![]() Tapping your brakes also works great for tailgaters or to warn your riding buddies of a dangerous road condition. Many people don’t know that their brakes have a secondary function I like to call “Hey you behind me, make sure you’re paying attention to what’s happening up here.” Tapping your brakes rapidly turns your brake light into a giant blinker, hopefully taking the attention of the driver behind you from his burrito to the massive traffic jam he will slam into should he not drop his lunch and act quickly. Obviously we can’t avoid blind spots completely, but make your passes swiftly and then get into a lane position that a) can be seen by all cars on the road and b) gives you a little buffer should one of them still not see you. Hanging out behind the b-pillar of a four-door sedan is not where you want to ride. If you position your motorcycle in a place where drivers can’t see you without moving their heads and looking for you, you’re leaving your fate to their vigilance. Bonus Points for applying it around your wheel rims, not only does reflective tape make a cool rim stripe, but wheels remain largely unobscured by bodywork or rider when the bike is side-on to a light source, such as at a 90-degree intersection at night. Reflective tape won’t do much for you during the daytime, but will act as independent light sources at night and make your motorcycle look like a much larger object. ![]() We recommend putting pieces on the front of your forks and on any piece of your motorcycle that sticks out a good distance from a light source (top of a tall windscreen or the edges of your panniers). Using reflective tape increases the visual footprint of your motorcycle. It also brings the added benefit of decreasing your commitment to the high visibility lifestyle, should you decide you don’t want to be that bright all the time, as it’s easier to own multiple jackets than multiple motorcycles. This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to make sure you’re visually distinct. We’ve learned since we were young that high visibility yellow or orange means caution or to pay attention, so wearing a high visibility jacket or helmet draws driver’s eyes instantly to them. This means we have as big a role to play as the motorcycles we ride when it comes to being seen. On most motorcycles the rider takes up about as much visual space as the bike itself. Riding a brightly colored motorcycle can exponentially increase the chance you’ll be noticed, even if only seen out of the corner a driver’s eye a fraction of a second difference in reaction time can be the difference between life and death. Darkly colored motorcycles only exacerbate the issue, making our tiny little rocket ships that much more difficult to recognize on the road. This makes them both harder to see and harder to gauge the distance from. Motorcycles are already at a disadvantage on the road because they are far smaller and can accelerate and decelerate far faster than car drivers are accustomed to.
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