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Essential Riding Skills for Beginners - Yamaha New Riders | Episode 2
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Mar 29, 2025
Motorcycle.com's New Rider series continues, with Rosslyn and Kevin learning the basics with Larry Missman of Learn To Ride VC. Watch as they go over a motorcycle's controls, proper braking, cornering, and more in the California Motorcyclist Safety Program Motorcyclist Training Course (CMSP MTC). For California Classes - motorcyclesafetyca.com For Nationwide Classes - totalcontroltraining.net In every other state besides California, the course is the Total Control Beginner Riding Clinic (TC BRC). For more, visit Motorcycle.com's New Rider Hub: https://www.motorcycle.com/content/new-rider-hub-getting-started
View Video Transcript
0:00
Welcome everyone to Motorcycle.com's New Rider Series. Now if you missed part one
0:16
be sure to go watch that because we go over how to get your license, what to consider with a
0:20
motorcycle, and introduce you to our two new riders, Roslyn and Kevin. Today we're at the
0:26
Wrightwood training facility with Larry, the owner of Learn to Ride VC, and he's going to walk
0:31
Roslyn and Kevin through the new rider training course. You ready, guys? Oh, yeah. All right, let's go
0:56
All right, Larry, take it away
1:09
Thanks a lot, Troy. Appreciate it. I really like when people come take the course because I recommend it to everybody when they're
1:17
trying to learn how to ride a motorcycle. So thanks for being here. We're going to be operating the controls and starting the engine
1:21
So you're going to put both hands on both grips, squeeze the front brake, put your right
1:26
leg up and over, straighten the motorcycle, and then side stands up. First thing, throttle, right
1:33
hand grip. We're going to roll the throttle towards you, which is going to make you go faster. We're going to roll off, which slows you down. Roll on and roll off. Now on the left side
1:44
you're going to squeeze that clutch in quickly, so that way it puts the bike in neutral, or allow you to shift gears or coming to a stop. You're going to ease that clutch out
1:51
counting one, two, three, four. Squeeze that clutch in again. Count one, two, three. Stop right there
1:59
Right there's about where your friction zone is, where the bike starts to take off. Squeeze in
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Ease that clutch out. One, two, three, and four. Now I want you to lean the bike over to the left
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support it with your outside leg, and now I want you to put your right foot up on the foot peg
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and I want you to press on that rear brake pedal. That allows you to come to a stop or slow down for
2:20
a curve. Go ahead and put your feet down. Now we're going to start the motorcycle. So you're
2:26
going to find your key, turn your key on. You're going to make sure your bike's in neutral. So rock
2:32
the bike back and forth just a little bit to make sure the bike's in neutral. If your bike's in
2:36
gear, go ahead and squeeze that clutch. Shift up just a little bit to get it out of first or second
2:41
gear. Go ahead and check that for me. Still in gear. So go ahead and squeeze it again
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okay so squeeze the clutch in tap down a couple times rock the bike back and forth a little bit
2:56
no with you tapping it down same time that's all right okay now tap up slightly
3:03
okay a little bit so you can feel it click okay now use the clutch out rock it
3:10
there you go slide on forward go ahead and push the All right, moving forward. Now, squeeze the clutch in. You're going to toggle the engine
3:22
cutoff switch, that red button on the right side, to the run position, which allows the bike to be
3:28
in the starting position. Now that you've squeezed the clutch in, you can push the start button down
3:33
below that toggle switch. When the bike runs, just let it idle and run. Give it a little bit of gas
3:41
Alright? A little bit more. Keep that clutch squeezed in. Now don't bounce it. Ease it on, roll it off
3:51
Ease it on roll it off Okay Now go ahead and kill it Thumb the top button there you go and key So go ahead and put the side stands down squeeze that front brake lean the bike over up and over
4:12
Thank you very much. How'd that feel to you? Feel good. Pretty simple, pretty easy
4:16
All right, now we get to move on forward. All right, guys, great job
4:42
You've gone through the basics of operating a motorcycle. Now we're going to go through some survival strategies you're going to need out there on the street
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So you might be surprised to learn that the most powerful system on a motorcycle is the brakes
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And so for this, we're going to go through some threshold braking, some maximum braking exercises
5:01
Larry, why don't you take it away and show them what's up? So the next exercise we're doing is called maximum braking
5:07
This is threshold braking to get you to stop as quick as you possibly can when it comes to out in the real world
5:13
So when you reach that cone right there, you're going to use both brakes to stop as quickly and as safely as you can
5:20
You guys ready to try it out? Yeah, good. Kevin you ready? Yep sure am. Alright fire him up
5:46
Good job keeping your eyes up this time. Next time down make sure you squeeze the
5:51
clutch and downshift when you're coming to a stop. Okay? Got it. Off you go
5:56
All right, fire it up. Here we go. Great job
6:15
Next time down, make sure you keep your eyes up and look where you're going, all right? You ready, Rosalyn
6:23
Yep, let's do it. Fire him up. Great job at waiting until you got here
6:48
Next time when you come down, make sure you squeeze the clutch as you come to a stop. Right
6:51
All right. Off you go. Go back in line. How was that
7:13
Great job that time. Excellent job. Nice, nice, nice. Next time, all the way down, keep those eyes up, look at the head
7:18
Okay, cool. Thumbs up. Yeah! Nice job. Now, I have one simple question for you guys
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Where do you think you're going to consistently use all of these skills? The highway, somewhere on the road
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Parking lot? It's a really simple answer. How about every single corner you take
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Isn't that right, Larry? It absolutely is, and that's why we're going to start the process of how to negotiate curves
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at a faster speed using the SPAT acronym, the Speed Position Aim Tune, getting your body ready
7:57
