How To Ride A Motorcycle For Beginners - Instructables

So let’s get started. First of all, you should get familiar with the controls on a motorcycle.

There are five primary controls on motorcycles. In this Instructable, I will be demonstrating on a 2012 Honda CBR 250R, but the controls are universal for most bikes.

The throttle is used to control the engine speed and is located on the right hand side of the handlebar. It is just like the gas pedal in a car. When you roll on the throttle, the engine speed will rise and the speed will go up. When you roll off the throttle, the engine speed will fall and the bike will slow down. You can refer to the pictures on top of the page to see the roll on and roll off position.

Note: Motorcycles have separated front and rear brakes.

The front brake lever is used to activate the front brake and is located on the right hand side of the handlebar in front of the throttle. You can squeeze the lever to use the front brake.

WARNING: Similar to braking in a car, do not grab the front brake lever suddenly and tightly. The correct way of using the brake lever is to squeeze it slowly and gradually increase the force.

The rear brake lever is used to activate the rear brake of the bike and is located near the right foot position in front of the right side foot peg. Use your right foot to press on the lever to use the rear brake.

The clutch lever is used to operate the clutch and is on the left side of the handlebar. The clutch lever acts like the clutch pedal in a manual transmission car as a connection between engine power and rear wheel. Fully squeeze in the clutch lever to cut off power to the rear wheel. The clutch on motorcycles is sequential, meaning that you can’t skip gears. The use of the clutch lever is very critical to control the bike.

DANGER: When encountering a situation where you are losing control, immediately pull in the clutch and use brakes.

Caution: Similar to driving a manual car, when shifting between lower gears, you should release the clutch slowly.

The shift lever is used for shifting and is on the left foot position in front of the left side foot peg. Press up firmly for upshift, and press down firmly for downshift.

Note: The shift pattern on motorcycles is 1 down and 5 up. The gear order from down to up is 1-neutral-2-3-4-5-6, as shown in the shift pattern pictures.