Better Riding Advice: Where should you look when riding a motorcycle?

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘you go where you look’. It’s part and parcel of motorcycle training as well as common sense. Since learning how to cross the road as a youngster, or when taking the cycling proficiency test (a darn sight trickier than a CBT, some might think), we’ve had it instilled in us to look both ways, often twice. Yet a report from the UK Department for Transport in 2023 suggested that the most common crash contributary factor is ‘the driver or motorcyclist failed to look properly’. A little haunting, don’t you think?

That doesn’t only refer to being stationary at a junction or roundabout but instead being focussed on looking at the right things that surround us. My dear old dad passed on a little advice to me when I began commuting on a 50cc scooter in Central London back in 2003; ‘assume everyone else on the road is an idiot’. I’ve heard variations of the same theme over the years which is a sensible approach.

‘Use your eyes’ might seem like a rather obvious piece of guidance when it comes to riding a motorbike but using them in the right way and knowing what to look for when scanning for clues to danger, or assistance with road conditions, or what the next ½ mile of country road might look like can be vital to making your ride as brilliant as possible.

Better Riding – where to look when riding a motorbike

Motorbike Coach, Mark McVeigh, and BikeSocial’s Michael Mann discuss how and where to look when riding.

What does good vision look like for a motorbike rider?

BikeSocial's Motorbike Coach, Mark McVeigh, says, “Rather than opinion, we're trying to look at data and research first. The first thing is to understand is what riders are actually looking at versus the optimal visual strategy. At our school we've researched 1000s of riders with data driven sensors on bikes and the riders including eye tracking, GPS, IMU, so we have a kind of laboratory to really do a deep dive and learn more about lots of things in motorbikes. But in this case, the vision.

“Vision is huge. It's linked to so many things when you're riding a bike. And obviously the best riders they have great vision. And it's super interesting to try and understand that. By using eye-tracking we can see the general kind of focal point is to the vanishing point, or the limit point. Rather than looking at oncoming traffic you should be trying to look at that vanishing point the whole time – it gives you more information as you plot your route. If you’re riding on an unfamiliar road the clues are there to help, whether it’s a tree-line, telegraph poles, road signs. So you steer the bike automatically with your eyes, and it helps your riding flow, versus a lower skilled rider that you see a lot of steering jerk in."

Should we be looking at the yellow or the green?

What is steering jerk?

When a rider isn’t looking far enough ahead and instead focuses on the road surface immediately in front, instead of the vanishing point, it's referred to as the sight-distance-to-stopping-distance ratio. And if that's below 'one', the distance for the rider to stop is greater than the distance they're actually looking at ahead. Steering jerk happens when the rider looks down at the ground meaning everything ahead comes as a surprise and they're constantly making steering corrections. Also known as '50 pence-ing the corner'. More experienced or more skilled riders are planning their line and scanning for potential hazards as well, and that results in smoother inputs and therefore smoother progression.

Motorbike academic research can be often grey and inconclusive but one paper discovered that motorcyclists fixate on the road surface 30% of the time compared to car drivers who barely fixate on the road surface at all. Fixating, meaning spending too much time looking at the road surface. We all look down examining for potholes and things that can harm us, but that should be part of scanning with the main vision up, looking for vanishing points, in the country roads for example.

Eye-tracking technology demonstrates where this rider is looking

Where should motorcyclists look? And does that evolve with experience?

It can change with the environment but a lot of crashes occur on corners so on a country road the main gaze should be on the vanishing point or the limit point. Strong peripheral performance for potential hazards and forward observation are key to planning for every eventuality. And then, of course, good 360-degree situational awareness, life savers and use of mirrors are important too.

There’s an added importance on how well your helmet fits, the type of helmet you wear and, if you wear glasses, how they interact with your visor, i.e. a set of glasses, a pin-lock screen plus a visor becomes three layers between your eyes and the road ahead. Add in the bike's screen and there's another layer. Even down to the movement allowance from the riding kit. For example, in the colder winter months I often wear multiple layers including a Gore-tex jacket all of which can be bulky and could therefore restrict how far right or left I can turn my head. Why not practice and understand the movement your kit allows plus how clear your vision is before you set off. It’s very easy to become distracted when riding whether that’s the switchgear, the TFT screen, weather, other road users, pedestrians, the surface, shops, animals, etc, so keep your attention high and your eyes wide open.

While it’s important to focus on the moving car, it’s not the most dangerous element of your surroundings here. What else can you see that might impact your progress?

How important is peripheral vision on a motorcycle?

Peripheral vision is the part of your vision that occurs to the side outside your main focus or your gaze. Using the image above, you can easily focus on the car but to the side it's not quite as clear because that is the peripheral part of your vision. So having that good peripheral is really important for lots of different reasons; it reduces the chance of target fixation or tunnel vision. Peripheral vision goes to a different part of the brain than the visual centre. Think of it as a fight or flight tool, and here boxers are a prime example; they don't look at the fists directly because peripherally they can react quicker. It's very powerful and Mark teaches a lot of visual skills, because the benefits for riding are there for the taking.

What does target fixation mean?

Target fixation can be caused as a result of panic, where you fixate on danger, also referred to as tunnel vision. And the biggest cause is when you're riding over your head on a motorbike. In the images above you can see a car approaching on its side of the road, then all of a sudden a car from behind is overtaking and it’s on the wrong side of the road. Your side. So you get it a surprise and focus on the car and, of course, you go where you look which is a big risk.  Whereas the rider should be focusing on where they need to go, in this case where's your escape route? You need to swerve out of the way and be on the brakes but looking where you want to go, keeping the car in your peripheral to understand where it is but allowing you to react. Mark uses the aviation industry as a reference in order to train riders to be ready for a common crash scenario. By using that main gaze to look for the escape route, and then peripherally, you can watch the car from the side of your vision. 

What is the one best piece of advice of what to look for when riding?

Think you are invisible. We go back to this junction on the photo above, never trust that the rider or the driver is looking at you. Have they really seen you? Have they judged the speed you’re travelling at? Look at the wheels, the front wheels, are they moving, and what direction are they pointed? So pretend you're invisible and just trust the wheels. Never trust that the rider or driver is actually looking at you.

We all want to be better at the passions or hobbies we spend our time and money on, so how about becoming a Better Rider? By being better you automatically become safer, though 'safer' isn’t the sexiest of terms, and in the words of the great Steve Rose, “you’d rather have a better orgasm than a safer one”, but it is fundamental to adding confidence and skill to your riding.

We're proud to have Honda Motorcycles UK as our partner with this Better Riding series because safety is one of their key business pillars, and their quest for safety inspires their innovations in products, technology and education, which is why they're committed to achieving zero traffic fatalities involving Honda mobility products worldwide by 2050.

If you’d like to chat about this article or anything else biking related, join us and thousands of other riders at the Bennetts BikeSocial Facebook page, or why not join our own new online community known as BikeSocial BikeClub.