Moto Blog

Low-speed control – parking lots, U-turns, tight intersections – is where most riders feel least confident. The bike lurches forward or stalls, the handlebars wobble, and holding a smooth line at walking pace feels harder than highway speed. The problem isn't the rider's skill ceiling. It's that most riders are working the controls one at a time, when low-speed balance needs three inputs working together. The friction-zone triangle is the answer: steady, slightly elevated RPM held against a dragged rear brake creates tension in the driveline. That tension stabilizes the bike. Instead of the engine's power arriving in jerky pulses, you get a smooth, controllable platform. How the Triangle Works At low speed – under about 5 mph – the bike needs gyroscopic stability to stay upright. That comes from the wheels spinning, which means the engine needs to be running at a steady RPM, not dropping to idle every time you ease off the throttle. You hold the engine at around 2,000 t...

If you saw news stories saying Illinois's new e-bike law went into effect July 1, 2026, you saw the same thing everybody else saw — and it was wrong. The Illinois Secretary of State's office has publicly corrected the record: SB 3484 takes effect January 1, 2027 , not July 2026. Multiple news outlets initially reported a July 1, 2026 effective date, but the state confirmed the law doesn't go live until the start of next year. What the Law Actually Does SB 3484 creates uniform classifications and operational standards for low-speed e-bikes, e-scooters, skateboards, unicycles, and similar devices. Illinois previously had no laws regulating electronic bikes and scooters exceeding 28 mph — this bill fills that gap, targeting higher-powered, higher-speed devices that fell outside existing state rules. The law sets standards for where these devices can operate, what speeds are allowed, and what classifications apply. It's an infrastructure and safety bill, not a ban —...

Arizona Just Tied Motorcycle Registration Renewal to Having a License. Here's the Training Hook Built Into It. Starting after December 31, 2026, Arizona's Department of Transportation can renew a motorcycle registration only if at least one registered owner holds a legal motorcycle license or endorsement in the state. That's HB2114, signed by the Governor on June 22, 2026. It sounds like a compliance tightening, and it is, but it also carved out something that matters if you're working toward an endorsement and need to keep the bike on the road while you do: a 30-day temporary registration for riders enrolled in ADOT-approved motorcycle training. Worth understanding what that actually means for a rider learning to ride, and what the bill does beyond the registration gate itself. What the bill does, plainly Beginning after December 31, 2026, Arizona may renew a motorcycle registration only if at least one registered owner is legally licensed to operate a motorcyc...

Most riders treat mindset as background, something that's there or it isn't, and either way you ride through it. The curriculum here treats it differently: as a piece of operating equipment you check before you turn the key, the same way you check tire pressure or fluid levels. Not because riding is therapy (it isn't, and we're not therapists), but because physics doesn't care how happy or sad you are. It will just collect the debt. There are four confidence states a rider can be in when they swing a leg over. Only one of them is safe for the street. Here's what they are, how to recognize them, and why the no-go compass matters more than most riders think it does. The four quadrants: Aggressor, Ghost, Tactician, Celebration The framework comes from watching what actually changes when a rider's mental state shifts, and it breaks into four recognizable patterns: The Aggressor – angry, stressed, agitated. The rider who just had a bad day, got cut off three tim...

On July 15, 2026, Hawaii's governor signed Act 259, the state's first statewide e-bike and e-motorcycle framework. It establishes a three-class e-bike system, sets age and helmet requirements, bans certain stunts and exhibition riding on public streets, and most relevant if you ride or are looking at electric two-wheelers: it defines exactly what counts as an "e-motorcycle" versus an e-bike, and it sets the licensing, registration, and insurance requirements that go with that line. Worth understanding where Hawaii drew it, because the same fight is playing out in California, Washington, and other states right now. What Act 259 actually does Act 259 (formerly HB2021) creates a three-class e-bike framework. Class 1 is pedal-assist up to 20 mph; Class 2 adds a throttle; Class 3 is pedal-assist up to 28 mph. Devices over 750 watts or capable of exceeding 28 mph are banned from public roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks unless they meet the next category: e-motorcycle. The la...

NM-536, the road up Sandia Crest, is closed past the 10K Trailhead parking lot through January 15, 2027, which cuts off the summit run that's arguably the best-known technical motorcycle road in the Albuquerque area. If cornering practice was part of your plan for the rest of the year, the road you were picturing isn't available for a while. Here's what's actually closed, why, and what still is. What's closed, and why NM-536 climbs from the Turquoise Trail up 4,000 feet of elevation in about 13.6 miles and 21 hairpin switchbacks to a 10,678-foot summit, the kind of road that asks for rapid, consecutive corner execution instead of one good corner and a straightaway to recover on. Cibola National Forest closed the road beyond the 10K Trailhead parking lot (past mile marker 11) on April 30, 2026, for a 140-acre hazard-tree and fuel-reduction project, heavy machinery and log trucks working the corridor through summer, fall, and winter. The closure runs through January 1...

