Riding a motor scooter is fun, at the same time, challenging. The fun lies when a professional rider or even a fresher uses practical skills to maneuver through the streets. The challenge lies in the fact that some of the riding occurrences might cost one’s life.
Riding a motorcycle at low speeds while avoiding traffic doesn’t give you the experience; but, swerving at high speeds defines the adventure.
Go to a busy highway and gain practical knowledge in taking an unplanned U-turn or deal with rogue road users who pose a danger to your life and that of other road users. Ride on a bumpy road to understand the difficulties in the cycling game.
Do you know how to get out of the parking lot? What of scootering on the muddy waters?
You must know how to change the settings, especially the gears to suit such environments. It’s worse when you take the scooter to the nearest car wash only to find the only water used for cleaning in the area is hard water. Can you cope with the scam and high density of such waters? It is the moment you will appreciate the value of water softeners.
Most importantly, your braking skills come in handy to sharpen your navigation journey. These essential skills give you the refresher the confidence to face rough road users with ease.
Moreover, every new scooter rider must practice them off the road to perfect the skills.
The best place is the parking lot or at the playground. The refresher course or professional training is not enough; your practice comes in handy to give you the title- professional scooter rider.
What are the essential skills a scooter rider must possess?
Clutch control
The clutch is the bridge between the gears and the brakes. Just like driving, it’s the control system that determines whether you engage the gears or the brakes where applicable. You must have noticed a rider who lurch when starting the motorcycle.
It’s due to the poor mastery of the friction zone in a clutch release. It’s a skill that you master through practice. Scooter riders must know when to engage or disengage the clutch for a smooth transition to the right gears or brakes.
The skills come in handy during the low speed or when you need instant brakes yet you are on a high-speed gear.
Walking pace riding
The best place to test whether you are an excellent scooter rider or not is in heavy traffic or roundabout or from a pedestrian crossing. Riding in such areas sharpens the understanding of your braking system as well as slow speed movement.
Riding in the countryside doesn’t equip you with these skills- its smooth with fewer traffic issues- you might find it difficult in such areas. What do you do during this time?
- Relax and be flexible with the steering
- Put the throttle at a constant level to maintain power supply
- Avoid using the front brakes instead engage the rare brakes
- Increase stability using the rare brake
- Master the friction zone to understand when to release or hold the clutch
Quick Braking
Emergency braking is a skill that saves lives by avoiding a head-on collision with other road users. You need to use all the brakes at the same time. If not, you might swerve off the road, which might pose even higher risks of accidents.
It’s a skill that needs no second thought, or else you will fall. If you’ve decided to stop do it as fast as possible. It’s one rare moment where second thoughts don’t work. You must know when to hold the emergency brakes and still be steady.
Swerving at high speed
Naturally, in motorcycling or driving, braking at high speeds might be detrimental if you lack the skills to manage the clutch at that point. A road user might take a U-turn or change lanes without notice, yet you are motor riding at very high speeds.
Braking is not an option; similarly, hitting the vehicle is also out of the question. The only savior is swerving at that speed. What do you do to master these skills? Motorcycle driving schools never give you the chance to swerve at high speed.
You only do this on your own. Do you know it’s simple to swerve at five kph than at 30 kph? Try this in an open playground. Start with the 5kph and increase the speed as you also learn the leaning ability of your scooter.
SR and PR prevention
Away from the practical skills, Survival Response (SR), and the Panic Reflex (PR) is something you have to deal with in the scootering journey. You must not under-react; similarly, not overreact.
Avoid personal fears and face the road challenges with ease. When faced with an abnormal issue on the road, take time to think of the best thing to do rather than grabbing all the brakes leading to mishaps. You can never jump out of the machine; all the control processes are in your hands.
Generally, scooter riding is adventurous and fun; with the skills mentioned above, you make your riding experience memorable. At the end of the day, as you flashback on events of the day, you appreciate your skillset that saved your life or made the whole experience something to look forward to all the time.