[Applause] before I talk about things that get you riding quicker and that's not as in fast safer and with more control let me give you some tips on setting up your bars your clutch and your brake lever that is if you can adjust them on some bikes mostly scooters you cannot adjust them however if you can set the bars so that they are flat across when you look at them from the front of the bike the ends should not drop lower than the rise of the bars this way you will keep forward on the front
of the seat so that you have more control over the front end you'll understand more about that later next your clutch and brake lever set them so they're down at about a 30° angle or maybe a little more up but not higher than level if you keep them a little down it will be easier for you to use them and it will be easier for you to stay over the front end to have more control it is also a good idea to check both brakes front and rear to be sure that they work before riding
keep the front a little loose at first so that you won't lock it up should you panic but you do want it to work when you pull it as far as the rear brake goes don't have it so loose that you need to push it too far down to get stopped about a half to 3/4 of an inch movement is good before we go to step two let me remind you that you should always wear protective riding gear when riding never ride without a helmet and it's a good idea to always wear boots goggles gloves
riding pants KNE guards Etc are also very important if you have them wear them now for step two the most important thing you can learn is a good body position because this is where all your control comes from even as you become a better Rider and start going faster your body position is still the most important thing so that you can keep your motorcycle under control at all times so let me first tell you that if you have control of the front end and where it is going you have a pretty good chance that you
can make the bike do what you want it to do if you get too far away from the front end you can't put weight on the front wheel so it will turn and go where it wants to and should you hit the power too hard it's going to shoot out from underneath you so let's start with your body position when seated sit on the front of the seat all the way forward the more forward the better even if you say I don't like sitting this far forward do it next set your hands on the bars
so you are a little out toward the end of the bars and your hands are turned out at this angle not like this this will give you more level and more control over the front end and now for step three next and second most important thing is the clutch you will not only use this to take off but you will use it to get more power when you need it and you will use it to stay out of trouble should something go wrong like you gas it too hard and the bike starts going faster than
you want or you just panic and freeze up the first thing you want to do is pull in the clutch and use the brake start by putting one finger or two fingers on the clutch lever and don't take them off the lever ever the reason is because the clutch is your best friend so don't leave him you will need him always think before you do anything clutch first when you are getting ready to start the bike put your fingers on the clutch lever it's best to start your bike in neutal however sometimes you can start
it in gear if you have the clutch in the only problem is it doesn't kick as easily so just put it in neutral first know your brakes if you have only hand brakes know which one is the front and which one is the rear and don't ride using only the front because if you need to stop in a panic and you grab the front hard you could get thrown down hard particularly if the ground is loose or if it is wet start out using just the rear and as soon as you are comfortable with it
use a little front as well the front will always be on the right side on a motorcycle then if you have a rear foot brake learn how much you need to push on it so that you can get stopped but so it won't lock up and skid the rear wheel now for step five the takeoff and getting stopped here is something that many riders that are starting out learning to use the clutch never learn how to do right and that's the reason that they have so much trouble when they are in a tight section or
on a hill you should practice stopping and starting until that you can do it smooth and under control when I am teaching someone to ride for the first time I will not let them just take off and ride around until they can stop and start smoothly the reason is because you are going to do a lot of stopping and starting in different situations the rider that you are watching in most of this video has only ridden one time before for about 2 hours and this is the first time that he has ever used a clutch
once the bike is running keep the revs up a little and start to let the clutch out a little at a time find the point where it just wants to go forward now start to feed the clutch out slowly when it starts to go keep feeding it or slipping it and give it a little more throttle if you don't keep the revs up and you let the clutch out too fast it's going to stall if so get it started again and start all over again if you get the revs up high and let the clutch
out fast the bike could jump out from underneath you leaving you on the ground once you get it going forward get ready to stop first pull in the clutch then use the brake to stop now do the same thing again work on getting the right RPM and the right clutch release so that you will get a smooth takeoff once you think you have that down stop on a small hill and work on starting off going uphill you will need to give it a little more power and a little more clutch feed or slip once you
can do that try a bigger Hill the bigger the hill the more that you will need this stay forward so that the front end won't come up as you take off don't go riding until you can do this with no problem over and over again too many riders once they get going just start riding around and don't work on this I say if you can't do this you can't ride step six controlling your turns you need to work on turning right and left in smaller and smaller circles until you can make a very small Circle
at a very slow speed the tighter the turn the more clutch you will need to use to help you control the turn at that speed start by making big turns right and then left once you are comfortable with those turns keep getting smaller and always keep your finger on the clutch lever because when you start making real tight turns you will use it a little to help you control the turn and control your speed and it will also help you to keep from stalling the bike as you are trying to do a real small circle
hold the clutch in a little and learn to use it with the throttle when you think you have it right work on turning a smaller circle on a hill when you get this down you can go trail riding without much problem step number seven your feet positioning on the pegs is also very important try to to stay on the balls of your feet when it all possible if you are not shifting or breaking it is a good idea to be on the balls of your feet number one it will keep you from riding with your
