Better Riding Advice: cornering hazard avoidance

“98% of riders cannot do the drill proficiently the first time, especially the left hander.”

A rather alarming statistic from motorbikecoach.com’s Mark McVeigh who has taught over 10,000 riders at his motorcycle school in Australia. The quote is taken from a discussion around the difficulties riders have when braking and swerving to avoid a hazard while cornering, leading to its contribution as the biggest crash stat of all – something we’ve explored previously.

It’s a critical skill, and as such in this edition of Better Riding, Mark emphasises the importance of practicing drills to handle unexpected hazards, such as oncoming cars or animals, plus highlights the need for intuitive reactions. He shares a personal close call on a gravel road to illustrate the importance of vision, peripheral awareness, and defensive riding. This lesson also touches on the three pillars of motorbike training: Skill, Craft, and Mind.

Read on for the full break down or watch the below video.

Better Riding – how to avoid a hazard while cornering

Top riding tips from our Motorbike Coach on how to avoid hazards when cornering

This Better Riding series is brought to you in association with Honda Motorcycles UK and MotorbikeCoach.com – a program of self-help videos as well as written content packed full of tips, advice and simple-but-useful exercises designed to help motorcycle riders of all experiences or ability to get more from their riding. It provides expert information and practice drills that help increase rider confidence and machine control skills that supplement traditional post-test training techniques.

At the risk of focusing on the gloomy side of riding, the most serious injuries come from loss of control in corners, particularly in rural environments. And the majority of these crashes are single vehicle meaning the rider’s failure to brake is the main contributing factor, according to research. Despite that shocking fact, unfortunately very few training schools teach the skills required to avoid this type of crash scenario. So the first time you really need to know what to do, how to do it and how much you can rely on the bike’s components or electronics is likely to be in a real-world situation. You never know when an animal might run out into the road, or a car is over the white line and on your side of the road, and if you’ve not practiced the correct and intuitive reaction then the outcome is likely going to be poor. At the very minimum cornering confidence will be back to base level, and Mark tells us, “Most students can’t perform this drill the first time they try it.”

The safety bubble represents Craft

Three pillars of riding: Skill, Craft and Mind 

Critical to any type of motorcycle riding and the associated skills, Mark bases his teachings on a system he calls ‘The three pillars of riding’, namely Skill, Craft and Mind. So, let’s break those down and work out how they can be applied to avoiding hazards in a corner. What does each refer to and how can they benefit every rider? 

Skill

Skill isn’t just about speed—it’s about control. Mastering the fundamentals of motorcycle handling can mean the difference between a close call and something more. Two essential techniques every rider should have on autopilot are counter-steering and emergency braking. It might sound counterintuitive, but to turn left on a motorcycle, you actually push the left handlebar. To go right, you push right. This is counter-steering, and it’s the key to fast, controlled turns—especially when you need to swerve around a car, animal, or pothole. At 60 mph, your bike covers over 30 metres every second which doesn’t offer much time to think and therefore your reactions need to be automatic. The data Mark collects at his riding school shows just how much faster and more forcefully experienced riders can respond. The difference? They’ve trained their brains and bodies to react instinctively using the correct technique.

Most riders think they’re braking hard in an emergency. But the numbers tell a different story. When tested, many barely apply enough pressure to the front brake to make a difference. Why? Because they’re not prepared. They haven’t practiced. And in a panic, your body defaults to what it knows best—which, for many, isn’t enough.

Craft

The art of smart riding, Craft is the pillar of riding that focuses on vision, defensive technique, and situational awareness - the mental toolkit that separates reactive riders from proactive ones. Using good visual techniques means more than just seeing the road, it’s about reading it. Skilled riders look far ahead to identify potential hazards early, assess their threat level, and avoid the trap of target fixation - the tendency to stare at an obstacle rather than steer away from it. The earlier you spot a problem, the more time you have to respond safely.

Defensive riding is about managing your speed and surroundings. A key rule: never ride faster than you can stop within the distance you can see to be clear. This includes maintaining a safety buffer - your ‘bubble’ around your bike, giving you room to manoeuvre if something unexpected happens.

Situational awareness means constantly scanning your environment, anticipating risks, and being mentally prepared to act. It’s not just about reacting to what’s happening—it’s about predicting what could happen next. At its core, the Craft pillar is about riding smart. It’s about developing habits that help you manage risk before it becomes danger. By staying observant, strategic, and in control, you’re not just riding—you’re mastering the road.

Mind

The final pillar focuses on the mindset and mental discipline behind being a great rider by using the right attitude, an ambition to develop and continuous self-reflection.

