hey guys I'm Paul the motor guy and welcome to my channel where I pass on riding tips practice
drills and defensive riding strategies now I'm a rider coach a motorcycle sergeant and owner and
instructor at ProRider Center Texas where we teach police riding skills to civilian riders
now let me start by saying that because of your support my channel has met the requirements to
have the community tab this will allow me to engage with you between videos which is very
exciting so be sure to go check it out now in this video I'm going to give you three tips
on how to properly use the throttle when doing slow speed maneuvers so hang tight
now with all the advice on how to properly do slow speed maneuvers on a motorcycle
I've noticed that there isn't much out there when it comes to how to use the throttle
so I went through this video to help riders understand the role the throttle plays when
doing slow speed maneuvers and believe it or not the throttle plays a very important role
now the first tip when it comes to the throttle is that you want to have your rpms
or revolutions per minute between 1200 to 1500 which is what we call reserve rpms now as I've
said before this does not have to be exact as long as you're not idling through your turns
now let me explain two reasons why reserve rpms are important now the first one is that when you
have reserve rpms you have power that are stored up ready to be transferred to the rear wheel so
if I have the motorcycle leaned over and I feel like the motorcycle is going to fall when I let
out a little more clutch the motorcycle is more responsive because they have that power
stored up now the second thing is if I'm in that same scenario and I end up letting out too much
clutch I won't stall the motorcycle which is never a good thing when the motorcycle is leaned over
now I'm going to give you two reasons why you don't want to idle through your turns the first
reason is that if I'm idling through my turn and I feel like I'm falling and I let a little
more clutch out the motorcycle is more sluggish because there's no power stored up and the second
reason is if I'm idling and accidentally let out too much clutch I risk the chance of stalling
the motorcycle now tip number two is you want to have constant throttle one of the common mistakes
I see is that riders will roll on and off the throttle like a dirt bike which looks like this
now I'm going to demo what this looks and sounds like when riding using the figure 8 exercise
now while you're watching I want you to listen and watch how I am on and off the throttle
all right so this first example is going to be the dirt bike throttle the revving
by doing this it makes things very choppy and there's one more thing that you have to worry
about when you keep the rpms consistent you will notice that the motorcycle is more stable
and you can actually feel the motorcycle wanting to stay upright
now tip number three is you don't want to be looking down at your tachometer to see your rpms
we need to start listening to our bikes if you pay attention it will let you know when it needs
more throttle now we all know what it sounds like when a motorcycle is wanting to stall
I want to mention this because there have been many times I've had students island when making
their turns now I could hear the motorcycle sound like it's wanting to stall but the student is
never rolled on the throttle now there have been times when this has happened and the motorcycle
actually stalled and fell over the point is if I can hear the motorcycle asking for more throttle
why couldn't the student now I think it's because we are not really used to listening
to our motorcycles again I would rather have too much throttle than not enough
you can always roll off the throttle if you feel like it's too high the more you practice your
throttle control and listening to your motorcycle you will learn what proper rpms sound like
now I'm gonna write the figure 8 exercise again to demonstrate what happened constant rpm sounds like
but this time I want you to notice how my rpm stay constant and how my throttle doesn't move through
the entire exercise now we're going to go with the steady rpms the way it should be done steady rpms
now I did a video on how to properly grip the throttle for better control
now if you haven't seen that video be sure to go check it out after this video
I will leave a link up top and in the description below I hope this video helped you understand the
important role the throttle plays when doing slow speed maneuvers let me know in the comment section
below if you've had problems with this and until next time practice practice practice and ride safe