Left turns

According to this

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...ads_035439.pdf

left turns are a significant hazard for bikers. Why?

'Cos you could cross over into other lane if you fluff it, no?

Makes me always stay more central in the lane for left turns compared to right.

because you can't see round the corner as easily and to put yourself in the best position for visibility you're putting yourself in the line of people dangerously cutting the corner.

I guess they are also geometrically tighter. Still seemed a bit strange to me.

They are no tighter than right handers

Nor are there necessarily any more visibility issues than right handers

But oncoming traffic could easily cause trouble if you are following a wide line in left handers

And crossing the line is not a good idea

It would be interesting to hear what an IAM person or suchlike had to say on it. I wonder if they advise steering a more central line in left handers?

Yeah, if you go wide on a right hander you'll get the kerb/hedge/old granny. If you do the same on a left hander you'll get the volvo coming the other way. Or rather, it'll get you.

More experienced riders will tend to take a left hander closer to the centre line for a better view, which could be risky if someone else is coming the other way and cutting the corner. Less experienced riders will tend to keep over to the middle and so get a reduced view which may not give them enough info in time if they're still going fast and there's something nasty round the bend.

Odd - every time I've messed up on a bend it's always been a right-hander - two offs and at least 3 near-offs in my first year or two on the bike. Never had any problem with left handers. I have to say that as the wife is left-handed...

Originally Posted by huge

They are no tighter than right handers

Nor are there necessarily any more visibility issues than right handers

But oncoming traffic could easily cause trouble if you are following a wide line in left handers

And crossing the line is not a good idea

It would be interesting to hear what an IAM person or suchlike had to say on it. I wonder if they advise steering a more central line in left handers?

If you cut your line through the corner tight in your lane you will have less visibility on a left than a right. If you take the corner wide (as the IAM advise) to get the best view round the corner you will still have better visibility on a right hander as opposed to a left, unless you go into the other lane.
I will happily go into the other lane if I can see that I will be able to move over safely when a car presents itself.

See bends are tricky blighters and they're all different, so its hard to generalise about them.

in IAM, position, observation, and speed, are key when doing any type of manuever. Techincally being over the left as far as possible on a right bend, and as far as possible on the right in a left bend is advised, but only if the road surface, and observations says its safe to do so (signs of sideroads, or other oncoming hazards).

if you draw the diagram of position for identical left and right bends, you get marginally more view of the bend before the vanishing point on a right hand bend due to position. This is why some IAM folks take the extreme right position of going over the white line when taking left handers. This may give you a few more metres of visability which could equate to 0.01 seconds more warning of a hazard. I'm not convinced thats the benefit.

I think its all to do with the riders mindset, if you're positioned right, its a sign that you're actively observing the road ahead, and are "scanning" for hazards, being over the line is just an exzagerated effect of the scanning.

my personal view of why more bikers are injured on left handers rather than right handers is twofold

1) taking a left bend with poor positioning and/or observation can cause panic and midbend braking, which cause the bike to go over the paint causing stability issue compounding the lack of control. Increasing the change of lowsiding or colliding with oncome traffic.

2) I believe theres also a psychological effect of the direction of the bend, on right handers you know there no more road to your left, and so position is forced into your planning, where as on a left hand bend, you know deep down that theres another lane to your right, and I believe this makes people less focused, so when they do get it wrong, they automatically slip into the other lane, increasing the risk of an accident.

just my thoughts, but I'm no expert.

Hi,

I understand that this is a bit of a hotly (well, warmly) debated topic amongst advanced motorcycling groups.

IAM says ride nearer the centre-line on left bends whilst other people - such as the advanced trainer in BMF's M/C Rider this month - says not.

IAM, however, stresses that riders should sacrifice position for safety though so I'm not sure what they're arguing about

Or do you mean left hand junctions?

[Biker Biggles]

Maybe its all in the statistics.Crashes on left hand bends are more likely to result in death or serious injury because of that Volvo coming the other way.These end up figuring in the stats.Crashes on right handers end up in the hedge and possibly result in less serious injuries on average,so give lower statistics.Just my theory and not in any way BASAT.