9 MISTAKES Adventure Motorcycle Riders Make Every Day - You Can Do Better - Dual Sport Riders Too

I'm Bret Tkacs. I'm a professional rider and trainer and riders come to me because they want to get better they want to be the best and in this episode I'm going to cover some of the most common mistakes that I have to address with riders every day, every class, every week, every year, every decade... without debate the most common question I get from riders is how much they should air down the tires and my answer is almost universally, don't air down the tires what riders don't understand the mistake they make is that these motorcycles are very heavy and that we're carrying heavy loads that also means we're taking heavy impact we need the air in the tires to protect the rim when we air down too much we risk bending the rim or gaining a pinch flat I'm not saying tire pressures aren't important they are important and in extreme situations changing tire pressure can be to your advantage one example is if you're running street tires and you're buried in deep sand or deep rock you may want to let a lot of air pressure out to get enough traction to get out of that situation but then you want to immediately air back up another example would be riding through rough hard sharp edge rocks if your tires are overinflated they won't absorb the impact and your front tire will deflect more than it needs to but you still need to make sure you don't air down so much that you risk denting your rim bending the rim or getting a pinch flat so in hard packed trails or gravel roads just leave the same pressures on that you run on the street many riders are terrified about using the front brake off-road they've read on the forums have been told by their friends they should only use the rear brake or they've been in an extreme environment like wet clay or on wet grass and in those environments definitely we have to be far more delicate about our use of the front brake what the rear brake doesn't do well off-road is stop the motorcycle it's good for creating stability in the bike for certain situations it's very good for changing direction where you can slide the back of the bike around to go a new direction but what it doesn't do is stop well if you want to stop off-road you need to be using the front brake as your primary stopping power the rear is used for stability the front is used for stopping and this is one of the reasons why we only use one to two fingers off-road traction can change very quickly and that allows us to have a much more delicate feel much better feedback as we're used in that front brake so we can sense those changes and we can make them as make those changes as we go so off-road use both brakes and make sure the front brake is doing the real stopping here's a common mistake riders make they think they're in control their death gripping on the handlebars and they're telling the bike where to go it turns out these bikes are really big and they're gonna go where they want to go that's what rake and trail and all those other things that are built into the bike for its to make the bike go where it needs to go so loosen up don't hold on so tightly it turns out when we reach around the grip all we're trying to do is close those out or two fingers against the thumb so the grip is loose to the inside if the front wheel catches something and deflects you just want to make sure if it catches you off guard that your hand moves with the controls that's why we're closing the loop the fingers here that are controlling the clutch and the two fingers here against the front brake those are the ones that are doing the job so loosen up a little and don't hold on so tight to many riders sit when they should be standing any time the train gets really scary when we have mud when we have ruts when we have sand when we have deep gravel our default should be to stand on the motorcycle where we have maximum control sitting is reserved for pavement for well groomed roads for gravel roads for long stretches where you're trying to conserve energy any time it gets scary stand up there are times when sitting is a really good or even the best option for riding but there is a proper way to sit don't sit in the passenger seat too many riders I see they just sit back they end up in the passenger seat and this is normally the riders with more dirt focused bikes the KTM s the dr Z's the K L ours these guys are sitting on the back they have that nice flat bench they end up all stretched out their legs are 90 degrees it causes the bike not to track well it doesn't allow them to have full control their arms you stretched out they can't control the motorcycle the riders on the big touring focus bikes have less of a concern their bikes are usually very narrow like the bike I'm on the GS it's just sits right in the middle I can't go very far the proper way to sit is this far forward on the motorcycles you can get and on those other bikes it means the steering is often very close to the body that's how they're designed to function best so when you're sitting sit forward you probably don't need those handlebar risers when I help riders and I professionally fit riders to maximize control of the motorcycle and fit the rider the most common thing I do is remove risers that they added to the motorcycle unless you're over 6 feet tall if you're on an adventure styled motorcycle that's designed to go off-road they usually fit you really really well the problem is when you put risers on a motorcycle it's usually so riders feel comfortable when they're standing so they sit all the way vertical the problem is it puts you too far back in the battle as soon as you hit the throttle you hit a bump it throws you off balance you end up tightening up on the handlebars and you don't have maximum control once you know how to ride well once you know how the posture is supposed to be you end up farther forward over the motorcycle and those risers don't help they get in the way limited vision is one of the most common critical mistakes riders make and I'm not talking about obstructive vision like fog I'm talking about rider induced obstructed vision what I'm saying is riders look directly in front of the motorcycle and they're looking at the rocks the steaks the things directly in front of the motorcycle they're looking at the things that are about to happen there it gonna hit it's too late there's no time to plan riders have to learn how to look farther down the road so they can see vehicles coming at them so they can see changes in terrain that's what needs to happen and it turns out vision is directly related to speed the faster you go the farther you have to look the slower you go the closer you can look but it also means Vision Drive speed when you're looking directly in front of your bike or directly in front of your your tire you have to ride slowly there isn't time to plan or react so get your eyes up and look down the road here's a common mistake that almost every adventure rider learns the hard way they bring too much stuff we pack our bikes up and we have so much stuff we can't move around on the bike I can actually make things dangerous we have so much stuff that the bike gets so heavy if it tips over we can't stand it back up learn to pack light take half of the stuff that you think you need and leave it behind then take the half that's left over and cut that in half that's what you need to have make sure that you have the important things your first-aid kit your tool kit a way to air up the tires and fix a flat tire make sure you have a way to stay dry and a way to stay warm that's what you really need all that other stuff it just adds weight learn to pack light and finally here's a major mistake that none of the riders that attend training with me ever make and that is spending a bunch of money on their motorcycle and not investing in themselves too many riders will freely spend money on their motorcycle buying gizmos and gadgets that only make their wallet light and their motorcycle heavy but they won't invest in themselves getting training with a professional rider trainer will help you become a better rider make less mistakes not damage your bike not get hurt it's worth the time it's worth the money so don't make that mistake

Channel: MOTOTREK

Views: 1,082,923

Rating: 4.9019918 out of 5

Keywords: adv, bret tkacs, adventure, motorcycling, motorcycle, bmw, ktm, skill, world, travel, brakes, front brakes, handlebar, grip, bar risers, vision, packing, training, dual sport

Id: 1PJ9NpzezwM

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 07 2019