No status quo — the words STATUS QUO crossed out.

Who We're Here For

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For Riders

Quick question before you scroll: how did you learn to ride?

If you're like most riders in the US, the honest answer is "I taught myself." Maybe a weekend course to get the license, a few tips from friends, then years of trial and error on public roads. Jim and I taught ourselves too, and so did almost every rider we know.

That's the way things have always been, and it is what ThrottleWise exists to change — from most riders being self-taught to every single rider getting the very best training, personalized to them, practiced anywhere, on their own schedule, and always free. None of it is our opinion: every lesson brings proven techniques and ways of thinking from the best riding schools and fifty years of crash research to you, in words you can understand and use on your next ride.

And here's the contradiction that drives everything we do: motorcycles have never been safer — better brakes, better tires, better electronics. So why have rider crash statistics repeated, almost unchanged, for decades? Because the machine was never the weak point. The rider is the part nobody ever finished training. "The best rider you can be is also the safest rider" — and when every rider finally has access to the best training, those decades-old numbers start moving toward zero. Every rung you climb makes your next ride better.

Start with rung 1.1. Watch it, take the practice sheet to a parking lot, and pass it — free, complete, exactly as every rider gets it.

Then bring one rider. Every rider you bring makes the road better for all of us, and the best thing you can do for your riding brothers and sisters is to be the rider they can follow. And if the Ladder helped you, a gift films the next lesson.

What your donations are needed for and how they will be used

For Family Members

A rider smiling as he lifts his helmet beside his motorcycle.

You don't have to ride to help the rider in your life come home safe. The single biggest thing you can do is encourage them to keep training — and ThrottleWise makes that easy, because our rider training is completely free. The best rider is the safest rider. Helping your rider climb the Ladder is the most useful thing you can do for them.

Share this site with them... ask them what they're practicing, encourage them to keep learning to become the best rider they can be!

Want to see what they'd be learning? Watch a sample lesson — then send it to your rider.

And please make a donation to support this free world-class rider education!

What your donations are needed for and how they will be used

Corporate Sponsorship Program

A California nonprofit · EIN 39-5030027 · Sponsorship by the year, the way a racing team does it · Acknowledgment, never advertising

ThrottleWise sponsorship works the way a racing team’s does. A sponsor backs the Ladder for one calendar year, January 1 to December 31, and its name and logo close every lesson in the level it backs for that whole year, including any lesson we update during the year. Each fall we set the sponsors for the coming year. Every place is re-earned each year, so the brands on the Ladder are the ones that showed up this year. The Ladder itself never closes: it is online every day of the year, and riders climb it in every month the weather allows.

The Founders Of The Ladder

2027 is the first sponsorship year, and the companies that back it are the founders of the Ladder: a new effort to bring proven, world-class riding technique to every rider, free, built so that it can measure whether training changes what riders do. It takes on the problem the whole industry has lived with for decades: most riders are self-taught, and the crash numbers have not moved. The Ladder is built to last. Its founders are named on it for as long as it is online, and every one of them can say, truthfully, “we built the Ladder.”

The Only Sponsor In Your Category

On the level you back, one tire sponsor, one helmet sponsor, one communicator sponsor. No competing sponsor shares your level.

Named On The Lessons You Backed

Your name and logo close every lesson in your level, and your gear is used on camera as it comes from the factory, where it suits the lesson.

The riders this is for

8.8–9.3 millionpeople ride motorcycles in the United States, and almost all of them taught themselves
~500,000new riders entering the road every year
~3×non-riding family members who worry about their rider

Founding sponsors, 2027

The sponsors of 2027 are the founders of the Ladder. Every sponsorship runs one calendar year, January 1 to December 31, and the founders are named on the Ladder page for as long as the Ladder is online, with first choice to renew their place for 2028. Each year has one Presenter, named on the home page, the Ladder page and at the start of every lesson released that year: “The ThrottleWise Ladder for 2027, presented by” that company. Prices and terms are discussed directly, never posted here. Any company in the industry can be a Founding Supporter, named on the founders’ roll on the Ladder page. A lesson keeps a credit line for the brand whose money filmed it, for example “filmed in 2027 with the support of Michelin”, for as long as that lesson is online, whoever sponsors that level in later years.

