There are two major problem which come to my mind when it comes to driving safely:

1. Ease of driving a vehicle in INDIA.
2. Transition Phase or Affordability of Safety products.

How many times do we see under age drivers on roads and the more common, people who do not know how to drive well ( read not perfect but well). But do we change NO, because a son/daughter driving at early age is a sign of STATUS & PRIDE for all of us. We then boast of his abilities and pump his ego, instead of questioning his Maturity and Understanding towards the importance of SAFE and SANE riding and the value of LIFE. We enjoy making mockery of law, because we know its easy to get away, if you have the sources or the $$$'s.

Now, most of the riders ride because they are in the transition phase between a bi-cycle and a motorcar, all they find in between is public transport or Scooter/ Motor-bikes and since public transport is downright BAD in most cities of India, we choose the Scooter / Motorbike of our choice. Without understanding that both of these vehicles demand skills and put you at risk. Unlike a car there is no safety shell around you and if you make a wrong judgement or fall in the line of somebody's incorrect judgement, you will need even higher skills to evade or will have to kiss the tarmac and we all have seen the later to be true in most cases.

Transition phase also brings the ignorance factor or short term factor and hence people do not want to invest too much money on stuff which in my opinion is ESSENTIAL for survival on these vehicles besides your skill. Some of us may have been plain lucky to have survived so far in our riding careers but I would request all to PLEASE AT LEAST WEAR A HELMET and develop a SANE sense towards riding.

Also, please respect the GIFT OF LIFE and understand that RIDING is only A PART OF LIFE.

signing off -

Riding gear is a must and we all understand that... But many a times it is the cost of riding gear that deters a person from getting one.... Same is for me... I managed to buy myself a good helmet with the money i saved... But riding gear is just out of my reach... It is not very easy to convince parents who know nothing of these life saving gears... And when you tell them the price attached with these gloves and jackets, it is surely going to be a complete no no from them... They would rather tell you to "Ride Safe".... One cannot blame his or her parents for the same because they would have never heard of such riding gear or wouldn't have any knowledge about the same... But as Sunny Sir mentioned it would be good if some of us take a print out of this thread and show it to our parents...
One more thing that crossed my mind when i was reading through the thread was the amount of rash and mostly under skilled riders and drivers that we find on our roads.... I would say the problem partly lies in the inadequate testing that is done before one gets a license... Atleast as far as i have noticed in the Bangalore RTO the most they make a person do is ride around a locality or just do an eight on the road... I would say most kids who have some skill in riding a cycle can ride a scooter around a locality with just a day of practice... I think that gives a fair idea as to why we have so many bad drivers and riders on our roads with licenses... Education is also a necessity as many people both pedestrians and users of vehicles do not know the rules of the road or decide not to follow them...

I think in India there are many flaws in traffic rules and regulations.And then there's a crowd of these numbskulls who reject to wear lids,riding gears etc.Now,we are left with one and the only solution to the problem i.e FORCE the law upon these idiots..I really don't know who the hell made this rule to collect money and leave the culprit.We know there are a heck of a lot of rich guys around who just don't think twice before paying challans of over 1000 bucks.What our law makers should do is whenever they find a guy without helmet,take 600-700 bucks from him and get him an ISI marked helmet.I am not sure whether this'll work or not but there would be a point of time when these idiots will be irritated with the number of helmets at their place.They break the rule,get them a helmet.They do it once more,get them one more!!..and i am sure next time they won't do that again!!...Now,they are left with only two choices,either to wear those or start selling the gifted lids!!..

And about Riding gears like gloves and jackets.I don't think affordability is as big a problem as availability.Except for metros and a few big cities we hardly have any shop or store which deals with such products.You must have seen people querying about PlanetDSG stores in their town.I think manufacturers should make it available at company showrooms (like in case of yamaha).
As a student i've my collected money for riding gears but i don't have VISA or any other sort of card by which i can pay these through net and get it delivered.As a result the money gets wasted in Pizza Hut,Domimo's or McD's.Like someone said,"Paisa haath ka mael hai".

