Motorcycle Riding Technique and Vehicle Control
Control starts before you move
Riding technique and vehicle control tests smooth, deliberate use of the controls: clutch, throttle, brakes, gears and steering. The examiner looks for a rider who plans ahead and makes one smooth input rather than a series of corrections.
Core skills
- Pull away with a smooth friction-zone feed and a shoulder check; do not coast with the clutch pulled in.
- Brake with both brakes, front dominant on dry tarmac; apply the front progressively and avoid snatching.
- At low speed, use clutch, rear brake and throttle together, keep your head up and look where you want to go.
- At speed, countersteer: press the right bar to lean right, the left bar to lean left.
- Brake before the bend, select the right gear, look through the corner and keep a steady throttle; avoid braking while leaned over.
- Position yourself to see and be seen, but avoid the oily centre of the lane at junctions.
Worked example
You enter a downhill right-hand bend and realise you are carrying too much speed. Do not grab the front brake. Ease off the throttle, look through to the exit, and apply both brakes gently and progressively while the bike is still upright; if you are already leaned over, stand the bike up slightly to gain braking grip, then re-lean. If you cannot stop, widen the line rather than target-fixating on the kerb.
Slow control and pillion
For the figure-of-eight and slow-ride exercises, turn your head, use the rear brake to regulate speed, and let the bike lean while you counterbalance. With a pillion, increase tyre pressure and suspension preload as the manual advises, warn them before braking, and remember that a learner or P-plate rider must not carry a passenger.
Traps
Target fixation, braking on painted lines or manhole covers in the wet, coasting into corners, using only the rear brake, and forgetting to cancel the indicator. Also do not ride in a car's blind spot or sit at the centre of the lane where oil collects.