Motorcycle Safety Checklist

This interactive checklist lets you assess your level of safety on a motorcycle in one minute, on three fronts: your riding gear, the state of your machine and protection against theft. Tick the points you already apply, get a score out of 11 and immediately spot the habits to correct before your next ride.

How to read your score

From 9 points out of 11, your habits cover the essentials: all that is left is keeping the routine going. Between 6 and 8, the basics are there, but the empty boxes deserve your attention first. Below 6, take the time to go back over each family one by one before piling on the rides.

The overall score does not tell the whole story: look at the spread too. Complete riding gear does not make up for under-inflated tyres, and a perfectly maintained motorcycle stays vulnerable if it sleeps in the street with no protection at all. The three families complement each other: gear protects your body in a fall, maintenance reduces the risk of an accident, and anti-theft protects the machine when you are not on it.

What orders of magnitude should you keep in mind?

On the gear side, two items are required by law in France: an approved helmet and CE-certified gloves, for the rider and the pillion alike. A jacket with armour and ankle-high footwear are not compulsory, but they are what limits the damage in a slide.

On the machine side, tyre pressure should be checked cold, roughly once a month, at the values specified by the manufacturer. Brakes, lights and chain follow the same principle: a quick visual check before setting off, regular maintenance planned in. Our article on monthly maintenance tasks sets out that routine.

On the theft side, finally, the orders of magnitude speak for themselves: a motorcycle theft takes 2 minutes 30 seconds on average, and less than a minute when the machine is not secured to a fixed point. Around half of all thefts happen in places people consider safe, shared garages and underground car parks first among them. Conversely, deterrence works: according to the Observatoire GeoRide du Vol de Moto en France 2026 (GeoRide's own study of motorcycle theft in France), in more than half of all attempts the real-time alert was enough to make the thief flee before the motorcycle was moved.

Which mistakes come up most often?

The first mistake is ticking "lock" when it only locks a wheel: a lock fitted without securing the motorcycle to anything barely slows down a lift-and-load. Always attach it to a fixed point, and ideally combine a mechanical lock and a GPS tracker to cover both visible deterrence and the remote alert.

Second trap: gear worn only some of the time. The gloves or jacket left in the cupboard "just for a short trip" are precisely the ones missing on the day it matters, because short, familiar journeys are exactly where vigilance drops. Third trap: only checking the motorcycle before big departures. Tyres, brakes and chain wear out on everyday journeys too. Finally, plenty of riders reckon a locked garage means no protection is needed: the figures above show the opposite. To choose a suitable tracker, our guide to motorcycle GPS trackers goes through the criteria that count.

Frequently asked questions

How often should you retake this checklist?

Take the full test again whenever the season, your motorcycle or your parking habits change. The mechanical points, on the other hand, need checking far more often: a glance at the tyres, the brakes and the lights before every ride takes only a few seconds. The checklist is there mainly to give you a snapshot of your overall situation and to spot the points you have ended up neglecting without realising it.

Does a score of 11 out of 11 guarantee zero risk?

No, no setup removes risk entirely: the score measures how well prepared you are, not immunity. That said, every point ticked removes a clearly identified risk: gear limits the severity of a fall, maintenance reduces the likelihood of a breakdown or a loss of grip, and the combination of a lock, well-lit parking and a GPS tracker makes theft markedly harder and riskier for the thief.

Why is a GPS tracker on the list?

Because a mechanical lock on its own is no longer enough against current methods: the vast majority of thefts are lift-and-load jobs, with the motorcycle picked up and loaded into a van without ever being started. A GPS tracker alerts you in real time from the first suspicious movement and then lets you locate the machine. It is the only point on the list that keeps warning you when you are far from your motorcycle.