Motorcycle riding is a skill that develops over the passage of time. You can’t learn to ride it reading the manual. You have to just start riding it with some guidance. Maybe your friends or any family members can help you there.
However, the transition from being a beginner to a pro takes some time. During such time, beginner motorcycle riders make a lot of mistakes and endanger themselves.
Some mistakes prevent you from getting the best out of your motorcycle, some mistakes are damaging your bike, and some mistakes even endanger your life (Like not wearing your motorcycle helmet at all).
11 Common Beginner Motorcycle Rider Mistakes
The reason you should have a sharp look at these mistakes is that you can take proper steps to prevent them in the future. There is always time for improving and take your skills to the next level.
Understanding the following mistakes will improve your skill and extend the expected life expectancy of your bike as well. Dealing with some of the following mistakes will also make your motorcycle ride even more comfortable.
- Being Indifferent To Fancy Gear
Each and every motorcycle gear plays a vital role. For your smooth ride and safety, you can’t ignore them. Unfortunately, some beginners think they don’t need them at all. Yes, price is an issue here but they don’t definitely cost you a fortune.
When you just getting started, you don’t have to go for the expensive gears. But DOT approved helmet, gloves, shoes, and a jacket with shoulder and elbow protection should not cost you a lot.
Avoid all those major brands. Go to any online retail store like Amazon. You will get all of them at a very reasonable cost. They are high-quality gears; there is no doubt about them.
- Forgetting The Counter steering
Many beginners don’t know they can turn their bikes just by leaning. Are you one of them? Well, it’s pretty straightforward and can offer you great control to turn your bike when you need it most. It’s nothing but using your body to get maximum turning input.
So, this is what you should do to master the counter steering. You wanna go right, just press the right on the handlebars and vice versa. It won’t take much time to master it. Once you master it, it will help you get the best out of your motorcycle.
- Mistaking The Fuel Range
Not having sufficient fuel in the tank is a big problem for longer rides. Some motorcycles don’t even have the fuel gauges. So, it becomes even harder for beginners to get the fuel reserve right all the time. You will be burning more fuel at the beginning stage.
Fuel consumption depends on how you ride your bike and what kind of ride you make. It’s really important to know the average fuel consumption and fuel level in the oil tank so that you can make a stop to refill the tank.
This is what you should do to avoid this mistake in the future. Manually have a real-time peek inside the fuel tank to get the fuel reserve correct. When you see it’s getting depleted nearly, refill it from any nearby filling station.
- Not Having Seat Pad For Longer Rides
As a beginner when you go for a longer ride; your stock motorcycle seat will start feeling like a rock after a few hours. In cold or hot weather, it will be uncomfortable to sit on the seat, even for the shorter rides. There is nothing wrong with the motorcycle seat or the motorbike itself. What you are lacking is the experience.
You can solve the problem easily with a quality motorcycle seat pad or a sheepskin seat cover. With an air pressured seat cushion, you can make thousands of miles longer rides without hurting your butt. A sheepskin seat cover, on the other hand, will give you warm feeling during the cold season and vice versa.
- Being a Victim of Peer Pressure
If they can do it, I can do it! Well, motorcycle riding is not rocket science and it’s true you can do it just like all of your friends, peer pressure may lead to unfortunate problems sometimes. It can make you do things that you may not like to do so.
Your friend may do incredible stunts with his motorcycle, but don’t you get tempted! The learning curve is different for everyone. It may take a little bit more time to master all those stunning skills, but you will get there eventually. No hurry… don’t push the limit.
Know your limits and the limits of your bike. You will make severe mistakes if you push it too hard. Don’t take unnecessary pressure and follow your friend’s stunt blindly.
- Urge To Ride With Girlfriend/Friend
It’s really cool to ride with your friend. But it’s not cool for a beginner. You are still fine-tuning your skill and you have a long way to go being a skilled one.
As a beginner, you will have less control when your girlfriend or friend ride with you. You will be more prone to make mistakes because you can’t focus on the bike completely.
Until you become fully skilled, you should ride alone. It’s just foolish to endanger the life of you and your friend at the beginning stage.
- Stalling
This is something that happens a lot to beginner motorcycle riders. It may happen to noob bicycle riders too. Stalling is a big mistake! You pull the clutch all the way in and your motorcycle will go nowhere; it will keep stalling. Fortunately, it’s very easy to grow out of the stalling issue.
Learn how to let go of the clutch slowly. Once you know how to handle the clutch efficiently, stalling won’t be a problem anymore.
- Forgetting To Cover The Clutch/Brake Lever
How much power you want the engine to transmit is totally linked to the clutch. You should be able to control the clutch comfortably so that you can take away that power any time you want. This is also true for the brake lever as well.
You have to cover the clutch or the brake with your fingers. How many fingers you want to use is totally dependent on you. You can use 4 or 3 or 2 or even 1 finger. But how swiftly you take control of the clutch/brake may determine whether it will be a collision or a smooth ride.
- No Taking Care Of Your Motorcycle
You take care of it, your motorcycle will take care of you. Have you noticed moisture on your motorcycle seat recently? A wet motorcycle seat is something you always want to avoid. That’s what happens when you keep the motorcycle outside under heavy rainfall. And don’t forget the bird dropping!
A great way to deal with this problem is to have a motorcycle cover for outside storage. It will keep your motorcycle dry and clean always.
- Forgetting To Have A Safe Distance
It’s really overwhelming to ride a motorcycle at the early stages of your riding. That’s when a beginner forgets to keep enough safe distance. If you don’t keep that safe distance always, there may be a collision any time. Not having enough escape space is the biggest mistake you can make as a beginner.
- Forgetting To Cancel Turn Lights
Whether it’s true you should not be worried about it, but it happens when you completely forget to cancel the turn lights that will create confusion for other drivers. They will be in confusion about your next move.
Why you should not be worried about it? Because that should be automatically canceled. However, there are some motorcycles without such automatic feature. There is nothing much you can do about it except getting yourself used to the fact that you have to manually cancel the signals.
Conclusion
Without making mistakes, we can’t learn anything. However, identifying such mistakes and taking preventive measures can make your learning process a lot easier and safe.
I hope you will be more careful about such beginner motorcycle rider mistakes and take preventive measures accordingly. Safe Riding!
