Better Riding: Overtaking and slow riding skills

Be spacially aware when overtaking

Drive 50 miles on an A-road in a car and you'll be lucky to overtake four or five other vehicles. Drive 50 miles on a motorcycle and that number will be more like 500. Overtaking is one of the things that motorcycles do best and so, as riders, we should all be experts...obviously.

Oddly then, a large number of motorcycle accidents occur while overtaking. Perhaps it's not as simple as we think.

Before we proceed, can we take a moment to thank Honda Motorcycles UK for their support in making this content. Safety is one of Honda's business pillars that drives innovations, technology and education. Thank you Honda.

There’s always something new to learn about riding - even our racng heroes still train hard with their riding coaches.

Our professional Motorbike Coach is Mark McVeigh – an experienced rider coach, an ex-MotoGP engineer, a riding academy owner for over 20 years and the inventor of motoDNA rider training tech.

Better Riding – Overtaking tips and slow speed control on a motorcycle

Mark and Michael talk about overtaking techniques and slow speed bike control

How to start an overtake

Mark starts off with a quote. “I like the Mike Tyson analogy where 'everything's fine and dandy until you get punched on the nose'. And that's what it's like with overtaking”. So we'll start off with the basics of what appears to be a simple, straightforward manoeuvre. Here’s your top seven tips for overtaking:

1. The first question is 'Do I need to overtake now?' And the answer depends on what you can see and what's coming up ahead. Position your bike to the outside of your lane (known in riding terms as 'position three') and check to see if the road ahead of the vehicle we want to pass is clear and hazard-free (for things such as junctions, parked cars, pedestrians etc). Check also the lane you’ll be using to do the overtake. Is there any oncoming traffic or a right-turn where a vehicle might stop in the road? Move around in your lane to gather the most amount of information available before committing. Don’t ride too close to the vehicle in front which could block your view or sharpen the angle you pull out at.

2. Check your mirror. It’s essential to have good 360-degree awareness of what's going on behind you, in front of you, to the side, in your blind-spot and in front of the car, etc.

3. Do a life saver before the indicator goes on.

4. Indicator on and another mirror check and life saver.

5. Move out into the overtaking lane and give yourself plenty of room to the side of the vehicle you’re overtaking.

6. Use the power of the bike and/or the momentum to complete the overtake quickly before getting back into your lane.

7. Be aware of your speed - don’t start too far back, too late or in too high a gear. By the time you complete the overtake you could be travelling too quickly for a) the speed limit, and b) to get back into your lane safely.

If you have a bike with enough power to gain momentum easily, you can edge out into the overtaking lane to see if it’s clear before committing to the full move. There’s no harm in checking before executing.

If you’re on a smaller capacity motorbike, or don’t have as much power or torque then the skill of the overtake is in your good decision making, timing and momentum or making sure your engine is operating in the most powerful part of the rev range. Changing down a gear or even two at the point you want to begin the overtake will increase the revs and make the throttle response more direct. A more powerful machine usually has greater acceleration across the rev range and can get the job done with just a small twist of the throttle.

Overtaking a distracted driver on a motorcycle

Drivers can be easily distracted. In modern cars it might be phone calls, social media, music, navigation, passengers or lunchto name but a few.

As riders we have the chance to spot this. We can see often through their rear windscreen and bserve their body language. Plus, we can see down the middle of a line of traffic to judge what's happening in the distance or move left in a left-hand bend to see beyond the van in front. We have the visibility to notice a car gently weaving around as a distracted driver takes their eyes off the road. we se the things that wil make them brake before they do. In the outdoors we can smell if (and what) they’re smoking. All this information lets us give them extra time and space.

Information is key to better riding. we should always be looking fr clues to make better decisions about where to place the bike or adjusting our speed. As a rider we have to be in control of our own decisions.

And we should also accept that we won't see everything. The pothole or animal that the vehicle might swerve to avoid are both common examples.

On other occasions a car might encourage you to overtake by moving to the side of their lane and remaining there - maybe even indicating too. Don’t assume a) they have actually seen you, and b) that it’s safe to pass. Remember, it’s your move, your decision and your safety. Be comfortable that you are ok to go, not just because the vehicle has moved over.

It’s always polite to give a little wave of thanks though, anything we can do to make motorcycling look even more awesome to those who’ve only wondered, is a good thing.

Things to consider as you overtake on a motorcycle?

