What makes a good rider?

[Deadman Walking]

Yeah - I'm with that - 'survival' over a period of time indicates a good rider.

'Smoothness' has a lot going for it too.

I rate 'predictability' highly.
My little mate Rusty won a world proddy bike championship and knows how to steer them. He said, 'The best compliment you can pay a bloke on the road is that you can predict when, where and what they are going to do. They are by far the safest because it's the same as I'm gunna do and I'm not gunna run up their arse.'
Pragmatist our Russ.

personally I rate a rider (particularly those in front of me) from the amount of hesitation they show when faced with a tight situation (in front of them). I do a lot of commuting through Auckland traffic, and the hesitating riders invariably do the dumbest things, causing the most problems for other road users...at the other end of the scale are the young (bulletproof) riders who belt through the traffic at ridiculous speeds, causing (unseen) chaos behind them as car drivers react to their passage...
those are the ones who scare me the most, as I have to deal with the fallout of their passage.
Road Courtesy is my other big thing...if another biker is coming up behind me, threading faster than I am comfortable with, I pull back into the traffic and wave them through...but often I end up behind another rider who hasn't even noticed I am on the road. That can be frustrating, waiting to be seen.

A competent rider, moving through the traffic without leaving 'ripples' behind them, is a pleasure to see, and a joy to follow.

[Big Dog]

I vote for this guy.


The guy following him appears to be having trouble not tying up whatever he is following on.
In spite of knee down.

[ZeroIndex]

The guy following him appears to be having trouble not tying up whatever he is following on.
In spite of knee down.

listen to the sound of the engine... it's also a Goldwing... you can hear the flat 6... Sounds quite a lot like a Nissan Skyline... I would guess that's the pegs or the rear bodyworkscraping, not knee-sliders

[moko]

Smooth riding and observation are the signs of a good rider.It's not only car drivers who don't look,I've had a couple of near misses when bikes have pulled out to filter without thinking to look and see if anyone's already coming through.Also watched an 800 BMW rider get himself into a potentially very nasty situation last year out in the sticks.He went to overtake the car in front while approaching a blind corner,bad enough but I could see the top of the truck heading our way over the top of the hedges and so should he have,not only was he taking a chance but the hazard was there to see if he'd been looking,wrong place to over-take anyway but with something big and bloody solid approaching if only he'd looked more than straight ahead it was just plain stupid.
Easy enough to read the road,tractor tyre tracks in the road,hey guess what leaves those and he might just be around the corner.Gates on fields are there because people and vehicles use them and that cow crap didn't drop from the sky,just common sense really and a good rider will be observing and thinking all the time,not razzing along imagining he's Valentino at Silverstone while not noticing the signs of a possible hazard.

[Drew]

Holly shit, I cant believe how fast those dudes are riding a pair of fargone GOLDWINGS!!!

Those are some "good riders".

[JayRacer37]

a honda was in front AGAIN!??!?!?!

this is getting boring...

You havn't been watching MotoGP have you......

[Riff Raff]

Holly shit, I cant believe how fast those dudes are riding a pair of fargone GOLDWINGS!!!

Ditto. that's pretty darned impressive.

[Cr1MiNaL]

is it a good thing to match da riders lines in front of u ? what if he is a total muppet or is willin to risk binnin his bike n ur not? comments....

[Cr1MiNaL]

those are some scary turns mate ! ffs

[Big Dog]

those are some scary turns mate ! ffs

And your doing it on an R6, not a two wheeled RV.

[cowboyz]

is it a good thing to match da riders lines in front of u ? what if he is a total muppet or is willin to risk binnin his bike n ur not? comments....

That is where trust in those you ride with comes in. There a very few guys who I trust to follow closely or to be following me closly but there are a few.