roadster, which was parked outside the family home. Inside the house, Dad heard the engine rev. He looked out the window and saw his daughter driving the motorcycle down the street. Dad ran outside and tried to grab the motorcycle but was dragged behind it on the asphalt until he fell off. The daughter was ejected, and the machine stopped when it ran into a retaining wall. Father and daughter both survived and are being treated for their injuries. We don’t think we need to preach hard for everyone to “get the point.” Art Linkletter used to state, “Kids say the darnedst things.” Well, they also do the darnedest things. Take a few minutes for a safety check about where you keep your keys to your vehicles, where you store things like gasoline or antifreeze that could be harmful, what heavy things might be too close to the edge of a shelf, and how sharp objects are kept. Although the incident in Florida was horrific enough, it could have been much worse. Our kids and grandkids will not always do the safe thing, or even the expected thing, so it’s up to us to do our best to think proactively to keep them safe and out of trouble as much as we can.

Safe Communication While Riding

Feb 10, 2019 Damien Heenan

Safety Tip of the Week Safe Communication While Riding Being able to communicate while motorcycling is a good thing. But there are a few things to remember to keep you safe. Before you ride, try out the communication device. That way you’ll know it works, and both you and the people you intend to communicate with will know how voices sound on the device. That way no one will be startled when they are cruising along. If necessary, be sure the device is plugged in when you get on your bike. Don’t let communication distract you from the road you’re on and the vehicles around you. Distracted driving comes in many forms, not just texting, and it accounts for way too many accidents. Keep within the range of the communication device you’re using. Stay safe out there! - Mike

Safety Tips

How Vision Keeps You Safe

Jan 4, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Safety = Seeing Jesse Murphy from Cascade Motorcycle Safety joined Derek Roberts in our event on motorcycle law. One of the pieces of his course for non-beginner riders is about vision. He pointed out that motorcycle enthusiasts need to practice and use their vision actively and efficiently. He pointed out that there are three kinds of vision: Central vision covers the smallest range; it’s effective only within a three- to five-degree cone. It’s this type of vision that allows use to see detail, to read, to notice a license plate. Because the area we can focus on with central vision is so small, we need to scan the areas ahead and to the side of us. Fringe vision takes our line of sight out to about forty-five degrees. In this area, we can’t read, but we can identify colors and shapes. We use it, for instance, to see the yellow and white lines on the road and to identify vehicles. Peripheral vision goes further to the side than fringe vision. In some people it goes all the way to ninety degrees on either side. This is the type of vision that warned our distant ancestors about predators like saber-tooth tigers. Although it covers the widest range, it is also the most limited. It cannot be used to identify colors or shapes, and certainly not to read, but it catches movement and so serves as our “early warning system” for everything from animals coming out of the woods, to a ball coming from a playground, to a car coming fast beside us. Understanding these types of vision and learning to use them efficiently can help keep us safe on the road. To learn more, contact Jesse.

Safety Tips

Tried + True Tips

Jan 2, 2019 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Expert Advice From Rick Steves Who better to advise us on travel safety than the Pacific Northwest’s own Rick Steves. He suggests that before you travel you begin by photocopying key documents, such as ID and prescriptions. Leave a copy back home with someone who can fax them to you in case you lose your own copy. Get theft insurance for any expensive electronics. Photograph that gear and leave the picture at home in case you need to file a claim. Leave the jewelry at home—why ask for trouble? Use debit or credit cards or traveler’s checks rather than carrying cash. Keep your valuables in a money belt (a zippered pouch you wear under your clothes). Keep items like your laptop in your room or in your hotel safe. Pay attention to where you put things when you unpack. Use a list to make sure you don’t forget things. And give your room a good going-over before you check out. When you’re participating in the Bike Week events, don’t leave things like a camera or your cellphone on your table. Loop the strap of your daypack or purse around your arm, your leg, or the leg of a chair. Use a lock on your motorcycle. It’s true that no lock is impenetrable. However, a thief is more apt to take that unlocked bike over there than waste time fiddling with any lock you’ve used. (Rick applies this principle to suitcases and other bags, but we think it also works for bikes.) Watch out for pickpockets and grab-and-go thieves in crowds, especially if there’s a to-do (which just might be created to distract victims). Keep in physical contact with your stuff. Most of these are common sense precautions, but Bike Week excitement can sometimes erode common sense, so reminders might be useful.

Safety Tips

Tips For Pothole Season

Dec 5, 2018 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Be Safe This Pothole Season! Summer is a wonderful time of the year, but it does have its own hazards for motorcycle enthusiasts. Potholes are dangerous. The steep sides of a pothole can catch your tire and cause you to lose control. In addition, the edges of a pothole are sharp; they can bend or break your wheel rim. Of course, you’ll try to keep a bigger distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you so you get better warning of a pothole and can possibly steer away from it. The problem for commuters is that other vehicles will usurp that space you leave. Sometimes you just have to accept the inevitable, use a “beater bike” for commuting, and keep the shiny new one garaged until the road crews have time to fix them. You can also check out alternate routes where less traffic might mean less damage to the roadbed. Minor maintenance issues that don’t cause a problem on a straight, level road can add to your problems when you hit (or swerve to miss) a pothole. You can minimize that by checking tire pressure each time you ride—a must at any season. Add to that a quick check of wheel, swing arm, and head bearings and snug up the pinch bolts at the fork triple clamps and axles and elsewhere. This might be the best time for the annual flushing and filling of your front forks—at least top up the fluid. Flush and bleed your brakes and replace your shocks if you’ve got a lot of miles on them.

