Risk Management Magazine

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the open road beckons. You’ve been waiting all winter to take your motorcycle out for the first ride of the year and the time has finally come. But wait — let’s check a few things first. Even if you winterized your motorcycle for off-season storage, you’ll want to read this 15-point checklist before you hit the road.

While COVID-19 cases nationally have dropped recently, the country is still in a full-fledged pandemic.

Fatalities on U.S. highways rose 4.6% during the first nine months of 2020 despite coronavirus lockdowns that curtailed driving early in the year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates 28,190 people died in traffic crashes from January through September of last year, up from 26,941 during the same period in 2019. Final statistics for the full year will not be released until this fall.