Starting and Stopping the Motorcycle

Jeff Thompson: Hi! I am Jeff Thompson of Motorcycle Riding Concepts. This is Mark Payton, he is going to do a demonstration for us and up to date, we have learned how to move the motorcycle under power, we have power walked, then we had our initial ride. Now we are actually going to learn how to start and stop the motorcycle without pausing more than just a moment. Kind of like what you do out on the street, when you are stopping at traffic lights, remember you don't want to use your front brake because we are only going to be going about five miles an hour, nice and slow.

Over five or six miles an hour, you want to start adding the front brake into that if it's in a straight line. So what Mark is going to do here as he is going to approach each white cone. He is going to stop put his left foot on the imaginary line. It's important for you to work your friction zone as you are doing that, at the last cone is going to make a U-turn now, not power walking this time. He is going to actually ride in the U-turn. He is going to find his friction zone, turn his head and bring the motorcycle all the way back and around and he is going to stop and go all the way back and then he will do the same thing down here, make a U-turn, line up and stop for us.

So here he goes, he is going to start the motorcycle, he is going to find his three point stance and he is going to ease the motorcycle forward. Stopping at the first cone, stopping and putting his left foot on the imaginary line. As he rides forward he will do the same thing at the next cone. This is good positive reinforcements for you to learn how to use the friction zone and the rear break to move your motorcycle slowly. Now he makes a U turn, turning his head finding his friction zone and turning the motorcycle.

As he approaches that first cone, he will be doing the same thing, stopping putting his left foot on the imaginary line. Notice how smooth his input is, remember no abrupt movement at this point. We want it nice and smooth, smoothness counts and he will make a U-turn and do the same thing. Stopping at the first cone putting his left foot on the imaginary line. Okay now that we have learned how to move the motorcycle under power, we have learned how to stop and start the motorcycle using a little bit of rear break pressure and we have learned how to turn the motorcycle by turning our head and finding the friction zone.

We are now going to lead up into the braking portion of how to stop that motorcycle when you are out on the street. Know more important thing and how to stop the motorcycle when you need to.