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Motorcycle Basic Night Riding Tips

Just like riding a bike is not limited to how fast you can go, but to how efficient you apply the brakes, riding during the night requires far more special considerations than doing it during daylight. This is why while most of you think it’s basically the same thing, you should consider twice, and start taking a couple of things into considerations if you find yourself riding at night. Some riders enjoy night riding more, others just tolerate it occasionally, but there are some motorcyclists that can’t stand it at all, so if you have any reservations then maybe you shouldn’t do it at all. Vision
First off, the most difficult obstacle to overcome on a motorcycle is the glare from oncoming traffic, as it is different from the glare you receive while riding in your car, and takes a while to get comfortable with. In fact, looking into a bright light at night causes temporary blindness, so you should avoid looking directly into headlights.

Also, although you might think you are familiar with some parts of the road from during the day, you could be surprised to see that these get altered in darkness. Moreover, you should also consider using your high beam when there is no other traffic.

Visor

There are times when you must continue riding at night, so you could find yourself having the same helmet visor you used during the day: a dark, tinted one that will reduce your perception. If you know you might be caught up in this situation you should take the clear visor with you, or use an adaptive one. We are talking here about those of you that wear a helmet from a manufacturer that also offers a photochromic one in the range. This means the visor will darken based on the amount of UV light and go back to full clear once the sun goes down.

Visibility

Wearing the proper protective gear will also help keeping you out of trouble at night. So that other users see you in time and avoid risky situations, you should get the pants and jacket with the reflective stripes. Also, you should use reflective tape to line the side of your wheel rims, the rear panels of tail trunks and saddlebags, or adding extra taillights. Riding a black bike and wearing black will get you nowhere.

Riding Tactics

The most often procedure among riders is following another vehicle at night to take advantage of the additional lights. This way, by observing when the lights of the vehicle in front of you bounce up and down, you can get an idea of where potholes are. Compared to day riding, you should also reduce your speed, and increase the distance between you and the vehicle you are following to at least 4 seconds so you get enough space for braking.

Speaking of braking, doing it with the front brakes causes the patch of light from your headlights to dip towards you, so you should use more rear braking and engine breaking to maximise the view of the road ahead of you.

Flexibility about lane position is another thing to take into consideration. Adjusting speed and changing lanes will help creating more space around you and help avoid possible problems. You should also wait a few minutes after leaving a bright area before getting on the move again, and allow your eyes time to adjust to the low light level.

Behavior

Night is usually the time when people use to get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol, or the level of testosterone in their body starts screaming for adrenaline, so you could meet vehicles that seem to pace you. If you find yourself teased by drivers that just want show off in front of your friends, looking for entertainment or for a drag race, than you should remain calm and avoid responding in any way. Remember! You are far more vulnerable riding a motorcycle than driving a car and the last thing you want is getting yourself killed.
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