Motorcycle Vloggers

One of the few benefits of a year of lockdown has been the extra time available for watching YouTube videos.  Some of the motorcycling channels are very useful - these are my favourites so far.

Channels focussed on tuition: I love DanDantheFireman, a vlogger in Arizona who does a lot of analysis of non-fatal crash videos.  He is pitched (quite correctly) at the more beginner end of the spectrum but I think any advanced rider would also benefit hugely from his videos.  He has a strong emphasis on avoiding collisions but also in reducing injuries, and as a result of watching his videos I now travel everywhere in full PPE and have a medical kit on me at all times.  As well as "after action reviews" (i.e. reviews of crash videos) he sometimes does medical reviews where he talks about dealing with roadside injuries (really useful) and he has a separate channel which addresses skills training (e.g. in car parks).

Talking of skills MotoJitsu (San Diego) is a great vlogger who deals with skills a lot, and has just launched his own app to help improve basic skills.  He also does quite a lot of track work.  Like DanDantheFireman he has a strong emphasis on practice and safety.

Bret Tkacs is very good on large off road machines, including on how to load them single-handedly on trucks.

In addition to these channels, there are a number which just show non-fatal accidents, including Moto Madness, Kaos Riders, UK Moto Clips, 99Lives and Moto Stars.  Many of these feature the same videos, and DanDantheFireman often analyses videos first posted on these channels.  In most cases the bikers aren't seriously injured and I have found it useful to watch these in order to try to establish some patterns of behaviour to avoid.  The good news is that the majority of these accidents (which are nearly always submitted by the biker concerned) seem to be avoidable: many feature excessive speed (often while filtering, in built up areas, or coming into blind corners), errors while pulling wheelies, or overtaking in junctions.  On some channels 50% or more of the content is just bikers shouting at drivers who didn't see them, which can be tedious to sit through.  Sadly, though, a handful of these incidents look to be pretty much unavoidable under any reasonable scenario, so I guess that's just a reminder to wear full PPE at all times.  You also get to hear about the odd unusual practice in another country - did you know that kids in Brazil play with kites which have glass embedded in their ropes, posing a clear decapitation hazard to bikers?  Many bikes in Brazil use poles mounted at the front of their bikes to deal with this hazard.  There are also numerous dashcam clip channels, mostly showing dashcam footage of car and lorry accidents.  Weirdly these seem to feature far more roundabouts than the bike-focussed ones.

Another popular category is superbike riders who just post their rides, sometimes in very high definition.  Hennessy Boss (Jamaica), RN 675 (Malaysia), Superbike Racer (Cyprus?), Street Burner (India?) and Max Wrist (California) arguably take things beyond "progressive", but it's always interesting to see how things are done abroad, and to soak up some of the great scenery.  It's the closest most of us are going to get to the tropics this year.

To finish on a positive note, I love the Itchy Boots channel (following Noraly Schoenmaker, a fearless Dutch lady who rides solo through some crazy places).  And BTGDale is great for the Nurburging.

Vincent Scheurer