After the MSF course you may feel that it hasn’t entirely helped you and you still have plenty of questions left unanswered. Personally I went through the same problem but fortunately there are plenty of youtubers that react to close calls or crashes and break them down to show you how you should or could handle the situation.

As of recent I started watching a youtuber named “Dan Dan the fireman.” I find him extremely useful because he does an incredible job breaking down crashes and what the person could have done to prevent them. He focuses on not humiliating the person that messed up but rather really taking the time for his audience to understand that mistakes do happen. He talks about stages like “brown” stage, “orange” stage etc. and when and where you should be in those stages. For example orange stage means to try and analyze where a crash could occur and be very observant of it and a time you should be in orange stage is at night.

There’s plenty of other youtubers that break down crashes but you don’t solely have to learn off other youtubers you could also do your own research on the web. The next best thing you can do to learn to be safer while riding is actually riding. When your on the road you’ll be able to learn what to look out for and along with some DANDANTHEFIREMAN you’ll be just fine.

This blog post is entirely my opinion. With the newly released 2024 zx-6r Kawasaki decided to entirely switch up the looks of their famous inline 4 600 super sport class bike.

Instead of their “to me” shark looking front they instead opted to make the zx-6r look like its bigger brother the zx-10r. As much as I like the looks of the zx-10r I almost liked how the zx-6r and the zx-10r looked different but at the same time I also think it’s quite cool that they look quite similar now with just slightly different looking gas tanks.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m conflicted on the style change. I don’t believe the bike looks as sleek anymore but I do like how the front offers more of a “cockpit” sort of vibe just like the zx-10r. I also like how the bike in general looks a lot meaner but I don’t like how they changed the disc brakes even though I know its because the pedal rotors are not as effective in stopping so for a high end bike it makes sense that they went back to good ole reliable. One thing that they changed which I really loved however is that they changed the normal analog speed cluster to their tft digital display which is incredibly beautiful.

The inspiration for this blog post is that I recently purchased a zx-6r after browsing at it for months and when the new style finally dropped I haven’t stopped comparing the previous years to the new years.

When people think of motorcycles the first thing that pops into your head certainly isn’t “safe”. With that said engineers have spent countless hours putting technology into their motorcycles to make them as safe as possible.

Back in the day bike technology was non existent and even up to the early 2000’s. It used to be much more of a “rider bike experience” which many still like today.

Today motorcycles are filled to the brim with technology which include but aren’t limited to ABS (Anti lock braking system), traction control, wheely control, cruise control, and more when it comes to their dash. These systems have been put in place to make riding motorcycles incredibly more safe.

Recently my brother has just purchased a 2023 Harley Davidson Street Bob 114 and I just wanted to put my perspective on the bike coming from someone who owns and rides a sports bike.

The first thing I noticed when I hopped on the bike was how comfortable the seat was. Coming from my sports bike the seat was noticeably comfier and felt much more like a coach as opposed to a wooden chair. The next thing I noticed is how forward the controls are which is quite good for relaxing which is what a cruiser is made for to relax and enjoy the ride.

Although cruisers are not known to be fast or powerful by any means the Street Bob still sports an impressive horse power figure of over 100 and accompanied with 102 foot pounds of torque which really puts a lot of pep in the bikes step.

My final thoughts on the Street Bob is that it actually quite a good cruiser that still satisfies the sport bike rider within me with all the torque it possess. What makes it a good cruiser is how smooth all the gears were along with the transition between them and the fact that I thought I was riding on a couch.

With the Ninja 500 and Ninja 400 being very similarly priced there’s a question to be made which one would be the better one to get? The Ninja 500 is really a 451 cubic centimeter sized engine with the Ninja 400 being a 399 cubic centimeter sized engine. Both the Ninja 500 and 400 output roughly the same horse power outputting 44.3 horsepower with the Ninja 500 having a slight edge with torque outputting 31.4 foot pounds apposed to 27.2 but with the extra torque also comes a little extra weight as well roughly an additional 10-15 pounds.

Both motorcycles are also equipped with similar suspension and brakes with the Ninja 500 going away from the pedal style brakes which has been shown to be more effective for braking. The Ninja 500 also comes with a more advanced dash but besides that both bikes are incredibly similar with the only changes made are the style, engine size, weight, and dash.

