Learn to Ride a Motorcycle Safely

Video Transcript

"Alright, in this clip we're going to talk about learning how to ride a motorcycle safely. Now a lot of classes teach you how to ride a motorcycle. You can do a safety class that's, I think it's endorsed by your state. Here in Washington state we have the foundation called the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, and they provide classes that you can take at various places that teach you how to ride a motorcycle and basically what they do, is they have a series of drills that you do. And it's, it's very short; you'll only spend about fifteen, twenty minutes per, at a max; it's kind of a two day thing or a three day thing depending on your schedule that you take with the class. But when you do the class, you just kind of get the taste of the various things that, that you can do on a motorcycle. You don't actually get a full mastery of the motorcycle. So don't kick yourself; when you take a class, you're not going to master right the motorcycle at all. You just pass some tests that, that proves to them that you're not going to, you know, drop your bike. The real way to become proficient and master your bike is to practice those drills outside the class in a parking lot. And in my book, Motorcycle Drills For New Riders, there is drills in here that you can do in parking lots that involve like putting out cones and just doing figure eights or just going in circles; you know, one way and then other way so it teaches you how to turn. Or just you know, finding what's called the friction zone in the clutch, is where it actually grips and starts to move the bike. Just knowing where that is in relation to pulling the actual clutch; that's something that, that a person should master because you know, you you can accidentally let the clutch slip too hard and before you know it, you're going to pop a wheel, you're going to be on your butt on a pavement. So drilling these things over and over and over are what are going to make you a safe motorcycle rider. It's not just you pass the test and states as that you can do; it's the fact that you've done these drills over and over and over and over and over again to a, to a point where you've actually mastered riding a motorcycle. Being safe doesn't necessarily mean going slow on a motorcycle. It just means being proficient and well-drilled in all the various parts of motorcycle. That's what you can achieve by doing the drills that are on my book. I've done these drills a bunch of times with my friend and it, it speeds up your ability to, to handle a motorcycle so that you don't have to think when you're on the road. When something happens you just perform the right task and it's not, it's not a matter of thinking of, you know, "Oh, do I have to do this with the handle bar". Do I have to lean this way or whatever; you just do it. It just becomes part of you. Then motorcycle riding becomes more enjoyable. So anyway, riding a motorcycle safely has a lot to do with your own practice in what you learn in any class you take or whatever book you read."