Too Scared To Ride My Bike In The Street

Yo, what's up everybody? Happy 4th of July. I know it's not the 4th of July, but happy 4th of July. I just wanted to say that I know for some of us when we first started riding, you know, we're a little scared to start riding on the street. You know, we may have passed our course or we are working towards passing our course and we may even have a permit to ride, but we find that we're just lacking some of the confidence that we feel is necessary to be out there on the road. So I'm actually getting ready to go over to a friend's house and hang out with the fam bam. And I thought this would be a perfect time to share two things with you. Number one, I'm a beginner myself. So I'm going to be approaching this video from the perspective of a beginner. But number two, the second thing is I wanna just basically through video, put you on the back of my bike and we're gonna go ride. And as I ride, I'm gonna go through what's, I'm gonna talk out loud what's going through my mind. And hopefully that'll share with y'all what should be going through your mind or some things you could think about to get some confidence too. What's up baby? You wanna say hi? Say hi. Hi. You say subscribe. Subscribe. To SoCal. Ride a B. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we about to roll out. My wife gonna take the girls. I'm gonna ride. Try to get this video out for y'all real quick. I got some other things coming, but without further ado, let me get geared up. Get this audio right. We'll hop on the bike and come along for a ride. Okay. I'll see y'all then. So I'm in the city. I got all this traffic coming right here. And I'm not too freaked out, but let's say I'm a beginner. I am a little scared, right? Like if it's my first or second time on the street, I'm a little scared. Okay. I'm moving in a second gear, slowly releasing off of my clutch. I did some friction zone right there so I could be ready. So I didn't go in the first and then in the second. I came off in the first. I jumped in the second cause I knew I was gonna take a turn and I didn't wanna have to try to shift mid turn. Now, as I'm riding right now, I just brought my bike up to fifth gear. I'm feeling pretty good. It's green lights around me. There's no cars behind me. I got nothing on my left, nothing on my right. I got a great space cushion. I'm feeling good. I'm coming up to this stoplight, squeezing both brakes slowly but surely, releasing that clutch in first to help with the engine braking. And guess what? My guardian angel, this white car is still behind me. They've stopped. They've seen me and I'm feeling good about the rear. Now, side note, when I press my brakes because I have a aftermarket light, my light flashes continuously. If I didn't have that, I would be flashing my brakes just to kind of let that person behind me know I'm slowing down. All right, so cars to my right, they doing good. I'm not tripping. I'm not worried about them. I'm moving through on my left and my right and my rear. I got a great space cushion. No fear at this point. I'm crossing my intersection. I'm not really tripping, no fear, okay? So we got a 40 mile per hour speed limit. I'm doing 42 in the fifth gear. I'm checking my rear view mirrors. No one's behind me. I got great space cushion. So I'm feeling comfortable, right? I'm feeling great. Now, dropping down in the first gear, slowly squeezing that front and rear brake. And coming to this stop sign, I'm looking left. I'm looking right. I'm checking my rear view. I'm feeling good. Now, something else I'm doing is I'm trying to look 20 seconds out. So I see these cars, this car and this truck in front of me. And I want to keep, there's two things I'm doing as I'm riding, which helps with building my confidence, right? Is I'm looking at least 20 seconds ahead to be prepared, right? Because remember, we want to be aware of our surroundings. We want to assess the situation. We want to take the appropriate action. So looking 20 seconds out is going to help me build that confidence and be aware of what's going on. I'm always trying to be aware, right? Awareness, assessment, and action. Now, great. That car is gone. So I'm doing two things in front of me. Number one, number one, I'm looking 20 seconds out. Number two, if a car is close to me, I'm always want to make sure I have at least two seconds of reaction time so that I can react on the bike. The way I do that is when a car passes something, say like this white mailbox, I count one Mississippi, two Mississippi. As long as I'm not crossing that before two Mississippi, we got a great space cushion from the front to rear. Now, I'm on a two-way street. It's a two, yeah, a two-lane street. So yes, traffic can come behind on the side of me and that can be scary. But right now the road is pretty clear. So I got confidence, right? I got a great space cushion, obviously to my right because nothing's on my right. The only thing I have to worry about is my left-hand side. I'm looking to the left. I don't see anybody. I'm feeling good right now. No one's behind me. So I'm feeling Gucci. Now, one thing I want to point out is I've rode this road a few times and found out that it's pretty empty. There are some times after work where it gets pretty hectic. And I think, honestly, the only way to get confidence when you're riding is more seat time, more seat time. I think there's no way to get through it, but to do it. Your boy is not even trying to be a rapper. Let's go. So I got this guy pulling out in front of me. I'm slowing down the bike. We're doing good. He sees me. Awesome. Something I like to do when cars are coming on a two-way street is down here, boom, boom, boom, boom. Check my gauges right there. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I flash these lights and try to get them to see me and I'll swerve like this, right? Boom. I want to become a target that they could see. Okay? So I'll do that. But right now, things are pretty Gucci. Now, when I come off this back road, you're going to see things are going to pick up. I'm going to be going through the city. There's going to be traffic. There's going to be stoplights. There's going to be a lot going on. So right now, we're buddies. You're on the back of my bike. Don't make it weird out there, guys. Yes, you're on the back of my bike hugging my stomach, but I'm married. Don't trip. And we just talking through. This is the mental aspect of motorcycling. You know, we talk a lot about the physical aspect. This is the mental aspect. You could get the physical skills, but if you ain't got the mental fortitude to hop on the bike and use the middle skills, it don't matter. I'm dropping the third. Getting ready to take this turn. It's a 20 mile per hour turn. I'm doing 38, but I'm still good. I'm busting a left. I'm using all my proper cornering techniques. Feeling good, right? 30 miles an hour. Front and rear brakes slowing down. Dropping the third, slowly releasing that clutch, using some engine brake. Let's go. We got a little bit of gravel. I'm not tripping here. We're good. We need to get to 25. So I'm just coming off of that engine. I'm coming off that throttle, letting the engine do the work for me. And I'm using proper cornering techniques. If you don't know what the proper cornering techniques are, you got your permit, you want to check it out. I got a video to show you how to corner. Okay, I'm slowing down. I'm taking this right, increasing that throttle as we come through this turn. Busting this left, coming through right here. Keeping that throttle constant. We need to go to 20 miles an hour. No need to hit the brakes. I'm going to just roll off that throttle a little bit. Okay, behind me is good. I got a car coming down behind me. Space cushion's still good in the rear though. Let's go. Let's get out this turn. We're going to come take this left, using the proper cornering techniques. We got gravel on the road. Don't freak out. Stick with it, stick with it. Let's go. Car behind us, we still got great space cushion. No need to speed. I'm coming up to fourth gear here. I'm checking my rear view again. Space cushion is Gucci. Looking 20 seconds out. I got nobody. I got great space cushion on the left and the right. So we got some road work up ahead. Y'all see these signs? So now what I'm thinking is, I want to look 20 seconds out, but I also want to be prepared for gravel. So I want to watch my speed, especially because I'm coming up on this 25 mile an hour turn. See, this is no need to get caught off guard here and feel weird and freak out and make sudden movements. Now that I slowed down, I got my guy from the rear coming up, but I'm not concerned because we still got a great space cushion in the rear. Oh wow, they have changed this. This used to be a road. Okay. So before I did this video, this was a road, but look, we're going to roll through slow. Now I got this dude, he going to be on my butt. I'm not tripping. I'm a motorcyclist. I need to stay safe. I need to share the road. I don't need to feel pressure to do anything I don't want to do. You know, it's about me and my safety and getting to my kids so I can enjoy this party. Now, one thing I'm upset about is how dirty my bike is getting. That, I can't help you with. I just cleaned it too. Man. Now I'm hitting 16 miles an hour. Be careful here because you can really slip and fall. So I'm really, you know, going back down to first, using that throttle control, touching that friction zone. Let's roll, baby. We out of that. No need to freak out. Getting your confidence up. Keep the bike in a straight line, then turn. We don't want to turn while we're braking if we're new to this. Straight up. All right, let's go. Right signal light on. Looking to the left. We're Gucci. Boom. Low turn, low speed turn. I'm turning right. I'm counterweighting my body to the left. Let's do it. All right, cool. I'm gonna hit this left turn right here. So what am I doing? I'm coming up to a stoplight. I'm using my good braking mechanics. I'm checking my rear view. There's no one behind me right now. I'm flashing my rear brakes, right? I'm keeping my bike in first in case some smartphone junkie like this dude coming up doesn't stop. I'm in first, ready to rock. But my brakes are flashing. He should see me and my signal light. We're Gucci. He just stopped. We're doing well. We're almost to the party, baby. What's up, man? What's up? See, kids like the bikes, man. Yeah, see that? You know, man, kids like the bikes too. So right now I'm feeling good, right? Confidence is good. Okay, got gravel in the road. Don't freak out. Low speed turn. Turn left, look left, counterweight right. Come out of this turn, give it some gas. All right, so I'm rocking, I'm rolling. I'm looking 20 seconds out. I'm not looking at the ground. I'm looking to my left, my right, my rear. I got great space cushion. I got intersections coming up right here. But right now there's not a lot that could go wrong that should cause me to be scared. The only thing that I should be scared of at this point with this space cushion should be me doing the wrong thing on the motorcycle. I really don't have a reason to be fearful of the cars around me right now. This is just good motorcycle mechanics. Now, one thing I'll say, depending on where you live, Sundays, now I got some wind blowing. It's trying to blow me that way. I'm just leaning into the left to counterweight that. Now, depending on where you live, Sundays might be kind of relaxed for you on the street. That could be a good time to make the block, right? And build your confidence that way. Because remember, you can watch these videos all day. Ain't nothing gonna do nothing for you until you hop in that bike and get that seat time. That's how I got more confidence. I failed my MSF the first time and I was scared to hop on that bike. But I didn't wanna pay that money and go fail again and feel like I made a mistake. So for me, it was just taking it around my neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? Busting a right turn a whole bunch of times. You might have to do that. But for those of you that wanna build that confidence up to hop on the street, this is what I'm doing, right? I'm just thinking, it's simple. I got a right turn, I'm checking the rear view, making sure nobody coming up fast. I got space cushion, taking that right turn, using good cornering mechanics. We good. Slowing down, right signal light on, front and back brake squeeze gradually. Look at left, look at right. We're Gucci. Counterbalance on this turn, because it's a low speed turn. Same thing. Left signal light and we're good. All right. So hopefully this was a help for you to show you how to have confidence when you're riding. So I'll see y'all. SoCalRider out.