What are the most common mistakes you see with new riders?

As the title suggests really!

I'm counting down the days until I can pick up my bike after passing my test a couple of weeks ago, but I've been spending the time swotting up and watching vids to avoid mistakes as I'm still very inexperienced and had never rode before my DAS

Mistakes. They happen.

All I can say is take it easy, if you're unsure about something just take it easy. Also don't hesitate, if you're going for something then commit to it. An example was an erroneous overtake I did the other day. If I had hesitated I'd have been splatted, straight on the throttle and cleared safely.

If you're at a stop and feel the bike start going over, unless it's a light bike or you've got some brawn. Don't fight it going down, but brace the leg on the side it's going towards and put it down slowly. Reduces the damage and trying to yank it back up might end up with it going the other way over

Just take it easy, know your limits and you'll be alright.

Overconfidence. You've been going six months, you're just thinking

"Hey, I've got the hang of this riding thing now haven't I !! I'm just like Valentino Rossi me"

when it happens..... crunch.... and your sliding along on your arse thinking "what the f**k?"

As the last poster says know your limits, but how do you know them if you are a new rider and haven't done it before? Many new riders crash when they find out where the limit is for the first time.

The bugger of it is limits change with the conditions so you might have got away with it 100 times, and one day your less lucky and you crash.

Leave yourself room for error, never corner as hard as you think you could, never brake as late as you think you can, never assume anything.

What Baloo said as above - very well put.

Plus lack of anticipation. There seems to be a point at which newish riders have got the hang of the machinery but haven't mastered the craft of anticipation. That's a dangerous time because they're generally riding themselves into potentially hazardous situations. Most of the time they get away with it so they don't realise. But you only have to get it wrong once.

My mistake was too much front brake when needing to stop quickly, chucked me down the road.

I think a few others have done that too, so I'd say learn to emergency stop safely. It feels weird not to slam on when you need to stop very quickly and you definitely get a bit of poo in your undies when you do it but it's far better than sliding your bike down the road.

What Baloo said as above - very well put.

Plus lack of anticipation. There seems to be a point at which newish riders have got the hang of the machinery but haven't mastered the craft of anticipation. That's a dangerous time because they're generally riding themselves into potentially hazardous situations. Most of the time they get away with it so they don't realise. But you only have to get it wrong once.

Yes, very good point

I’ve only been riding for 5 weeks, and so far so good.. (touch wood)

Like the above people have said, know your limits.

Also some good advice I have read everywhere is.. ride like every car in the road is going to kill you! Anticipate..

In these short 5 weeks commuting in London for 30 miles a day, I’ve lost count of the amount of times someone has pulled out on me, or changed lanes without indicating or even looking at me and tried to change lanes INTO me. I’ve managed to keep things under control.

Don’t let these things stress you out and put you in a bad/angry mood because this will affect your riding. Just keep calm and keep riding positively.

Ride defensively with good road positioning and with confidence (not over confidence) to stop drivers trying to take advantage.

There are new riders, as in new to the whole being out on the road and there are new riders, as in new to bikes, but not being out on the road. The latter are less likely to make the anticipation etc errors of the former.

As one of the latter, my most common error was mucking up gear changes and forgetting what gear I am in. Plus not cancelling the indicator.

Also some good advice I have read everywhere is.. ride like every car in the road is going to kill you! Anticipate..

yup assume you are invisible and adjust speed and position to give yourself the best possible chance of stopping / avoiding any incidents

also when filtering be super aware of gaps in the traffic because it could be due to a side road with a car ready to shoot out in front of you.

Riding too close to cars when preparing for an overtake.. see it from experienced riders too. Zero braking distance because they are waiting for a gap.

Never forget to remove a disc lock before riding off.

Sounds obvious but it happens more often than you'd imagine.

Never forget to remove a disc lock before riding off.

Sounds obvious but it happens more often than you'd imagine.

luckily the only times I've done this were paddling it out the garage so no damage done but I imagine at speed it's pretty horrific

There must be some kind of new magic disc lock, I've never seen a bike get up to any speed while it had one fitted.

I say speed. I mean accelerating briefly then stopping quickly in a cloud of embarrassment and despair

it's all relative, compared to me paddling the bike backwards - opening the throttle to go would be "speed"

brief speed? bit of speed? spe?

speed is anything above 0mph

Riding too close to other vehicles.....not enough braking distance.....

I say speed. I mean accelerating briefly then stopping quickly in a cloud of embarrassment and despair

it's all relative, compared to me paddling the bike backwards - opening the throttle to go would be "speed"

brief speed? bit of speed? spe?

I know what you meant, I was pulling your leg.

Never forget to remove a disc lock before riding off.

Sounds obvious but it happens more often than you'd imagine.

Has happened to me once... I was like wtf whats going on!!

Took me a few tries moving off before I realised....

Something I've done far too often is set off with the side stand still down

luckily it hasn't caused me to crash but it easily could do. Now I kick it up as soon as I get on, and double check before moving off!

Something I've done far too often is set off with the side stand still down

luckily it hasn't caused me to crash but it easily could do. Now I kick it up as soon as I get on, and double check before moving off!

Does your clutch or side stand switch not work?

Yeah it should kill the bike Liveware, Ive embarrassingly kicked it into gear with the side stand down and it just cuts the bike out.

Yeah it should kill the bike Liveware, Ive embarrassingly kicked it into gear with the side stand down and it just cuts the bike out.

Me too.

Why is it we only do this when there are other bikers around though

I did it straight after passing my test

As one of the newest big bike riders on here I can safely say that I made a very rookie and stupid mistake..

so just over a month ago I bought myself an absolutely gorgeous red and grey suzuki sfv650... on my commute home from work in Paddington I had a cyclist cut infront of an uber driver who then slammed on his brakes and me thinking I'm Valentino Rossi already (less than two weeks after picking up the new bike) pulled too hard on the front brake without chucking the throttle all the way forward so in turn had the front lock up and back wheel spin up with my pride and joy sliding beneath me...

Please please please if you appreciate your motorcycle and your life as much as I do.. give yourself a very generous amount of time to learn as much as possible about your motorcycle and your on riding ability!

Ride safe and don't make the same mistake as I have..

Other than that have an absolute blast!

Something I've done far too often is set off with the side stand still down

luckily it hasn't caused me to crash but it easily could do. Now I kick it up as soon as I get on, and double check before moving off!

 

Does your clutch or side stand switch not work?

It doesn't, I was surprised it wasn't picked up in its recent M.O.T. actually!