15 Minutes Is All You Need 

Stop with the excuses. "I don't have big parking lots." "I don't have time." Blah, blah....any excuse is a good excuse if you're weak enough to use it. linktr.ee/GregWidmar

Just bought my first bike at 47. Got a 2021 drz400sm. This channel has been a huge part of why I finally did it. Cheers from New Zealand 🇳🇿

Great video. One drill I do in a parking lot is a simulation of moving out of the way when stopped at a light, pretending someone might ram into me. I make a full stop or partial stop in a parking spot, pretending I’m behind a car and then move out of the way sideways, as if I had to move next to the car in front. Its a great exercice where you have to move quickly, without panic, staying in control to start, swerve and stop.

Those white and blue belt braking drills are absolutely phenomenal. Started doing them and thought they were kind of a joke. First ride home from the parking lot practicing them and had to emergency brake to avoid hitting a car driver who left a driveway and preceded to cross 3 lanes at a 90° angle to make a left turn. I have noticed my braking in spirited riding has also gotten far smoother than it was before just from a few handy exercises in a parking lot.

Been practicing for 10 minutes twice a week for the last 12 months and made huge progress and increased recently to 15 minutes because I thought I was cheating with just 10 minutes. All in my drive way.

Cement: a binder used to glue things together (e.g. tiles on a wall or bricks to each other) or to make concrete. Concrete: a gray mix of cement and 60-70% aggregate (sand, etc.) used to make e.g. bricks, floors, driveways and heavy traffic pavements, lasts ~40 years. Asphalt: also a binder - black, semi-solid form of petroleum that when mixed with 90-95% aggregate (therefore low price) creates a substance that is often called "asphalt" but the proper name is "asphalt concrete" - in that form it's used on low traffic pavements, easy to install, good grip, lasts only ~15 years.

Re: Excuses. Someone who doesn't have that mentality ( I do, or used to ) doesn't understand why we're like that so their advice is usually critical such as "just stop it." For people who are like this, it can drive us back into our corner instead of drawing us out. It takes someone with that mentality to understand the cause and communicate it differently. You're waiting for the perfect scenario. It's not coming. Go now. You're waiting for a day that's not too hot, not too overcast, the roads aren't slightly damp, and all predictable flaws aren't present. You're waiting on "the perfect scenario." Not only is it not coming, but if it actually happened you wouldn't know what to do because you've now trained yourself to look for reasons to not go. You have to literally exhaust all of your "no" before it's time for "yes" and when it's finally "yes" you forgot what you were going to do, or you do it poorly. The solution, at least what worked for me, was overcoming that mentality by saying "the conditions will never be perfect, and SOME effort is still better than NO effort." It's like jumping out of an airplane. Go now. Stop standing in the door, just f'in jump already. Once you make that change in life, doors are opened in so many areas of life.

Excellent point about practicing before or after a ride. That is exactly what I do. I practice in my neighborhood before I go to ensure the bike and I are ready to respond. I practice when I get home, just because I think it's fun like a victory lap.

I tell my girlfriend all the time that I only need 15 minutes! Thanks for sharing your wisdom. I hope you get filthy rich doing what you love passionately..💯👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

I just started riding my Yamaha XT250 4 weeks ago. I am taking the MSF course in a couple of weeks. I have been watching MotoJitsu like crazy + I attended a MSF class last weekend, both days, just to observe. That really helped too. I realized that I needed to polish up my turns - so I go out every day on my little Honda dirt bike and then the BIG BLUE YAM. Today I was able to do some decent turns and circles on the XT250. I am so jazzed. They don't freak me out anymore and I can keep my feet up on the pegs. Thank you, Greg, for your awesome videos!!

Great video again. I ride since 18 months ago in a daily basis, and I basically use the daily commuting rides to practice. If I practice just one thing everyday, it’s 300+ things after a year

The great thing about the internet and media like RU-vid is the fact that dude from Poland like me can randomly discover channel like this to help me start my motorcycle journey. No boundaries, no bullshit, great and meaningful content. Subscribed.

I've used "shut up and practise" as my mantra since starting riding. Love the no excuses mentality you bring to your training, assuming you bring a fair bit of that from the marines. Keep up the great work Greg. Ps ; Love that you didn't edit out the moment at the 8:00 mark, human after all 😂 🤙

Great! Straight to the point. I do the same every time I ride, dodge imaginary obstacles or imperfections on the road and helps a lot!!! Great video as always.

