User blog:JustToothpick/Quick Guide to Maneuvering a Motorbike

(In case you don't know, )in the latest update, motorbikes were added into the game, bringing a completely different  and rather challenging gameplay for those who have gotten well used to the control of the 4-wheel vehicles. After playing with the bike and learning the control, here's some of the tips I've picked up, and hopefully these would be useful to you if you are struggling with the bike!

Basic Feature/Mechanics
Unlike driving a car, riding a motorbike involves more action and quick responses from the player. Here are the core feature:

1. There's a "Focus Meter (or FM in short)" right below the nitro bar. When it's "charged", it serves as a stronger but shorter version of nitro boost. Reactivating it again "super charges" your bike, making the boost even faster. The Focus Meter can be charged by 1. Using Perfect Nitro (lvl 3 nitro doesn't count), 2. Performing flat spins and "tilt jumps (similar to barrel rolls)", 3. Knocking down other vehicles (other bikes + cars w/ "death from above"), and 4. Performing "stunts".

Another thing about the FM is that while it's fully charged, it subsequently fills up your nitro as well, making the bikes' nitro extremely efficient when managed correctly.

2. Stunts are done by taking off from a regular ramp or drop. While airborne, there's a QTE-esque meter on left side of the character. Player can perform a stunt by tapping the nitro icon when the arrow reaches the purple/white part on the meter. There are 3 different types of stunts (quick, mid, late) that can be performed, depending on how late the player activate it. A regular "good stunt" fills the Focus Meter by around 40%, while a "perfect stunt" almost doubles that.

3. Wheelie and knee drag. Wheelie can be performed upon reactivating the. While in a wheelie, your handling is greatly reduced, but you can cancel it by steering heavily. Knee drag can be performed when you steer heavily towards a side. It can indicate the limit of your steering, but practically, it does nothing (looks cool tho).

Important Notes + Tips
To master riding a bike in A8, apart from getting used to the rather delicate handling, you need a completely different strategy and mindset to tackle on the track.

1. Ramp slows you down, but Charge speeds you up greatly!

When driving a car, it's a common act to avoid taking unnecessary ramps (except for certain areas on tracks), since it slows you down when you are mid-air (and sometimes when you land). It does the same to the bike, BUT the ramp also the most efficient way to charge up the FM. If you manage to fully charge up your FM, that extra speed boost is going to negate the lost of speed. However, the ramp itself still kills speed, so take some time to learn which and drop is actually beneficial (basically all the flatter ramps e.g. the ones on the bridge part of Barcelona).

2. Perfect stunt: Hard to pull off, but extremely important!

Perfect stunt + several seconds of perfect nitro can fill up an empty FM instantly, and that can substantially reduce your lap time, especially when there's not many ramps. Take some practices to learn to hit the quick perfect stunt almost everytime.

Also, quick, mid, and late stunt are practically the same, so just focus on the quick stunt (except for some big drops like the one in Mount Tiede, where you can take mid or late perfect stunt, which is a lot easier to pull off.)

3. You can't do barrel roll with a bike!

Don't forget.

4. Focus Mater + nitro management

Here's the example of a triple-boosted bike's nitro+FM perfect consumption: When nitro is activated, it charges up the FM. As the nitro run empty, the bike gets charged. Afterwards, the charge wears out and refills the nitro -- That's virtually 5 nitro bars for the player to use!

Now, since every part of the tracks is different, the condition above won't always be achievable, when and how to take ramps to refill your nitro and FM becomes extremely important when every millisecond counts. Here are the different scenarios and different ways of response. And while on a flat road with both nitro and FM full:
 * 1) When the nitro is of abundance, prioritize stunt over flat spin.
 * 2) When nitro is low and you can't fill your FM with a single stunt, do the flat spin instead.
 * 3) When charged, do stunt to sustain your FM.
 * 1) When nitro refill isn't a problem, deactivate the nitro to get charged.
 * 2) When there's not much nitro refill ahead (e.g. triple hairpins in Iceland, tunnel in Tokyo), keep the nitro on, and activate the FM when it run out.

However, this doesn't 100% apply to all the scenarios, and sometimes you'll need to read the situation correctly for the best result. Here are some facts that can help you with judging which action to take. ''​Note: An "ideal ramp chain" is when player steersslightly towards the lower side of a curved ramp, or does a "forced barrel" to reduce the airtime. It boosts the speed slightly upon landing. The player then move on to a drop or another curved ramp before the temporary speed boost wears off. This is a very difficult technique, but essential in TLE.''
 * 1) The amount of FM an action can fill: 3 flat spins > perfect stunt > 2 flat spins > 1 flat spin = tilt jump
 * 2) The amount of speed reduction an action can lead to (applies to both car & bikes): flat spin (huge penalty) > stunt (varies) > not taking a ramp > "ideal ramp chain"

'''The new bike mechanics is rather complicated, especially the management of the FM and nitro, and it is a bit hard for me to explain via words. I did my best to summarize things about motorbikes in A8, and I hope this thread can help you with using a bike!'''