June 1, 2025
Enhancing Motorcycle Visibility: Safety Tips for Riders
In this episode of the Throttle and Roast podcast, host Niels Meersschaert emphasizes the importance of visibility for motorcyclists to enhance safety on the road. He discusses various tweaks that riders can apply to their motorcycles, including using headlights, fog lights, and flashing light modules to stand out. Niels highlights that while color may play a minor role in visibility, the use of effective lighting is crucial for being noticed by other drivers. He also suggests adjusting riding habits and selecting appropriate gear to further reduce the risk of accidents. Overall, the episode focuses on practical strategies for enhancing motorcycle visibility that can help motorcyclists avoid becoming overlooked targets on the road.
Thanks for listening! Follow us on
Instagram
,
FaceBook,
and
X (Twitter).
Leave a review on
Apple Podcasts
,
Podchaser
or your favorite podcast app.
Click the "Send us a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! Please make sure you leave the podcast title. Or if you prefer to leave an audio message, leave us a
voicemail
on our website!
Subscribe to our newsletter
to keep up to date on the latest from the show.
We sometimes use affiliate links in our content. This won’t cost you anything extra, but if you purchase something from one of the links, we may earn some money for coffee. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Looking to start a podcast of your own? Get a
$20 credit
on any paid plan with Buzzsprout.
We host our podcast website https://www.throttleandroast.com with
PodPage
. Sign up with them to host your ...
00:00 - Introduction
01:15 - Motorcycle tweaks
05:37 - Riding habit improvements
11:51 - Riding gear to aid visibility
16:48 - Wrap up
WEBVTT
00:00:00.532 --> 00:00:06.080
Until every windshield has a motorcycle highlighting feature, it's up to us to ensure that we're seen.
00:00:25.850 --> 00:02:12.650
Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. It's almost cliche, but how often have you heard after an accident where the car driver who hit the motorcyclist say, I didn't see him. Being seen is one of the most significant safety improvements we can make as motorcyclists to reduce the risk of accidents. We must acknowledge that being a smaller vehicle, it's easier for others not to see us or to misjudge the distance of a motorcycle. There might even be a tendency not to see the motorcycle as a threat due to its small size, and thus they don't tend to avoid it as much as they probably should. So we're going to explore some ways in which you can improve your visibility examining adjustments that you can make to your motorcycle, as well as strategies for adjusting your riding habits and selecting the right riding gear to help ensure that you don't become a target. So let's start with your motorcycle. Now, if you are fortunate enough to have a relatively new motorcycle, most motorcycles in the US produced since 1979, have the headlights automatically, always on. And this is a great step towards improving the visibility of yourself as a motorcyclist when you're riding. Now, if you happen to have an older motorcycle, or if you are in a country where this is not a requirement, just turning your headlight on actually can go a large way towards improving the visibility and the likelihood that a other vehicle will actually see you as you are approaching. That headlight is going to be very noticeable. Now, a little bit of a caveat to that is certainly here in the United States and throughout much of the world, we now have daytime running lights, which you can think of as effectively the same premise as what we did with the motorcycles of having their headlight always on. But now every vehicle has their headlights always on.
00:02:16.469 --> 00:04:22.365
So another way that you can kind of stand out is turning on your brights. And if you do this during the day, it can help when everyone else has those daytime running lights and help make you again, stand out a bit from the crowd. And if you happen to have a bike that has driving lights or secondary lights, think of these as like maybe fog lights, something to improve your visibility by having an extra pair of lights, this can actually start to change the view of your motorcycle. So most bikes will usually have the secondary lights be a little bit lower and then further out to the sides from the main headlight. So it creates this almost triangle view that can help dramatically improve visibility. Another added benefit is that they'll see that, hey, it is leaning because they'll see this movement in there as you're, you're flicking around. So it does help draw the eye a little bit more toward it and does help then in terms of that visibility or more of the noticing of it, which is really what we're critically looking for. So another option that you can do is look at getting a module which you can use to flicker your lights. And the idea behind this is that your headlight, if it's steady, always on, doesn't necessarily grab a lot of attention. And if you look at bicycles, most bicycles today, they also have typically a headlight and a taillight, but they're often put into a flashing sequence. And while a steady flashing sequence can still be noticeable, oftentimes having an irregular flashing sequence actually gets more attention because it is something that doesn't just become a pattern that you're looking at in the background. So having that flickering can really make a difference And then another one that you can do, and this will be with a lot of driving lights will actually give you a module that allows you to connect this into your entire system where you can actually connect your horn to your brights and your driving lights, such that when you hit the horn, your driving lights will come on full bright, high beams will come on full bright.
00:04:18.865 --> 00:05:19.413
And it really then just gets the attention, the combination of that horn along with those lights. So this is really the key ways is your lights are the biggest advantage that you can do to make a difference of having noticeability onto your bike. Now, there may be some people who may say to you, well, the color of your bike is going to make a difference. And maybe there's an argument to be made for that. But in truth, if you look at if you are a motorcycle that is coming towards another vehicle, your profile is very, very narrow. So the color of the bike is really not going to be noticeable. The only thing that they're going to notice is that headlight and maybe your driving lights. And if you think about when you're coming on, let's say, a side view. So if you're coming into an intersection at a 90 degree angle to another then they may notice color of your bike because it has a little bit more visibility into that angle.
00:05:15.932 --> 00:05:33.223
But that's not typically what you're getting into most accidents. Most accidents tend to be where someone is going to turn in front of you. They didn't see you. And therefore, bringing that attention as you are approaching them head on is really going to be the big difference for your motorcycle.
00:05:37.572 --> 00:05:48.351
So I do want to switch gears a little bit and talking about of when you ride your motorcycle, because the key thing, again, we're trying to think about how to improve our visibility.
00:05:49.541 --> 00:06:26.836
And while I personally do like to ride early in the morning because you get an early step onto the day, there's not as much traffic. The temperatures aren't quite as hot. So it can be really good. But if you're going really, really early, like just after sunrise, the problem that you can get into is that the sun, especially if it's behind you, is going to just overwhelm any sort of light that you have on your bike. And people won't be able to see you as effectively as if the light was coming from behind and lighting you up much more fully.
00:06:27.237 --> 00:06:49.146
This also works in reverse, though. So if the car is being blocked because you're riding into the sun, you're not going to see them either. So early parts of the day and the same thing goes for as you get closer to sunset, the later parts of the day, that position of the sun will almost act as a camouflage for the motorcycle.
00:06:45.307 --> 00:07:14.543
So be very, very cautious when you're riding at those times of day, because it does minimize your chance of being seen by an opposing vehicle, especially when you happen to be in the other direction where the sun is behind you. just be mindful of when you ride now, in addition to when you ride as one of your first riding habits, the other one that you can do is where you ride. And there's a few different elements to this that I want to kind of highlight.
00:07:14.653 --> 00:07:18.553
Number one is let's start with lane positioning. Now, in the U.
00:07:18.553 --> 00:09:04.178
S. you want to be in the left third of the lane so you're visible to oncoming traffic and the rearview mirror of the vehicle in front of you. And think of this as your home base, but you can move around from that in the lane. Now, if you're riding in the U. K. or in another place where they will ride on the other side of the road, obviously, you want to switch your position to the opposite. And instead of being on the left side of the lane, you would be on the right hand side of the lane to help aid that visibility for opposing traffic. Now, there's an alternate position. And you could think of this as basically the inverse of that home position, Imagine that you're riding on a two-lane highway and you see a large truck coming from the other direction. And it's a passing zone. So there's a chance that a car might pull out to try to get around that truck. And this would be a good time to move over to that right side of the lane instead of the left side of the lane. And this is saying that you're riding in the U. where we're riding on the right hand side of the road. And the reason for that is that now, by you getting to the outside part of the lane, you're improving your visibility for that driver seeing around the truck. And therefore, they're going to have more likelihood to see that you're there, not then start to try to pass. If you're in the U. ., of course, reverse this. And you're going to then, when you have that truck coming in the opposite direction, that could be a car behind it looking to pass, move over to the left-hand side of the lane to make yourself more visible. Now, there is one area when you're getting into a traffic situation that is a pretty common one when most people will run into accidents. And I alluded to this a little bit in some of the earlier sections. And this has to do with intersections. And in particular, here in the U. S.
