5 Must-Have Skills For Motorcycle Riders

Riding a bike involves a lot more than the road. You have to ensure smoother, safer, and, in some cases, faster riding. Many riders go to great lengths to avoid situations that they find uncomfortable such as cornering, slow speed control, streetcar tracks – rather than challenge themselves to learn these things proficiently. The following five key motorcycle riding skills will not only give you a refresher but will without a doubt increase your riding pleasure and confidence. 

5 Must-Have Skills For Motorcycle Riders

Here are a few skills you can adapt to for your travel - 

• When in Traffic, Drag Your Back Brake For Better Balance

Picking your way through traffic at low speed is one of the toughest things we've to try to do as riders. Managing an important, unwieldy motorcycle while watching out for drivers and trying to work out if your 'bars are getting to fit between those mirrors. Here’s a trick that’ll help make threading through cars less like walking a tightrope: drag a touchback brake.

Doing so smooths out power delivery and preps you for emergency stops, of course, but by pushing the front down as you accelerate and easing the bounciness that happens as you progress between acceleration and deceleration, it also seems to assist with lateral balance

• Blip The Throttle to form Downshifts Smoother

Grab a lower gear as you’re braking, let the clutch out quickly, and revs temporarily spike because the engine struggles to catch up to the rear tire’s speed by blipping revs to match the rear-wheel speed, the engine doesn’t get to catch up all of a sudden.

• Trail Brake For Faster, Safer Cornering

When you are applying your bike’s front brake, it will slow you down. Of course. And, in doing so, it’ll compress the front suspension and shift the load onto the front tire, expanding its contact patch and increasing its grip. That has the twin effect of creating the bike steer quicker and making it so you'll push the front harder. Together, that adds miles per hour. Later braking means longer spent accelerating on the straights means faster lap times. It also helps with safety.

• Don’t Use the Clutch For Upshifts

This might seem remedial, but a lot of people do not know how to do this. This gives a smoother and faster shift and also lower clutch wear. It is very easy to do. When you accelerate and are approaching the place where you want to shift up, put your toe under the lever and apply pressure upwards. That’s it. This gives a smooth and faster shift and an easy-riding experience.

• Steer Left To Go Right

Countersteering. It’s the foremost often misunderstood, but most ordinarily practiced riding skill out there. If you ride a motorbike or bicycle you already roll in the hay. It’s far more simple than its counterintuitive nature sounds. Go out to your bike, sit thereon with both legs firmly on the bottom. Now, when you turn the bars to the left, the bike wants to fall to the right. Look at the front wheel, you’re creating some extent, with it on one side and therefore the bike’s main body on the opposite. The bike wants to fall towards that point.

Bonus Tip: Accidents are unpredictable while driving on roads so it becomes extemly important to buy two-wheeler insurance.

Conclusion

These are just a few tips to make your riding easier and more intuitive. Riding is fun, but remember to be steady and conscious on the road.

Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.