getting your bike ready for that turn, because you going to need that in the real world So what we going to be doing is you going to take off you going to go out get into second gear and you going to start entering the corners Remember you start from the outside that you positioning
8:11
You're going to adjust your speed so you're ready for that corner. When you go through that corner, you're going to be looking through the corner
8:18
actually right before you get to that corner, to make sure you know where you're going
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And keeping your speed steady or slightly increasing your throttle as you come through the curve
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making sure that when you come out of the curve rounding that pivot cone coming towards us
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Sound good to you guys? You ready? Yeah. Let's do it. You ready to go, Kevin? Yes, sir. All right, fire it up
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Off you go. Second gear after you get out of here. Well done
9:38
Well done. Go ahead and shut it off. Nicely done. Nice job
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Way to keep your head up. Way to look through the turns. Nice job. Rosalind, you ready? Yep
9:52
All right, fire it up. Second gear the whole time. Off you go
10:10
There it is. There it is. Speed up, speed up, speed up
10:19
What the heck? Ease the clutch out. Take off. There you go. Look this way. Look this way
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All right. Shut it off. Remember, keep your eyes focused on what you're doing, right
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So when you're going through that turn, you should already be in second gear before the turn
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And that way when you're going through, you can just focus on the throttle and the brakes
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and that's all. Okay? It feels like I am shifting here. Yeah, before I get to the cones. Mm-hmm
11:06
May I interject? Yeah, can you help me? I think she's hitting a false neutral as she's hitting it up
11:11
Okay, so when you shift, remember when you want to go to neutral, you're just tapping
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up but when you want to go to second like you did from the beginning lift fully up and then release
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and then ease the clutch up first gear yep all right off you go
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that's better nice There you go, there you go
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Much better, much better. Nice. That was freaking excellent
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Go ahead, shut it up. That was yeah Much better on that one Simple smooth keeping your eyes looking where you going Great job Thank you
12:13
So sometimes when you're riding in an urban environment, situations will happen where you can't come to a panic stop
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like a pothole appears from the car in front of you or a bus comes to a complete stop
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That's when swerving comes into play. So Larry, why don't you tell them how swerving can save their bacon
12:28
Absolutely. So the exercise that we're going to get into is being able to swerve out of the way of an obstacle to avoid crashing
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Because you have to press on that hand grip forward to initiate the lean to get the bike to move over to the next lane
12:42
And then press on the other hand grip to get the bike to straighten up. So you can swerve to avoid crashing and avoid hitting the obstacle
12:49
You guys ready to try it? Let's try it. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. Kevin, you ready
12:53
Yep. Fire him up. Nice. Nicely done. Woo
13:11
Great job. Way to make that swerve nice and smooth into the middle of the next lane
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Do me a favor and try to keep your body upright when you push and then upright when you push
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the next time you come down. Okay? Off you go. Fire him up
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Nice job
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Smooth again. You kept it nice and steady. Just make sure you don't reach for those brakes until you're out of the swerve
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Off you go. Go do it again. Excellent job, way to keep your eyes open, way to look at your escape path, way to get
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yourself straight. Nice job. Thank you. Rosalyn, you ready? Yep, I'm ready
14:10
Here we go. Okay, so this time you cut it a little tight
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So the next thing you want to do when you come down, make sure you push forward on that
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hand grip. Don't push down. When you push forward it gets the bike to move over farther. Alright
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Got it. Off you go. Thank you. Let's go. Woo! There it is
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Better, better. Yeah. Thanks. I'm going to go. I'm going to go
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I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. There it is
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Better, better. Yeah, good job. That's the way you do it. So you pushed, you leaned a little bit with the bike
15:04
but it worked perfectly. And then you pushed back and stayed upright. Looked great
15:08
Thank you. Off you go. So Larry, how'd they do? Well, I gotta tell you guys, you passed
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Great job. Excellent, excellent. Cool. Larry, thanks so much for taking our two riders
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through the course, letting them know everything they need to know. And if you are interested in taking the course yourself
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go to learn to ride vc.com. There you can get lots more information about the course
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And maybe if there's one near you, you can find out there as well. So now guys, we've got you through the course
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You're feeling good, you're feeling confident. Now I gotta get you looking good too. So we're gonna get you geared up
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You guys ready for that? Yeah, let's do it. All right. There's lots more to come in this series
15:47
So please stick around for that. Thanks everyone for watching and please remember to like and subscribe
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We'll see you next time
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