The one tip that will make you a better motorcycle driver

Hey, today I want to talk about a really important technique when you are riding a motorcycle. That is relaxing your arms and your hands. Independently whether or not you are on a sport bike or a dirt bike like this, you have to relax your arms and your hands. You don’t want to get into an accident needing to buy new motorcycle parts via motorcycle imports.

The reason that you need to relax your hands and your arms when you are on a motorcycle, is because the front wheel steers the bike and balances the bike. If you hold on to the handlebars really hard you are going to be changing direction when you do not want to. And secondly, you are going to destabilize the bike.

So to be able to relax your arms and your hands you have to have really strong legs and core, so you can hold your body up. Some of you out there might already have really strong legs and core, and what you really need to work on is technique.

What this really is about is muscle memory, it is sort of like you know martial artists. When they practice different moves. They practice them so many times, that it becomes natural. And so when somebody tries to hit them, they just react. They don’t actually think about what they are going to do next.

And that is pretty much what you need to do when you ride a motorcycle, you should not be thinking about relaxing your arms. But before you can get there you have to think about it. So let me teach you these two drills. The first drill is mainly directed towards sport bike riders, and it is called ‘The Chicken wing’.

The chicken wing looks like this.

If I am holding on to the handlebars really hard, I wouldn’t be able to do that. So you should be able to do the chicken wing, at any point, during turns, on straightways, over bumps, anywhere. The second drill is for you dirt bike riders out there, so when you are standing up on your bike, you want to flare elbows up like this, and relax your arms and your hands.

Lets have a look at me going over some bumps, and in the first one I will be grasping the handlebars really hard, in the way that you should NOT be doing it. Did you notice how unstable the bike was, it was wiggling back and forth.

Now lets have a look at me, cranking the throttle and relaxing my arms and my hands, and grasping on with my feet. Did you see that black magic, the bike stabilized itself because I’m not holding on to the handlebars to hard.

So when you have mastered this technique, and tried it for a while. I advise you to go out on a really bumpy straightway and just crank the throttle to the max. You bike is just going to float over all those bumps. What this really gives you is confidence, because when you master this, you are going to be able to use this in all different sections of a motocross track or if you are out on an Enduro track.

So that is it for today, remember to like and please share this article on social media, to spread the word. Thank you for reading and see you next time!