Fast Eddie
“Look towards your intended path of travel.”
Fast Eddie is a man who sometimes is a motorcycle-training instructor. I found his YouTube channel ‘MotoJitsu’ after I had dropped my motorcycle 3 times in one day, which was the first day I rode it.
I bought this motorcycle a few weeks ago. The only time I had ridden a motorcycle before was when I was a teenager and I rode my brother-in law’s bike around the back field. I don’t remember ever laying that bike down. It seemed that I just intuitively rode it after initially figuring out the clutch.
I thought that I would be able to do the same with my new bike but I didn’t account for it having a motor 10 times bigger than my brother in law’s Yamaha 80 and close to twice the weight.
After my spills I realized I would need to learn how to ride a motorcycle properly and Fast Eddie’s videos are great for that. His other name is Greg Widmar. Greg did not get his Fast Eddie nickname because he rides fast, his boyhood friend called Greg’s dad Fast Eddie and Greg uses it in honour of his dad.
Greg’s videos are perfect for a discussion on responsibility. He points out a myriad of ways to be a responsible motorcycle rider. Greg says that motorcycle riders are 28 times more likely to be in accident than an automobile driver. He also says that most motorcyclists do not study, learn or practice the techniques needed to become a responsible rider, and that is why they are in so many crashes. If one is not completely aware of ones surroundings, the nature of the road, all the other traffic, and what the cars might do, as well as learning a lot about riding then he is setting himself up for a crash. Greg writes in his book MotoJitsu, Master Riding Program, ‘The first time you have to do an emergency stop mid-corner shouldn’t be on the public road.”
Greg covers every detail about motorcycling technique but he also covers extensively the judgment one needs to ride safely. He goes over in detail how to be aware of the total situation when one is riding on the roads. He says, “Your eyes and brain and judgment always need to be well ahead of the motorcycle.”
He details many types of practice skills. He recommends spending time in a parking lot practicing everytime one takes a motorcycle for a ride.
When practicing braking, he covers not just what one needs to do physically with the clutch, brake and throttle to slow down or stop but also how to be aware of everything around you and what is coming up behind you. This means that one should always be in first gear when you are going to stop in case you need to get the hell out of there. This also means one always has an opening in mind so you have a place to get out.
Fast Eddie can ride fast when it is safe to do so as he has developed the skills to ride correctly. He says, “Once you know how fast you can slow down, speed is a natural side effect.”1
Greg also talks about motorcycle gear such as correct boots and padded pants, jackets and gloves. He never rides without protection. He also recommends taking training courses constantly. I will take the courses here so that I can get my license, though I know that there isn’t the type of courses here that Greg attends in California. But I can learn through his videos, instructions, and practice drills.
Two of my drops of my bike were when I was making a slow U turn on the road in front of my house and I ended up looking at the ditch instead of where I wanted the bike to go. Of course I was also doing a whole host of other things wrong. I dropped the bike when I got so close to the ditch and I pulled in the clutch and all of a sudden I had a 450-pound dead weight that fell to the ground.
He says, “Look towards your intended path of travel.”2 as he knows one will go where one is looking.
I have found that there are two comments when someone I know hears I bought a motorcycle. One is, ‘cool’, and the other is, ‘be careful’. To ride a motorcycle safely and well one must be much more than careful, one must take a deep dive into responsibility.
Greg has trained himself to be an excellent teacher. He uses whatever means he can to get his message across, certainly by example as many of his videos are of him riding. He also uses graphics that he draws himself. He does not need to edit his videos much because he has taught himself to speak well. It is so refreshing to watch a video in one take, with no or few cuts in it. I just realized that is one reason his videos are so good.
I found very interesting that in his videos he says he talks very slow. It doesn’t sound slow to the listener but he says it feels very slow to him. One thing that does is stop any inclination to say ‘um’ or ahh’ because one is naturally allowing pauses in your speech.
When Greg started riding he soon became very responsible to riding safely. Because he was committed to that people started asking him questions and that led him to start making videos. With his communicating skills he was able to make very good instructing videos. His desire for motorcycling riding and communication led to his impressive work.
He said in one video, “If you ever feel that you finally learned everything, you should probably sell your bike because you are a risk to everybody, if you think there is nothing else to learn.”
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