13 Common Mistakes Adv Riders Make

it riders welcome to another video in our adventure motorcycle training series I'm Eric Lange with ride adventures I've been guiding and riding motorcycle tours around the world for over a decade now today we're going to talk about the 13 most common mistakes we see adventure riders make [Music] maybe you're going to your first bike night on a Tuesday night at the local bar maybe you're going for Saturday morning group ride or you're gonna join one of our adventure tours somewhere around the world these are simple little things that are easy to learn and avoid and I just want to make sure that you're not making them because they can be expensive dangerous or embarrassing honestly so let's get into it here okay the first one falls into the category of dangerous things you can do and that's when you park along the side of the road let's say you have to pull over for some reason cord fell out of your phone or whatever it is when you pull over on the side of the road remember that putting the bike on its side stand suddenly leans the bike over to the left and you can immediately end up paying over the pavement and then you yourself are gonna actually get off the bike and be out into the road see it happen all the time on our tours when you're pulling off to the road pull way off the road or pull down a side street or something like that hanging out on the shoulder of a road with all the dangers of traffic these days sure I don't need to tell you not the best idea so pull way over and remember that your bike leans over when you set it on the side stand another potentially painful mistake or one that could put you in the hospital is taking the bike off thus understand while the sidestand is in its down position so think about this as you slide the back of the bike forward off of its understand it's going to go forward and down which is basically where your forward foot your left foot is in this situation so put the side stand up every time you're taking it off this understand yes there's a little more balance and potential to hang on to the bike and keep it upright but really you shouldn't be depending on the side stand at this point anyway another mistake people make is just simply turn it around in the wrong direction so if you're having to do a why turn or you turn and if the road or the trail in front of you slopes from right to left or left or right choose the direction to point your bike such that the bike is pointed uphill when I see people are pointing the bike going downhill the wrong way well guess what that means you have to basically pull the biker kick it with your legs backwards uphill all that gravity it's punch better if you have the bike pointed uphill you can use the engine to pull yourself forward and up use gravity to let you pull it back down it's just gonna make it much easier to turn your bike around so another mistake in the topic of off camber situations is if you ever have to turn around on a slope basically so if you're facing across the downhill slope of a hill consider that the downside of your feet the lower foot is not going to be able to touch the ground if you happen to fall that way so an easy way to avoid this is by keeping that downhill foot on the foot pegs at all times don't put it out there dangling as if giving yourself the the reminder that you'll be able to touch the ground if you need to if you need to touch the ground it's going to be because you let your balance slip that side your balance is going down the hill and guess what if the down side of the bike is below your feet that much it's not going to be you're not gonna be able to touch the ground until it's too late after the bike is top you know past top center like that so favor the uphill almost like intentionally put an extra eighty hundred pounds of weight on your uphill foot and make sure that you're constantly leaning uphill in most situations and don't allow yourself to fall down the hill as it slopes away from you if you like many of us myself included sooner or later the bikes gonna end up on its side on the ground when this happens don't rush to pick it up in such a hurry the tendency for people out there is to people are seeing you and you want to quick hurry and pick up your bike and hopefully make it so that nobody saw you make this silly little mistake hey it happens and when they rush to do it too quickly sometimes they're injuring themselves just by again not having a warmed up back or leg muscles if you have any kind of back issues or whatever picking up a heavy motorcycle done too quickly can injure somebody so and in doing that pick up make sure you do it the proper way with your back facing the bike a good load deep knee squat like that handle hands and good firm places like that and by all means don't be afraid or embarrassed to ask somebody around you to help pick up that bike again avoiding potential injury by strenuous work so with all that's going on out there and all the rides and the adrenaline and everything sometimes riders get a little too serious about the settings on their bike what I mean is the need or the feeling that you have to change your tire pressure given the situation of the terrain that you're on yes it's absolutely true that lowering your tire pressure and off pavement dirt terrain and whatnot can improve your traction and your ability to maintain grip with the ground but what I'm talking about here is this this thought that unless they do that unless they lower their tire pressure or alter their suspension settings they're just not going to be able to ride well and then I do encourage you if you have the time to take the own take the time and adjust your settings in your pressure here suspension and things like that you are ultimately you know improving your suspension your traction like we just said I think you really just don't want to get too trapped in the mine Stefan everything has to be absolutely perfect when the reality is it's a constantly changing situation and it will never be exactly perfect if you're so fortunate to travel across international borders on your motorcycle be polite remember that the border officials you come across are ultimately in charge and it can be easy to encounter situations of tension or confusion maybe there's a language barrier whatever the case be be patient and do whatever it is that they ask just smile don't be taking photos we remind all of our people before they sign up and they before they take their their trips with us to be respectful and courteous don't take photos of the officials unless you have permission to do so and just ultimately remember that they are in charge patience and a smile gets you a long ways when it comes to crossing borders riders and our groups and our individual self-guided riders generally have no problem doing this because we are again advising and reminding them as such but if you do something wrong you make the wrong person mad things can also go the wrong way another easy mistake to make is buying a bike or renting a motorcycle that's too big for you look some part of each of us wants to ride the biggest horse out there right more size more power looks better feels better it's more exciting whatever the case be I've seen it many many times where people have bought a bike larger than is something they should be standing over the result is they don't get the enjoyment out of it either because it's too easy to drop the bike they feel intimidated they don't feel comfortable they can't correct themselves by having proper leverage over the ground beneath them in tight spots and turnaround situations so take a step back before you jump into buying a bike realize that almost all of these bikes especially in the adventure by category these days are more powerful and faster than you would ever need in the first place one of the most unnecessary mistakes people can make is following each other too closely and that goes not just between the motorcycle riders in the group but between yourselves and the vehicles in front of you look it's exciting I get it the thought of Valentino Rossi chasing down Jorge Lorenzo and the racing and all the action out there it's like you get that vision and the adrenaline cooking and it is fun to have that type on each other racing mode the reality is it's not a great recipe for arriving at your destination safely so you know we see this on our motorcycle tours and we advise everybody from the beginning you spread out only in a tight city situation maybe when we're trying to get to our hotel do we regroup and get close together but that old adage about keeping two seconds of following time make it three seconds make it four you're not going to get lost you'll still be able to find the person in front of you and by giving that extra bit of cushion between yourself and the motorcycle or the vehicle or whatever it is in front of you you're allowing that room for error things happen animals run out in the road people walk out in front of the road a lot can go wrong when here and a lot can be unexpected while you're riding it so giving yourself a little extra buffer around you is going to add up in terms of long-term riding safety another mistake people make in terms of just general riding technique is not properly scanning ahead and close to them as they're riding some riders I can just see it when we're out riding is kind of a fixed angle view they're only looking say thirty feet ahead of them now that's gonna change of course with the speed that you're going you might be looking a hundred feet ahead and might be looking twenty feet ahead depending on your speed but it's really a general scanning that you want to be doing going forward and back considering all that's ahead remember a lot about motorcycle ride and staying safe and enjoying out there is anticipation so you need to know not only the details of what's closely in front of you but that which is coming up ahead another interesting and potentially dangerous one is target fixation meaning when you come upon an obstacle a rock in the road a piece of wood or something like that that you're trying to avoid don't make the mistake of actually staring at it I'm still guilty of doing it myself I've done my best I can within a split second I can usually get myself to remember don't stare at that rock that's just ahead of me but look to the left or the right and avoid it because again that psychological principle of target fixation has been well-documented over the years everything from pilots to motorcycle riders have that fault of possibly hitting what you are actually looking at so look away from it know that it's there but don't draw yourself to it by looking at it one more mistake I get the sense riders are making is having too much going on on their bikes look it's real tempting between GPS cell phones cameras all the different things that we can have these days sometimes paper maps are still the best way to get around you know take the time to pull over that way and look at what you're doing and know where you're going there's a lot going on to begin with riding the motorcycle is a dynamic ever-changing situation if you're around cars and traffic and whatnot weather changes perhaps having less to focus on and less to preoccupy yourself with is going to be safer in the long run for you another one most of us should have learned when we took our initial Rider safety and training courses is that the front brake is actually where the bulk of your braking and stopping ability lies riders who rely exclusively or mostly on the rear brake don't realize that perhaps 70% or more of your stopping ability rests within the front brake so as you're compressing and you're hitting the brakes your weight is going forward the weight of your bike is going forward and it's compiling weight down into that front wheel giving the best traction in the front wheel and therefore the bulk of your stopping power and ability the rear brake again is losing some of that weight is it all slides forward and the rear wheel excuse me is actually gonna have more of a tendency to slide so it has less of your overall stopping power so again I was a beginning writer once maybe you are right now maybe you've been riding 30 or 40 years I see people making these mistakes though well experienced riders some of these mistakes are still being made on our tours and I just cringe and I wanted to share that with you because again if you're going into your first group rides or you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of friends or something like that is easy simple little things that are gonna again keep you safer help you write further help you to help you enjoy more and have less tip overs at the very least right so thanks for watching subscribe so you see the rest of the videos coming up in our adventure motorcycle training series and let us know what you'd like to learn about in the comments section below so write on everyone you [Music]

Channel: RIDE Adventures

Views: 322,577

Rating: 4.9451694 out of 5

Keywords: Adventure Motorcycle Training, Offroad motorcycle training, adventure riding techniques, africa twin, ADVrider, Adv rider, ride adventures, beginners, Off road motorcycle beginners, adventure motorcycle riders, adventure motorcycling, Adventure motorcycle tours, motorcycle tours, mistakes motorcycle riders make, beginner motorcycle mistakes, best tips for beginner motorcycle riders, adventure motorcycle riding tips, Ride Adventures, Oregon

Id: H6Sii5FfKnk

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020