Dec. 28, 2025

Motorcycle Resolutions for 2026

In the final episode of 2025 of the Throttle and Roast podcast, host Niels Meersschaert discusses motorcycle resolutions for 2026. He emphasizes the importance of obtaining a motorcycle license, sharing steps for both new and experienced riders. Niels suggests getting a new bike and highlights training opportunities, including beginner courses and advanced riding clinics by organizations like the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and BMW. The episode aims to inspire listeners to improve their riding skills and enjoy their motorcycle journey in 2026.

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00:00 - Introduction

00:46 - Getting your motorcycle license

03:00 - New bike

03:29 - Training

05:04 - Fitness

05:43 - Riding gear refresh

06:28 - Maintenance checklist

07:48 - Ride more

11:22 - Personal resolutions for 2026

14:02 - Wrap up

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Resolutions are popular because everyone feels they could use a little improvement.

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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. It's the end of the year and our final episode of 2025. It's the perfect time to reflect on our riding experience of the year and to make resolutions for the upcoming year. I'll share several ideas on resolutions you might want to make and share my own personal resolutions for the new year. So I want to start with some example resolutions that you might want to choose from and make your own for whatever your desires are for this upcoming year. I'm going to begin with if you're a brand new rider or an aspiring rider.

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And one of the best things that you could do would be to get your motorcycle license. And the steps to accomplish this will really depend upon your local jurisdiction. Here in the United States, most states require you to pass a written test to get a learner's permit. And this allows you to ride under the supervision of a licensed rider with some restrictions.

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Typically, these restrictions include riding only during daylight hours and there's no riding on highways or with passengers. And many states will allow you to take a basic rider's course in lieu of taking a skills test to get your license. I did this here in New York upon successful completion of the course, you'd receive a certificate, which you can bring to your local Department of Motor Vehicles and turn in alongside your learner's permit to exchange for a motorcycle endorsement on your driver's license. Now most of classes will provide small capacity bikes for use by the students.

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So you don't even need to own a motorcycle. Now, if your state allows this, I'd strongly recommend taking advantage. In my state, without this approach, you need to provide both a motorcycle and a car for your exam. And you need to have a friend with a motorcycle license to ride the bike to the testing location. And once there, the examiner would get into the car with your motorcycle licensed friend and you would get on the bike. And with a series of horn signals, you'd go through various maneuvers while the examiner evaluated your performance.

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And while the mechanics of testing is similar to the rider course, the need to have two vehicles and an already licensed friend makes this a more onerous.

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Now, if you're in Europe, the testing is also challenging. And with tiered licensing, you may not get to ride the bike you'd want to after your first test or tier. I will note, though, that the European testing standards are stricter. And if you got your license, you're likely far more proficient than the much lower standards that we have in the U. S. And the tiered licensing also prevents a 16-year-old from being able to legally ride a 200-horsepower sport bike after passing a simple exam in a parking So no matter where you are based, getting a license is the first step towards beginning your motorcycle journey. So it's a great resolution to have for 2026 Whether you're a brand new rider or an experienced one, getting a new bike makes for another great resolution for 2026. And I'll have an episode aimed at selecting a good bike for your first motorcycle as a beginner in the spring, which should help with narrowing down your choice. Now, if you're an existent rider, check out our episode, Discover the Perfect Motorcycle for You, from scooters to touring bikes. And I'll put the link for that in the show notes.

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Another good resolution to do is really to prepare yourself for riding. And I'm going to break this down into a few different groups. First one I want to start with is if you're an aspiring rider, the basic course might be the right one for you to help get your license. And if you think of that course, it's really training. It's teaching you how to ride. But if you've been riding for a while, a refresher course is oftentimes a resolution for 2026. Here in the U. S., the Motorcycle Safety Foundation offers an advanced rider course for those looking to enhance their skills. And if you're a newer rider, they even offer some skill practice and skill lab courses that are a little bit more advanced than the basic rider course, but not quite up to the level of the advanced rider course. And if you've got a brand new ADV motorcycle and you're looking to take it off-road, there are courses to help you there as well. MSF offers a basic ADV course. And BMW, with their emphasis on ADV bikes with the GS line, also offers some of these courses. And here in the U.

