How to Powerwalk a Motorcycle

Jeff Thompson: Hi! I am Jeff Thompson of Motorcycle Riding Concept and this is Mark Payton he is going to be doing some demonstration for us. What we are going to talk about is actually power walking your motorcycle and what I mean by that is moving it under power, but keeping your feet on the ground for stability to get used to doing that. Remember we set up a little circle here on the parking lot with cones, you can do this in any parking lot anywhere without cones. We just set the cones up for you to be able to see what Mark is going to do let's first of all talk about the circle as you are looking at this circle consider it as the face of a clock, 3 o'clock here, 12 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 6 o'clock. We want you to start off and stop with your left foot on the imaginary line right here at 6 o'clock and then just move the motorcycle forward. Mark is going to start the motorcycle and as he does that, I am going to step out of frame, remember at this point we want you to start getting used to parking and stopping your motorcycle and just leaving it in first gear. When you park your bike in first gear, it will be much more stable if it is on a grade. Mark is going to make sure the bike is in first gear and he is just going to move the motorcycle forward. As he is moving the bike forward at the friction zone, he is walking with the bike but notice his head as he is doing that he is turning his head in the direction that he wants to go, using his eyes to drive the motorcycle. That is called ocular riding, riding with your eyes. Now he is looking at 12 o'clock that's his goal, to get up to 12 o'clock at this circle. But now that he is there, he is now looking at 9 o'clock and now that he is approaching 9 o'clock, he is looking at 6 o clock as he moves the motorcycle. He will reach up with his right hand and use that brake if he has to slow down as he is coming down the hill, notice how he is caging covering the front brake as he is doing it.

Now he will stop putting his left foot on the imaginary line, okay at this point he is going to move the motorcycle forward again doing the same thing, but he is going to pick up his pace a little bit and he is going to put his foot down about every other time go ahead Mark. Now he is walking with the bike under a little bit more power and as he moves the motorcycle he is raising his RPMs. Notice how he is turning his head as he is moving. As he approaches 6 o'clock he will be putting his foot back on the imaginary line and he comes to a stop. Now he turns the motorcycle off and sets the side stand. Now that we have actually learned how to move the motorcycle by power walking, we are going to move on to actually riding the motorcycle for the first time.