Simple thing to practice once in a while is (being careful with traffic, of course), practicing swerving around manholes, random road marks, debris, while riding I do that when I'm bored and it's a useful way to use time on long straight roads

well not trying to defend anyone, but since i live in Athens at greece, the city has mostly bumpy small roads, overflowing with people walking everywhere uncontrollably. bloody city nevers 'sleeps' so it's kind of difficult. and of cource parking lots are out of the question. having said that i try my best to practise everytime i see an empty road. thanks for the video and the tips as always!

Hey there Fast Eddie! Been doing your drills and doing exactly this on my Vespa 150cc. I do have big parking lots since I live in Northern Virginia, but we get a lot of very dense fast traffic, so try to find quiet parts of the day. Getting much more confident. I had my class bike fall on me twice (luckily I was wearing my armor and fullon gear. Still hurt!) and I think I'm still healing from it -7/30. I'm still waiting for my Honda Rebel 500 to come in. Joined your Patreon. Your videos are like having private lessons! Thank you, Greg!

I have 20 or more school parking lots plus church parking lots and store parking lots. The best time in my area is between 9am and 3pm and after 7pm. I've been riding for a month and a half and I can see a real improvement. I got your app, I figure if I can't spend 5 bucks a month to save my life with skill and experience than I shouldn't need riding...and we all know that won't happen. I admit everything you say is right and it does contradict my nature. Although I was a hard core mountain biker for 30 years and that alone was a good prerequisite for this. I'm a believer, and I LOVE riding. Thank you bro!

I agree, and it’s just like anything else in life. When people say they don’t have enough time what they mean is it’s not that important to them. I lived in Los Angeles I’ve lived in Illinois Kentucky Florida Tennessee all over Texas Arizona and a bunch of other places. There are parking lot everywhere And for much of the day most of those parking lots are empty one in the morning. People say they don’t have 15 or 20 minutes, then they might as well sell their motorcycle because I have no time to ride anyway but the truth is people find plenty of time to watch TV or is it on Facebook or Instagram and sit around on Facebook and Instagram complaining about how they never have time to do anything. It’s just about priorities. If you don’t have 15 minutes to practice riding so you can be safe then you should just sell your motorcycle because you don’t have time to ride anyway. But it’s the same with everything else in life. People want to eat right put there’s just no time to prepare their food people wanna exercise and get in shape but they just have no time blah blah blah blah blah blah. This may have been different in the days when people had to go out and work a farm for 15 hours a day, But in today’s world I call BS. People waste hours every single day and if they’re not doing something it’s because it’s not a priority to them. I was working 108 hours a week and I still manage to go out and ride for two or three hours a week because I wanted to. That’s just the difference between successful and unsuccessful people, successful people just get out there and keep doing it till they figure it out the rest don’t they make excuses. This is how professionals do it come out when they train police when they train fireman or whoever any kind of professional driver goes out there and runs a bunch of drills. Backing a semi with a 40 foot trailer into a tiny little parking bay is incredibly hard until you do it 100 times. People go to schools and they tell them to do it and after they do it a bunch of times then it’s not a big deal anymore. It’s just how it works. The first time you try to jump your bicycle it’s incredibly scary and hard and you’re scared to go off the curb because you think it might fall but you do it 100 times and it’s nothing and you don’t even think about it anymore it just becomes second nature. With fighting or shooting or things like that they call it muscle memory come up you just keep doing it till it becomes natural and then when you get into a situation where you have to do it it’s very natural to you and your body just does it. Go take a bunch of courses and that’s what they’re going to have you do they’re going to do give you drills to make those skills natural feeling. It’s that way with mechanics or computers. There’s nothing hard on a computer there just millions of little easy things that you just need to know where to find them to adjust them. Stripping down a bike and replacing every single seal and gear and washer in it is not that hard you just have to do it. It’s getting over the intimidation part of it mentally and worrying. A lot of people talk about dropping the bike or causing damage, and you were saying to get the bars and all of that. People have to understand that things are expensive. If you buy a gun and learn to shoot people are nickel and diming trying to save $20 on the gun, you’re gonna go spend several thousand dollars on ammunition if you’re really worried about the $20 for buying a safer better gun than don’t because you don’t have enough money to do it if you’re really worried about spending $300 on sliders and a crash part for your bike then you probably shouldn’t get a bike because you can’t afford it and you should be working on your marketable skill set so you can go make some money to be able to do other things. Or to go buy a really cheap bike that you don’t care about laying down. You’ll get a little moped or something, it’s not exactly the same but the basic skill set is going to be very similar and transfer. Practice is just part of it and you’re out there risking your life, you’re 38 times more likely to get into an injury accident on a motorcycle, so unless you really know what you’re doing you’re seriously risking your life because cars are going to pull out in front of you dogs are going to run out in front of you kids there’s gonna be debris on the road craps going to fall off of cars, people are jerks and they’re going to try to cut you off And harass you and you’re not safe until you develop those skills, so if you can’t make a little time to practice and develop the skills then you don’t have enough time to ride at all so just quit

