Urban Combat, or So It Seems

It’s a crisp morning, dew is still on the trees, but a slightly warm humidity blows through the trees. Today will not be like the typical everyday riding I’ve grown accustomed to. I’m going into the city. The city, unlike the country where I do most of my riding has more hazards in ¼ mile than I would see in 100miles in the country. Roads come together, blind alleys everywhere, pedestrians, multiple lanes, traffic lights, and worst of all, distracted, cell phone talking, fast food eating, impatient under-trained drivers who would rather run you down than let you pass them. Driving in the city is like urban combat.

Urban Combat is a term used to describe fighting in an urban environment like a city. In order to stay alive in such an environment you need to be alert, skilled, reactive, and most importantly; calm in the face of potential death. Riding a motorcycle in the city requires the same skills. You are basically a fragile being, covered with some anti abrasion clothing, a plastic helmet, and riding a 500lb two wheeled motorized contraption amongst a bunch of unskilled distracted and stressed drivers in 4000+lb steel boxes. If you let your guard down, you will not win the fight. Victory would be keeping your life.

In order to stay alive, drive offensively. Anticipate that all drivers WILL, not might pull out in front of you, run over you or merge into you. You need to drive different that the benign nature of driving a car. Instead, you must be aggressive, obnoxiously so at times, drift back and forth in a lane, stay a few MPH faster that the rest of the traffic, accelerate quickly, brake slowly. Always leave an escape open just in case. When driving a bike, you will get badly hurt if not killed if hit by some soccer mom, driving a giant SUV while talking on her cell phone.

Road rage is another major concern, not only for the rider but also the stressed out drivers. In California, it is legal to ride down the center line (lane splitting) in a traffic jam; riders nationwide also practice it although not legal. Unfortunately there have been many cases where drivers have committed violent acts like opening their door and even stabbing the motorcyclists because they decided that it was not fair that the bikers didn’t have to wait. There have also been situations where a motorcyclist has passed a vehicle legally, and the car actually then tries to run down the biker. All of these situations can be avoided and de-escalated using the skills of urban combat. Just remember, stay cool, calm and composed. A biker can and will outrun a car, even if it is necessary to ride through a pedestrian only area with limited access to save your life. Although illegal, there have been cases that it was a prudent decision because of the circumstances.

Riding in the city is a big step and should only be practiced by someone who is very comfortable with their bikes. My motorcycle will stop is 15’ from 45mph if I need to. I know this because I’ve had to stop that quickly when a old lady jacked her brakes on in front of me for no apparent reason the last time I practiced urban combat riding.

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