Just a point on your bonus tip of putting the bike into neutral at a red light, it's extremely important to watch your mirrors at a light at ALL TIMES, or at least until you're sure the guy approaching from behind isn't going to slam you into the back seat of the guy in front of you. If you leave your bike in first gear at a light you may get cramps in your hand, but it allows you to immediately get out of the way of a distracted driver if needed. I've seen this in practice and it's an extremely important thing to keep in mind. Otherwise great videos, keep it up!
I personally tap my brakes like a spasm every time I am coming into a red light and there is someone behind me in hopes of making sure they notice I am there and slowing down.
Exactly. People selling lotteries don't say, win the powerball lotto for free. all you need to do is buy the ticket. I tell u, I am really getting tired of hearing Yammy trying to sell us those tickets.
Knew you were gonna catch flak on the neutral at red lights comment lol. Real world vs best practice, I get it .... I do too. Anyway, great video and many of your pointers are things I had to learn on my own. New riders that have access to quality, informative content will be that much better and safer riders that much sooner. Keep it up!
Excellent info. I use it all, but it took years to get bits and pieces through those years. I’m old, there was no Yam or RU-vid. So spot on. I watch your content every chance I get. Wish I could have dialed this up in the 60s! Keep up the great work. One of your best ever.
I am definitely an “intermediate rider”. I really appreciate a video that’s not just geared towards beginners. Definitely still like that content though because there’s always new things to learn
It's one of my issues! I lean on the front bars way too much like its a bicycle i need to shift my weight to the seat and relax...love your videos they have helped me so much!! Thank you!
Just got my first bike an 82 yamaha virago 750 tonight, tomorrow after work it'll be registered and inspected and all the brand new riding gear is coming in on monday!
Your tip about neutral at a light is helpful for comfort however it screws you if someone comes in hot behind you... I stay in first until someone is stopped completely behind me then shift to neutral and if no one stops behind I stay in first ready to go. That’s why they make adjustable levers! Great video though! I love watching all of your content!
was gonna post the same thing. I always also look for a path of escape incase some nut job decides to not stop I can always pop the clutch and either slip off the road or between the cars in front of me.
Most people would not be able to react in time to someone about to rear-end them at a traffic light or Stop. In Europe we can, usually, go between the vehicles which reduces the chance of being rear-ended. Therefore, being in neutral is better for the clutch. As to having your foot on the rear brake. In theory, it's a good idea. In practice, when rear-ended, you're thrown backwards so your foot will automatically come off the brake pedal. Having said that, I'll usually keep my foot on the rear brake so that the brake light is lit, hopefully the driver behind will see me better.
@@A6Legit They said because new riders tend to panic break and you are more likely to if your fingers are already on the brake. I am now doing my full license training and first ride out on the big bike I heard my instructor say over the radio " get those fingers off the front brake".
@@stewartnorton6386 Oh okay. I would assume youre more likely to grab the brake when you are unprepared and get surprised. I guess the solution here is dont use the brakes at all.
In Australia when you do the course they teach braking with four fingers so you're not powering the bike while trying to stop. Get where you're coming from with two fingers though.
The only time I ever really have to hang off of the bike at all is while pushing it on some proper curvy roads. For everything else leaning with the bike is just fine
Been riding for ten years, on road and track. when you described the throttle manipulation, I never thought about that, but thinking of it, i do the exact same :-) In my earlier years of riding, I rode older bikes, and there you need to use all fingers to brake hard, my newer bikes i brake with two fingers, and the easyly lift the backwheel :-)
To my lads from India who are watching this video, Follow all these rules except for the light Handlebar grip. Here we do not have such well paved roads, you never know when some potholes, uneven patches or super tall speed breakers are coming your way. In such cases, light grip will surely throw you off the bike, or to the very least give you a mini heart attack by wobbling. Speaking from my 6 years and 200k+ kms of riding experience. Thank You.
DanDan the Fireman says you should always stay in first gear and clutch covered at a red light so if someone is coming up behind you, You can get out of the way possibly.
I stay in 1st gear at a stop. My left hand rests while I ride & I rest my right hand at the stop. Use the rear brake pedal to activate the brake light and switch when you rest your hands.
@@NickVetter that guy is obsessed with getting knee down in a parking lot, not realizing that knee down should not be a goal, its a fucking by product of hitting a curve at speed with proper body technique, and all of his material is just regurgitation of keith code.
