The other day, I was reflecting on the learning curve new riders have and a question someone asked about how easy it is to ride a motorcycle. Specifically, they wanted to know about a cruiser.
Are cruiser motorcycles easy to ride? Veteran riders and those coming back to motorcycles, find cruisers easier to ride and more comfortable. When new riders choose a lower displacement, lightweight motorcycle, and learn slowly, riding a cruiser motorcycle is easy.
What better way to find out if cruisers are easy to ride than polling the audience who rides them. I conducted a Facebook survey in one of my cruiser riding groups. Here are the surprising results.
| Do you think cruiser motorcycles are easy to ride? | |
|---|---|
| Yes | 70% |
| No | 30% |
Admittedly, I the results shocked me. I figured the answer was a going to be an overwhelming NO! After closely reviewing the comments and interaction between the Facebook group members; I found some insight.
Experience plays a big role in how easy it is to ride a cruiser. Style of riding also affects how easy it is to ride a cruiser. Let’s talk about these and other facets in more detail.
Experience Making Cruiser Riding Easy
Your riding experience is the biggest factor in determining how easy it is to ride a cruiser. This makes sense when you consider the benefits of having a diverse riding background. Here are a few things veteran riders have learned along the way
Body Position Affects Ease Of Cruiser Riding
When learning to ride, you will see a lot of discussion about body position. As you learn more about how to ride and how moving your body around on the motorcycle affects the performance and handling your skills improve and increases confidence.
For example, there are times you stand and assume the attack (some riders refer to as the standard riding) position. Moving your weight over the rear tire gives you better traction. I could say the same about leaning forward over the tank for giving the front wheel traction.
When riding a cruiser, you cannot easily stand and move your weight over the front or rear tire because of the footpeg’s position. When you have an extensive riding background, you know how to compensate for the lack of movement. For new riders, this does not create a high level of confidence and makes riding a cruiser more difficult.
This is only one example of how your experience makes riding a cruiser easier. We could also discuss times when weighting the pegs on a standard motorcycle provides benefits. Again, you do not have the range of motion for moving side to side to reposition your weight on the motorcycle.
Perhaps we can discuss how to create the best body position on a cruiser to increase safety and speed through turns in another post.
Throttle and Clutch Control For Easy Cruiser Riding
Based on my 30-plus years of riding motorcycles, over seventy-five percent of riders have what I call the “Grip-it and Rip-it” riding style. They grab the throttle and twist it back as far as they can. The result?
An unsafe riding style that creates other bad habits. Specifically, these riders think more throttle gets them out of trouble by getting away from the problem. Reality hits creating a different outcome than the rider expects. He may lose traction by grabbing more throttle, or increases speed to the point defensive riding will not be possible. Search YouTube for motorcycle crashes and watch few videos. You will see what I mean.
You can improve safely by having better throttle and clutch. Traction increases making the bike response better to the rider’s input. The rider does not have to increase speed, which helps keep the rider in control. If a crash takes place, would you rather crash at a higher or lower rate of speed?
Getting a handle of a motorcycle cruiser’s throttle and clutch makes riding them easier. I listed this topic specifically because of the lack of body positioning the rider has on most motorcycle cruisers.
Improved Rider Skills Making Riding Easy
You probably noticed from the topics we covered so far, that better riding skills show a rider’s experience making a cruiser easier. This is not the case for riders who have decades of experience with the “grip-it and rip-it“ mentality. I wanted to give new riders a short list of skills to work on so riding their cruiser becomes easier and safer.
- Throttle and Clutch Control- We already covered the topic on a high level, but master the friction zone of the clutch (the point when you release the clutch and the motorcycle moves) and throttle control makes you a better rider. It takes both to increase traction and make your riding experience easier.
- Brake control- Many riders avoid the front brake or apply it improperly. Others use it too much and end up in bad accidents when applying it at improper times. Specifically, when the front end like washes out in sand, gravel, mud, or on wet pavement.
