Publisher: Motorbooks International

144 Pages

126 Color Photos and Diagrams

$19.95 US, £12.99, $28.95 CAN

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Motorcycling for the Risk-Averse

Just when you think there's nothing left to learn about riding safely, along comes Ride Hard, Ride Smart by Pat Hahn.

With years of experience in motorcycle safety and strategy as a springboard, Hahn digs deep into safe riding techniques to develop new, big-picture, and sometimes unorthodox methods of staying safe on two wheels. This includes subtle mental strategies, off-beat advice, explicit techniques for dealing with trouble, and lifesaving tips for beating the odds. Through it all Hahn weaves irony and humor to keep it fun.

Hahn rates motorcycle risk and riding on a scale of one to ten, ten being mere moments away from certain death, and one being home safe in bed. Every motorcycle ride falls somewhere in between. Using what Hahn calls the three degrees of separation--riding strategies, training and skills, and protective gear--a rider can reduce the risk to a controllable level.

Praise for Ride Hard, Ride Smart

“…Required reading to avoid being a statistic.” Ottowa Citizen

“…A pleasant and readable form that makes it obvious that he has spent a great deal of time thinking about what it takes to be a better, safer, and more effective street rider.” Rider Wearhouse

“I’d put it right up there with David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling (still my favorite) and Nick Ienatsch's Sport Riding Techniques as three "must have" books on motorcycle riding skills.” webBikeWorld

“We liked the comparison of traffic flow to that of water in a river. This metaphor reduces individual rider ego and helps riders see themselves as part of a larger dynamic (and dangerous) system.” Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly

“Great advice, well presented in a fun format will give every rider, from the novice to the most experienced, something to think about.” The Pitstop

“Not only did I enjoy it, I laughed out loud. Never before has a book about motorcycle safety cracked me up.” Amazon.com customer review

What You'll Find

Chapter One: Using the Three Degrees of Separation Motorcycle safety 101: This chapter synthesizes the whole of motorcycle safety knowledge into the three tenets of safe riding: mental strategy, riding skills, and protective gear.

"Taking responsibility for your own actions is easy, but because you, the motorcyclist, will more likely suffer bodily harm in the event of a crash, then you, the motorcyclist, must take responsibility for everyone else’s actions as well. Ideally, a skilled rider avoids hazards before they even become hazards."

Chapter Two: Getting Hurt 101 A close look at the landmark 1981 Hurt Study, what the findings mean today, and how to use the information to your advantage on the street. The knowledge gained from the Hurt Study is the most important yet to date, and vital information for every serious rider.

"Another common form of rider error is the old 'I had to lay ‘er down,' which is moron for 'I don’t know how to control my bike, so I locked up the rear brake and crashed on purpose.'"

Chapter Three: Risk Chapter three sets the goal for the rest of the book: to bring the risk of motorcycling down to the lowest possible level. By illustrating, in terms of risk, how motorcycling compares to other activities--and how one method of motorcycling compares to another--this analysis shows riders how much more there is to learn, and how much safer they can be when they ride. Each subsequent chapter is a step toward lowering risk further.

"A crash is what happens when one or more risk factors come together in the same place at the same time. A blown tire is a risk factor but really not so dangerous in and of itself. Combine it with an off-camber curve, now you have two factors working in cooperation to separate you from your bike and both of you from the road. Add in a third factor, like poor skills or heavy traffic, and the risk multiplies."

Chapter Four: The Safest Distance between Two Points This chapter looks at how riders make decisions about the routes they take and the roads they ride. Weighing the different risk factors that accompany certain road types, riders can analyze how to ride safer simply by choosing a safer route. This chapter includes great detail on "speed differential," and how risk changes as the speed of the rider, and other traffic, changes.

"Being overly familiar with a route or a type of road can make you overconfident, lazy, or even apathetic toward surprises. That said, when you’re at risk for another reason—poor traction, rush-hour traffic, poor visibility, mental or physical fatigue or stress—your safest bet is probably to stick with the route you know best."

Chapter Five: Good Times, Bad Times Time of day can be critical to a rider's safety--according to the statistics. This chapter pores through some state and national data to illustrate when to ride and when not to ride. Of particular note is the theory of "changing gears": the process of switching mental modes and the dangerous lag in concentration that goes along with it.

"It’s simply too great a favor to ask a person to go from one mode of thinking immediately to another. The last activity is difficult to let go, and the next one starts intrude before you’re ready. Driving home from work, people are mulling over the day’s events but simultaneously start thinking about the what’s going to be on the table for dinner. The garage that needs to be cleaned. The cold beverage they’re going to have while they’re cleaning it. Getting to the auto parts store before it closes. Helping on the project for the upcoming science fair. It all creeps in, takes away what little concentration that person might have had, and makes them a menace to themselves and everyone else on the road. It ain’t pretty, but it’s real."