Definitely agree on most parts, though depending on where you live you have limits to how much you can do other than randomly riding about. Sometimes it's nice to dedicate the time to one thing at one location for longer "if possible", as it helps mitigate the risk of people complaining and traffic, which for my area can be tough being so close to the densely populated NJ NYC area. Luckily I live on a cul de sac but its still busy with neighbors and kids. The best practice as I commute to work during the nicer seasons is to ride a different route and practice with a plan on something different each time. =)

Great video FAST EDDIE! Keep up the great content! Had a friend tell me I was dumb for practicing your drills! Now I practice them more!

Excellent! This video and it’s content impacts me for the better, big time. Thanks, Greg.

This is excellent advise (IMHO). I practice swerving around potholes, manhole covers and tar snakes all the time. In one of the Live Q&As I complained about getting kicked out of a Church parking lot. Well, I've been moving around to different parking lots and it had unexpected benefit. Different parking lots can have different challenges: gravel or dirt drifts, uneven surfaces, or the whole parking lot inclined on a hillock. The challenges of these different places has raised my confidence a lot in different situations I've encountered during my MotoCamping trips.

Am 70 years old and have started riding again have learned more from you and motorman .learned some many fine points from you

Just took my first msf course . Thank you for the tips and all of these videos , they're incredible.

Hi Greg I got your booked for Christmas, I did exactly what you are saying, I couldn’t find an area. I have since asked a driving instructor who rides a Yamaha tracer and he has shown me a great spot. Tip for anybody, ask a driving instructor. Stay safe Mick D

Thanks again, Greg! ❤ This is just a brilliant way to practise - and to find new roads around the area, at the same time. 👍 This will be the thing for me, when I get my license! 😊 Can hardly wait to see where some of the roads around, lead to....✨️

Thanks. I found a quiet road and do figure 8th and circles and brakes for 10 to 15 min. I was not sure i was doing it well but i find it totally enough to be focused as it's not at all like street riding so it's quite tiring. This really helps

Dude, huge respect! Your videos are just fantastic!

Wonderful! I am soooooo glad I found your channel - getting my new bike in two weeks and will be following your advice ----- Thank you MotoJitsu - safe riding Maf UK

I’m on Day 2 of the MSF course today, and am so appreciative of the resources you provide for beginners and how/what to practice. Thanks again for more great advice!

Love this, and it’s what I’ve done to get back into my bike after a couple of weeks of no riding. Love avoiding dinosaur, but never ever swerve for a squirrel! Risk to benefit it wrong, and the little critter will avoid you anyway. If you do hit it, physics of being straight on will be totally on your side and you will continue on fine. Hope you find my comment helpful. There is so much to learn, which is why I subscribed to your videos.

This is such an awesome channel. I'm a beginner rider and all these topics are very helpful. Thank you!!

I’ve enjoyed many of you’re videos, this really connected… thanks

Funny that you posted this. Just yesterday a group of friends and myself practiced your drills for about 2hrs in a school parking lot. It was a blast and even some of the neighbors came over and watched.

Love the videos! Cement is an ingredient in concrete. Sidewalks, driveways and some roads are always made of concrete and never just cement. Asphalt is made with petroleum (tar) instead of cement. Keep up the good work.

I don't have big empty parking lots in my city, but I usually practice for a few minutes in some segment of a parking lot, making sure there are no cars nearby. I just need enough room for level 4 to 2 parking space. I also sometimes use a park under construction where I have a huge area to put my cones and spend more time on it. On the street, the first thing I do when leave my home is practice emergency braking, and while driving I try to put into practice some concepts, such as counter steering, throttle control, etc (only outside the city obviously, otherwise I focus on safety)

I'm going as we speak today in a huge industrial park to practice I've got a freind riding my bike to it why because I need to practice I bought a 1200 sportser and I've got to get on top of it instead of the bottom of it yall pray for me OK

Love the content, and I can't wait for some track day footage with that badass suzuki! Zuke nation!

Thanks for the great content! Love your videos

Great suggestions and mindset. Critical skills getting enhanced and refreshed every outing. Thanks!!!