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S., the BMW Performance Center offers both one- and two-day adventure off-road classes. And they also offer some women-focused classes as well.

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So if you're more comfortable riding with only other women, this could be a good option if you're looking to get your adventure underway. This could be a good option to get a little bit more experience with ADV bikes in their natural off-road conditions. For our European listeners, BMW also offers training like this. There are other providers throughout Europe, so check in your locale for the best options for you.

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And contrary to what our spouses might think, riding a motorcycle does take a lot of fitness to be proficient, especially when riding off-road.

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So improving your fitness can help decrease fatigue and aches on long rides, and it can help you be better prepared to respond to whatever comes your way in your riding. Core stability, flexibility, and leg strength are some of the best areas to focus on for riding-specific fitness. And while many of us hate the idea of exercise, think of this resolution as one to help you ride more often, and it might not seem so difficult to prioritize.

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Oftentimes the spring brings the surprise finding that your riding gear has shrunk over the winter months, or perhaps we've just expanded a bit. No matter the cause, looking at your gear and seeing which parts may need to be replaced is always a good resolution. Focus not only on what doesn't fit anymore, but also look for gear which is worn out, or in the case of helmets, has hit its max lifespan. Helmets should be replaced at least every five years as the materials in them break down. Now if you ride more frequently, you may need to replace the helmet more often, as sweat and oils from your head can accelerate the breakdown of both the liner and the EPS foam that provides the cushioning.

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Now this is often a hard one to keep going, but since we rely on our bike to get us home safely, it's an area worth investing in. So take a note of any maintenance due based on time or miles for your bike, and make sure it gets completed in the coming year. The winter break is a perfect time to do this, as your bike might be parked for a while maybe even many months, giving plenty of time to address those concerns.

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It's also worth getting in the habit of performing a pre-ride check to make sure everything on the bike is in good shape.

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verify that you have enough fuel in the tank. Adjust the mirrors to the proper positions. Check the oil level and adjust as needed. Confirm all the controls operate properly. Front and rear brakes. Clutch, throttle, shifter. Check the steering.

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Does it move smoothly through the entire range? Check the tires. Are they properly inflated? Any excessive wear that might indicate that you need to replace the tires. Check the electrical equipment, signal switches lights. Do they all work as expected? Does the horn work? And look over the bike for any leaks, fuel, oil, hydraulics.

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Look for excessive wear on the chain or the drive belt. And you'll have a good checklist to do every time you ride. So try to get this into your resolution just to make sure that you're prepping your each time you get on it.

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Now another resolution that a lot of motorcyclists decide that they want to do is to ride more. One of the easiest ways to do this is to set a mileage goal for the year. One way to look at this is how many miles did you do last year? Can you bump that up by even just as little as 10 percent? That might be an easy way to set a goal and then to track it throughout the year see how well you're doing.

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If you ride all year obviously you can divide that by 12 but if you have a shorter riding season divide it by however many number of months you use in your riding season just to see that you are on pace. Now one way to add a lot of miles to your goal each year is with trips. Now day trips are easy to do but overnight trips may require a little bit more planning. So check out our episode essential tips for a memorable motorcycle road trip adventure for more tips. I'll add links to that in the show notes. Another thing that you can do is document your rides. Now this can take a few different forms. I'm a big fan of the app Rever to record each of my rides and the BMW Motorrad app on my F900GS can also record your ride with the bonus of you don't actually have to remember to turn it on and hit record. It will always record each ride just as soon as you start going.

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Now taking pictures at your stops can also help to document your ride and give you a visual memory of what you had seen and experienced during your ride.

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Now both Rever and the BMW Motorrad app can auto attach the photos to the ride so it all comes Now for overnight trips you might consider writing in a journal to describe your thoughts of the day. What did you see? What did you like about the ride? Is there any nagging thoughts of maybe additional maintenance that you need to do?