Well out here in India, there is only one problem we have and that is that nobody is ready to take there own responsibility nor ownership. Yes out here in India Biking for common people is just another way of commuting without even considering the safety features. They would take a family of 4 to 5 (including kids) on bike, which is actually meant just for 2people. And well riding jackets, gloves, helmets come a way afterwards and it is for people who knows about it. I have seen people riding bikes, scooters which are not even roadworthy in any sense. Same is the case of many normal people who wont be aware that there is something called riding jackets for bikes.
As per my personal opinion the first thing we need to do is to educate people about what biking is. We all who rides one knows how vulnerable we are to the falls and injuries out here on Indian Roads. And yes since we know about bikes and we are not ignorant towards our safety hence we ride properly or take calculated risks. The law, police, rules and all out here are gullible and hence cant be put into serious and strict implementation. Because we dont want to get into hassle. Well I am sure the bribery system would have started by someone asking for money and someone paying to him. Its like you cannot clap with one hand. And hence, these things would take a long time before the word "bribery" gets vanished from our dictionary.
As per us bikers out here we need to remember onething that on Indian roads may be you would be folllowing all set of rules while riding but the other may not. One should be aware of all possible way a person riding or driving in front can react to any situation. And yes safety gears like gloves, jackets, helmet, knee guards all help a lot to minimize the injury to your body. But wearing all these doesnt mean that you would be totally secure. As there are many times when you actually get hit or fall due to other persons mistake.
SO yes we have to be responsible of our own acts and act maturely, the person who can afford good safety gears well and good who cant afford just ride responsibly and enjoy the ride . Accidents can happen even when sitting on the bike enjoying a sip of tea, but then we are a bunch of brothers who are optimistic with mature minds. So enjoy your ride and always ride safe

quite thought provoking...in fact all manufacturers should be compulsorily providing a helmet with every bike that they sell. Just like the saree guard was made mandatory, a helmet should be made compulsory with every bike that every manufacturer sells. the cost of which can be recovered from the customer in the bike's cost. Maybe, the manufacturer can offer an option to choose from various brands and colors.

+1 to shivank and niranjan...every manufacturer should take a leaf from Yamaha about this.As I've seen,Yamaha provides safety gear and do have choices.I'd not like to start a brand war here,but I've seen one of HHs leading showroom in Bangalore having helmets similar to the ones found on road sides.Being the largest bike manufacturer in the world,they can adopt some changes considering,most people in our country go for commuters and that too especially HHs...that way they have a option of atleast help people realize about safety etc etc.This also applies to other companies.Whether people take it or not is better left to them.It's they,who're playing with their lives...

^^@Srini: you are right. Maybe if manufacturers had a helmet and safety gear shop setup in their showrooms, they could entice more people into buying safety gear with the bikes.

Safety should start in the mind, then put into action. It should start from inside. It makes no sense if you have all the protective gear on and ride rash. A good number of people on this forum do that - get into protective gear and ride like maniacs.

It is not just about how safe you ride or came back home... it is about how reassuring your driving was to everyone else on and off the road.

Reading through this thread i find a lot of people giving good suggestions... But the point is our suggestions are of no use unless we can make it big and we can be heard... So i am thinking why not we decide ways in which we as a community can make a difference...

Like maybe joint programs with the traffic police on educating people about proper riding techniques, traffic rules, about safety while riding and so on...

A good point raised by Sir OF. I would try my best remaining safe (in one piece, as they say), BUT, I alone don't make up the road...
And we have seen 4-5 RIPs here in Xbhp, most of which were surely better riders than some of us.
Maybe the situation they were caught in, claimed their lives, or maybe some other "unknown" factor, or just a concentration lapse...

Despite the "unknown" threatening us every now and then, we should atleast control the factors we can control.
Like Riding Gear, Concentration, Road Behavior, Bike Servicing, etc.


I'll try to get those Orazo boots soon.

Well, I dont know how right is it for me to put this thing in here but I was hit by a Bus on Thursday afternoon in Delhi. Ok, Prudently enough, I was not riding at a turtle speed nor was I a rossi, but it just so happened.!

Anyways, I fell off, the right side of Zma's fairing took the beating, the shocker rod was bent, had a bent handle and few other things too. But I escaped with few bruises on my right knee. I had my palms supporting me during the fall and I dint have had even a scratch on them, thanks to the Gloves that I was wearing.

ok, the idea here is to say, A riding jacket or a knee high riding boots may not be possibel if you are commuting daily to your office and home, but please try to waer a decent helmet, gloves, if not more. Safety saves, falls dont!!!

