“Throttle Controlling” is that one skill that most bike riders take for granted. It is very crucial to your ride. Most of the people see throttle as a “go-fast” which isn’t true. Knowing how to properly and effectively control your motorbike’s throttle helps a lot in your motorcycling journey. When your bike is under proper control, many factors that work for making your ride well.
That way the chassis stabilizes more as the spinning interval of the engine causes an additional gyroscopic effect. The load on the front end is lesser, which makes the suspension & tire work better while reducing the front-end risk of a crash. Following are a few tips for effectively controlling your bike’s throttle.
1. Proper Placement of the wrist
We will start with the basic guidelines. How to even hold a throttle? After putting on your motorbike gloves. Hold the throttle in a way that your wrists are aligned at a plane on a virtual centerline of your bike’s grip. Try holding it higher because the bumps of the road cause wrist movement, which jolts the power through the throttle to the rear tire. Holding it too low, will give you a hard time twisting your grip. Keep the wrist aligned with the centerline that easily allows you to twist the grip. Doing this will put the fingers in the right position and it will make reaching the brake lever easier too.
After you have placed your hands properly on the grips stay relaxed and keep your elbows bent slightly it will avoid accidental blips. That way even if you hit unexpected bumps, the arms will absorb more slack & the wrist will hold the throttle steadily.
2. One-Finger Technique
What you have to do after putting on your motorbike’s gloves is place the first finger at the top of your bike’s brake lever. And let it stay there without applying the brakes. When you need acceleration, especially a little, use the finger for applying the pressure against the brake lever. It will help with balance and the twist you give by your wrist. It will make the use of throttle surprisingly smoother.
However, this technique is not so useful while traveling straight and picking acceleration at regular intervals.
3. Stabilize the Motorbike
Weighing on a static motorbike on scales reveals how fairly the weight is distributed on the front and rear wheels. It is 50/50 usually. Now take the size of contact patches into consideration. You will see that the rear is larger compared to the front. They are almost 60% on the rear and 40% on the front.
Throttle control is a major way of shifting your weight from the front side to rear in a way that the size of contact patches are fully satisfied for stabilizing the bike.
4) Lean angle
The more you tend to lean the bike in the corner, the less grip will be available to your tires. For understanding the lean angle vs throttle visualize that your back tire is equipped with the dollars’ worth of grips. You are allowed to spend 60 cents on the throttle, and 40 cents on lean angle. For developing the throttle control, consider dividing the corner exit into these stages.
On a corner apex, you’re at a maximized lean angle. Try holding the throttle before corner apex for taking up the drivetrain slack & for transferring the weight on the rear wheel. Then feed your throttle gently & progressively as you try for corner exit by relying on the 4 stages of controlling the throttle. Doing this will develop the degree of appropriate throttle control through your muscle memory, with consistency. When you have to exit a corner try progressively lessening the lean angle
5) Bike set up
Having the bike ready for you according to your ride’s type is essential for comfortably controlling the bike. If your motorbike is way more stiff or soft, definitely this will make it reactive to the surface imperfections. Which will eventually make it harder for you to ride. If you are uncomfortable with your bike, it will not only affect the throttle control but your overall riding experience. Most of the stock motorbikes are set for the rider weight & riding style and adjust the preload. Rider weight is also taken into consideration.
