How To Ride a Motorcycle at RevZilla.com
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00:00Howdy, this is Lemmy with RevZilla TV, here to talk to you today about how to ride a motorcycle.
00:19I remember when I first started learning to ride, I was so excited to figure out what it was that I was doing.
00:23But I didn't have anybody to show me the ropes. I made a lot of mistakes and while that's a valid way to learn,
00:27it's not the most efficient way to figure out how to safely move down the road in a motorcycle.
00:31Now, I'm not going to tell each and every one of you what you need to stay safe,
00:34but things to think about are things like continuing education, personal protective equipment, as well as a big healthy dollop of common sense.
00:41Now let's talk for just a moment here about that common sense.
00:44I want you to listen to things I have to say. I've ridden a gajillion miles and I've taught plenty of people how to ride
00:49successfully, but ultimately I'm just some guy from the internet. Use your noodle when you get out there on your motorcycle.
00:53So let's talk about how this video is actually going to progress. We're going to talk about a couple of things.
00:57We're going to show you what the controls on a motorcycle
00:59actually do and how they differ from the controls on a car.
01:02The other thing we're going to show you too is how to physically get the motorcycle started up safely, and then from there
01:07we're going to also show you how to get the motorcycle rolling down the road. Of course,
01:10we can't cover every single nuance of riding a motorcycle,
01:13but these are the basic nuts and bolts as far as actually getting the bike
01:16rolling down the road, including stuff like clutch and throttle interplay, which has a lot of people a little bit confused,
01:21especially if they've never driven a manual transmission vehicle. Now, I want to get on to this motorcycle,
01:26but first I got to get my duds on. You can't ride a bike if you don't look fly.
01:30Styling and profiling. Now check out my final trick.
01:55What? You didn't think we were going to learn to ride a motorcycle on that barge, did you? Instead,
01:59we've got something a little bit more learner-friendly here. Let me swing a leg over this baby.
02:05Okay, before we get moving at all, let's talk about some of the controls on a motorcycle.
02:10Now, I'm going to assume that most of you are reasonably familiar with a car.
02:13Riding a motorcycle is similar to driving around in a car in some ways in that you are using both of your hands and both
02:18of your feet, but it's also different in a lot of ways too.
02:20So let's start at the right foot and we'll work our way over to the other side of the bike and we'll talk about some
02:24of the controls on a bike and what's similar and what's different from the stuff on an automobile.
02:28Let's start at the right foot down here. Your right foot is going to control the rear brake.
02:32That's right. On a motorcycle, your brakes are actually split. Instead of in a car where you have full-on braking power from one pedal,
02:38there's actually two independently controlled brakes on a motorcycle. Right foot, rear brake.
02:43Moving up to my right hand. My right hand also controls a brake. By hitting this lever,
02:47I control the front brake of the motorcycle.
02:50This is kind of important because the front brake on most modern motorcycles handles about 80% of the braking duty.
02:55So your right hand's job is pretty important.
02:58Your right hand does some other things as well though.
03:00There's some other stuff on the control pod,
03:02you can see here, that your right hand is in charge of. One of them is the engine start and stop switch.
03:06Unlike a car, a motorcycle actually has two ways of getting the power to the ignition.
03:11One is through the key, but the other one is this engine on off switch.
03:14One of the other differences between a car and a motorcycle too is the starter button you can see down here.
03:19That's something else your right hand is going to be in charge of.
03:22Instead of in a car where you would insert the key and then there's a spring-loaded
03:25part at the end of the ignition that's going to actually start the vehicle, a motorcycle splits that up.
03:30You have a start button off to the side and your right hand is going to be responsible
03:34for popping that start button on and off.
03:36The other big thing that your right hand does is controls the throttle. By twisting the grip like this,
03:41you actuate the throttle on the motorcycle. This is analogous to a gas pedal on a car.
03:46It raises the speed of the engine and also makes you go a little bit faster if you're pouring on the coal.
03:51Let's move over to the left hand. Related to the throttle on your left hand is the clutch.
03:56Those of you who have driven a car with a manual transmission can probably appreciate that the clutch is not like a light switch.
