If you’re new to biking, there’s a huge amount to learn, and where better to start than with this handy glossary of common biking words and phrases?
- Adventure bike: A road-legal model with some level of off-road provision, often larger-capacity than a traditional enduro
- All the Gear, All the Time (ATGATT): Emphasising the importance of wearing full protective gear every time one rides
- Ape hangers: High handlebars sometimes fitted to cruiser motorcycles for aesthetic ‘benefits’
- Backpack: A pillion/motorbike passenger on the rear seat
- Bagger: A type of cruiser motorcycle containing hard panniers and usually incorporating a large frontal screen also
- Bimble: A leisurely, relaxed ride without a specific destination
- Biting the screen: Riding fast
- Bin it: To crash or wreck a motorcycle
- Blag a Ride: To borrow someone else’s bike for a short ride
- Box Junction: An area of road marked with a yellow grid where vehicles must not stop
- Burnout: Spinning the rear wheel in a controlled fashion while holding the front brake
- Cage: A car
- Cager: A driver of a car, referring to the ‘cage’ of the vehicle
- CBT (Compulsory Basic Training): The basic training course that must be completed to ride a motorcycle in the UK
- CE rating: A mark that shows a product has been tested for safety and passes EU regulations
- Chicken Strips: The unused edges of a motorcycle tyre, indicating how far a rider leans into corners
- Clip-ons: Short, two piece handlebars that fit directly to the forks
- Clutch-up: Performing a wheelie by quickly realising the clutch under power to achieve a snappier lift
- Comms: Intercom for bike to bike or rider to pillion communication
- De-cat: Removing the catalytic converter from a motorcycle’s exhaust system
- Double blip: A trials technique in which the first application of throttle is used to hoist the front wheel onto an obstacle and a secondary throttle ‘blip’ is then used the drive the rear wheel into and over the obstacle
- Double bubble: A type of taller front screen
- End can: The final part of the exhaust on a motorbike. It’s often changed for an aftermarket item called a slip-on
- Endo / Stoppie: Lifting the rear wheel off the ground by applying the front brake
- Farkle: The act of modifying one’s motorcycle with bolt on accessories
- Fech Fech: Powdery limestone derived sand found in desert environments
- Filtering: Riding between lanes of stationary or slow-moving traffic
- Furniture: Solid obstacles such as trees and walls lining a road racing course
- Gatso: A type of speed camera used in the UK
- Green lane: Off-road byway/rural track that’s legal for motorcycles to enter
- High-side: An accident type in which the bike loses and then regains traction, causing it to flip and throw the rider through the air
- Kick Stands Up (KSU): being on your bike ready to ride at ‘X’ time, there fore your kick stand will be up
- Knee down: Sliding your inside knee on the tarmac in a turn
- Knee sliders: Designed for glancing off the ground on track
- Knobblies: Off-road tyres with large tread blocks, used for better traction on rough terrain
- Lane Splitting: Similar to filtering, but can refer to riding between moving traffic
- Lid: Slang for a helmet, also known as a skid lid
- Lock up: The front or rear wheel skidding under hard braking
- L-Plates: Plates displayed on a learner’s motorcycle indicating that the rider is still learning
- Low-side: When you crash and hit the floor without going over the bike. The opposite of a highside
- MOT (Ministry of Transport) Test: The annual vehicle inspection test required for motorcycles over three years old
- Naked: A bike with little or no fairing and usually one-piece handlebars
- On its ear: Carrying high degrees of lean angle
- On the pipe, full chat, flat stick: Riding as fast as the bike will go
- Pillion: The seat or passenger riding position behind the main rider
- Power Commander: A device used to adjust a motorcycle’s fuel injection settings for better performance
- Project bike: A term used to describe a motorcycle that’s been taken apart and is unlikely to ever run again
- Rear sets: Altered footpegs to assist with things like ground clearance
- Retro: A modern bike with classic styling
- Road Rash: Skin abrasions caused by sliding on the road after a fall
- Ruts: Grooves found on unsealed roads and off-road environments caused by heavy vehicles, excessive wheel spin and / or water erosion
- Scratch: Exuberant ride
- Shiny side up: Ride safe/safe journey
- Sissy bar: A passenger grab handle typically found on cruiser motorcycles
- Slide: A crash
- SMIDSY: “Sorry mate, I didn’t see you” – a typical reaction by a car driver following an accident, also refers to the accident itself
- Speed wobble: A high speed weave created by instability
- Splat: Rapid acceleration to launch the entire (trials) bike into the air – performed by dumping the clutch under heavy throttle application
- Spinning up: Bike loses traction at the rear under acceleration
- Streetfighter: A formerly faired bike that’s been converted into a naked – often following an accident (also a model of Ducati)
- Tank Bag: A bag that attaches to the motorcycle’s fuel tank for carrying small items
- Toe slider: hard material on the front of boots designed to glance off the tarmac
- Top Box: A storage box mounted on the rear of a motorcycle
- Trackday: An event where riders can take their motorcycles to a race track to ride at high speeds in a controlled environment
- Tucking the front: Losing the front end under braking/cornering – leading to a crash
- Twisties: Roads with many sharp curves and turns, ideal for sport riding
- U-turn: A turn in the road to go back the way you came; a manoeuvre often required in UK riding tests
- Visor Down: To put down the visor of the helmet, indicating readiness to ride
- Wet weather gear: Waterproof clothing worn to stay dry while riding in the rain
- Wheelie: Lifting the front wheel of the motorcycle off the ground under power
- Whoop section: An undulated section of dirt mounds, often featured on a motocross track
- Zap: Same as the double blip, but with the addition of a clutch dump to provide extra rear wheel lift
