Are you helping a friend, your partner or a family member?

You are welcome to use anything found at this website for your own use. Watch the content, envision doing the action, apply the action and practice till you complete each task.

If this content has helped you or someone you know, do reach out via social media or email and acknowledge this content has helped so we can keep working on these topics and use the feedback. Use #motoagenthelper or include @motoagenthelper

Moto Agent Helper recommends that before you start assisting others that you refresh or update your own road skills with a local motorcycle refresher course on road safety to just be sure you are in tune with current things as road craft and techniques change over time and you want to help someone else - By not keeping up with current recommended practice’s you may accidentally show bad habits to new riders that may create new risks or issues that need to be un-learned!

Most important!

1. New riders and idle fingers

Unless a rider is actually braking or the clutch is being used with purpose, fingers should not be resting on the handlebar levers but instead be lightly holding the handlebar grips. This trains the new rider’s fingers to reach out and pull the levers only when required.

Clutch lever - Solve early issues with clutch use to prevent unnecessary riding in the friction zone and potentially releasing the clutch with higher than expected engine speed when fingers get tired (aka whiskey throttle).

Throttle and brake lever - If you have to reach out to pull the brake, you close the throttle properly. Any resting fingers on the brake lever means the new rider won’t roll off the throttle when braking time starts due to the hand position already resting on the brake lever. Additionally the extra engine noise may cause additional rider errors due to a panic moment.

2. Rider attention span

Most new riders can only absorb a few tasks at a time when learning new tasks so limit your assist time to around 40-60minutes. When new riders start failing to co-ordinate what they learn that is a sure sign they are getting tired and accidents can occur. (Ie sudden excess clutch friction zone use and high revs, suddenly not completing corners where previously was ok, stalling more as the session time lapses past the 30+ min marker)

Stop, take a rest for half a day or wait for another day. Stay hydrated, the brain needs water to perform.

There is no point in pushing beyond a riders attention span, doing so will un-do anything they learn and potentially setup more issues around safety and rider confidence - it will take even longer to learn simple tasks!

3. Going on long rides

Some new riders may initially get some joy out of just getting two wheels on the road but you are actually setting them up for high risk situations as they do not have the attention span early on in their own education to manage various situations let alone the vehicle itself!

Just going out of town for a few hours on long straight roads does not really help either, licenced riders have progressed various stages of the motorcycle licence ladder (6L, 6R and 6F) and will build up their attention span in their own time regardless if in a group setting or riding by themselves but please do not take inexperienced unlicensed riders on long travels, stick your own street or block.

Remember being a kid and learning to ride a bicycle? Your parents never let you venture too far away so they could assist you if something was to occur. Once they trusted you could control the bicycle you then starting working towards riding to friends places, school etc… Basically with motorcycles, the issues are magnified many times over but with similar “confidence” stepping stones - Don’t rush learning the basic controls as this solves many rider issues later on!

4. Have infinite patience

You cannot understand 100% what someone else is going through when learning a new skill and co-ordinating brain to body actions, but you can assist with addressing the “how” and “why”  - The new rider can absorb and apply new information at their own pace.

Showing impatience is not nice and it creates a sense of urgency for new rider - That urgency will un-do some good seat time and the fun that comes with learning how to ride a motorcycle.