Keeping a Grip: Motorcycle Traction, Braking and Slippery Road Surfaces

What can take away your grip

Potholes, wheel ruts, grooves, slippery surfaces and loose gravel all raise the risk. Watch the surface ahead and adjust your technique and speed. Loose dirt and gravel collect at the road edge, so stay clear of it.

Common slippery places

• wet sealed roads, especially soon after rain starts, before the oil and muck wash away
• painted markings and smooth steel such as manhole covers, tram lines and bridge joints, and smooth bitumen repairs. All are worse when wet
• unmade or gravel roads, and sand or gravel on sealed roads
• mud, snow and ice, including black ice
• grease in the middle of lanes, and oil or diesel spills

Avoid slippery patches where you can. If you cannot slow beforehand, cross them as upright as possible without turning, changing gear or speed. Smoothness is the key.

Rough, grooved and sloping roads

• Bumps and potholes: keep your speed down. That gives you time to dodge the worst, softens shocks and lets the suspension work. Bumps can affect steering too.
• Grooved roads: usually cut to help in the wet. Stay relaxed, hold your speed and direction, and slow down as much as is safe before reaching them.
• High-crowned roads: the slope pushes you towards the edge, particularly in right-hand curves. Slow down and keep your position.

Tram and train tracks

Avoid riding on or along the tracks, since the steel is slippery and the road beside it can have deep ridges that trap a tyre. If you must cross:

• look where you want to go, not along the rails
• avoid places where tracks cross each other
• cross as close to a right angle as is safe, without risking other traffic
• stay upright, hold your speed and do not brake or accelerate while crossing
• finish any turn before you reach the tracks

For emergency stops see emergency braking and skidding.

Based on The Victorian Rider Handbook (2023, Department of Transport and Planning) and the VicRoads motorcycle pages. This guide covers Victoria: other states and territories have different rules, and rules change from time to time, so check vicroads.vic.gov.au for the latest.