I would recommend getting the Ninja 500 solely based off the additional torque but either way there are so incredibly similar that there wouldn’t be a too noticeable difference between the two but considering they are priced evenly why not opt for the larger engine.

https://www.topspeed.com/2024-kawasaki-ninja-500-vs-ninja-400-key-differences/

I have spent a generous amount of time researching about the big four Japanese motorcycle brands which include Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki. What I have found is that for their competing bikes Kawasaki has always come out on top with producing the most horsepower and torque yet having the smallest price tag. Now I’m not saying the change in price is crazy out of this world but saving a couple hundred dollars can mean a lot to many different people.

With all that being said that’s not to say that their bikes are the lightest or have the best build quality or resale value what I’m saying is that purley looking at a power to price ratio Kawasaki reigns supreme over the other Japanese super powers.

From my personal experience however Kawasaki motorcycles are still incredibly well built but lack the smoothness in the engine like many European companies have and don’t have the prestige build quality like Honda has.

This is a pretty simple answer in my opinion. Of course you should! The only downfall to taking the MSF motorcycle safety foundation course is that youll have to pay for it but in my opinion it is worth every single penny.

The class will teach you how to safely operate a motorcycle when on the open road and what to look out for. Not only will it teach you how to ride safely but it will also teach you how your motorcycle will react in different weather conditions and how you should react to them. I hope this little blog post was useful in letting you know that you should always put saftey as your number one priority when riding a motorcycle.

A strong argument to be made against having an audio system in your helmet for example like a Cardo system is that it is distracting to the rider if they are listening to music. That is a strong argument and is true and some cases but I believe the benefits outweigh the cons drastically.

When riding in a group having good communication with one another is key. Throughout the years people have come up with plenty of hand signals to try and convey what they are trying to say.

https://schroeder-mandel.com/a-drivers-guide-to-motorcycle-hand-signals/

As you can see many of these signals look incredibly similar and would also be incredibly easy to get mixed up. That’s why audio systems are so important. Rather then hoping the other rider understands what your saying you can directly talk to them and say exactly what your thinking.

Personally I’ve had experiences where I’m warned ahead of time about hazards in the road, cars, police, and even deer jumping out into the road. That’s why I feel so strongly about having audio systems installed in your helmet and that its not just for listening to music.

Rumors about Yamaha discontinuing there premium 1000CC sports bike has been stirring up the motorcycle community as of late. The R1 is many peoples favorite bike with many people wishing to one day own one but with Yamahas concerning comments surrounding the bike it is looking less and less likely that they will continue making the R1 for road use.

This is not Yamahas first time discontinuing a bike not to long ago they discontinued the R6 which was a 599CC engine which was also a fan favorite but Yamaha decided to replace it with their R7 which doesn’t nearly output as much power but has better margins for the company. With the R6 having 4 cylinders and the R7 only having 2 it is quite clear why people were upset with both bikes also being similarly priced.

The reason its quite clear why Yamaha will be discontinuing the R1 is they have not made any statements about the new Euro 5+ emissions requirements, and with a new motorcycle called the R9 expected to be released in 2025 Yamaha has very little incentive to keep producing the R1 which is already in a dying segment in the markets. The reason the market is dying is many people are either not skilled enough to ride such a powerful bike or simply do not have enough money to purchase it. Yamaha is trying to grab the middle market which is exactly where the R7 is placed.

Fortunately people will still be able to get their hands on the R1 through the use of private sales. The only downside to this is the prices will sky rocket and many people will be forced to pay a premium for a used bike. The good news however is companies like Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Honda have not expressed any desire to discontinue their high preforming sport bikes which are direct competitors with the R1.

A lot of people are not familiar with the 70/30 rule. The rule states that you should use about 70% of the front brakes and 30% of your rear brakes to come to a complete stop.

I have been told by many people that you actually don’t want to use the front brake when coming to a stop because you don’t want to wear out your front disk brakes. This is an unsafe practice however because it is incredibly easy to lock up the rear tire using this practice as the rear brake will not stop you nearly as efficiently as the front brakes. After all, the suspension is not dipping into the road for extra traction like the front does.

Always remember to use your front brake when stopping but never in a turn as it could result in a highside. There are many rules on when you should use the rear or the front brake which is why I highly recommend going and taking a basic rider course to help you understand.