Learn to Ride Motorcycle
My First Year on a Motorcycle
After logging 5,000 miles on his first bike, Popular Mechanics’ auto editor reaches some conclusions.
How to Make a Motorcycle
Go
1/ Turn the ignition (usually near the gauges) to the On position.
2/ Pull in the clutch lever.
3/ Turn the start/stop button to On, and push the starter, usually a button with a lightning bolt logo. Some bikes have a safety cutoff, do make sure the kickstand is retracted.
4/ Keeping the clutch engaged, kick the left foot lever down as far as it will go, into first gear.
5/ Slowly let out the clutch while twisting the throttle (right hand) back toward you. You're now moving.
4,2/ When the bike starts
revving hard, to shift up, close the throttle, pull in the clutch lever, and use your left foot to kick up s gear.
6/ To stop, squezze the clutch and the front brake lever (right side).
Countersteering
The ride experience isn't far off from a bicycle except for one technique:
Countersteering.
To initiate a right turn at speed, you start by pushing the right handlebar grip away from you.
This causes the bike to lean to the right. The front wheel angles into the turn by itself. It makes more sense in practice than explanation, but the term will come up when you're learning.
Until we’re all assigned to take autonomous Lyft minivans, we will remain advocates for two-wheel travel. Here, in an April 1970 feature, an editor discovered why, for reasons as relevant now as they were when this story was first published nearly 50 years ago.
Riding the inside of the lane, I banked into an underpass where the combination of the bright sunlight, my sunglasses, and the deep shadow underneath created a near blackout. I saw the outline of a gigantic pothole at the same time I went into it. No time to dodge or get up on the pegs. My small bike crunched into the hole, and all the air exploded out of my lungs. Dazed but still upright, I eased over to the shoulder. The damage: two ruined rims and a cracked rear hub. The road surface had taken its toll, but I hadn’t spilled.
I had thought of becoming a motorcyclist at least once a year for the last dozen years, and never got around to it. But last year, something clicked. Having settled into my 30s, with a wife, two kids, even a dependent dog, I figured I was mature enough to ride and not have to prove anything. Armed with $400 (Editor's note: that's $2,600 in 2018 money), I picked up a brand-new orange 100-cc Suzuki street scrambler. I’m a sucker for style, and the bike sure had that, with superb craftsmanship from stem to stern. I figured most of my riding would be on the street, and the 50- to 55-mph cruising speed would be okay for highways. The scrambler design would also give me the option of the trail. A 12-month, 12,000-mile warranty was a more rational base for my decision.
Since I had never given up bicycling, I didn’t have to learn the basic characteristics of a two-wheeler. It was just a matter of establishing reflex actions for the controls: right foot, rear brake; right hand, front brake and throttle; left foot, gearshift; left hand, clutch. Applying quickly becomes habit. And the toe shift—usually all the way down for first gear, up to neutral, up again for second, third, and so on—is not as clumsy as it may sound.
My 35-mile trip to Popular Mechanics headquarters takes no longer than the railroad, and considerably less time if you streak along illegally between lanes of traffic. But in my book, this is an abuse of the freedom a motorcycle gives you.
In rain, it’s a matter of donning an inexpensive, lightweight, rubberized-nylon storm suit, plus rubber stretch boots, all of which take but a small corner in a briefcase that rides on my luggage rack. I’ve ridden those 35 miles in a downpour and stayed dry. In cold weather, a snowmobile suit and a pair of gauntlet mittens lengthen the riding season by months.
After around 2,000 miles, I was thinking about why it took me so long to discover motorcycling, not only as an inexpensive, exhilarating way to commute to and from the office, but as a great outdoor sport. Of course the dangers are real. But the joy of riding is reason enough to own a motorcycle.
How to get a License
1. Book a Course
Goto Motorcycle Gafety Foundation (MSF) site and find Rider Course, nearby... it's about $150 and worth it.
2. Go to Class
One night in a class room reading and talking through counter steering, equipment requirements, typical causes of collisions and how to avoid them. The stuff you'll need to pass the DMV's written test.
3. Get Outside
A few days later, you'll go to a big parking lot and get on motorcycles. It'll start with the basics, like opening the throttle while releasing the clutch, then turning and shifting gears. Using a motorcycle that's not yours is reason enough to pay for class: you will drop the bike.
4. Pass the Ride
At the end of the parking-lot sessions, instructors will watch you ride between cones and other small obstacles. The test that failed the most people in class; turning the bike around in a space the width of a parking spot, without touching the ground with you feet. Hint: Look where you want to go, not down at the front wheel or you feet.
Don't Call It a Trike: Why We Love Yamaha’s Double-Front-Wheel Motorcycle
It's not a trike. It’s a blast.
Specs
- Price: $16,000
- Engine: 847-cc three-cylinder with double-overhead cam
- Transmission: Six-speed
- Horsepower: 115
- Torque: 64.5 lb-ft at 8,500 rpm
- Weight: 580 lb
- Kickstand: None
No one in the community of motorcycle enthusiasts was clamoring for anything with three wheels. And I know what you’re thinking: I ain’t riding no fargin’ tricycle.
But Yamaha has a history of taking chances for no obvious reason, only to end up being completely right. “We wanted to make a motorcycle with more grip,” says Leon Oosterhof, Niken’s product planning manager. The company didn’t start out thinking they’d build a three-wheeled bike, but “once the solution was set, we decided we definitely needed an extra front wheel.” Most companies won’t turn a screw before conducting years of consumer-trend studies. Yamaha didn’t think twice.
Hence, the new Niken, the most fun you’ve had on three wheels since you were burning across the driveway on your Big Wheel. I'd add another wheel in the rear and hover capabities and turn it into a drone.
The Niken doesn’t ride like a trike. It’s a whole new class of machine—an enhanced motorcycle for the sole purpose of pushing corners hard and having people stare at you in amazement. The front end feels heavy at first, and it should. There’s a lot going on under the handlebars: upside-down front forks, dual-leaning front wheels. It takes some getting used to at slow speeds, but that lumbering sensation goes away fast. Yamaha was smart enough to stage this road test for us in the Austrian Alps, where the roads suit it: sweeping turns, crazy-tight hairpins, gravel, wet corners, and discarded roadside schnitzel.
Motorcycle
Road-trip Essentials.
Ever Spring & Fall, my friends and I ride -- the ride depends on whete we are for example from NY through Blue Ridge Mountains to Florida and back if were on the east coast. We avg around 350 miles a day for six or more days straight. Mornings are chilly or cold, sometimes foggy. Afternoons can be blistering hot. There's light rain, heavy rain, more rain, and back to cool in the evenings. Bringing along everything you need to be safe and comfortable is an excercise in choosing the right bike, and packing only what you need.
The bike a cool BMW 1600 Grand America
The Grand America has 123 liters of storage space, 37" each side bag and 49" in the top case. Every compartment has a lining and lights, so you can find a paper clip to scrape bugs off your helmet's ventilation. Heated seat and grips, GPS, stereo radio, cruise control, gearshift assist, reverse... did I mention thi is a motorcycle? For such a big bike, though, it's nimble in corners as fast off the line. Among the best long-distance, high-performance motorcycles you can buy. $25,595
When your hips start to stiffen up after a couple hours of riding, you can strech out on the floorboards.
Rain gear Rev'it! Pacific 2 H2O $130
Bag Oxford Drystash $33
Pants Speed and Strength Critical Mass Jeans $150
Gloves Rev'it! Summit 3 H2O $130
Boots TCS Hero WP $250
amazing
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