Home / Blog

How to go from zero to motorcycle racer in 9 months

By Jake Tran · October 28, 2026

Watch on YouTube

Nine months before his first motorcycle road race, Jake Tran had never ridden a motorcycle. That gap is the whole point of I Tried the Most Dangerous Sport in the World, the debut video on YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS, which has now been viewed more than 599,000 times.

The hypothesis: you can learn anything

YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS exists to test one idea: that with enough focus, almost any skill can be learned from zero, even ones that look reserved for people who started as kids. Most motorcycle racers grew up on bikes. Jake started as an adult with no riding experience, which made road racing the hardest possible first test of the hypothesis.

Why motorcycle road racing

Road racing combines everything that makes a skill hard to learn later in life: real physical risk, split-second decisions at high speed, technical knowledge of the machine, and the fear you have to manage every lap. It is often called one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and the video takes that reputation seriously instead of glossing over it.

From first ride to first race

The path started with one skill: learning how to knee drag, the cornering technique where the rider leans the bike so far over that their knee slider touches the track. Everything else was built from there, all the way to a spot on a race grid.

Jake's first race bike was a Kawasaki Ninja 400, an ultra-lightweight machine popular with newer racers because it rewards smooth riding and good technique over raw horsepower.

The crash at the finish line

The build-up was not clean. On his final practice weekend before the race, a false neutral sent Jake off the track and into the dirt, breaking his windshield and bending a handlebar. A fellow racer happened to have a spare, and the bike was fixed in time.

On race day, Jake qualified 18th out of 21 riders in one of the most competitive racing clubs in America, the CVMA. He held his ground for the entire race, but right before the finish line, a crash involving another rider sent him tumbling across the pavement at around 100 miles per hour. The other racer was disqualified and penalized by the CVMA, and he and his father apologized afterward.

Because Jake's bike still crossed the finish line, he was credited with finishing the race, moving up from 18th to 15th despite going down at the end. He walked away bruised but okay, and the very next day he went back out and set a new personal best lap of 2 minutes 9 seconds. That beat the sub 2:10 pace his coaches had told him he would need, a target that had looked 11 seconds out of reach just two weekends earlier.

What came after the video

The first race was the beginning, not the finish line. Jake kept racing that season and finished 2nd in the championship. He has since moved up to an Aprilia RS660, a lightweight race bike. His target is now MotoAmerica, the premier motorcycle road racing championship in the United States, for the 2027 season, and that pursuit will become the next big video on the channel.

Lessons for anyone learning something hard

The motorcycle challenge points to a few principles that carry over to any skill. Progress came from structured steps rather than one giant leap. Controlled environments like track days made it possible to push limits more safely. And committing publicly, with a camera rolling, made quitting a lot harder than continuing.

Frequently asked questions

How long did it take Jake Tran to learn to race a motorcycle?

Jake went from never having ridden a motorcycle to competing in his first motorcycle road race in about nine months.

Did Jake Tran crash in his first motorcycle race?

Yes. Right before the finish line of his first race, a crash involving another rider, who was later disqualified, sent Jake down at around 100 miles per hour. His bike still crossed the line, so he was credited with finishing 15th after qualifying 18th.

How did Jake Tran finish his first racing season?

After crashing at the end of his first race, Jake kept racing and finished the season 2nd in the championship.

What bike does Jake Tran race?

Jake started racing on a Kawasaki Ninja 400 and has since moved up to an Aprilia RS660.

What is Jake Tran's motorcycle racing goal?

His goal is to compete in MotoAmerica, the premier motorcycle road racing series in the United States, in the 2027 season. He plans to turn that pursuit into another big video on YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS.