When starting to learn any new subject or skill, it is best to start with no preconceptions.

If we are talking specifically about learning to ride a motorcycle for example, we would start by asking if you can ride a bicycle. If you cannot ride a bicycle, you would need to go and practice balance before we could start. It is extremely difficult to teach an adult an inherent task like balance if has never been learned.

Once we’ve established that the learner can balance, we can select the right size bike, preferably one the learner can comfortably touch the ground with both feet and reach all the major controls. We would then start them off straddle walking the bike, engine off and in neutral to get a feel for the breaking. Pushing off with feet and using both front and rear brakes to stop the bike gently. If you’ve ever watched a motorcycle fail compilation video, there are a lot of people learning to ride a bike in gear with the engine running and taking off before they have learnt how to stop it. This usually ends with them running into a fence, tree or parked car and subsequently damaging their confidence for future attemps.