Motorcycle Riding Tips for Keeping Safe - Maintaining Stopping Distance

Although it's something which seems so logical, I'm surprised to see some riders on the roads who don't follow this golden rule.

It's important to maintain appropriate stopping distance to allow yourself the time to stop if the cars infront jam on their brakes. This distance should always be greater the faster your going.

There are also some other real benefits to maintaining a good distance.
One example is that you can prevent cars behind you from from read ending you by flashing your brake light a few times as your stopping. If you don't allow proper stopping distance then you too have to slam on your brakes and can't flash your lights a few times to alert the driver behind you that your stopping.

Here is a good chart for maintaining a good stopping distance:

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Another good reason to maintain a good stopping distance is because if your being tailgated and do have to brake suddenly, you can ease on the brakes rather than braking hard and hoping for the best.
Brakes on your motorcycle will easily slow you down faster than a car will stop, especially if you have a twin disc setup like my MT07.
If you don't allow that braking distance and jam on your brakes your hoping the car behind you had really good brakes, but some people don't maintain their cars properly and may have bad brakes.

Here is a good youtube video illustrating the difference between car vs bike braking, but bear in mind some cars will not brake as well as this: