All this week, our motorcycle accident lawyers have blogged about the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Motorcycle Skill Test Practice Guide for new riders.  Today’s practice exercise focuses on making safe lane changes with the motorcycle.

Exercise Three: Making Safe Lane Changes

By practicing these exercises, you should be able to execute lane changes and safely weave between traffic as well as change your direction.  Unsafe lane changes cause a lot of accidents, so new motorcyclists will need to make sure they learn this skill for the driving test and to prevention motorcycle crashes when out on the road.

Drill One: 30-Foot Weave

Start your motorcycle at a marker at the end of the lot.  Go to the right of the first marker, left of the second, right of the third, and so on until you reach the end.  Practice this at 15 mph (see the blue diagram to the right).

Drill Two: 20-Foot Weave

Perform this exercise the same way you did drill number one.  Practice this drill at 15 mph (see the light-blue diagram to the right).

Coaching Tips

  • Make sure your head and eyes are up and keep your knees in.
  • Weave by directing the handlebars in the direction you want to go.  Press right to lean right, and press left to lean left.
  • Maintain a steady speed.
  • Do not brake while weaving.

Common Problems & Recommended Corrections

  1. If you swing too wide away from the markers, keep looking forward with your eyes up, decrease your lean angle and press less on the handlebars.
  2. Should you find yourself hitting any markers, keep looking forward with your eyes up, increase your lean angle slightly and press down more on the handlebars.
  3. Too much handlebar movement can be remedied by maintaining your speed.  Try not to slow down or brake.

Check out the other blogs in this series:

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