bike positioning on the road.

[FROSTY:Me]

Something I've noticed amongst new riders is the habit of hugging the left hand side of the road whilst riding.
Its a potential problem for ya and a habit I'd strongly discourage.
I use the phrase Take Ownership of the Road.
The place I suggest riding is the right hand wheel track in your lane.
That puts you about 800mm from the right hand sider of your lane.
It give you maximum view of the road around corners and makes you more visible to other road users. Theres also a lot less "stuff' on the road there.
Theres a whole heap of other reasons But I guess ya get the gist of wot Im sayin.
Hey this isn't a hard and fast "rule" --Just an observation over the years

[bugjuice]

well said.. plus cars can be likely to pull into the lane you're using on multi-laned roads, and not see you're there until it's too late, or you scare the crap out of them.. and hopefully they don't touch you and knock you off..

[hXc]

I agree with you Frosty. You should ride in the right-hand wheel track in your lane to make yourself more visible to on-coming traffic etc. But it is also illegal to ride otherwise isn't it. You should ride/drive the closest you can without being dangerous to the right of the lane. If you are riding/driving to the left then it is expected that you are letting people pass you or you are pulling over. Can a cop back this up if it is true please? I'm not sure that it is but if it isn't, it is logical.

[pritch]

I have seen the phrase "dominate your lane". I use left track, right track, or centre of lane depending on circumstances. Just lately I'm spending more time in the middle when it's wet so as to avoid those shiny tar patches...

A cage driver recently commented adversely on the way I was parked, in the middle of the car park toward the back. He didn't think a bike should use the whole space. On the other hand I like lotsa space around, driving or parked.

[hXc]

I have seen the phrase "dominate your lane". I use left track, right track, or centre of lane depending on circumstances. Just lately I'm spending more time in the middle when it's wet so as to avoid those shiny tar patches...

Riding in the middle is bloody dangerous mate. That's where the oil and shit would leak from a car and it builds up in the middle of the road. Don't agree with you, sorry.

[FROSTY:Me]

I have seen the phrase "dominate your lane". I use left track, right track, or centre of lane depending on circumstances. Just lately I'm spending more time in the middle when it's wet so as to avoid those shiny tar patches...

A cage driver recently commented adversely on the way I was parked, in the middle of the car park toward the back. He didn't think a bike should use the whole space. On the other hand I like lotsa space around, driving or parked.

Pritch--I hear ya dude --and I would guess you're fairly experienced -
Im more thinking of new riders with limited time on the road.
Id suggest center of road is not such a good place because its where the center of the car/truck is --oil etc gets dumped there more than anywhere else.--actually not true --but the cars tend to mop up/pick up stuff actually in their wheel tracks.

[TwoSeven]

I agree with you Frosty. You should ride in the right-hand wheel track in your lane to make yourself more visible to on-coming traffic etc.

Not quite true. You'll get yourself killed riding there - its smack in the cars blind spot.

What you *should* be doing is making sure you have a safe following distance of at least 3 secs (and yes it does require riding slow). Most of the riders I see tailgate because they think they have good brakes - yet you look in the wreckers and see how many bikes have mashed front ends.

Next you want to position yourself in your lane so that you can see the furthest both straight ahead and down side turnings. That means you have to change your position IN the lane fairly often and it also means you have to adjust your speed.

For a left hand side road, cars on the left and left hand obstruction its right side of lane, opposite for muck on the right.

Never follow behind a car, always about 6" to either side of it. That way, if you cock up an emergency brake, worst you'll do is pull up alongside.

You usually find that people who make firm rules about where to travel like always on the left or always on the right are the ones that have the most incidents because they dont seem to plan for the unexpected.

[MSTRS:Me]

Not quite true. You'll get yourself killed riding there - its smack in the cars blind spot.

Hmmmmm.....I've been riding nearly 35yrs. I sit myself predominantly in the right wheel track & I aint dead yet. Yes - I move about in the lane depending on conditions etc, but the right side of the lane is best as a rule.
1. gives you more room to manouvre/react.
2. discourages dodgy lane-sharing (shall we say)
3. allows the rider to see both the interior mirror & right wing mirror of the cage in front. (Heaps of trucks have the sign that says "If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you" which explains my reasoning)

[FROSTY:Me]

Not quite true. You'll get yourself killed riding there - its smack in the cars blind spot.
You usually find that people who make firm rules about where to travel like always on the left or always on the right are the ones that have the most incidents because they dont seem to plan for the unexpected.