The manufacturers’ places

Motorcycle manufacturers have two places of their own. One is the Presenter for the year. The other is the motorcycle sponsor of a level: its motorcycles, on loan, are used on camera in that level’s lessons where they suit the lesson, and its name and logo are on the end screen of each of those lessons.

What sponsors get

What you getThe Presenter for 2027Sponsor of a levelFounding Supporter
“Presented by” on the home page, the Ladder page and at the start of every lesson released that year✓––
Name and logo on the end screen of every lesson in your level, all year–✓–
The only sponsor in your categorythe only Presenteryour level–
Your name beside the level you back, on the Ladder page–✓–
Your gear used on camera, as it comes from the factory, where it suits the lesson✓✓–
Named as a founding sponsor on the Ladder page for as long as the Ladder is online✓✓✓
A credit line on every lesson your money filmed, for as long as that lesson is online✓✓–
Thanked in the welcome email riders receive when they join the Ladder✓✓✓
First choice to renew your place for next year✓✓✓

ThrottleWise intends every sponsorship payment to be a qualified sponsorship payment under Section 513(i) of the Internal Revenue Code: we acknowledge sponsors by name and logo, and we never advertise, endorse or recommend their products. A sponsor should review the tax treatment of its payment with its own tax advisor.

Why sponsor ThrottleWise

  • Named where riders learn — on the lessons themselves, not a banner on a page.
  • A cause families root for — you're the brand helping riders come home safely.
  • The only sponsor in your category — on the level you back, this year.
  • Built to be measured — the Ladder is built so that it can measure whether training changes what riders do.

Let's talk — we'd love to build this with you. Reach us at info@throttlewise.org.

Where The Money Goes

What the $1.5 Million Funding Goal Goes to

Free training still has to be built. The lessons come first, the technology follows, and here is what donations pay for.

The goal, in stages — each one a finished thing

  1. Stage 1 — a complete, free Level 1. About $30,000. The first two months of production: ten lessons in slow-speed machine control, released one a week. This is the smallest gift that finishes something.
  2. Stage 2 — every lesson of the Ladder, live by the end of summer 2027. About $134,000 in all. Eight months of production: Level 1 live when the 2027 riding season opens, the rest released week by week through the season. Venue, insurance and equipment are the small part; most of it is pay for the two people who make the lessons — our instructor on camera and our editor.
  3. Stage 3 — the practice-feedback app, on off-the-shelf sensors. $150,000–$300,000. Proves the whole teaching loop with real riders before we spend a dollar on our own hardware.
  4. Stage 4 — our own sensor unit, only once riders have shown us what it needs to do. Up to $1.1 million for the technology in total. The hardware alone is $250,000–$750,000, which is why it comes last.
  5. Keeping it running through 2028 — about $250,000. Hosting, day-to-day operations, and a reserve against a hardware estimate whose own range spans half a million dollars. Not yet quoted line by line, and we say so.

These are early estimates, not firm quotes. $3,000 films one lesson, $30,000 a level, $134,000 finishes the Ladder.

Why the technology costs the most. It is three pieces of engineering: the app on your phone, the system behind it that keeps your practice history, and a sensor unit on the bike accurate enough to tell good technique from nearly good. A simple tilt sensor cannot read how far a bike is leaned in a real corner, so it takes precision satellite positioning and motion sensors working together. That is why we build the app on sensors you can buy today first, and our own unit only once real riders have shown us what it needs to do.

Who gets paid. Board members are never paid for serving on the board. Donations pay only the people we hire to make the lessons and build the technology, and as of today no one, the founder included, has drawn a salary. When pay begins, the board’s independent directors set it in advance by the IRS’s recommended process, and it is reported on our annual IRS filing.

If it costs less, or the money comes later. If the technology lands at the bottom of its range, the difference becomes more lessons and more time before we ask again. If the money for the series arrives late, volunteers make the same lessons for a few thousand dollars and they simply finish later. These are early estimates, and we will say so plainly as real numbers come in.

Riding is inherently risky. Our lessons are educational only and are not a substitute for professional, in-person instruction. Always practice new skills at your own risk, in a safe and controlled environment, within your abilities, and in compliance with all laws. See our Terms of Use.