Safety Tips

Child-Proof Your Ride

Oct 7, 2018 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Set An Example With Safety Taking a child for a ride in your sidecar? Here are some basic safety precautions: The child should wear a helmet—DoT approved and preferably with a full-face mask. If the helmet doesn’t have a mask, the child should wear goggles or safety glasses to protect eyes from anything harmful. The child should wear heavy-duty boots, gloves to protect little hands, and a protective jacket. You can also get the child a chest protector. Instruct the child to keep hands and legs inside the sidecar. Be sure the child knows how to corner safely and when and how to brace themselves. Go over any scenarios in which the child needs to know what to do and what not to do. Practice in an empty parking lot if that’s needed. Carefully point out the parts of the motorcycle that will be too hot to touch or that pose other hazards. Use your imagination and remember Murphy’s Law—what can go wrong, will. Ask the child if they feel okay with riding in traffic. If the trip is scary, it’s not really fun, and you want it to be a positive experience. You can ride on neighborhood streets instead of on the highway, right? Never, never, never give a child a ride in the sidecar when you are not fully alert (when you’ve been drinking, for example). The child should not be the first person to ride in your sidecar.

Safety Tips

Riding In a Group - Q&A

Oct 6, 2018 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Three Questions and Answers about Riding in a Group Do I have to ride as fast as the others? No. If it makes you uncomfortable, don’t go so fast. The lead rider should notice you slowing down and set a slower pace. If not, just signal to the sweep rider and drop back. You’ll catch up at the next stop along the way. Is it better to ride side-by-side or in single file? Actually, it’s usually best to ride in a staggered formation, so each rider has room to move from one side of the lane to the other. Each rider should have at least a two-second cushion ahead of them and behind them, and a staggered formation allows for that. Of course, riders pull up side-by-side at a stop sign. And, when visibility is low because of turns or fog or anything else, when approaching a toll-booth, and when the road surface is iffy, single file is best. We’ve got a pretty big group. Should we divide into smaller units? It’s always a good idea to have buddies look out for each other. If you divide into smaller units, it makes riding in city streets easier. What’s more, it one of you has trouble, just the smaller unit can stop to help instead of everyone on the ride. Stay safe out there! - Mike

Safety Tips

Staying Safe at Sturgis

Oct 6, 2018 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Sturgis: Safe or Sorry The big thing to remember about the great motorcycle rally at Sturgis is that there are a lot of people and a lot of motorcycles. You will always be riding in a group. If you aren’t used to that, first learn the rules for riding in a group, which we discussed here and then use the many local group rides to get practice. The streets of Sturgis are crowded. If you have trouble handling your motorcycle in crowds or at slow speeds, you might need to practice those skills ahead of time, too, or even re-think the trip. According to the Sturgis Police Department, about a quarter-of-a-million dollars worth of bikes are stolen at the rally each year. Of course, the more expensive bikes, customs, and show bikes are most popular. The Department says you can minimize your chances of having your bike stolen if you: Avoid parking in poorly lit areas. If people hanging around seem too interested in your motorcycle, move it. Don’t leave riding gear, cameras, souvenirs, and the like on your ride.

Safety Tips

Frontline Fashion

Sep 10, 2018 Eagle Leather

Safety Tip of the Week Fashionably Safe It’s great to have so many styles and options in motorcycle jackets, but what safety factors should you consider? The thickness of the leather determines how much abrasion it will take before shredding and exposing your skin (which doesn’t take abrasion well at all). Lightweight jackets made of leather that’s about 1 mm thick are certainly better than a flannel shirt and might be fine in a slow slide. Much better is the general-purpose width: 1.2 mm. That doesn’t sound too thick, but it makes a big difference. Heavyweight leather is about 1.4 mm thick and is used for racing jackets and by professional riders. Untreated leather leaks, and treated leather might be water-resistant, but it cannot be waterproof. On the other hand, good leather is always windproof. Check the stitching by pulling gently on either side of a seam. The holes should not enlarge and the thread should not stretch. Take the zipper all the way up and down and be sure it doesn’t bind. Be sure any fastenings on the cuffs or waist work as they should. A safe jacket fits well. To get good fit, wear the clothes you ride in when you buy your jacket. Check that it doesn’t pinch or bind but do remember that leather will adapt to your body to some extent. If you’re buying a jacket with armor, move around with the armor in to be sure it won’t shift out of position and that it’s comfortable to wear.

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