Ocasionally something happens that we hadn't seen or couldn't predict. Depending on how far through the overtake you are it might be safer to abandon the move and pull back behind the vehicle. Be safe.

An important point here is to also think about where you’ll end up once you’ve overtaken the vehicle in front. Is there enough space in front for you to slot into?

Mark often says, “see, and be seen” and in this motorcycling manoeuvre it is just as important. While it’s not always possible, you would want the slower vehicle to know you’re coming by. They can move over giving you a little more room, they can also give you space to slot into in front of them. A tip I mentioned in a previous episode was to move gently from side to side (very different from weaving aggressively) when travelling behind the slower vehicle, which increases the chance of them seeing you in their mirrors. But don't count on it...

According to RoSPA 15% of motorcyclists involved in an accident were recorded as performing an overtaking manoeuvre. So be vigilant.

What if a driver cuts across me mid-overtake?

‘Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You’, or SMIDSY is a common expression of car drivers who just injured a motorcyclist - most often when turning into or out of a junction. It doesn’t matter who is at fault, any collision between a car/van/lorry and a bike will end up with the rider getting hurt which is why, in the end our safety is down to us and our riding skills. So, be careful, give yourself time, space and as much information as possible, look for the hazards, the junctions, the other vehicles and stay alert.

Don’t get sucked into an overtake without assessing the possibility of the driver doing something unexpected. When exiting a mini roundabout in very slow moving traffic once, I was filtering on a Harley and a Ford Galaxy driver decided to do a U-turn as I aproached. It's a vry common accident and I should have known better. Was it her fault? Yes. But who ended up on the floor? Me. At the time it felt like there wasn’t anything I could have done… or was there? My speed while filtering was slow enough, the road was grippy, the conditions were ideal, but how ready was I to brake? In an urban setting it's a good idea to cover the front brake, saving the half second reaction time and allowing me to stop harder.

And that opens up a whole new chapter of machine ability vs. our reactions. We’ll get into that one another time but essentially a ‘bike will stop better, safer, quicker than the vast majority of riders achieve in an emergency. We don't have the technique and don't practice enough to let us take advantage of modern day electronics, suspension, tyres.

Are there any rules about overtaking when riding in a group?

It’s very easy to get sucked into overtaking and flying past a group of cars if you’re riding with others.

The simple advice here is Don't.

Hang back, take a look, make sure the road is clear but most importantly, act for yourself. Don't rely on others giving signals or peer pressure or anything other than your own skills and judgement. If the rider in front beckons you on, or stays out in the overtaking lane to demonstrate it’s clear, don’t assume that’s what they are doing, or that it is clear. Make each overtake your own responsibility.

How can I practice slow speed machine control for better filtering?

Practicing in a safe, controlled environment allows you to understand and experiment with the clutch bite point, how many revs you need to gain momentum from 0mph, where the balance point of the bike is, the difference it makes when you look up and further into the distance and how tiny body movements can affect the machine. All of which are essential when manoeuvring in tighter areas such as filtering between two lanes of traffic, or even when riding on slippery surfaces such as gravel, mud or through deeper water.

Our advice would be to find a car park which has white lines as a good guide. Here are Mark’s top slow-speed riding tips:

1. Keep you head up and eyes forward. Your balance is in your ears, so if you're looking down or focused a few feet ahead of your front wheel, you can get a little bit dizzy and disorientated.

2. Revs. Basically, Mark tell riders to practice using double the bike's idle speed because on most bikes where the engine crankshaft runs across the frame (pretty much every bike apart from BMW's R-series bikes, Moto Guzzis and Honda's Gold Wing) it's action stabilises the bike and makes it less wobbly.

3. Clutch. Have the clutch in the friction zone, which is the where the clutch lever is out enough to feel the bike moving.

4. Rear brake: use just a little to stabilise the bike

5. Body position. Have your core engaged to help relax your arms

6. Speed. Start practicing at 4-5mph to see if you can stay on that white line.

And then you can try the same exercise while riding in a circle. Keep your head up and looking in the direction of where you want to go, not on the floor directly in front. Use your vision along with the balance of revs, clutch and rear brake to find the sweet stability spot and you’ll soon have the handlebars on full lock.

For reference:

• A hazard-based model of the motorcyclists’ overtaking duration (2020)

• http://www.righttoride.co.uk/virtuallibrary/ridersafety/indepthstudyofmotorcycleacc2004.pdf (2004)   

• https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/motorcyclists/common-motorcycle-crash-causes.pdf (2017)

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