A strong riding attitude means staying humble, alert, and realistic about the risks. As Mark puts it, adopting a defensive mindset means always expecting the unexpected - and accepting that, as motorcyclists, we’re more vulnerable on the road, even when we’re not at fault. This mindset helps riders stay calm, cautious, and in control. We’ve spoke about it time and time again, but getting your motorcycle licence - often after just 20 hours of training - is only the beginning. True mastery can take thousands of hours, and a growth mindset means recognising that there’s always more to learn and being open to developing skills well beyond the basics. The best riders are the ones who never stop improving.

Self-reflection isn’t just for corporate environments; it’s a powerful tool for riders. After every ride, ask yourself, “What would I do differently next time?” Identify any close calls or moments of discomfort. Treat each ride as a learning opportunity, not just a journey. The core philosophy of the Mind pillar is simple: great riding starts in the mind. It’s about being psychologically prepared, staying humble, and committing to lifelong learning. When you ride with awareness, curiosity, and a willingness to grow, you don’t just survive the road - you thrive on it.

Finding a suitable place to practice might be more difficult than performing the actual drill

How can I practice avoiding hazards when cornering? 

Taking the above trio of above images into consideration that illustrate the best drill to practice away from the public roads, first of all try and find a suitable area. Instead of using a large circle drawn out in chalk which might not be convenient, how about using some items of clothing to create a circle.

Then try riding in a clockwise direction to replicate a right-hand bend or roundabout at a consistent speed and angle then see what happens when you brake sharply and move to the outside. Spot your exit, create an escape route.

Now see how it feels by braking and moving to the inside. How differently does the bike react? Increase the speed marginally and see what happens to the bike, and where you end up stopping. If that reaction and the result were on a corner you recognise, where might you have finished?

Then repeat the drill but in an anticlockwise direction. Obviously swerving left in a right-hand bend replicates you moving towards the outside of your lane and the road itself, and vice versa. 

But even when riding on the public roads in amongst other traffic or through towns, there’s still an opportunity to feel how easy it is to manoeuvre your bike by deliberately swerving to avoid manhole covers, for example. Equally why not film your ride and review the footage to critique yourself once you’ve arrived at your destination? What did you do well? Where could you improve? Some riders use a technique of commentating to themselves while riding, talking about what they are looking for. It emphasises the concentration and awareness of any potential danger. Afterall, motorcyclists are among the most vulnerable of road users so like it or not, if you have an altercation with a car, we’ll be the ones who come off worst. So use any advantage or technique to make you safer on the roads by practicing.

2-seconds passes very quickly in Mark’s real-world example proving that you have to be aware and have practiced the skills that could save you

Mark’s Real-World Example

In the video that accompanies this lesson, Mark dissected his own real-life example where he had to use his skills to take avoiding action as an oncoming vehicle compromised his lane position. He begins by confessing to riding angry having been held up by a slower driver on a gravel road which was kicking up dust and allowed him to lose focus. Further along his journey Mark then encountered a vehicle coming towards him on this single-track gravel road. The closing speed between the vehicle and his own bike gave him only a short amount of time to process this information and act significantly enough to ensure his safety, he walks us through the next 2-3 seconds of his ride: 

• Spots an oncoming car early enough because he’d been looking at the vanishing point (also known as limit point)

• Recognised he had less than 2 seconds to react

• Spotted his escape route

• Maintained visual connection with the oncoming vehicle through his peripheral view

• Braked and swerved

• Avoided a collision in which he was always going to come off second-best. 

Even though he was riding angry or with less focus, Mark’s close call emphasised the importance of practicing corner avoidance drills.

How long does it take before the brake is applied?

This is about perception vs reaction, so how long the reaction and its resulting action takes to have the desired effect once you’ve noticed and decided to react. Which is likely to be an automatic and involuntary reaction to danger. Our brain via our eyes is designed to seek three things: food, a mate/sex and danger. Only one is a priority when riding, and an average person takes two-seconds to perceive what the danger is and then react. So, when travelling at 60mph, you’ll have covered 60 metres from the moment you spot the deer about to leap out of a hedgerow to the moment you’ve triggered the front brake. And even then, the majority of riders DO NOT pull the lever hard enough.

Trust the grip, trust the bike’s ability, and trust in your instincts.

A desire to be better at the things we enjoy is human nature, so whether it’s a passion, hobby or even a job, there’s an aspiration to develop. In our world of motorcycling that can be the difference between having a good ride or a great ride, or even avoiding that oil, pothole, dead badger, car and arriving at your destination safe in the knowledge those drills you practiced were worth spending the time doing. We all want to be better, and that means safer too.

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