Throttle is crucial, yes. Brief tip for bumpy roads, or thick gloves, so if everything is moving around a lot or the gloves are not allowing proper "tactility". Ok, just the way i do it... there might be better ways :-P Basic Thoughts on this are: 1. No Limitations in Movement of Arms and therefore Body. 2. less fatigue on Hands and forearms. 3. no bad posture of joints involved As I'm having the index finger of my right hand always (!!!) on my brake lever, i use this to steady my Throttle input. Quite simply.. if it gets bumpy or i need really precise control, i just apply a bit of pressure (downwards) with the tip of my index finger onto the brake lever, which gives me one fixed reference-like Point. The second (not fixed, but refering to the above mentioned reference-point) point are my fingers around the handle, or depending on position, the pressure of my palm against the handle. The Arms themselves should be more or less "free floating" in all three dimensions. to be able to compensate for movement of body and bike. To do so, it helps a lot, to put your elbows up… Enduro riders (should) do that all the time anyway. For sport riders, just put them up enough to not have your wrist crooked and blocked for any axis of movement. Secondly, it might be helpful to maintain a certain (small) range of angle between your wrist and your throttle hand. As we all know, the throttle does a 90° from 0% to a 100%. Yes there are other technical solutions that demand less travel, but you should reaaally know what you're doing with these, because less way, is less failure allowed to acheive the same precision. just saying. So if you don't want to permanently adjust your position due to a fixed-grip-position on your throttle, exercise the following. Try to steady your hand in one position and roll the throttle with just your thumb/palm and your middle finger/ ring finger. No need to use the Tips of your Fingers, below the first joint, is where you need to start, remember we're only talking 90° axial movement. The Pink just glides over the handle. like a bearing for reference, as long as the rest of the hand is in motion. Doing so, the actual travel of your wrist doesn't have to be more than a mere 30°, which enables you to leave your elbow and shoulder position as they are without stretching or over-bending your forearm and wrist, whilst having full range of motion on your throttle. It might feel awkward at the beginning, but it delivers two advantages. Firstly, it prevents "yanking" the throttle, which is bad anyway, especially on powerful bikes. (Fastest Riders have the slowest hands, right?!) Secondly, it gives you full range of motion of your upper body, which might be somewhat important to proper riding, doesn't it. It's just my technique.. maybe it helps .-) Cheers and always rubberside down, S. P.S.: As always… I'm german… if you find Errors or mistakes in my Text, you're allowed to keep them
Yammie, I've been riding for 40 years and I can tell you a noobie rider does not need to be dangling off the side of the machine like Rossi! Baby steps, children, baby steps! Get smooth before you go actin' all crazy!
Love the tips man, only thing I disagree with is being in neutral on the street, I’ve avoided a couple rear ends by checking my mirrors and being ready to go
Yes going to neutral at a light is nice but when a car not paying attention to you comes flying up from behind you'll wish you were still in gear to get out the way
Best way to explain how hard to hold the throttle. Picture you are running a relay race with a potato chip. Your grip on the throttle should be the same so that the chip does not leave your hand, or break under pressure. :)
Thank you for all the videos. Picking up my first bike in 2 weeks. Hopefully all the months spent researching, pays off. Thanks again for helping build the confidence. Happy riding
Don't worry Yammie, I put my shit in neutral too and I'm an experienced rider. If I see someone fast-approaching behind me, I would just jump off that shit! People wouldn't have time to "get out of the way".
Except leaning to the outside in low-speed turns like U-turns increases lean angle and decreases turn radius. Turn radius decreases along with speed and increasing lean angle. This was easy for me to prove this on a bicycle and it's taught in other motorcycle videos. Try making a bicycle turn on a sidewalk at a corner with 90-degree turn, leaning outside pushing down the inside handle dips the bike quickly otherwise you run off the narrow sidewalk. You can hold the inside leg horizontally to the inside of the turn to decrease the lean but end up off the sidewalk.
Yeah, in the really tight, slow stuff, stay tall. Tighter turning radius, sure. But even if you have turn radius to spare, there are even better reasons to stay tall. Better viewing perspective. And better balance and more time to recover if the rear slides out on you. Leaning with the bike gives you such a bad view, even in higher speed curves. I would only do it on a curve I know by heart.
2:45 I developed the bad habit of gripping the bar weight with the outside of my throttle hand. This actually allows me really good contact with the handlebars and very specific control of the throttle. I say its a bad habit because if i ever ride a bike without bar end weights Im gonna be really wonky. Anybody else do this?
The tip re brake technique is interesting. I have tried to use the fore and middle finger technique, but prefer to use the other three fingers because I am a long term (27 years) racing cyclist and the lose are the fingers I use on my race bicycles, so my right hand is used to braking with those fingers due to the design of brake lever and hoods. The control I have is much better. The fore + middle finger alternate works ok but feels awkward, like throwing a ball with my left hand (I am right dominant).
