Motorcycle Riding Tips & Tricks

As a motorcyclist, there’s always a way you can improve your riding skills, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. Learning new ways to ride your motorcycle can help you to stay safer, be more vigilant about maintenance issues, ride more responsibly, conserve fuel and more.

Gina's Motorsports of Monee is your northern Illinois motorcycle dealer. Here are just a few handy tips and tricks for motorcycle riding that should help you get more out of every journey.

1. Keep Two Fingers on the Clutch

You shouldn’t need to use all four fingers to manipulate the clutch once you’ve gotten going; two fingers should be sufficient to modulate it as you ride. You’ll have more control over the bike because you’ll have more of a solid grasp on the handlebars if you aren’t using all your fingers to manipulate the clutch or brake lever. This might feel like an awkward shift at first, but you’ll be able to get the hang of using two fingers instead of four with practice.

2. Make the Rounds

One way you can make turns easier on your motorcycle is to put in some practice doing them. While it might sound impossible to believe, turning left on a motorcycle is often easier than turning right, so it can be beneficial to practice those right turns. 

If you want to improve your turns in either direction, you can head to an empty parking lot and make some circles: clockwise to practice your right turns and counterclockwise to practice your left turns. Once you’ve gotten the hang of that, you can practice making some figure-eights to practice both in rapid succession. Just make sure that you go slowly at first and speed up gradually.

3. Look Where You’re Going

This might sound like a no-brainer, but many riders focus too hard on what’s directly in front of them, which is called “target fixation.” If you’re not looking up ahead to where you’re heading, you might miss obstacles, oncoming traffic and sudden twists that you need to be able to react to. Looking further ahead rather than laser-focusing on what’s right in front of you will help you to be more aware of your surroundings so you can anticipate maneuvers and ride more safely.

4. Practice Hard Braking

Avoid traffic again for this exercise because you need to have some space. Knowing how fast your motorcycle can come to a stop is important in case you run into an obstacle, like an animal running out in front of you. Being confident in the ability to slam on your brakes and know the bike will stop in time is necessary, so practice hard braking on an empty stretch of country road or parking lot. Squeeze gently and then apply more pressure as needed, and try it at different speeds to see how the bike reacts.

Come by our dealership in Monee, IL, today to check out our full stock of new and used motorcycles for sale. Gina’s Motorsports of Monee proudly serves greater Chicago as well as Kankakee County, IL.