silver_falcon_46

One more useful night riding tip that I have acquired after innumerable long distance night rides - If you are following a 4 wheeler, keep a safe distance from it, and always try to keep both your tires IN LINE with one set of tires of the 4wheeler.

For Ex: If I'm following a car, I keep my bike's tire in line with the right side set of tires of the car. What is the benefit?

Cars headlights are more powerful usually, don't dive during braking as much, and various other factors that allow them to deal with pot holes popping up out of the dark, MUCH more efficiently than a motorcycle. Usually, because of human reflexes, the driver of a car tries to keep his side of the tires away from the pot holes by maybe weaving away from the pothole.

If you keep a safe distance from the car and keep in line, you have enough time to weave away from a dangerous pot hole. On the other hand, if the car driver does jump into the pothole, that gives you enough time to slow down or get ready for a dangerous pothole within a very short distance.

Most of my long distance rides have mostly been in the night and this method has helped me ride in the night, much more efficiently. Bangalore - Tirupati - Bangalore, a distance of 700kms about 3 years ago was done during the night in a short span of 32 hours and I was lucky to have a Tempo Traveler all the way from Tirupati to Bangalore at steady speeds of 80kmph that helped me duck many potholes and cover distances in a shorter span of time.

Even generally while riding in the night, try and follow a 4 wheeler doing steady speeds at a SAFE distance and keep in line with the right side set of tires and benefit from the driver in front of you. These 4 wheelers that do steady speeds are not hard to find on the highway and since it is night, you wont find them doing 3 digit speeds as often as they do during the daytime.

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