Thanks. You are really helping me out!

Great videos as always!! Thanks for introducing MotoTipz

one of your best! Never thought of this. Always thought you had to go to the parking lot for an hour. Thanks

Great instructor for sure thanks for the help!!!!!!

I practice emergency breaking when I’m leaving for work in the mornings and figure eights when I get to work in the parking lot in the morning and when I get off…. That way I do as u stated it gives me a few minutes in the morning and evening to do both… the rest is ride time where I do Excaclty what u stated… I’ll practice swerving at potholes and man covers… EVERY RIDE IS PRACTICE TO GET BETTER…

Thank you! Great advice as usual. Greetings from Bulgaria :)

perfect video, i always practice like this and i will definitely do it even more now, thank you !!

THANK YOU,EXTREMELY USEFUL TIPS .ILOVE THE US STREETS WHERE YOU ARE RIDING..LOVE YOU AND YOU PASSION TO TEACH US

Awesome tips Greg. Extremely helpful. I am a new rider and following your videos. You are doing a Great job. Thanks a lot ❤

Awesome! Such basic and effective advice.

Growing up, I was raised with my mum saying "whenever you ask a question you have to expect and accept a yes or no answer". Lol. That brought me back. 👍

Oh this is great 👍 I have a cow paddock and mostly dirt roads. I have to dodge cow an horse shit but I figure it'll only make me better. It can be overwhelming watching videos but I go out for a few minutes practice the slow stuff as I'm finding I'll concentrate so much on getting use to the new bike as a beginner i forget the important head checks, indicating etc. I felt bad but realised i do need to get comfortable with the bike before venturing too far and those things will follow.

Well said my friend,,,"you have to accept and expect,,,then go ahead a try again till you get it" That's what practice it's all about. You'll get savvy on any surface.

Thanks for all you do, great videos

A very inspiring, motivational video!

Thanks for this vid! Sometimes thing that are kinda obvious are have to be said to click in head of a listener, and you did it!

Thank you for this! Appreciate the tips you share.

Thanks for the time suggestion; makes sense. Most all my rides are exploring like this. I have access to used tennis balls will cut some up for the drills, now that I have your app!

I didn't see anyone else saying anything about the concrete vs cement vs asphalt thing: cement is the binder that holds the other stuff together - it's an ingredient, not a surface concrete is aggregate held together with cement. it's typically hard and stiff. sidewalks are a good example. asphalt is the black stuff. it's primarily coal ash, and has a significant amount of flex to it. it seems as firm as it does because of the solid ground underneath. I might be a bit off on some of the fine points, but that's the general idea.

Excellent ideas for training! 😎👍

Thank you this is extremely helpful!!!

Haha its amazing you make this video, because I had the same parking lot issue and this was ultimately my solution: hit up a posh neighbourhood early in the morning, which is empty, and just go practice there. Or anywhere you get a clear empty road really. Most of the big parking lots here have security guards who shoo you off within 2 minutes

Well said Greg. A musician goes through scales on a regular basis so he can play a complicated piece at a concert. He will never play the scales at the concert. He must practice the scales in order to play at the concert with excellence. Secondly, everyone lives near a school and on evenings and weekends. there are always a few empty stalls available for use.

I was very afraid of dropping my bike but I really wanted to practice MJ's exercises. So what I did was buy a very cheap 2 bike with which I'm no longer afraid of dropping it and ruining it. 😊😊

Yeah I’m in that second category. If I’m alone on a stretch of road I do emergency braking, Uturns, and swerving. Where I work have a fair enough parking space to do figure 8s. 👍🏿

Best place ive found to practice is find the largest and nearest church. If its not time for sunday service, usually the lot is a ghost town.

I have these problems too regarding space to practice, the South of the UK is really overcrowded and difficult to find parking lots that aren’t policed by cameras, i managed to find a train station car park where the security guards where ok about me using it but only weekends, so top tip about finding a quiet back street.I agree about the time allocated to practicing, I was setting out with the intention of 2-3 hours practicing but became tired quickly which led to mistakes plus I got bored quickly on my own. Also I have looked for crash bars for my Goldwing DCT Tour but keep drawing a blank anyone on here who can advise where I could find some would be great help

Thanks for reminding the inner child and explorer! Let's go and practice!

I find it hard to believe that anyone in America can't find a big parking lot.

