Why SIPDE is Important for Motorcycle Riding Safety


 
Experienced motorcycle riders will often refer to ‘SIPDE’ as a safety teaching mechanism that has gotten them through some difficult situations on the road. Those of you who are familiar with this acronym will be nodding along in agreement, but if you aren’t familiar with SIPDE, there’s no shame –  you’ve come to the right place!
 

In this quick guide, we’re going to explain how Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute work to keep riders safe in precarious moments. We’ll go through the recommended applications for each letter of the acronym individually, and how to best apply them all throughout your riding career to allow you to enjoy the open road stress-free.
 

What does SIPDE stand for?
 
SIPDE stands for “Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute.” It is designed to guide you through motorcycle riding situational awareness, and organized in a fashion that if you follow the letters linearly, you should acclimate yourself to judging risk and avoiding dangerous situations.
 
 

Scan
Whenever you start riding from a standstill or change your pace, trajectory, or positioning on a road, you should scan. Look for hazards in front, on all sides, and behind you using correct form and mirrors. Similarly, note traffic, road conditions, people around you, and weather factors that might cause any irregularities in your ride.

Identify

Typically, the things you scan for will not require a change in behavior or significant action. However, you want to get in the habit of not glossing over risk, so quickly identifying outliers becomes valuable in your SIPDE routine. Sometimes, the combination of two things might present danger when each individual one would be fine alone. An example of this is inclement weather and traffic – they are both things that would keep your ride moderately cautious on their own, but in tandem, they should put you on high alert.
 

Predict
Obviously, we don’t have a crystal ball, but creating a mental range of outcomes well before you have to make a move can literally save your life. If you predict the most likely scenarios for a driver in front of you braking suddenly due to a pedestrian running on a city street (for example), you can then check which direction is safe to go around, or even prep to stop well short. Speed, distance, visibility, and your surroundings all need to be taken into account constantly during the ‘predict’ stage.

Decide
Once you have predicted potential trouble spots for your motorcycle ride, you need to decide on what your reaction will be to multiple scenarios. This is where your understanding of the surrounding elements and the time necessary to react safely will be extremely valuable. Like any other high-speed and intense activity, this will become easier with time. You will begin to recognize patterns in how certain dangers play out, but we always want to impart that vigilance is required for any skill level of rider.

 
 

Execute

Follow your plan decisively when the time comes. Your instincts will typically lead you to safety, especially if you follow each element of SIPDE to develop this move. Use all the tools your bike has to help – brakes, lights, horn, or whatever else is involved to get you to safety. An understated element of execution is acknowledging the difference between indecision and patience. Sometimes, the move is not to panic and overreact, when other times waiting will be dangerous. If you logic your way through all the steps of SIPDE leading into it, you should be able to determine the best course of action more often than not.
 
Following SIPDE doesn’t guarantee anything, but learning it and applying it creates a strong baseline for motorcycle riding safety. Like any other skill, you will develop it over time and become cognizant of its application in more and more scenarios.
 
 
Why is SIPDE Important for Motorcycle Riders?
 

SIPDE, along with SEE (Search, Evaluate, Execute), are pushed by motorcycle instructors, group ride leaders, and many prominent online motorcycle safety resources. The reality is that many of the elements in these teachings are instinctual or innate for drivers – so why are they so important to actively remember?

These lessons and breaking them down into micro-components are so important because of the gravity of a serious accident and how valuable it is to avoid potential hazards. If you can properly train your brain to stay sharp and look for each of these SIPDE elements as second nature, it will allow you to be a better rider, and stress less during your adventures.

Finally, it goes without saying that if everyone took safety seriously while on the road, the riding community would be better off overall. We’d much rather err on the side of caution and do our part to contribute to a safer road setting. We hope that this guide has illuminated what SIPDE is and how you can use it to be a more complete motorcycle rider.
 

Get the Law Tigers Free Rider Benefit Card
At the Law Tigers, riding is in our blood. It’s why we’re dedicated to keeping the motorcycle community safe with top-notch legal representation. We know that even with the best SIPDE education and implementation, accidents can still happen. We’re here to help pre-empt them but also to take care of you should anything happen.

Click Here to Sign up for your free Law Tigers Rider Benefit Card today to join our group of motorcycle enthusiasts; we’d love to have you.
 