A brand most riders in New Mexico have never seen on the street, FWMOTO, just recalled the front and rear brake pad assembly on its FLY-10 model. The reason is specific and worth understanding on its own terms: the bikes measured a stopping distance of 25.54 meters against a required 23.03 meters, and the pads also failed a wet-brake test. That's not a vague "safety concern." It's a bike that, by the government's own measurement, takes longer to stop than the law says it's allowed to. Here's what that number actually means, and a couple of checks worth doing on your own bike regardless of what you ride. The recall, plainly NHTSA campaign 26V035, filed January 29, 2026: FWMOTO Inc.'s FLY-10 motorcycles have a friction brake pad assembly, supplied by Zhejiang Winsafe Automotive Components, that doesn't meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 122's stopping-distance requirement. The measured distance, 25.54 meters, came in about 11 percent long...

Starting January 1, 2027, every New Mexico driver's-ed course has to include at least three hours specifically on driving safely around "vulnerable road users," a category the state defines to explicitly include motorcyclists. That's SB73, and it's already law. Now there's a bill sitting in the U.S. Senate that would push the same idea nationally. Worth understanding both, and worth understanding why they're not quite the same kind of law. What SB73 actually does, here in New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB73 earlier this year, sponsored by Sen. Heather Berghmans (D-Albuquerque). It requires New Mexico driver's-ed courses to include a minimum of three hours of instruction on driving safely around vulnerable road users, effective January 1, 2027. The state's own Motor Vehicle Division defines the category to include "a pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist, or other person lawfully operating or riding in a similar means of transporta...

Albuquerque's sunset is already creeping earlier — 8:16 tonight, and it'll be past 7:00 by the end of August. Every week from here on, more of your ride happens after dark, whether you planned it that way or not. And late summer is exactly when New Mexico's mule deer and elk are most active, moving through the mountain routes and rural highways at dawn and dusk. Most riders never get taught how to ride at night. An endorsement course runs in daylight. A range class runs in daylight. The first time a lot of riders actually think about night riding is the first time they're caught out after dark with no plan for it — and it shows in how tense they are the whole way home. Night riding isn't day riding with the lights on. It's a different set of problems, and every one of them has a real, learnable answer. Your headlight is a bubble, not a beam In daylight, your stopping distance sits comfortably inside how far you can see. At night, that's no longer automatical...

There's a moment I watch for in almost every session, and it's not the one people expect. It's not the clean stop. It's not the smooth downshift, or the corner that finally holds a line instead of drifting wide. It's smaller than any of that. It's the moment a rider's hands let go of the bars. Not literally — just the death-grip easing. Somewhere between the fifth pass and the eighth, usually right when they've stopped thinking about the exercise and started just riding it, their knuckles go from white to normal and the bike starts moving with them instead of fighting them. Almost nobody notices it happening to themselves. I notice it every time. Here's what I've learned watching for that moment, session after session: the grip doesn't let go because someone got braver. It lets go because the rep count got high enough that the nervous system finally believed the bike wasn't about to do something unexpected. That's not a pep talk —...

Training is improvement. Any grounded program beats winging it, and we will never sneer at a rider for where they learned. The range course that got you endorsed, the track day that taught your knee where the ground is, the video you watched three times before a long trip, the friend who rode behind you and told you what looked off — every one of those made you better. That's the honest starting point, and it's also the point of this whole piece. The question isn't which kind of training "wins." It's what each kind is built to do, and what's still left on the table after. So here's the fair version of each, and where Mañana Moto picks up. The range / basic rider course. This is where most of us started, and it earns its place: it gets you licensed and puts the core controls — clutch, throttle, friction zone, a panic stop — into your hands in a closed, low-stakes space. That's exactly what a controlled lot is for , and it does it well. Where we ...

What's Happening in Motorcycling — Weekly Roundup Covering the week of June 26 · published Friday, July 3, 2026 · Mañana Moto Instruction · Albuquerque, NM Welcome to your ride through the news that actually matters to people on two wheels. It's peak summer here in central New Mexico — hot afternoons and the first hints of monsoon season moving in. A quiet stretch on the law-and-rulemaking side, but three open recalls worth a 30-second check, some out-of-state legislation shaping where riders can and can't filter, a heads-up on the I-25 work zone, and a full calendar of local bike nights and rides. Here's the short version, in plain English, with a link to the source on every item. 🔧 Safety & Recalls Three motorcycle recalls are open right now — all fixes are free, and one needs your attention today. The one to act on first: Harley-Davidson is recalling roughly 17,000 2025–2026 Softail models — Heritage Classic, Street Bob, Low Rider S and Low Rider ST — f...