What is up, everybody?
This is DanDan The Firemen here.
I want to talk to you about beginner motorcycle mistakes.
I got five of them.
And I've been doing a lot of tips, a lot of motorcycle tip
videos, and I just realized I've never done like,
a motorcycle mistake video.
There's a lot of things that you can follow,
but if you don't know what you're doing wrong,
and you think you're doing the right thing, there's no point.
You need to know what the wrong thing is.
So let's go ahead and talk about that
while I'm behind this Mazda CX9, because they're
going to be going slow.
All right, to start it off, before anybody mentions
that I have my phone right here, and I have my notes,
I'm not looking at it.
I'm looking at the road.
I'm being safe.
Don't do what I'm doing.
I've been doing this for a while.
So first off, what we're going to do
is we can talk about counter steering.
A lot of people think that they don't
need to do counter steering, that they just move their body
to make the bike move or to actually
turn the handlebars like that.
No, you don't want to do that.
You don't want to be pulling on any handlebars.
What you want to do is counter steer,
which is more of a pushing of the handlebars.
See, right now, I'm barely just going to hold the handlebars,
and I'm just using my body.
The bike's going to want to stay upright.
My body is turning the bike just a little bit,
and it's just doing this.
You're not going to be able to make
that 90 degree turn on a right-handed turn
at the intersection.
You're not going to be able to turn left at an intersection
or even do this kind of turn.
It's not even that hard of a turn,
but what you're going to realize,
and you're probably doing it without realizing it,
is that counter steering is the act of pushing
on the handlebars.
So I'm pushing on the right bar.
I'm pushing it that way, turn right.
I want to go left, I'm going to turn,
or I'm going to push on this handlebar and make it go left.
See, right now, I'm going push.
And see how I just turned a little bit?
Push, turned a little bit?
That is counter steering, and you probably
aren't realizing that you're doing it.
See how I'm going to turn?
I'm pulling.
That's turning it.
It's not like a bicycle; it's counter steering.
Your bike's going to want to stay upright,
so in order to turn it, you have to counter steer.
Sounds so weird.
It's almost like an oxymoron to say I'm counter steering,
but that's what you're doing.
Right there, I just pushed on the handlebar
to turn left and turn right.
So that's something you're going to have to realize,
and you have to start doing on a regular basis
and actually be cognizant about it.
I'm going to push right here, and it turns--
simple as that.
Realize you need to counter steer.
Mistake number two, a lot of people
do not want to buy motorcycle protective gear.
They just bought this really expensive bike,
whether it is used or not used.
It's within your budget, basically.
So you basically used up your whole budget on the bike.
Now, you have to buy gear.
I've done so many videos on motorcycle gear,
and I highly recommend checking those videos out
because I have so many videos on it.
I have helmet videos.
I have winter gear guides, summer gear guide.
These are all things that you're going
to need to get when you ride a motorcycle.
It's not like driving a car.
You don't have a seat belt. You don't have protective airbags.
The gear that you are wearing is your seat belt,
is your airbags, is absolutely every single piece
of protection that you need.
So get a helmet, gloves, pants, jacket, boots, simple as that.
Check the link description or in the card in the upper right
to check out my best video on that.
The next tip I have for you guys is to know your fuel range.
Now, a lot of bikes have different gas tanks.
A lot of bikes have different miles per gallon.
There's no trip odometer on a bike, at least not on a Harley.
There's probably some on those expensive, nice, fun bikes,
but not on this bike.
If you have a newer car nowadays,
they have trip odometers.
So you know like you got 30 miles until the next fill up
or you run out on gas.
You know you got 300 miles range or whatever.
On bikes, you don't have that.
What you do have, even on a Harley
because Hartley's kind of you know--
[LAUGHS]
--taking a step back in terms of technology, anyways.
We do have two trip odometers.
I use number one, trip A for my fuel range.
Number two, I use it for my oil range.
I usually change it out every 3,000 miles.
That's what I have trip B for.
But trip A, every time I fill up, I reset my trip.
For me, I know personally that I have about 100 gallons--
not 100 gallons-- I have 100 miles until I really, truly
want to fill up.
I will have my reserve fuel or my fuel light
pop up at that time, and I just know I got to fill up.
So it's pretty easy for me, 100 miles.
But now, when I was in the cafe sportster mode, when
I was like super-low tucked in, really good fuel mileage,
miles per gallon on that.
When I would go a long distance rides,
I know that I could get around 140 until I absolutely ran out.
Now, that plays a huge, huge thing
is that if you're going to go a long distance, if you're
going to be riding long distance,
you need to pick the routes that have the gas stations
within your fuel range.
Also, if you're going to be traveling
to work commuting on this thing, you're
going to need to know-- and look at this.
Got this big old semi in the way--
you're going need to know how far you
can go without having to fill up because, I mean,
if you're going to work, and you're like--
you have that-- the gas light comes on, you're like, ah,
crap, I don't know how you're doing all this estimation.
This way, you'll know.
You know, I just need to fill up.
I just got to fill up.
I'm not going to push it.
So know your fuel range.
That's something pretty big.
That's a mistake that a lot of people
do is that they just guess, and you actually
have to be cognizant.
So the tip for that is to reset your gauge, trip A or trip B,
whichever one you want to do.