Chapter Six: Visibility Almost all the information a rider uses on the road is visual. Chapter six takes a hard look at the relative importance of seeing and being seen, with critical information on vision, blind spots, and techniques for making yellow-light situations as safe as possible.

"Braking and dipping your headlight in a busy intersection is an invitation for another driver to make their move. Be careful of being too enthusiastic when covering your brakes."

Chapter Seven: Riding at Night Probably the most valuable approach ever taken to nighttime riding situations. Deliberately simplistic and obstreporous advice gives the rider who truly wants to lower their risk something to think about.

"If you want to lower your risk, avoiding night riding is a close second to separating drinking and riding."

Chapter Eight: Make It Familiar An esoteric look at the art of training your body, mind, and emotions to react properly in any conceivable situation. The techniques in this chapter could very well keep even the homebound, car-bound, work-bound, etc. rider busy developing new skills all the time--even when not riding. The technique tip at the end of the chapter may triple a rider's possible escape routes.

"Get comfortable with the idea of riding directly into oncoming traffic, of riding on the shoulder, of pointing your bike at a ditch, so if the time ever comes when you must make a choice between breaking the rules or facing certain death, it won’t be the first time you’ve deliberately aimed a bike at a barbed-wire fence."

Chapter Nine: Making Friends More like social techniques than riding techniques, chapter nine contains tips on improving the image of riders and of motorcycling in general. Categorizing other road users into four types, making friends involves moving potential hazards into better, more motorcycle-friendly attitudes to make riders everywhere safer.

"Make a habit of smiling and waving to people who live near you to take some of the mystery out of who you are. Maybe they’ll come to associate a friendly neighbor with a motorcycle and treat other motorcyclists better because of it."

Chapter Ten: Trouble Areas This chapter contains both big-picture outlooks and specific tips for dealing with rush hour, intersections, the suburbs, city streets, and freeways. Finally explained in plain English are two secret lifesaving techniques: the soft lane change and shadowing.

"You can choose whether or not to deal with the yellow light to some degree. If you know the light will change before you get there, you can begin slowing down or braking early to force tailgaters or other poor decision makers to either slow down or go around you. Or you can speed up to put some distance between you and those behind you, although this cuts the distance between you and those in front of you, and also increases your stopping time and distance. While it’s not a perfect science, it is possible to time your arrival at intersections."

Chapter Eleven: The Worst Types and Your Best Defense Now we answer the question, "Who's the most dangerous person out there?" Everybody knows stereotyping people is wrong. But when your safety is at stake, using nonverbal cues to assess and place other drivers into a heirarchy of risk can save your life. A critical technique to guard against left-turning vehicles simplifies what is probably the most dangerous situation for a motorcycle rider.

"Let’s put it this way, who is going to be able to swerve faster, a motorcyclist who’s thinking, 'Okay, if this guy pulls out in front of me, I’m going to swerve,' or someone who’s using peripheral vision to detect any movement from the vehicle, waiting for it to move forward, and thinking over and over, 'Swerve. Swerve. Swerve. Swerve. Swerve.'"

Chapter Twelve: Reading the Road Using a philosophical approach to seeing the road we travel can take a lot of the guesswork out of where to look for hazardous situations. By seeing traffic as a great, dynamic system, the rider gets a hard look at what role he or she really plays out there and how to keep the ego in check. Readers are also treated to an explanation of the aphorism, "When something makes you frown, you'd better slow it down."

"When scanning for hazards, look for the person doing something different than everyone else is doing. If there’s going to be a crash, it’s likely to be in that vicinity. If they’re doing something dramatically different, there’s liable to be some serious consequences for those involved."

Chapter Thirteen: Group Riding and Other Distractions This chapter uses a simple model for riders to determine their concentration level and riding ability--riders can literally rate themselves on a scale of one to one hundred, and know where they are at all times to adjust their riding level accordingly. Chapter thirteen also outlines eight critical group riding rules for safety in numbers, as well as tips for riding in rain, temperature extremes, and the bottomless pit of sightseeing on two wheels.

Pay special attention to your riding and back off a little bit on your pace, especially after longer stops like lunch or afternoon tea. On hot or cold days, be aware of what fatigue, dehydration, and hypothermia can do to your skills over time.

To contact the author or order a signed copy for $20, send an e-mail to

ridesmart <at> gmail <dot> com

About the Author

Hedonistic Enthusiasm

Debaucheryball