Think You Can Learn to Ride a Motorcycle by Watching a YouTube Video? Watch Out for the Overconfidence Effect

CANTON, Georgia. When it comes to riding a motorcycle, knowing the basics might not be enough. According to Progressive, advanced rider classes can make even experienced riders safer on their bikes. Think you can learn advanced safety techniques from a YouTube video? Watch out for the overconfidence effect.

Youtube offers videos teaching virtually every skill you might want to learn. Yet, choosing to learn from a video rather than from a living, breathing person can have serious drawbacks and consequences. For one, when a person teaches you something, he or she can watch what you are doing and correct errors. If you try to learn an advanced motorcycle safety maneuver on your own and perform it without observation, you’ll never know if you’ve done it safely or not.

According to Psychology Today, watching others perform or teach you a task can make you feel confident that you can do that same task. The effect of watching another person perform a task can also result in the observer believing that he or she knows how to perform this same task. Yet, does watching really translate into learning?

At the end of the day, only practice makes perfect. But, practice is useless if it isn’t the right kind of practice. This is where a class comes in.

Advanced motorcycle riding classes can teach you skills that can keep you safe in critical and emergency situations. Riders who take classes are also safer. Advanced rider training reduces your risk of death on a motorcycle by as much as 61%. Riding a motorcycle is dangerous. Not only are there road hazards, but the decisions that other drivers make can also impact your safety. A motorcycle safety course can teach you defensive driving strategies to keep you safer. A course can help experienced riders break bad habits and acquire newer safer ones.

Simple skills like proper braking and staying calm in an emergency can make a difference in the outcome of a critical event while riding. Rider safety courses, when their benefits are compared to their costs, are a good investment in your riding future. What crucial skills can you learn in a class? One of the most important is learning to stop in as short a period as possible. The key is not just stopping, but performing a controlled stop. A motorcycle training course can teach you this.

Have you taken a motorcycle safety course? Imbriale Injury Law are motorcycle accident lawyers in Canton, Georgia who believe that safety courses can help. However, riders are often at the risk of other drivers on the road. A small mistake, that in another crash would be a fender bender, can become a serious injury for a motorcycle rider. Imbriale Injury Law works closely with motorcycle accident victims to help them seek damages when another driver’s negligence or neglect has left them injured. Having a motorcycle safety course under your belt in this situation is only an asset.