"Question"... Large Bump in the Road - As you hang-on for dear life, your arm flails, but how do you prevents your wrist from jerking violently and NOT altering throttle?... Unlock Wrist from Arm? - Practice..?
Your bonus tip for moving to neutral at stop lights is actually a bad tip. Instructors will tell you to keep it in first for emergency maneuvers. If holding the clutch down is too strenuous for your hand maybe try strengthening your grip.
on the downshifting part to engine brake, i personally think its better to just focus on being clear with your behaviour with what you are going to do, situational awarenss makes this very easy, always pay attention to the one behind you, i dont really think about it too much i guess i just nstinctually or whatever do it at this point and so i subconciously know whether i need to brake gently to show what im about to do or if i can just engine brake without doing that overall i gotta say what youre talking about is stuff i had to be able to do to get my license, so it feels more like beginner tips to me. from my point of view if this is intermeddiate in the USA im worried about how lax the requirements to be able to pass and get your license in USA is. still a good video you put up though, cheers.
Jakarta is a veritable hive of two wheelers. At intersections there's such a buffer of scooters and underbones around you that you wouldn't worry so much about getting rear ended while putting your bike on neutral. If only I can find the damn neutral lol
Lol my wife said the same thing following me for the first time (at night) and I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but it makes sense now that she said that because I wasn't even using my brakes when she noticed it 😅
I've gotten into the habit of rocking in my bike slightly at stop lights. It gives me something to do and our eyes are attracted to movement. So it doubles as a safety move.
Also for the down shift breaking get yourself a Brake Free Light. It can either be attached to your helmet or your backpack and and it has a bunch of accelerometers that detect the g forces when you slow down and it make the light light up to show that you are breaking. Possibly my favorite piece of safety equipment next to my neck brace.
0:38 "how you can win these motorcycles for free....every dollar you spend gets you an entry to win..." yes I realize you were talking about different things, but the way you said it was absolutely hilarious
See hanging off depends on the bike. You don't really want to hand off on a big ol bagger. Though you can. Also depending on turn and conditions. I'd say the amount of lean one should have in reserve on the street should never be dependent on hanging off the bike. If it is then you're riding way too aggressive for the street. It does feel cool though.
That's a mighty spirited rendition of the Capriccio from Bach's second Partita! Who's playing? I have recordings of five different pianists (Glann Gould, Martha Argerich, Murray Perahia, Rosalyn Tureck, and Zhu Xiao Mei), but none of them match yours, although it's similar to Argerich's famous fiery performance. Please let me know so I can add that recording to my collection!
Love all the helpful info. Although I find that some of this is harder to translate to a cruiser style. As far as cornering and leaning. I cant tell you how much i scrape my footrest when turning. Any advise on cruiser riders with these tips? would love to see you do a vid on it. Hell I'd love to see you get a more sporty Harley my dude. Street Bob or something of that nature. All hail the Papa Yamm
I have a video on my channel about leaning with cruisers, but don't want to take away from Yammie. Upper body position plays a huge role in keeping the bike upright, while still making the turn. That way you don't scrape floorboards and pegs.
I disagree with leaving it in neutral at a light just in case you gotta move away from danger. I am guilty of neutral at a light to adjust gear though, but I'm right back in 1st after.
The method of how you use your front brake is preferential. You can use 4 fingers, 3, 2, or 1. The real difference that’ll be made in your emergency braking effectiveness is how you practice, and how often you practice.
I have been wanting a bike but have/had some concerns about my right hand. I have ulnar nerve damage so I can't open my hand completely, I'd say maybe 95% of the way. Also I can't feel my pinky or ring finger as well as dexterity issues. I was kinda wondering how brake and throttle operation would work for me. Thanks for the mention of your nerve damage as it gives me more confidence that it's not that big of a deal
Totally random. Does anyone else find it more comfortable to downshift clutchless, despite no quick shifter? I discovered it a few weeks ago. I'd gotten pretty good with downshifting, I rarely had any jostling, but I always used the clutch. Just a quick in out. But then one day I just out of the blue clutchless shifted. I think I was adjusting a helmet vent, and the person in front of me slowed down so I unconsciously downshifted, then realized I forgot the clutch! The thing is, it was crazy smooth. It sounded fine, no jerking at all! Is this bad?
Clutchless upshift, all day. Clutchless downshift less quickshifter can be done if you match engine and road speed. It lacks mechanical sympathy and on big cube machines I would personally avoid