04:01It's not on off. There's some finesse and grace that has to be used. Your left hand like your right hand
04:05also has some more minor duties too. Your low and high beam switch are over here on the left control pod
04:10and the other thing you'll see here too is your horn. If you need to actuate your horn, honk honk,
04:15that's how you're going to do it.
04:17One of the other things I'd like to bring to your attention too is the turn signal mechanism.
04:21Turn signals on a motorcycle are a little bit different than they are on a car. On most motorcycles, except for super high-end stuff,
04:27the turn signals are not self-canceling. Meaning when you turn the turn signal on, once you're done making your turn,
04:33you have to turn it back off. So the directionals on most bikes are pretty standard.
04:37You're going to move the switch either to the left or to the right in order to turn the turn signal on
04:42and then most bikes have a feature called push to cancel. You're going to push the button straight in
04:46and that's how you turn the turn signal off.
04:48Now wrapping things up, we have the left foot. Your left foot is going to handle shifting duties for the transmission.
04:53Those of you who have driven a manual transmission car, a bike should be reasonably familiar to you.
04:58You have to select what gear it is that you're actually in.
05:01One of the differences between an automotive transmission and a motorcycle transmission though, is that a motorcycle transmission typically is a sequential manual transmission.
05:10Whereas in a car you could make say a 2-4 shift or a 3-5 shift because you can stop off at neutral between every gear,
05:16a motorcycle doesn't allow that. You have to numerically go through each gear.
05:20So you don't necessarily have to engage a gear on a motorcycle if you wanted to do say a 4-2 downshift,
05:25but you do have to actually pass through it in order to get the shifter where you're going.
05:28One of the other interesting parts of a motorcycle
05:30I think a lot of people struggle with is the fact that neutral is in between first and second gears.
05:36Most modern motorcycles that are foot shift have a ratcheting mechanism and the ratcheting mechanism only lets you move one gear at a time.
05:42You have to reset your foot in order to get multiple gear changes.
05:45The exception to this rule, of course, is neutral. Neutral is kind of a strange position.
05:50It sits between first and second gear in the actual swing of the gear shift lever.
05:55That's the one gear that you can actually come through and hit more than one gear with a single movement of your foot.
06:00Now I recognize this probably sounds a little bit confusing, and it is,
06:04but I promise you as soon as you sit down on a motorcycle and play around with the gear shift lever for just a little
06:08bit, inside of a very short period you'll understand exactly what it is that I'm talking about.
06:13Now that I've shown you the controls, let's get to the fun part. Let's fire this bike up. First out,
06:18let me grab a helmet and gloves and get geared up.
06:21All right, we're getting close. I'm so excited and I hope you are too. Now before we get rolling here,
06:25I have a couple of caveats for you. The first is this.
06:28I'm assuming everybody is starting on a modern fuel-injected motorcycle because most people are.
06:33If you have an older bike, something with carburetors or petcocks or perhaps a kicker on it,
06:37the starting sequence might be entirely different.
06:39If you're in that boat, either check your owner's manual for a little bit more information on how to get it started,
06:43or talk to a buddy who knows a little bit more about your bike than you do.
06:46The rest of you, if you follow along, you should be all set.
06:49The second caveat I have for you, I'm going to show you a sequence of steps.
06:52If you use this sequence of steps on just about any modern motorcycle, you should be able to get it rolling.
06:57You may find that one or two of the steps is superfluous for your bike.
07:00The reason I'm showing you all of these steps though is because if you follow them,
07:03it should get just about any modern motorcycle rolling regardless of who manufactured the bike.
07:08The first thing I like to do is get the side stand up.
07:11Some bikes have a sensor or a switch that will prevent you from starting up the bike if the stand is down.
07:16The next thing I like to do from this point is to turn the ignition on.
07:19I now have the key switch on on this motorcycle, and at the same time,
07:22I'm also going to make sure I have power going to the ignition using the engine stop switch.
07:26That's on as well as you can see.
07:28From here, I like to make sure that the bike is in neutral. Some bikes won't let you start them if they're not in neutral.
07:33Some bikes have a neutral indicator, which you can see here.
07:35The other good way to check is to roll the bike back and forth.