Fantastic assessment of inferior/superior state of mind! No excuses accepted! I’m a beginner at 68 years old. I live in the mountains of Wyoming surrounded by gravel roads for several miles. I have dropped the bike , slid into ditches, but I’m still going to get better. I ride 5-6 days a week and practice 15-20 minutes before or after each ride. Subscribed for my life’s journey! Aloha

this video is so great. Thanks.

Good advice using side streets/culdesac, could use a church parking lot or city parks.

Nice video Eddie!!

Great video!!!

Thanks for the reminder I used to do this. I haven't ridden in years but I just got a bike again so this is getting added to 😊weekend morning Todo list

Man these are good advises for me. Specificially I´m afraid to drop my bike in when practicing in slow speed. As said in the video, that´s what crashbars and other bike protection are made for. I value to improve technique and skill, in all areas of MC-driving. I see it as a matter of improved safety by improving my skills as a driver . I should therefore accept the risk that I could drop the bike when practicing.

Awesome dude. Rock on,

This was SOO MUCH FUN TO WATCH!!

I’m lucky The storage where I have my bike(down the road) has a little bit of room🥰 Last practice I was down there for an hour. I am a new beginner (new) 😅 I’m literally learning to ride a motorcycle. I took the msf and now I can learn on my bike. At the LOZ we are down a dangerous ride and I don’t feel comfortable going out of the lot yet. My husband is not much of a teacher(idk) so I am learning as much as I can on my own. Wish I had gotten my bike earlier this year, but it is what it is.

Im taking my license, and my bike and full gear is ready. I can’t wait to get out and practice 😅 I found a lot and if they allow me to practice there, man it’s going to be so good 😛

I think most places in the USA have a lot of nice big empty roads, as well as parking lots. East coast cities I think are some of the hardest places to practice, and living in central London last year for me it was extremely hard to find anywhere. Roads there are narrow and traffic is always busy day or night. This is really good advice though, as there are always little opportunities for swerving around road markings, doing extra U turns, and practicing emergency breaking when nobody is behind you. It seems like this is also a good way to practice at higher speeds than you would get up to in a parking lot.

🌟Such a useful resource. Many thanks 🌟

“It’s one of those V4S. It’s one of those cool ones.” 😄🌟👍 Thanks for the great tips! 🌟😊❤️

I practice behind a movie theater parking lot, every city has one I believe, and during COVID restrictions some theater's did not open back up.

Completed my MSF course last weekend and just got my endorsement on my license. Going for my first ride now and those 2 things you mentioned will be good for me to practice 😁

Thanks Eddie, no excuses🤙

Swerving in the UK is a reality on every journey our roads are mostly holes, cracks and debri. Thanks again your advise and motivation should be made law

Dude that is what I do. my street is not to busy and I go to other places like you and do just what your doing... No parkin Lot

Probably the best way to practice and get used to the grip (or lack of) and balance of the motorcycle, is practicing off-road. At least for me... Started off at young age with mountain-biking which helped a lot and now close to 49 yo I still love the unpaved less travelled roads.

LOL! I had a work mate, who said he could never learn guitar, because his fingers were too short. I said go check out Diango Reinhrdt, a Romani Gipsy living in France during the Nazi occupation who had 2 or 3 fingers missing from his fretting hand and is renowned as being the premier Gypsy Jazz guitarist of his time.

Bought my bike last week. First time out I realized my neighborhood is all hills. Lol. So I'm lucky enough to learn how not to stall 1st before anything else.

PEOPLE NEED TO STOP SAYING FIGURE 8s ARE STRICTLY FOR PRACTICE, there's no real world application! Not even 2 hours ago I went to fuel and had to to a figure 8 due to layout of cars & pumps. This station is TINY, but they've managed to squeeze in 4 2-sided pumps. I pulled in, hard hooked to the left around the pump on the far left corner, split the 2 pumps, and made a hard right to catch the pump I passed on the way in on the high side. A figure 8.

Hey MotoJitsu I'm San Diego native also (South Bay )big fan and a beginner i use a lot of advice and it works it be xool to meet up and ride to the casinos jajajaja

perfect video for me, thanks

This one was actually really advice

Started to go office righ now by bike.. day by day you improve it.

☆ Asphalt(small rock+tar)/pavement(crushed rock+tar): black, normally what roads are made of. Concrete/cement: Gray, sidewalks

I only used maybe ten minutes for maybe couple weeks. In my driveway, I just practiced starting and stopping. When I got a little better I went to a parking lot at five am and there's barely anyone in them. I also started in my neighborhood and they were understanding with me learning. Thanks for all the patience ppl!!

Thank you...