What the hell is that biker doing? Why the hell do motorcyclists tap their helmets on the top like that?
Is there even a reason? Yes!
It is a warning signal to other motorcycles users.
You Are About to Come Across Cops
Slow down, watch your speed.
The Meaning Of Why Do Motorcyclists Tap Their Helmet.
A motorcyclist tapping the top of their helmet is a warning message. The gesture signal that members of law enforcement are nearby and are monitoring traffic. The signaling biker is tipping other motorcycle users to slow down and adopt a well-behaved riding attitude to avoid a ticket.
Tapping on top of the helmet is like a car flashing its headlights to oncoming traffic.
It is the way we bikers look out for each other to save a rider from having a bad day.
As I mentioned, it doesn’t matter what you ride or drive; If you know the meaning, the message applies to anybody,
Check your speed and slow down accordingly, then drive in a well-mannered attitude.
If you do were speeding, you can thank that biker in your thoughts later. 🙂
The Other Reason We Bikers Tap The Top Of Our Heads.
There is a second reason to use the signal of tapping a hand on a motorcycle helmet. Biker in-group use the gesture to signal following riders of emergency vehicles stopped up ahead. The intention is to tell a riding party to move to a different lane and respect the move over principle.
The same principle applies to any stopped emergency vehicle with blinking lights down the road.
We bikers use such ‘’body language’’ to keep emergency personnel and road workers safe.
It is not a signal you will see a biker do while riding alone.
Since most cars users don’t know the gesture’s meaning, lone riders won’t bother.
But it is something you might see in a group ride.
In this case, the tapping on the helmet probably won’t be the only hand gesture you will see but a combination of them.
The leading bikers of the group will use these hand signals to relay a message to the rest of the group ride.
1. First, the tapping on the helmet,
It means, Police or emergency situation up ahead.
2. The slow down gesture
3. Signaling the group to change lane to the left
As you can see, we got more than one signal in our pocket.
We got a bunch of them to communicate between riders. 😉
Story Of A Rider That Tapped His Helmet And Saved Me a Huge Ticket
Years ago, I almost got caught without the proper motorcycle permit.
A passing rider tapped his helmet, and I knew the meaning of police presence.
It saved me a police bust for sure.
Before I explain how it happened, Here’s why I decided like a dum dum to ride without a proper riding license.
In Quebec, Canada, where I live, there was an infuriating step to get your full motorcycle license.
After mandatory training and a written exam, you had to do a closed-off riding test.
Upon passing the test, you received an ‘’apprentice motorcycle license’’.
You were stuck with that incomplete license and had to wait a whole year until you were eligible for the final riding evaluation.
It mandated that you were only allowed to ride in the presence of a rider that had his full rider license for at least two years.
So unless you had bikers in your family or close friends with long riding experience, you were not allowed to ride.
Most of us like me could not ride a motorcycle for at least a year.
Thankfully this darn rule was written off by the government a couple of years ago.
Officials realized that this rule was counter-productive. Dha!
It impaired newcomer riders to practice riding and becoming better riders.
Anyways, if you got caught with an apprentice rider license without a teacher rider, it is the same offense as no license at all.
That meant;
‘’Here is your overpriced ticket, and step away from the bike; it will be towed.’’
That almost happened to me.
The Story Of How I Almost Got Busted.
At the time, I was in deep depression, and riding my motorcycle was the only thing that made me ”hang in there”.
I decided to ignore the rule back then; the call of riding was too strong.
At a red light, a rider on the other side of the intersection pointed at me, tapped on the top of his helmet three-time and pointed back to where he came from.
I caught on right away.
I sent him a thump up as a thank you and decided to turn right instead of going forward as I initially intended.
Then, I took the first entrance available, leading to a public parking to take a break and lay low.
Yet, I was curious.
Since I wanted to stretch my leg anyway, I decided to leave my helmet and jacket on the bike.
I then took a walk in the direction the rider warned me about.
Five minutes later, here they were…
A whole license-checking roadblock tucked out of view because of a curve in the road.
You could not see them until it was too late to turn around.
While later walking back to my bike, I felt a relief of stress I had no idea I had
Thank you, random grey-bearded rider…
You made me dodge a bullet that day.
Signaling a Cops by Tapping your Motorcycle Helmet, Is It Bad?
It is not considered an infraction to warn other road users of upcoming law enforcement on the roads. Yet announcing their presence might be frowned upon. Because of the discretion power police officers have, they might see it as an obstruction of justice.
The short answer is; tapping your motorcycle helmet is fine.
Yet announcing a cop’s presence might get on the officer’s nerves.
If an officer knows the meaning of tapping the top of your motorcycle helmet and gets offended that you ratted him or her out you might get into trouble.
If they realize you snitched them out, they may want some payback.
A Story Of Such An Event
Although it involves flashing your lights in a car rather than a motorcyclist tapping his helmet, the same principle applies.
It was a long time ago, but I remember my father telling me to be careful about doing just that.
Police officers, like everybody, don’t like to be ratted out or people getting in the way of their job they have to do.
He gave me a lecture about it because one of his friends was contesting such an event that week.
My father’s friend, Paul, got accused of preventing a police officer from exercising his functions.
Here what happened;
Paul was driving his car and saw an officer doing speed radar on the side of the road.
Then he flashed his lights to warn oncoming traffic to slow down.
But he did it too soon and too close to the officer, and he saw it.
He pulled Paul over under the claim that this was an obstruction of justice.
I don’t remember the detail of how he pulled it off, but Paul won his cause.
The moral of the story is;
Tapping the top of your motorcycle helmet or flashing your headlight to warn of police monitoring traffic is fine.
But don’t go looking for trouble and don’t do it in front of an officer. XD
Wait until you are out of sight. 😉
Final Word, Why Do Motorcyclists Tap Their Helmets.
In short, we do it to prevent somebody from having a bad day mainly from getting caught by the police.
Nobody in the history of humankind even felt sincerely happy to receive a ticket.
As a rider myself It is easy to fail to realize you are speeding on motorcycles way more than driving a car.
That is why we rider got a signal to pass along as a ”slow-down reminder” in situations where it counts the most.
I respect that officers got a challenging and necessary job, but they can sometimes be sneaky in their tactics.
So in response, nobody said we couldn’t be sneaky ourselves with a little bit of a secret code as a counter.
Hopefully, one day you will dodge a bullet-like I did because you recognized our biker language.
Take care.
Drive and ride safe.
