Exactly why the Motorcycle Safety Course should be mandatory.

 

I bet if you broke it down by make, a much higher percentage of accidents would occur among the sportsbike crowd, and much lower among the Goldwing & BMW crowd. HD's would probably be somewhere in between.

I'm sure the insurance companies know exactally what the odds are based on your age & the type of bike you're riding.

 

Good point. 31 year ago when I first started riding, a 900cc engine and 600 lb. was a BIG bike. Back then a typical motorcycle was the most nimble vehicle on the road. It could stop quicker, accelerate faster and turn sharper than any cage. Now with monster 800-900 lb bikes, they need to be handled more like a truck than a sports car.

 

I don't agree that it should be mandatory! I started riding dirt bikes when i was 4yrs old. When i got my MC endorsement on my DL at 16...i already had 12yrs riding experience! I don't feel that a saftey course would've taught me anything i didn't already know. Sure, it should be highly recommended!!! I know a few people that have taken these courses to learn to ride to get their MC endorsement.....but by no means do these courses give them any "real world" experience.

 

I think one reason riders can't make turns is because they "lean" their bodies to turn instead of counter steering with their hands and arms. You can't lean your body far enough to negotiate curves at speed. The result is that the bike itself does not lean enough to make the turn. The rider panics. Stiffens up. And goes straight off the road or across the yellow line into oncoming traffic. A good rider education course can cure that real quick.

 

X2 The guy that gives the course here in town has NO actual riding experience so I question his ability to pass on anything more than what he has been trained to say.

 

+1 on speed, also target fixation can come into play when going too fast into a curve.

 

Not sure about that. I've been riding for 44 yrs as has a good friend of mine. He just took the coarse with his twin sons & told me he couldn't believe the things he thought he knew that he just learned. So another friend of mine is going to take it before she gets her endorsement & I'm going with her just to see what I can learn,figure it sure can't hurt I'll let you know how it goes

 

On the flip side, I started riding off-road bikes around 10 years old and thought the class would have nothing to teach when I took it about two years ago at age 36.

I was wrong.

/I hear the ladies love it when you say that.
//I rarely say that to the ladies.

 

Big Navy mandates that we complete the Basic Rider Course (BRC) before being allowed to operate a motorcycle on any base and by common separate order that requirement extends to off-base as well. Recently, they added the requirement that every three years the rider must complete refresher training in the form of Basic Rider Course(BRC), Military Sportbike Rider Course(MSRC), or the Experienced Rider Course(ERC) as applicabale to the bike and experience/comfort level. They also mandate specific gear to be worn while operating a motorcycle...full sleeves, full finger gloves, DOT/Snell approved helmet, long pants, boots over the ankles, and shatter resistant eye protection. High visibility outer garment for day and reflective outergarment at night are not currently mandatory but HIGHLY encouraged. We take motorcycle safety very seriously so we train to and manage that expectation. We deal with enough hazardous situations on the job, no sense dropping our guard while off-duty. Military riders are not immune from accidents or buffoonery, so some do get injured and some do die every year. However, the per capita fatality rate amongst military riders as compared to the general population is a very small fraction of the non-military riding public. I've been riding about 35 years which includes all of my time on active duty plus many years before I joined. Before it became mandatory, I and many like minded military riders took the ERC at regular intervals just as a little refresher. Can't remember specifically but I've taken the ERC at least five times over the past 20 or so years. Every single time I've picked up a new skill or honed an old one. At the very least, it's focused time to actually slow down and think about riding skills.

Some may not like the idea of mandated rider training and government involvement, I get it. But I for one am extremely thankful that my shipmates and I are subject to these regulations. I know for a fact, both by statistics and by personal experience, that mandated training saves lives and makes us better/safer riders. I've been to enough funerals. If a mandated rider course prevents even one funeral, it's worth the "governmental involvment" in my humble opinion.