07:38If you can roll it back and forth without the clutch pulled in, you're in neutral.
07:42From here, I'm going to pull the clutch in, and I'm going to hit the starter button until the engine catches.
07:48So as you can see, getting the bike started really is very simple as long as you follow the correct sequence.
07:52Now before we actually get out on the road,
07:54I want to show you something that I think is a sticking point for a lot of beginners.
07:57I also want to show it to you before we start moving too because I can exaggerate my movements a little bit,
08:02and you can really get a good idea for what it is that I'm doing here.
08:05Specifically, I'm speaking about the interplay between the throttle and the clutch.
08:09I like to think of the two as a seesaw. If you're using throttle, you're usually coming off of the clutch.
08:13If you're coming onto the clutch, you're usually coming off of the throttle.
08:16They work in tandem with each other, sort of opposite of one another. Let me show you exactly what I mean.
08:21So I'm going to pull the clutch in, put this bike down into first gear. At this point,
08:25I'm going to start letting the clutch go, and I'm going to bring the throttle speed up.
08:29You're going to hear the engine RPMs rise, and you'll also notice the bike's going to start to pull itself forward. Here, watch.
08:35Clutch is coming out, throttle is on, and I'm pulling forward. Let me show you again.
08:40I'm going to take the clutch and start releasing it. At the same time,
08:43I'm twisting my wrist just a little bit.
08:45You can hear the engine moving a little bit faster, and you can see the bike start to pull itself.
08:49Now, this relationship between clutch and throttle can be kind of tricky.
08:52Don't get down on yourself if you don't learn it right out of the gate.
08:55It's the thing that most learners probably have to spend the most time working on, that very delicate relationship between the clutch and the throttle.
09:02So at this point, I think you probably understand that. Let me show you what it looks like out on the road.
09:07All right, it's game time. We're ready to ride a motorcycle. I'm going to start off just like I showed you.
09:12I'm going to pull this clutch in, down into first gear, and now you're going to notice me releasing the clutch and then coming on
09:17with the gas.
09:19Boom, we're underway. One of the things I want you to notice is how fast I picked up my foot over there.
09:23Sometimes rookies have this instinct to keep their feet down to help keep their balance.
09:27It can be dangerous if you have a foot come down while the bike's at speed.
09:30So make a conscious effort to get your feet up as soon as it's practical.
09:33Now, I'm getting ready to come do a stop here.
09:35So what I'm going to do is the reverse of what we just did. Clutch in, throttle off, and brake smoothly to a stop.
09:41At this point, that's it. This is how you ride a motorcycle. Now, I want to duplicate this
09:45so you can see one more time exactly what I'm doing, but I also want to throw a curveball in there, too.
09:50I'm actually going to shift gears. I'm going to get into a faster forward gear.
09:53Now, as anybody who's ever driven a manual transmission car can tell you,
09:57it's easier to shift into gears that are higher speed. Once you have a little speed under your belt,
10:02it becomes just a little bit simpler in order to shift your gears smoothly. It's not quite as difficult as taking off.
10:07I'll show you what I'm talking about right now.
10:09So pull that clutch in, click down into first, and now I'm going to slowly let my clutch out and come on with the gas.
10:15And look at that. Now we're rolling again. Now, here's the part I want you to pay attention to.
10:19The engine RPMs are coming up. You can hear the engine's getting a little bit noisy.
10:23That means that it's time to shift.
10:24So I'm going to pull the clutch in, make my shift, and come back on with the throttle. I'm now in second gear.
10:29We're riding a motorcycle.
10:31You have just about all the information you need right now to figure out if this might be something you can do.
10:35And my bet is that you can. Riding a motorcycle is easy, and it's a whole lot of fun.
10:40Now, you're at the stage of your journey where you're ready for a little bit more education,
10:44and you can get it over at Common Tread. Check out the article
10:46I wrote that accompanies this video on how to ride a motorcycle.
10:49I also want you to check out some of the other articles by some of our other authors.
10:52There's a lot of really great opinions there. Now, if you haven't seen any of our other videos, let me hit you with my catchphrase.
10:58I'm Lemmy, and I'm out of here.