Gravel, grates, rails, and the last skill in the course

1Watch

The slot that lines up with you

That grate is not a hazard to a car, or to a person walking, or even to a bicycle crossing it sideways. It is a hazard to exactly one thing, and it is the width of your front tyre.

2The idea

The one instruction that covers nearly all of it

Gravel, wet paint, a metal plate, a steel crossing, wet leaves, a grate: the technique for all of them is the same, and the manual says it about grates in four words. Relax, maintain a steady speed, and ride straight across.

Unpack that into what your hands and body do. Upright, straight, steady, and nothing else happening. No braking while you are on it, no turning while you are on it, no accelerating while you are on it. Get all of your slowing and all of your steering done before the edge of the stuff, and then just cross it.

3Look

Where it collects, which is predictable

The motorcycle manual gives this as a where-to-expect instruction rather than a what-to-do one: dirt and gravel collect along the sides of the road, and especially on curves and on ramps. Knowing where it will be is worth more than knowing how to ride it.

4The idea

Two things that are worse than they look

The grate with parallel slots. A road authority puts it plainly: be extra careful where the openings run parallel to the road, because a wheel can get stuck in them. This is the strongest single argument for not riding in the gutter, which you met back in badge five, and it is why the position had a minimum distance from the kerb built into it.

And wet metal and wet paint. Crossings, plates, rails, painted lines: all of them are slippery wet, and all of them are exactly where you are least expecting to need grip. There is no wet braking number in this course, because the sources do not carry one that stands up. What you get instead is: brake earlier and leave more room.

5The idea

Rails, with two angles

Cross tracks at a right angle. That is the target, from a road-safety authority, and it applies to railway lines, tram lines and anything else with a groove in it. Where a full ninety degrees will not fit inside your lane, the motorcycle manual gives the floor: never less than forty-five degrees. Ninety is the aim, forty-five is the minimum, and anything shallower is a groove your wheel can drop into.

Two more from the same source. Rails are slippery when wet, so go slowly. And if the signals show a train coming, stop at least five metres back and let it be somebody else’s problem.

6Decide

A set of rails crosses your road at a shallow angle and the tarmac is wet.

7Your turn

Find the angle

Three of the layouts cannot be solved with any angle that fits in the lane. The fourth button on those is the get off and walk button, and it is a correct answer, not a give-up.

8Find them

Which of these are true while you are actually on the slippery bit?

Tap the ones that count.

9Say it

The permission, out loud, in your own voice

The authority’s own instruction is that if the manoeuvre seems risky, you dismount and walk across. The reason that instruction gets ignored by people your age is not that it is hard. It is that it looks bad for about four seconds. Say the line now so that it is a sentence you have already used.

10Do it

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