 
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98th Loudon Classic a Great Success

LOUDON, NH, UNITED STATES – The 98th Annual Loudon Classic weekend by Mayhew Tools featured three days of perfect weather, fans from all over New England and racing with the NorthEast Motorcycle Road Racing (NEMRR) series. NEMRR is part of the national Championship Cup Series organization and riders from the Northeast, Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic regions competed in a twin sprint weekend that ran an impressive 45 races in total.

The feature events of the weekend were the three Grand Prix classes, which boasted $9500 in purse money in total. Specialty Saw presented the Seacoast Sport Cycle Lightweight Grand Prix class and the Street and Competition Unlimited Grand Prix classes. Mayhew Tools was the title sponsor of the featured Loudon Classic Middleweight Grand Prix class together with presenting sponsors Motorace and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In the twin sprint format the lap times from the Friday races were used to set the grid for the Saturday main events, and the Friday Motorace Middleweight Grand Prix race featured a $1500 purse.

Saturday’s feature races were held in front of a fantastic crowd and led off with the two support classes presented by Specialty Saw, Lightweight GP and Unlimited GP. First off were the small displacement machines and NEMRR #1 rider Rick Doucette of Sandown, NH showed why he was the heavy favorite, scoring the holeshot and running a string of blazing fast laps in the 1:14 and 1:15 range on his special de-stroked Yamaha R5. The surprise of the day came from Eli Block riding a strong running KTM 450 motard bike who challenged Doucette right to the very end. The Motard bike was down on power to machine of Doucette, but the combination of the nimble handling and equisite skill of Block made for an incredibly entertaining race to watch. Block was especially fast on the brakes and would be all over the back tire of Doucette in the back section of the track. In the end Doucette’s experience and consistency proved too much to handle as he pulled out the win by 0.4 seconds at the line. The battle for third was a similar battle between the SV650 of Steven Hieder and the Honda 450 motard of Moto America Junior Cup star Ben Gloddy, and in this case the motard won the battle and claimed the last spot on the podium.

In the Unlimited GP feature, pole sitter Shane Narbonne was forced to ride his Yamaha R6 after his Suzuki GSXR1000 suffered a mechanical failure. Scott Mullin won the drag race off the line, and 2nd row starter Eric Wood of Ashburnham, MA was able to use the power of his Kawasaki ZX10 to pass Narbonne to assume 2nd place as the trio rocketed into turn 1. Wood made an inside pass on Mullin into turn 6 and the two Kawasaki riders began to separate themselves from Narbonne. Mullin kept Wood honest throughout the contest, staying within a few bike lengths until Wood begin to open his advantage to an eventual 2.4 second gap as the pair navigated traffic in the closing laps.

The featured 98th running of the Loudon Classic by Mayhew Tools went off under 84-degree sunshine with a paddock abuzz and stands full of spectators excited to see the action. With all eyes focused on the front row, starting lights came on and perennial NEMRR star Scott Greenwood of Dunbarton, NH made an uncharacteristic mistake. To get a jump on the field, Greenwood launched out of his grid spot too early, a mistake that he clearly signaled as he entered turn one with a gap on the field while he was shaking his head in disbelief. Greenwood would be assessed a 30 second penalty, and the race was on. Greenwood and Narbonne separated themselves from the field while running a string of 1:12 lap times, Narbonne racing for the win and Greenwood racing against the clock to try to secure a podium position despite his penalty.

Meanwhile, the battle for the podium was raging between the trio of Rick Doucette, Teagg Hobbs (riding a 600 at NHMS for the first time) and Paul Duval together. The 18-year-old Hobbs was going to be fast to the end and came from a mediocre start through Doucette and up to the rear wheel of Duval. After several laps sizing up his competitor Hobbs finally made the move forward and separated himself in the later stages of the race from his competitor to secure a solid 2nd place. Duval was racing against Greenwood and the 30 second penalty, and in the end managed to keep the gap to less than 30 seconds and finished the 20-lap final on the podium. Rounding out the top 6 were Greenwood in 4th, Doucette and 5th and young upstart Joe LiMandri in 6th. The top finishing amateur rider was Paul Hosue, finishing a very respectable 12th place in a field of 27 riders.

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