hey guys I'm Paul the mother 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 Central Texas where we teach police riding skills to civilian riders.
now in this quick video I'm going to cover a problem that not only plagues new riders
but seasoned riders as well, which is dropping your bike when coming to a stop.
I will give you 3 easy tips and an exercise that will help prevent this from happening, so
if this has happened to you hang tight.
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Ok enough of that. Now for those that have already joined to support the channel I want to thank
you very much and I'm very excited about working with you. Now be sure to check out the community
tab for important posts just for you. Now dropping your motorcycle when stopping behind a vehicle red
lights and stop signs is really not that uncommon and it can happen to the best of us. Now when I
hear new riders talk about dropping their bikes when stopping the number one response I hear is
that the bike you bought was too big and too heavy and that you needed to start on a smaller louder
motorcycle, but if you think about it it wasn't just the size of the motorcycle that caused you
to fall but more importantly it was bad technique that set off a chain reaction. So having a smaller
lighter motorcycle doesn't fix the root cause which is bad technique, so how do you fix this.
Now tip number one is your handlebars need to be square when you stop. Many of the drops I see is
due to the riders have the handlebar slightly turned to one side or the other when they're
stopping. Now when you do this the motorcycle will tend to fall to the side the handlebars
are turned, especially if you're using the front brakes to complete your stop which I will talk
about later in this video. Now I'm going to use my bike to demonstrate this while pushing it.
As I stop with the handlebars turn to the left you
can see how the motorcycle wants to fall to the left.
Now if the handlebars would turn to the right then it would want to fall to the right.
So as you can see, you need to make sure your handlebars are square when you're coming to
your stop. Now tip number 2 is complete your stop with your rear brake. Another mistake is
that riders will use too much front brake when completing their stops, which upsets
the suspension and causes loss of balance. Now if you're also added your handlebars are not square
this would just make the situation even worse. So I recommend using both front and rear brakes when
initially starting your stop then once you get to around 10 miles per hour release the front brakes
and finish the stop with your rear brake only. By doing this you will have more control stops. Now
the 10 miles per hour I mentioned is not a magic speed sometimes I'll release the front brake at
15 miles per hour to as low as 3 miles per hour. So as you improve on your techniques your speed
may also change as well but when you're starting out do what's comfortable. Now tip number 3 is
your head and eyes. Now another cause of dropping the motorcycle when stopping is that riders will
tend to either look down to the right or to the left when they're stopping. Now when you do this
the motorcycle tends to fall in the direction that you're looking, so when you're coming to a
stop you want to keep your chin up and your eyes looking straight ahead like in this next video
Now I'm going to show a side view so you can see when I release the front brake lever.
Now you can see here I have already released the front brake.
Now the exercise I recommend that will help improve your techniques
is the simple stop and go exercise. Now to do this drill you can put out cones in a straight line
at whatever distance you want. Now I do recommend putting them far enough apart
so you have time to ride a little bit before reaching your next cone. Now you can have as
many stopping points as you want. Now to do this exercise you are simply ride and stop at each
cone. Now you can also do this exercise without cones you are simply riding a straight line
starting and stopping. Now from my demo I will be using two stopping points that are about 80 feet
apart and my speed would be around 13 miles per hour before I start my braking. Now if you need
more space between the cones to get your speed up that's okay, so let's check out this demo.
As you can see I release the front brake here
Now the stop and go exercise allows you to work on both your take-offs and your stops
and now by applying these tips you'll be able to make better stops and cut down on those drops.
Now I really hope this video helps, now let me know in the comment section below if you've ever
dropped your motorcycle when stopping and until next time practice practice practice and ride safe