One key to proper brake control rests on three preconditions.
a. Know which brake you should be using. We just went over a few examples on the front brake. We should use the rear brake on a cruiser in tight quarters or parking lots to avoid duck walking the bike. (This screams “I’m a beginner!)
b. Knowing when to apply to the brake. Using your brakes for tight maneuvers for a cruiser requires a different riding technique where you slightly ride the rear brake while turning. Most instructors teach to break before the turn. This is true for riding at speed but not at slow speeds. We will cover this in more detail in another post so keep an eye out for it.
C. Knowing how much pressure to apply. Should you be scrubbing speed quickly or slowly? How good are your brakes? Mine are not great (an upgrade coming soon?) so I need to apply extra pressure to get results.
Improving your brake control makes riding a heavy cruiser much easier.
How Cruiser Weight Increases Riding Difficulty
If you have not picked up by now, cruiser motorcycles are large heavy machines. Compare them to other styles of motorcycles and you’ll see what I mean. For example, compare a 1100 Honda Shadow (612 lbs) to a 1000 CBR sport bike (450 lbs.)
The larger size creates extra momentum when going around turns and corners making the cruiser harder to turn than other styles of motorcycles. When you are learning to ride a cruiser, the extra pounds will feel awkward. Here are a few tips to shorten your learning curve.
- Find a large open parking lot and do large circles in both directions.
- Practice making a weaving style route in the parking lot to see how the motorcycle feels as you move the weight from one direction to the other. When done properly, you’ll notice a bob and weave feeling that becomes easy.
- When practicing your turning drills, keep the motorcycle above 5 mph. Anything less makes the bike want to fall over in a turn. Cruisers are hard to pick up.
When The Forward Leg Position Is Not Comfortable On A Motorcycle
One of the things that makes riding a cruiser easy is the forward leg position. I feel like I am riding a recliner. Most of the time my noisy and relaxed recliner moves down the road nicely because we’re going in a straight line.
When we get to the twisties or sharp turns, things can move from being easy to obnoxious. The forward controls drag on the ground making a loud noise.
Making Quick Stops Easy On a Cruiser
Under normal riding conditions, stopping on a cruiser takes a touch longer distance. Forward controls do not have the same positioning over the rear brake as mid-mounted peg and your handlebar orientation is different. Applying the brakes takes a touch longer increasing your distance. Combine this with the increase in weight and you need to make stopping easy.
The best way to stop easily on a cruiser is by riding defensively. Give yourself the extra room, and be scanning the horizon at all times.
Handle Bar Positioning For Easy riding
Most cruiser riders do not consider the positions of their handlebars. Especially males, they feel the need to go straight for the ape hangers. Talk about creating a bad situation.
Consider the following dangers of not having your handlebars in the correct position.
| Danger | Problem |
| Turning | Reduced turning radius |
| Transmission Damage | Clutch does not get applied correctly |
| Reduced Reaction Time | Difficulty in reaching the levers |
| Shoulder Pain | Added strain on your shoulders |
How Your Style Of Riding Affects Easiness Of Cruiser Riding
Your style of riding affects how easy is to ride a cruiser. Pushing a cruiser motorcycle to your riding limits will not be a good idea.
What I mean to say is do not try turning your cruiser into a sport bike or an adventure bike. It was built for cruising not sport or off-road riding.
Frequently riders miss use their bike for a riding style the manufacturer did not intend. My favorite case is watching a Harley rider think he can outrun a sport bike just because he has a larger engine.
Think about the style of riding you enjoy and will do. Buy the motorcycle.
Related Questions:
What is a good starter cruiser motorcycle? The best starter cruiser depends on your level of experience. For new riders the motorcycle should be light with a smaller displacement engine (below 700 ccs.) The best starter cruiser for transition riders will be the one that creates the highest level of comfort and confidence.
What is meant by cruiser bike? Cruiser motorcycles developed from American manufactures like Harley Davidson and Indian. They have forward foot controls and higher handlebars than other styles of motorcycles.