Safety Training - A report

[inspiron]

So, yesterday I attended motorcycle safety training. These trainings are sponsored by my insurance company, and they offer them to their customers at a discount. I took the training module "B" which focused on slow-speed maneuvers, curve techniques for the street and riding in a group.

We started out in the morning doing some gymnastics on the bike - while riding around the parking lot at about 25mph, we did various exercises like kneeing on the seat, standing on the seat, riding side-saddle, sitting on the tank, laying on the bike (like Superman), etc.

After this warm up, the first practice was the slow lane. The object is to ride a 12m long and 1m wide (about 13 yards by 1 yard) lane as slowly as possible. This is one of the required maneuvers to get a license over here. To cover the 13 yards, you should take AT LEAST 20 seconds. At this speed, the bike is unstable, so it takes a lot of concentration to keep the bike in the 1-yard wide lane.

The next exercise was a set of slaloms - the first was set up with 15 feet (5m) between each cone, the second with 12 feet (4m), and the third with 9 feet (3m).

During both of these lessons, the instructor was constantly talking about how important it is to look where you want to go.

Before the coffee break, we each did one emergency stop. Those of us riding bikes without ABS did our stops from about 35 mph, the bikes with ABS were going considerably faster.

After coffee, we did some figure 8s, again with focus on where we were looking. The goal was to ride the 8s slowly and have the bars turned as far as they would go.

The final exercise before lunch was a faster slalom training, with the different methods of leaning the bike - in one direction, we leaned the bike as you would normally do it on a winding road, keeping our upper body in line with the angle of the bike (rotating the neck to keep our eyes parallel to the road). In the other direction, we pushed the bike over, rotating at the hips, keeping the whole upper body straight. The latter is used when you need to make a quick change of direction - it is much faster to push the bike over then to move your whole body with it.

After lunch, the instructor went over the curve theory - choosing the proper line, how to enter the curve, where to focus your eyes, and how to get through the curve safely and quickly. He then grabbed a video camera and we were off to a nearby street with a long 90° curve. We took turns riding past the instructor while he filmed us - first coming from the left, then when all had passed him, we turned around came back from the right side.

After about 30 minutes, we mounted up for a group ride. The instructor explained "the rules" - everyone is responsible for the person directly following them. In cities and towns, we should ride in formation (one left, one right), each with about 1 second of space between us and the person directly ahead of us, and outside of the town, we should each chose our own line. If we get separated (you don't see the rider in front of you anymore), keep going straight ahead. If the group makes a turn, you only turn when you know that the person behind you has seen you turn. If you don't have a signal from the rider behind you - wait at the intersection before turning. If you don't see the rider in front of you, assume that they continued straight ahead (following the main road).

During the ride, we did get separated (we had to make a left turn onto a busy street), but since the rider in front of me waited at the next intersection, we all returned to the training area together.

The last 45 minutes of the day was spent reviewing the video (in slow motion). Each run was reviewed - how was the rider's position, the choice of line, stability of the bike, etc. It was good to see that we all improved - during the first pass, several of us were too far inside or cut the corner. By the last run, we were all riding the proper line and well centered in our lane (reducing the chance of losing your head to an oncoming Winnebago).

I had taken this module 2 years ago, but at that time I was still riding my 125. Now, with about 10,000 miles more experience, and a 1400ccm machine, this training was a totally different experience, and definitely worth the $80 investment.

[Clint]

Nice. A stunting class.

Great writeup. I wish we had something like that here.

[Louis]

Great stuff jim.

I'm still unsure if I'll take the ERC yet again this year. I might just go a few hours in a parking lot and practice my figure 8 and u-turns.

[NCBoulevard]

Sounds like a good class although I don't see the need for gymnastics. While it may work on balance somewhat I don't ever see myself needing to jump to my knees on the seat to escape a dangerous situation.

Ride Safe.
Dennis

[inspiron]

There are 2 reasons for the gymnastics.

1 - to get us awake first thing in the morning. The class started at 8:00am ... most of us were still half asleep...

2 - to demonstrate the stability of the bike as long as it is moving. Once the rotational forces take over, it is almost impossible to tip a bike over, regardless of what kind of stupid stuff the rider does.

[blackie1491]

Good write up.
Sounds like a good class.

[NCBoulevard]

Originally Posted by inspiron

There are 2 reasons for the gymnastics.

2 - to demonstrate the stability of the bike as long as it is moving. Once the rotational forces take over, it is almost impossible to tip a bike over, regardless of what kind of stupid stuff the rider does.

Unless he falls off...