00:09:04.178 --> 00:18:18.259
we'll probably talk about a left-turning vehicle. And if you're in the U. K. you might talk about a right-turning vehicle. and this is where that vehicle was waiting to turn across your lane of traffic to make a left-hand turn and if they don't notice you they may turn directly in front of you and then you're going to smack right into them very very common accident i actually witnessed one with my family last summer unfortunately the rider was killed in the accident so it is a very very horrible type of a incident because it is effectively a head-on collision that's going on so one thing that you can do when you're waiting or see that other vehicle is waiting to make that turn is look for the wheels moving from straight ahead so that they start to almost you know roll towards one side of the other usually if they're making a left-hand turn that you'll see the wheel start to turn a little left you may start to see a little bit of forward movement and that's a hint that that person's going to go now anytime you're approaching an intersection one of the best things that you can do is cover your brake and your clutch what i mean by this is rest your fingers directly on so that if you need to immediately hit the brakes or the clutch you can do so you don't have to then move your fingers out to reach it you're already in there the other thing you may want to do is roll off that throttle just a little bit just slow down give yourself a little bit more buffer zone so that if you did need to come to an emergency stop you're not stopping from a higher rate of speed and again this is when you see that other vehicle getting ready to make that turn that is the likely situation so anytime that you're approaching an intersection where there is traffic can turn in front of you just do yourself a favor slow down cover that brake in the clutch and try to make eye contact with that other driver when you make that eye contact they may then notice that oh you are be a little careful with this because don't assume that just because they're looking in your general direction that they actually see you they may be looking past you but this is why what we talked about earlier of having those driving lights having the flickering lights having your high beams on all of these things can help aid the visibility so that your bike is going to be noticed and then they're going to say okay i can't turn right now because that vehicle is approaching me very quickly the other thing you might do maybe intentionally you know flip your brights up a little bit more so you pop them up into there just to get that attention and honk that horn just again you're trying to make sure that they have visibility and notice you are there but be careful because some people may interpret that as a signal oh yes you can go go ahead in front of me so just be very clear with what your intentions are because again we're trying to get that visibility so that deals with everything of where you ride and when you ride these are the sort of the riding habits that you can do to help improve your visibility on your motorcycle and the last one i want to touch on is really the one that does help in terms of improving visibility beyond these couple of steps that we've talked about and this is your riding now for riding gear typically what you're going to hear is a lot of motorcyclists like the classic look they like the all black leather jackets and maybe they're using riding jeans maybe they're using leather chaps but they tend to be fairly dark colored clothing and while this looks really cool it's got that aesthetic that everybody loves the downside is that black is going to blend into the background fairly well and you don't have a very large footprint because you are not a large vehicle so think of this tiny little splotch of black maybe with a little headlight on it that's coming towards you and that's all that you see it's not going to be a very noticeable bit so this is why some riders will actually choose to use higher visibility type of clothing and there's a couple different options you can do first one is instead of having a black jacket go for a lighter colored jacket the lighter the color the more noticeable it will be and some people even go beyond just having a lighter color like a white or a gray kind of a jacket and they'll go even having full high visibility gear this bright yellow accents that will really be noticeable they're very unusual in nature if you look at most emergency services vehicles they will have this high vis and again it's that as they're trying to get to an emergency because we are on that smaller footprint vehicle on a motorcycle high vis is going to be probably your largest single benefit that you get in terms of bringing in that notice now the other thing that you can is think of it not just in terms of your clothing