foot on the rear brake and it will keep you from hitting the gear lever in knocking it out of gear when you stand up it will put your weight more on the front end and over the bars but most importantly when you start to jump it will let you work better with the suspension on the takeoff off and on the landing from a jump to know if you are on the balls of your feet look to see if your toes are behind the gear lever and the brake pedal this is not the most important thing
you will learn but it will help a lot step number eight the proper standing position is very important as soon as you stand up lock your legs in straight and push your knees back so that they are behind the foot pigs one of the biggest problems with riders when they stand up is they don't stand up they get in a squat it looks something like this it's kind of a stand up but it looks more like they're trying to sit down I call this an intimidated stance when you do this it puts most of your
weight on the rear end taking weight off of the front so when you gas it the front end tries to come up and your weight goes to the back losing control over the bike work on this first stand riding around in a flat field be sure you grip with your legs against the seat and the side panels and keep your head over the bars the whole time as soon as you feel like you are comfortable start to do some uphills and downhills when you start uphill keep your head more over the bars than normal in
fact the steeper the hill the more you want your head forward you're going to want to bend your legs at this point don't keep them straight it will give you more control over that front end the same goes on the downhill stand up don't sit down down and again keep your head forward so you can control the front end and straighten your legs if you are going slow it's okay to lock them straight if you're going a little faster you may want to bend your legs a little but still keep your head forward if you
haven't figured it out yet it's important that you keep your head over the bars for more control step number nine Conquering the Hills beside your body position on the Hills the next biggest fear is the hill not making it up the hill or crashing going down because you pick up too much speed when you start up the hill get your body position right in your finger on the clutch lever if they're not already there but they should have been when you are learning put it in low gear use first to start with then feed the
clutch up the hill so that you can control the pet pull the clutch in a little at the bottom but not all the way in and use it all the way up the hill one reason is to keep the RPMs up so that it won't stall and the other reason is so that you can get more traction and you won't Loop upside down if you try to do it all with the throttle it's a lot harder on the downhill stand up head forward keep it in a low gear so that you won't build up speed
and use your brakes easy mostly the rear if you feel more comfortable you can sit down going down that hill but only if you're going slow the faster you go the more important it is to stand up to have better control and now for step 10 how to jump Everyone likes to jump or wants to jump if you are ready to jump remember to keep your finger on the clutch lever just in case something goes wrong like the throttle sticks or you get pulled to the back of the bike as you leave the jump you
can pull the clutch in and get the bike back under control the other reason you want it on there is because you want Power when you land to get it to go forward one of the biggest problems is if you are sideways when you land and you have no power it will slam you to the ground the bike will also land harder with no power jumping can be fun if you do it right again straighten your legs and grip the bike and keep your head over the bars two things you don't want to do you
don't want to pull on the front end that's what the power is for to keep the front end up and don't get on the rear of the bike or you will lose control over the front end and you could flip over backwards if you give it too much power as you are going up the ramp on the jump give it a little power and stay forward but not too much power at first don't try to jump too high at first as you're going in the air you will pull in the clutch in a little and
feed it out as you land again you want to have a control Power when you land jumping will take a little time to get right so work on it and always keep your bike as flat as possible at the top of the arc on a jump this way you won't find yourself in too much of a nose dive or with the front end too high okay here's a bonus tip if you start up the hill and don't make it the first thing you want to do before the bike starts to roll backward is lay it
over next get off to the side pick it up and be sure you're holding on the front brake and it's also a good idea if you keep it in gear so that it won't roll backwards now here's how you get out of that situ situation grab hold of your handlebars don't pick it up yet hold the front brake on okay turn the wheel this way just like that okay and then roll it till it goes sideways in the hill turn the wheel turn the wheel all the way to the side turn it to the right
turn the wheel all the way this way otherwise it's going to go down the hill okay now let the brake off real easy okay you got your earing gear you can use your clutches now don't turn the wheel straight cuz if you turn the wheel straight you're going to go straight back back down the hill all right here's what you want to do now go pull the clutch in a little bit all right and let it roll let it roll around let it roll around backwards so it turns sideways in the hill keep it turn
just like that keep it turn just like that all the way to step come on let me keep rolling I'm here to help you come on keep it rolling that there you go there you go keep it rolling keep it rolling keep it keep it turn keep it turn keep it leaning into the hill too keep it leaning into the hill keep it leaning right towards you that way it can't get on top of you okay keep rolling till it get sideways in the hill you wait wait wait wait let me pull the clutch in
a little bit the clutch is keeping it from Rolling there go turn the wheel turn the wheel lean it into the hill keep it Lean Into the Hill keep it leaned into the hill so it doesn't flip overun Sean stay up here stay up here keep it turning it sideways it gets completely sideways on the hill a little more sideways a little more little more okay now here's what you do can't see what up oh okay now you can see right M okay now here's what you do turn a little more sideways in the hill
so it's just barely front wheel down the hill keep going backwards I walk it like that you can walk it like that walk the wheel like you were just doing walk it back and forth okay now now here's what you're going to do get on the bike throw your leg on it lean to the hill keep lean keep leaning this way okay now what you're going to do is you're going to turn that way and just right hold the clutch in and ride it down the hill okay just just turn it that way and go
let it roll go on just right go on right it down the hill there there you go there you go [Applause] lastly always wear protective riding gear when you ride and never ride without a helmet it is the most important thing next would be boots and maybe a pair of goggles then some riding pants and always use the KNE cups in those pants a long sleeve jersey would be good in a pair of goggles you never know when you might crash so always wear your protective gear when you ride