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Whatever comes to mind a journal is a great way to get your thoughts about the ride and document them. Now some riders will even use action cameras, either the single lens style that was popularized by the original GoPro, or one of the new 360 cameras that allows you to choose the angle in your edit rather than at the time of the recording. and this can add a visual component that photos just can't compete against when you're reviewing your ride down the road. Now, if you always ride the same roads, try looking at hitting some roads you've never done before. One of my favorite features of the Beeline app is that it records your journeys, and it will show you a map of all of the journeys that you've taken while the app was either directing you or even just in a record mode, much like what you can do with the BMW Motorrad app or with Rever. And what it displays is all of the roads that you've traveled along will be in a dark gray if you've traveled on them more than one time. And they'll be in a light gray if you've only ridden them a single time. But if you look and you don't see any gray or dark gray at all, those are the areas where you've never ridden.

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So what I love to do is, I'll look at my journey screen, I'll look for an area that has no gray lines whatsoever, and I'll set that as my destination for the day. I use the compass mode to point towards that spot, so I don't have turn-by-turn, rather just an arrow. And it's up to me to find roads that align with it to get me closer. And I found so many new great roads this way, it's one of my favorite ways to ride. Now we have an article on the site going into greater detail on how to do this called Discovering New Roads with Beeline, and I'll add a link to it in the show notes.

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So what are my personal resolutions for 2026? Well, the first one is Ride More. Now, I've been tracking every fuel tank of my bikes and car for the past 15 years. During that time, my average motorcycle miles has been a little bit over 6,000 miles per calendar year. But since COVID, I've averaged 9,000 to 12,000 miles per year. This year was an exception. The summer was insanely hot. And to be frank, I just didn't want to be out on the bike in that heat.

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I didn't do any overnight trips either this year, which typically increases my annual miles by a lot. And because I've been doing this podcast with an episode each week, I also cut down on the coffee rides that I do for the Tank of Coffee website. I had been doing those weekly, but with both those and the podcast, it was just too much, so I cut those down to monthly.

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And as a result, I'm finishing up 2025 with just barely more than 4000 miles across the fleet.

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So my resolution for next year is to ride more. More trips, more day rides.

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And I'll be using my cooling vest for the next year. And I'll be using my cooling vest for those really hot days. And I'll be using my cooling vest for those really hot days. Now, I'm planning on going to the BMW MOA Rally up in Vermont this year, and I might also be able to do the northeast backcountry discovery route if time allows.

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Now, I do still ride in the winter months, but it's not at the same pace as the summer.

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sometimes there's actually snow or ice on the roads, making riding, frankly, impossible. Now, so far this season, I've ridden as low as 33 degrees Fahrenheit or about 1 degrees Celsius. But we've not had a real cold spell in my area quite yet. Now, my next resolution is for training.

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It's been a couple of years since my last riding course, so I'm planning to take another this year. And with the new F900GS in the garage, I'm leaning towards an off-road with that bike to really just push my confidence up on that bike. I've had my old R1200GS for more than a decade. I was very comfortable on that bike. But this bike being a lot lighter means that I can probably be a little bit more aggressive in other more technical spots with the bike.

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And I'd like to be able to do in controlled environment with an instructor who can kind of guide me and show me where I'm doing things wrong. And this would also be a really good precursor to me running the BDR in the Northeast. So, I'm hoping that I can get some training in this year. with a push to do more off-road this year, it will be more important than ever for my fitness to be at the top. So, I'll be spending the winter into the spring with more exercises to prepare for the warmer riding season.

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So, we covered some ideas for resolutions for motorcyclists in 2026, ranging from new riders getting their license, to more training and preparing yourself, your bike, and your gear for the new year of riding. We also looked at how you could ride more, from planning trips to documenting your rides and trying some new routes. And, finally, I shared some of my own personal motorcycle resolutions for 2026.

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So, my question for you is, what are your resolutions for 2026?

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Share your thoughts through the text to show link in the show notes, or leave a voicemail at throttle and roast dot com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening, I'll talk to you next year.