What Does It Mean When A Biker Has Their Left Palm Facing Up And Swings It Upwards?

When it comes to riding a motorcycle, there are multiple hand signals that a rider should know like the left turn signal, the right turn signal, and letting people know that you are about to stop. For most situations, these three will be able to get you through your daily ride. However, there are many other hand signals that motorcycle riders can use – though, their importance does not seem as immediately apparent. One of them is a hand signal that involves you sticking your left arm fully out to the side with your palm facing up. From there, you repeat the motion of lifting that arm up and down.

This is a hand signal to let the other people on the road know that you intend to speed up your motorcycle. At first, that may seem like an odd signal to use. After all, nobody else on the road is letting you know when they are speeding up. They simply just push on their accelerators a little more and go. This is because the hand signal for speeding up is not necessarily that crucial for those riding solo and navigating normal traffic. Instead, this is a signal that is incredibly important if you ride your motorcycle with other people.

While there are plenty of solo riders out there on the street, there are many people who ride in groups. These could be folks in an organized motorcycle club or just some buddies out for a spontaneous afternoon ride through town. However, when you are in one of these groups, one person gets designated to be the leader. They are the ones who are ultimately guiding the group ride and are therefore responsible for making sure that everyone in the group is on the same page, whether they are riding right behind the leader or are several bikes back. It is in a situation like this where the speed up hand signal becomes crucially important.

If the leader determines that they need to speed up for any reason, like if they need to get by something quickly, they can give the speed up signal to let everyone else in the group know that they need to speed up as well. If you have a small group, everyone should be able to see this hand signal quite clearly. However, if you are in a larger one, it would be beneficial for that speed up signal to be used by every single person, making its way down the line to the very last person. The leader is also responsible for many other parts of the group experience, such as getting in a single file line. In truth, being on top of your hand signals is one of the best ways you can have a group of motorcyclists ride safely together.