Safety Tips on Motorcycle Riding (Base on my own experience)

I'm so thankful for my wife's gift. I told her before that I wanted to buy a protective gear for myself because I know I'm always at risk of accidents. Then 2 days ago after we arrived from shopping for our "paninda" to our small store a delivery boy came with a package. Then my wife @savel said, open it. I was surprised because I just told her last week that I'm planning to buy a motorcycle protective gear then she already ordered one for me.

Even my child tried wearing it thinking it's a super hero costume!lol..😊😁

After having this I was inspired to write down something about motorcycle safety tips. By the way here's a picture the last time I got into accident which I hit a dog on the street 2 years ago.

During the accident I'm wearing helmet, jacket, jeans and gloves. But even I have gloves I still got the scratch on my palm.

On that time I don't have a knee pad yet that's why I bought a pair of it as well as elbow pad after that accident. I was also hit by a bus before in front of the traffic light when it's about to turn red. When I saw the traffic light turned yellow I slowly stopped and the bus on my back hit me and I was thrown away good thing I wasn't hit by other vehicles crossing. Thanks to the driver he paid me P5000 for my medical treatment and repair of motorcycle. I'm so thankful I haven't experience to have broken bones. I still run fast but not faster than I do before. I also focus on the road and I checked my motorcycle before hitting the road.

Here are some safety tips I learned based on my experience

• Avoid overtaking on the right side especially to a passenger vehicles like jeepney or bus(unless vehicles are not moving due to traffic) When you're following public transfortation vehicles and someone from the passengers says "para!" or "stop" in English most passenger vehicles will immediately turn to the right side without signals (most of the times) So it's gonna be risky on a motorcycle to overtake on the right side.

• Use protective gears at all times. All people know about this but there's a lot of people that are not following. Protective gears saves lives of many so don't forget to wear it. In Manila I always see some motorcycle riders who are just not wearing their helmets properly. Some are just putting it above their heads not totally wearing it. Its unsafe, possibly they are just bringing up their helmets to avoid being ticketed by traffic enforcers.

See this picture of my helmet. That scratch on my helmet was when I crashed because I hit a dog. If I don't wear helmet on that time probably that scratch should be on my face.

• Follow the traffic lights. A lot people are violating this especially the traffic lights that has a countdown timer. Some are starting to run even the the traffic light was still on red (around 2-3 seconds to turn green) It's risky especially when other vehicles across the road tried beating the red light.

• Check everything important before leaving like lights, breaks, engine oils and tires. I have experienced of I almost got into accident when my front tire exploded while I'm running around 90kph. My motorcycle wiggled, good thing I was able to manage it to stop without crashing. When I look on my front tires it's already thin. The boy on vulcanizing said it should be replace. That was something that I haven't noticed before because what I always do is just ride and go without checking everything.

• Always use signal lights. It's very important to use signal lights whenever you'll turning left, right, overtaking etc..

• Be sure to use horns/buzzers if needed. Always use horn when there are people on the sidewalk so they will know you're coming to prevent them crossing on wrong timing. You can also use horns whenever there are animals beside the streets.

These are just the tips that I can think as of today. If you wanted to add feel free to use the comment section.

"My mission is to be a person with dignity, honest and loyal to my wife, a loving father, and someone generously willing to share what I have."- @ayerz