The issue that I wanted to bring into perspective here is primarily about 'self-monitoring and self-regulation'. The point is to recognize the limitations and dangers prevailing on our roads and to acquire and practice skills and techniques that ensure our survival all the time inspite of them. Altering the perception of a whole mass of humanity, getting the administration to promulgate and impose laws that ensure safety and teaching 'those morons' to be more safety conscious are altruistic and lofty ideals but while these happen, we need to pledge within ourselves to transform the image of motorcycling as an 'unsafe and dangerous' activity to an 'enjoyable, fun and safe' activity, at the very least within our limited social context of family, friends and acquaintances. And we can only do that by returning safe and unhurt from every ride, whether an office commute, a short errand run or a fun cross-country jaunt. It boils down to just this simple promise that we need to make with our own selves.

I pledge to return safe from this ride and to do all that is needed to ensure my safe return.

And to honour this pledge, we need to do what the incident below points to. Learn, learn and tirelessly, perpetually learn...

Rohit: Your honesty in sharing the incident is appreciable. And the 'proof' that riding gear saves, as shown by your unharmed hands, is a lesson. What I am putting down below applies as much to you as it does to me and all others who choose to ride motorcycles.

There is a bigger lesson to be learnt here as it is from all incidents that we face or witness or hear about. A big slothful bus can never move quicker than a motorcyclist...unless the rider unwittingly places himself in such a situation that the inherent advantage of better agility gets seriously compromised.

The point here is to ruthlessly blame your own self for any such incident. Each and every time. Even if the bus driver was a drunk, wasn't actually the driver but the conductor trying his hand at the wheel, or the driver didn't have a license and had no right driving around etc etc, it is you the rider who is vulnerable, it is you the rider who gets hurt and it could be you the rider who could have lost his life. Very few incidents can honestly be classed as 'accidents'. Riding on a bridge that collapses underneath is probably one, a bomb blowing up the car next to you is another. Dogs, cats, cyclists, autos, cars, people, vans, trucks, buses etc etc move in finite time and there will always be an element of predictability, how ever limited, that can be discerned in their movement. Our job as riders who have 'taken the pledge' is to learn to look for those predictable patterns and use them to ensure our safety. Only a perpetually switched on 'safety radar' that flashes the 'ride safe' logo all the time on our perceptual horizon every single minute that we spend on the saddle of our motorcycle, can teach us endlessly through perception and add qualitatively to our skills. Even ensuring our own personal safety on two wheels can be a life-time's job. Lets get busy with ourselves first before looking around to preach and teach.

Well said Old Fox! Couldn't have been any better said than that. I whole heartedly agree to this!
Cheers!

Great initiative Old Fox!

Though my helmet spoils my hair style completely every time which irritates me a lot,ive never ever rode without a helmet for even 1 min!,im a person concered not only abt my saftey but also others,im in the process of teaching this to my elder sister!@#
i NEVER ride w/o a helmet or drive without a Seat belt.

and im also investing on the rest of the gear shortly!

Absolutely! We see so many times that riders ride close to others,they will zip between cars and if they get hit or something they blame others.

Talking from a live example, I once took ride with a colleague from home to office, on the way, he was cutting close to those shared autos in noida. Obviously, one of them took a right turn and hit the car. No damage or anything, just a scratch or something. My colleague yelled at the autordriver- why did you cut right without indication or something like that. I off course kept quiet as I knew it was not entirely the auto driver's fault. I mena yes, they do drive rash and very badly, but we know that! why not keep a margin of error. Its like avoiding a dark road at night in a shady area. If you know a certain category of people drive or ride bad, just be careful yourself. Keep higher safery margin. Technically you might be right, going in yout lane, indicating while changing lanes, but still look behind and see if someone is trying to sneak in. You may have everything in your favor in terms of laws and technical argument but if you are on a bike, technical argument is the last thing in case of an accident. Yes, if you drive a TATA 407 or a hummer, follow rules and run over anyone who does not. you will be let off on technical grounds! Entirely your choice!