I think you're missin the point dude.
This thread was pointed at newer riders not at those with enough experience to make informed decisions.
How are you in a cars blind spot---Oncoming traffic,traffic turning from either the left or right of you or for that matter directly in front of you-Wheel track puts ya right in the middle of their rear vision mirror.
What I'm seeing here is a bunch of opinions that will give information overload to a new rider.
On the average the right wheel track offers the safest road position I think that is undeniable. I diddn't go into correct following distance as it just muddies the waters.
A person with miles under the wheels with certainly make use of all the positioning options whilst riding -I certainly do.
The idea here is to offer the greatest chance of avoiding injury to a newer biker.

[James Deuce]

I agree with you Frosty. You should ride in the right-hand wheel track in your lane to make yourself more visible to on-coming traffic etc. But it is also illegal to ride otherwise isn't it. You should ride/drive the closest you can without being dangerous to the right of the lane. If you are riding/driving to the left then it is expected that you are letting people pass you or you are pulling over. Can a cop back this up if it is true please? I'm not sure that it is but if it isn't, it is logical.

Riding in the right hand wheel track is now an offence worth demerit points. You are required to stay as far to the left as possible. LTNZ's rationale, trying to avoid head-on collisions caused by crossing the centre line, is a good one but it doesn't doesn't take motorcycles into account at all.

I won't be keeping to the left because it's bollocks for motorcycles and encourages other road users to overtake you in an unsafe manner.

In the twistys I ride to maximise my sight line and give me the maximum possible room on my side of the road to avoid other road users. Left hand corners I stay to the right and apex late, right hand corners I stay to the left and again apex late. The last point fixes the issue of dangling your upper body and half of your bike on the wrong side of the road. I get as much braking as possible done whilst upright.

[FROSTY:Me]

Riding in the right hand wheel track is now an offence worth demerit points. You are required to stay as far to the left as possible. LTNZ's rationale, trying to avoid head-on collisions caused by crossing the centre line, is a good one but it doesn't doesn't take motorcycles into account at all.

Jim --Nothing new here --As I understand it it has always been a legal requirement to drive as far to the left as practicably possible.
If that was enforced to the letter of the law a shit load of cagers would be getting tickets--well at least where I live they would.
In 27 years of road riding I've never been pulled over for riding in the wrong wheel track

[erik]

Riding in the middle is bloody dangerous mate. That's where the oil and shit would leak from a car and it builds up in the middle of the road. Don't agree with you, sorry.

I think the tyre tracks on chip-sealed roads where the stone chips have worn away and it's just tar are far more slippery in the wet than the middle of the lane.

Oil buildup in the centre of a lane is more of a problem at intersections where the cars sit still in a queue for ages.

That said, if the road surface isn't damaged and it's wet, I'll try to avoid the centre of the lane and stick to one of the tyre tracks.

Another reason to avoid the centre of the lane in traffic (or if you're tailgating someone) is that there may be crap in the middle of the lane like gravel at road works or rocks that have fallen of the back of a truck or something. The cars ahead of you will have already cleared the gravel out of the tyre tracks, but not the centre, and if you're close to the car in front, you may not see the stuff on the road until it's too late.

[Ixion]

I have seen the phrase "dominate your lane". I use left track, right track, or centre of lane depending on circumstances. Just lately I'm spending more time in the middle when it's wet so as to avoid those shiny tar patches...

A cage driver recently commented adversely on the way I was parked, in the middle of the car park toward the back. He didn't think a bike should use the whole space. On the other hand I like lotsa space around, driving or parked.

Ditto, FWIW. Right wheel track most often, but I'll (deliberately) move to centre or left and back again. Depending on which bit of road looks best, and where the shit ain't. And if I see other traffic coming toward me that looks like it might stray over the line.

And also so that the driver if front is more likely to see me if he doesn't check all his mirrors.

Another reason (ain't seen this one mentioned before), I like to "disappear and reappear" in the drivers mirror. So that if I'm following him for a while he says "Where's that bike gone - oh there he is ". That way if I do get into his blind spot hes going to look a bit, not just assume I've gone away. (Yeah, I know, leap of faith to assume he'll look at all. But some do)

Don't think you can make a rule . But if one did, I'd have to say the sticking to left side of lane is the worst position. Go there if there's a reason to, but don't choose it by default.

[Waylander]

A cage driver recently commented adversely on the way I was parked, in the middle of the car park toward the back. He didn't think a bike should use the whole space. On the other hand I like lotsa space around, driving or parked.

Just tell them it's either that or you come a destroy someones car when they hit your bike expecting that parking spot to be empty. Also tell him that it's not just one bike becouse if another biker rols up while you are still inside they can park in the same spot you did.

I do that quite often and find another biker has pulled in next to me when I park in an empty spot. Just one more of those things I like about the biker brother/sisterhood.

[DingDong]

most of the time I dont wait long enough to sit behind any cars so I use the whole road... but when I do, I stick to the left and fair distance behind (four tyres and 1500kg stop a whole lot faster than 2" of front wheel bike rubber.)

A twist of the wrist and I'm gone...