THE REAL RULES
Rule 1: Don't hurt anybody else!
Rule 2: Don't get hurt yourself..
Rule 3: Don't damage anyone else's property (including livestock).
Rule 4: Don't get any of your own property damaged.
... The above four rules are in fact what all the other driving rules you are familiar with are trying to achieve, All Ive tried to do is get to the core of the matter :) I also separated rules 1 and 2 just to emphasise that the priority is NOT self... likewise with 3 and 4.
Rule 5: As far as possible do not do anything on the roads that the locals do not do themselves.
Rule 6: Remember that if the authorities stop you, you can and will be held accountable to their
laws and their legal system and your "foreign" status confers absolutely no privileges at
all and may in fact incur penalties... You have been warned and No excuses will be
accepted!
Rule 7: For practical purposes, all the rules you have previously learned about driving in your "developed-world" home do NOT apply... only these rules above. As such, things like stop signs and traffic lights are effectively merely "suggestions". Lines on the road, be they yellow or white or solid or broken double or single... their only real purpose is to indicate which way the traffic moves... In general traffic should move in a "parallel" orientation to the painted lines..
Rule 8: Try very hard not to "inconvenience" anyone else... This means that regardless of what other people on the road do, no one should have to brake or accelerate unexpectedly to avoid you... No one should get startled by what you do on the road!
Priority One - Awareness.
So, given the above rules, you primary goal as an overland moto-rider should be to maintain a comfortable and stress-free ride. Out on the open highway this usually means riding along just as you would at home, but with an increased level of awareness... You must always assume that "ANYTHING" can happen and can be around the next bend ... including charging elephants, shear cliffs where the road is completely gone, careening trucks on your side of the road with suicidal drunk drivers etc... anything is possible (and in fact is often likely).
You must also assume that you are NOT the fastest thing on the highway and that something faster is coming up behind. It is rarely the case because as a moto-tourer, your big bike is in fact usually the most powerful and fastest thing around, but if you are blind to whats happening behind you, on those rare occasions when there is someone faster you will get very badly surprised as you pull out to pass a slower vehicle and something in turn blasts by you with horn blasting etc...
So, foreign riding is all about your own awareness... There is no room for you to "zone out" listening to your iPod or thinking about your dinner etc... The consequences of a lapse in concentration are SEVERE!... so stay awake! :)
Priority Two - Flow.
Your second priority (after maintaining constant and superior awareness) is to maintain a "comfortable ride"... This in fact is largely a matter of "Momentum Management"... An uncomfortable ride involves lots of accelerating and braking and sudden changes in speed and direction... hard to relax and it uses up a lot of personal energy. So, the rider should instead aim to never use more than 70% of the bikes acceleration potential, and not more than 50% of its braking potential. In order to do that you will need to hone your "anticipation" skills. You must always be looking well ahead to see potential obstacles and adapt in advance to avoid them. For example, when there is a slow vehicle ahead and further away an oncoming truck as well... You should gage both vehicles speed and adjust your own speed well in advance so that you will not be trying to pass the slow vehicle when the oncoming vehicle is at the same place... either pass before it gets here or wait till after its passed, but decide now and make a small adjustment in speed to achieve that results.
In achieving that goal, you have far more latitude than you may think... You can use both sides of the road and the shoulders too... just don't scare people and don't have/cause an accident.
Safety Margins
You will in most situations NOT be travelling at the same speeds you would be at home... There are far more unknowns in foreign lands and the other drivers habits are far less predictable... As such, you will be going slower unless the road is in excellent condition and there are no other drivers on it ( a very rare circumstance). As was mentioned above, regardless of the bike size and load, you should not exceed 70% of your acceleration potential and 50% of your braking potential... These are you necessary safety margins! If you find that in some situation you have "dipped into" that buffer zone of either braking or acceleration then you have made a mistake!... You failed to read the situation correctly and things could have been far worse... You should immediately decide to reduce your speed and increase your attention and in all ways "back it off!" somewhat... There is no-one to hold you to this rule except yourself... No policemen, no laws... just your own decision making abilities and personal will power... But believe me, after hundreds of thousands of Km of riding in all sorts of foreign lands ... This is how it should be if you want to stay alive!
And now for a couple of example videos:
Lesson 1... The Urban Approach
The highways approaching a major city will slowly become more congested as you get closer and the behavior of the traffic will consequently become more "creative". In this video clip (about 30-50 Km from a major city in Africa) we can see that larger vehicles (and smaller ones too for that matter) often do not obey "civilized" passing rules, and the moto-tourer should expect this... You should however not become stressed and belligerent but rather you should adapt and where possible make space for others "creativity" while at the same time allowing space for your own "creativity" in return... Its all good if you can maintain those above-mentioned safety margins, and don't attract the attention of any local officials. Note you cant attract their attention if they are not in the area but you are the judge of if they are around or not and there will only be yourself to blame if you are wrong :) Note also that while you aim to maintain a smooth and calm riding experience, there are always stressful moments... The aim is to not let them build into a continual stressful state while you ride and to use them as a signal to adapt your riding style (usually to slow down!).
Lesson 2... The Inner City Freeway Snarl
As you penetrate further into the larger cities, traffic frequently comes to a complete stand-still on the main arterial roads and unless you want to sit there in the sweltering heat like the trucks and busses, you are going to have to get VERY "creative"... But don't worry, you are not alone... Let the local motorbike riders demonstrate what is "acceptable" behavior and do as they do... the fact that you are on a machine that is several times as large and much more powerful simply means that you will need to adapt slightly differently. A point to note though is that you must be intimately aware of your bikes outer dimensions and be prepared to ride to those limits... In squeezing through gaps, you really do only need a couple of cm of clearance on each side... but you will need to be prepared to ride to those limits at speeds of about 50Kmh and for distances of 20m or more :)
The video demonstrates some very creative "adaptation" in some very difficult driving conditions... The video lasts only a few minutes but the larger vehicles that were stuck in traffic took between 1-2 hours to cover the same distance as the motorbikes did :)
That's the core of my Moto-Touring driving recommendations... There may be more at a later date though :)