like your jacket for example or your pants but think also of your helmet now your helmet is the highest point on the bike typically and if you have that black helmet that everybody loves to ride with it's cool it looks great but the thing is no one sees it and this is why if you really want to accentuate your visibility a lighter color is going to be better now while some people will get like a silver or a gray because it matches the color of their bike i've even done that earlier in my riding career the downside is silver kind of looks the same tone as the pavement and so it blends in it's like camouflage for riding on a road and that's the antithesis of what we're trying to do here we are trying to make ourselves stand out from the colors that are behind us so think of you want anti-camouflage how do i look as dissimilar from the background as possible and that's where having a lighter colored jacket is going to make a real difference personally my current helmet that i'm using most of the time is a Schuberth c5 in a high-vis yellow very very noticeable you've heard me talk about why i like modular helmets in the past so it's it's a just it's a wonderful helmet in so many different ways but the high-vis really does help in terms of that visibility so even if you wanted to maybe maintain that dark black leather jacket i'd say at the very least make sure your helmet because that is the highest point and it's also the one where you can move your head to actually even create some movements that gets more noticed have that light colored or high-vis colored helmet is really going to make a difference for you the other one is if you're riding at night you might want to look at making sure that you have proper pieces on your riding gear so a lot of riding gear will have scotch light these reflective strips that are put onto the riding gear sometimes you'll put it on as a vest that you put on top of your riding gear and this is another great option so if you have that black leather riding jacket and you don't want to invest in a whole other jacket right now well maybe even just looking at getting a high viz vest with that scotch light reflective surface on there that's going to help you be much more noticed and it's going to help you especially at night where the headlights of the other vehicles will now reflect off of that and it becomes really really a shimmering view and much more noticeable for that vehicle again you are a small footprint you have that one singular headlight you're mostly not going to be noticed so getting as much of this light colored riding gear light colored helmets the reflective riding gear this is going to be the thing that is going to make the biggest single difference in improving your visibility So we covered a few things in this episode we talked about ways that you can on your motorcycle make some adjustments to improve your visibility and this typically revolves around the headlights maybe adding in some flickering functions into your headlights adding in those driving lights or secondary lights it really does help create that light triangle to help improve your riding visibility the next thing we talked about was your riding habits so think about what time of day where is the sun position behind you is that going to make it harder for a other vehicle to notice you and thinking about your lane positioning as you're coming up into different situations so if you're just riding along a normal two-lane highway if there's a truck that's coming the other way that may be blocking your view maybe you're going to position yourself to the outside of the lane to be more visible same thing for intersections watch for that turning vehicle and then finally we talked about riding gear we talked about how lighter colored riding gear is going to become much more noticeable you are aiming to make as dissimilar a view as possible from your background and this is where you're going to help with improving your visibility it may not be the most stylish thing and people will complain about that but if you want to arrive alive you kind of have to make sure that you're being So my question for you is, what is your go-to strategy for how to improve your visibility while you're on your motorcycle? You can share your thoughts by texting the show link in the show notes, or you can leave us a voicemail at throttleandroast.com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening.
00:18:18.259 --> 00:18:19.098
I'll talk to you next week.
00:00:00.532 --> 00:00:06.080
00:00:25.850 --> 00:02:12.650
00:02:16.469 --> 00:04:22.365
00:04:18.865 --> 00:05:19.413
00:05:15.932 --> 00:05:33.223
00:05:37.572 --> 00:05:48.351
00:05:49.541 --> 00:06:26.836
00:06:27.237 --> 00:06:49.146
00:06:45.307 --> 00:07:14.543
00:07:14.653 --> 00:07:18.553
00:07:18.553 --> 00:09:04.178
00:09:04.178 --> 00:18:18.259
00:18:18.259 --> 00:18:19.098