That way, you'll know, kind of have an estimation
of your miles per gallon.
Mistake number four is you're wanting to ride
with someone else on the bike.
Having a passenger on the bike changes the dynamics
of your bike so much.
So if you're a beginner rider, and you're still
learning how to ride just with you on the bike,
don't recommend putting someone else on the bike.
Don't have anybody on the bike.
Just don't do it.
It's going to increase your braking distance.
Your acceleration is going to be changing your turning dynamics.
Your turns are going to be a lot harder to do.
It's just an added weight.
If you want to practice with it, it's
kind of hard to because a person on your bike
is called a live load, so they're able to move,
and they kind of--
they don't stay stuck to the bike.
A dead load, or something that won't move,
is like something strapped to your bike.
So if you're going to be taking like 100 pound passenger,
like my girlfriend is.
She's a live load, but she's really good.
And we kind of had discussions about how
to be a passenger on a bike and whatnot,
so she's more of a dead load on the bike, so it's really nice.
But if you want to practice, get some motorcycle gear
and just strap it on the rear fender, basically.
It's going to be kind of hard to get 100 pounds on there,
so it's hard to practice, but I'm able to do it.
I have the sissy bar and everything,
so I could practice if I want.
But I highly recommend do not put somebody
on the back of the bike.
It's just going to change so much.
And if you really want to, I do have
some passenger riding tips.
There's a video in the description
and a card in the upper right if you want to check that out.
There, I go over some passenger riding tips,
and I'm going to go over some new ones pretty soon,
so stay tuned to that.
So if you'd like this stuff, click that subscribe button.
There's a bell right next to it.
Click that.
That way, you're notified every single time I post a new video.
And when I post the new passenger rider tips,
you'll be notified.
All right, let's go to number five.
All right, stalling.
[LAUGHS]
It happens so much, especially at red lights.
You're going to stall.
I still stall.
I've stalled a few times, especially
after adjusting my clutch and changing out
my clutch and all that stuff.
I've stalled probably three times since then.
Woo, that was a wide turn.
It's going to happen, it really is.
What you need to do and realize, it's
going to be kind of a panicky situation,
especially if you're at a red light,
because the reason why you're going to stall
is because you're going to-- it's going to turn green,
and you need to go.
You're going to let the clutch out too soon,
and you're going to--
it's just going to stall.
So let's-- actually, let's go ahead and practice that.
All right, so here's a nice little road right here.
Awesome.
All right, so this is like a normal situation right here.
We're at a stop sign.
Actually, let's go to this one right here.
We're at a stop sign.
Let's say there's a bunch of people behind me.
OK, so for me, personally, if I'm sitting at a stoplight,
I'm going to put my shit in neutral, all right.
So I'm sitting in neutral.
I don't have my hand on the clutch.
I can fall back, whatever.
So I have my right foot on the rear brake.
No one behind me?
Cool.
So what's going to happen is that, it's like, oh, shit,
it turned green.
I got people behind me.
They're honking or whatever; I need to get going.
So I'm going to get up here, pull in the clutch,
go into first, and then, I'm just like, oh.
I accidentally let it out too quick.
What you need to know and what you need to do
is to not just turn the bike on, hit start, OK?
I know there's some safety features in some bikes where
it won't let you do that unless you
have the clutch in because remember, you're still in gear.
That's what that little red--
I don't know if you could see it, but I don't know.
Anyways, I'm in first gear, still.
So what you need to do, quickly and safely, pull in the clutch
again, start the bike.
I have my hand on the brake, too.
I'm still in gear, so I don't need to go in first.
Slowly let the clutch out.
Slowly get the gas.
There we go.
And that's it.
So the tip to prevent that is the practice your friction
zone.
I keep forgetting the terms for it,
but basically that sweet spot of clutch and a throttle.
There you go, clutch and throttle,
that little sweet spot.
And practice that, practice that, practice that.
Back when I was practicing driving stick shift on a truck,
for two weeks straight, I was practicing it
in my truck that sweet spot.
And I would practice on dirt because you know, you go like--
[MAKING STALLING SOUNDS]
But on dirt, it just like it peels out.
So what you need to do is just find something secluded,
not in traffic.
Don't do it in traffic.
Go in a neighborhood and practice
stalling or practice not stalling,
but practice your sweet spot.
So you can let the clutch-- pull the clutch in,
let the throttle-- do all-- just practice that.
That way, it'll become more natural and second instinct,
or--
[CHUCKLES]
--or it'll just be easier for you to do even
in traffic, like right here.
Well, guys, those are my quick five beginner motorcycle
riding mistakes that a lot of people do make.
And some of them aren't so severe as the others.
Stalling isn't as severe as putting the passenger
on your bike.
But these are things that people want
to do when they first start, and then they make these mistakes.
Don't do that, and hopefully, you're
able to remedy that by practice.
Practice, practice, practice, take
an MSF course, take a rider's course,
watch some of my videos, and hopefully, I
can help out some of you.
But if you have questions, comment below.
I'll be able to answer those, or I
can find somebody that can answer them for me.
We're all here to learn.
We're all here to be safe.
So with that said, I hope you guys ride safe, wear your gear,
and I'll see you guys later.