Passes & Canyons Blog

Sadly, someone obviously did not ride this poor Harley safely.

“Have a safe ride.”

That’s an admonishment we’ve all heard countless times and my standard weak-joke response is along the lines of, “Oh darn, I wasn’t planning to, but I will if you insist.”

It’s not that we ever plan to have an unsafe ride, but then, that’s why they’re called “accidents.”

At least many people use that word, but among those serious about motorcycle safety, the preferred word is “crash.” The point being that a crash does not happen by accident, it is allowed to happen by riders who fail to remain alert and to engage in basic crash-avoidance practices.

Don’t get me wrong. Anyone who rides knows that the primary scenario for motorcycle crashes is when someone in a car pulls out in front of you or turns left in front of you. It’s their fault.

Or is it? Is it entirely their fault if you could have done something to prevent the crash? (Within reason: You could stay home and never go anywhere and that would prevent a crash, but that’s not reasonable.)

More importantly, does it matter that it’s primarily their fault if you’re the one with the concussion and broken bones? I have a friend, Jungle Fuhrman, who argues that without exception, if you are involved in a crash, you screwed up. I tend to agree with him.

When I was preparing to take RiderCoach training several years ago, the program put together by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) for training the people who train new riders, I rereading the Basic Rider Course (BRC) Rider Handbook, which is the study manual given to all the beginning rider students. (Which is to say, I had taken the BRC myself some time before that.)

The BRC focuses on both riding skills and the rider’s mindset. One key point they make is that crashes seldom have one specific cause; in fact, they usually have several. They call this the Crash Chain, and use an illustration of a motorcycle chain looping around two sprockets, connecting one sprocket (you) to the other (the crash). Each link is a factor that contributes to the crash. Break any one of those links and the crash is avoided.

So now that idiot talking on his cell phone is turning left in front of you. Is it foreordained that you will T-bone him? Are you traveling at an excessive speed? Were you day-dreaming as you approached the intersection? Were you not thinking about the fact that the setting sun is directly behind you, making it difficult for him to see? If you answer yes to all those questions then yes, you may indeed be irretrievably headed for a crash.

But you had it in your power to break that crash chain, and didn’t. He’ll get the ticket but you’re the one who will pay in pain.

Some highway safety agency used a catch-phrase years ago that has stuck with me and I think it bears repeating here: Safe driving is no accident. For motorcycling I’d go with that times 10. Have a safe ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: You don’t have to deal with priests or blood-tests to register your motorcycle.

OK, it has taken about five months but I’ve finally gotten re-energized about becoming a RiderCoach and teaching other people to ride motorcycles. You may recall that I took RiderCoach training way back in June, and I passed it successfully, but my experience was rather dismal and discouraging. There were more steps to take before I could actually become an instructor but I didn’t take any of them, until now.

I was calling over to ABATE of Colorado a couple weeks ago to speak with Terry Howard, the state coordinator, and Ben Hochberg picked up the phone. Ben is the head of ABATE’s rider training program, and was the lead instructor in the RiderCoach class. I figured what the heck, I’ve got Ben on the line, I might as well talk to him about moving ahead.

So I did, and he told me a bit about what I need to do next, and said he would send me the paperwork they need. One thing I knew they needed was for me to get affiliated with the state’s MOST program, the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program. I contacted Paul Peterson, the honcho over at MOST, and he emailed the materials they need back from me. So now it’s a matter of getting all this pulled together.

It has taken me till now to do all this because I ended the RiderCoach training feeling very discouraged. I didn’t feel I did very well in the class, despite passing, because I had several major screw-ups. I guess I finally worked my way through understanding and accepting those screw-ups. For one thing, the kinds of things I did wrong were things that I’m never likely to do again. Learning is a matter of trial and error. I made my errors; now I know not to do those things again. I know I can do this, I just needed some time for my confidence to return.

Additionally, though, the training was a very unpleasant experience because we were standing out on hot asphalt all day on blazing hot days. I was feeling pretty bad, which may have contributed to my poor performance. The training ended on Sunday and I went, as I always do, to the gym on Monday for a work-out. Stepping on the scale at the gym I found that I was down six pounds from my normal weight. That was odd. Then, two days later, back at the gym, having done nothing out of the ordinary, I had regained all of those six pounds.

My conclusion is that I must have become seriously dehydrated during those days out on the range, despite drinking a lot of water. And of course, that would have affected my mental performance. So OK, let’s learn from this. I figure that if when I go out on the range on hot days like that, I make sure to drink a bottle or two of GatorAde or some other drink to restore electrolytes, I’ll probably be in much, much better condition. And do a better job.

Presumably I’ll find out if I’m right about all this. I’m sure you’ll be able to read about it here in the next few months. Wish me well.

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Biker Quote for Today

Look for their eyes, that way you know if you are about to be in an accident or if they are going to do it on purpose.

There were many times in the last four days when I wished I had failed the riding test portion of the RiderCoach training. I did pass, but the question of actually coaching classes of new riders is something else entirely.

I can’t remember anything I’ve ever done that was harder, or more of a yo-yo. Every time I’d start to get confident that I was going to do well I would make some major mistake and be informed of that fact in no uncertain terms. At the end of my last coaching exercise on the range (we also did classroom sections) my instructor told me I had technically passed but, if my reading between the lines is correct, that I should not expect him to be asking me to work for him any time soon.

There are other issues as well. If I were to work as a RiderCoach I would be expected to perform the riding demonstrations flawlessly. I can’t do that now. I can fine-tune my skills on my own bikes as practice, but the one exercise I have the most trouble with is something I am extremely reluctant to try on my own bikes. That’s the small box wherein students are expected to do two U-turns. I can do it successfully some times, and the more opportunity for practice I had the better I got. Ben, our head instructor, says it can be done on bigger bikes, and I know it can, but dropping my 800-pound Kawasaki Concours is a lot different from dropping one of those little 250cc Honda Nighthawks. You can stop a 250 Nighthawk from going over by putting your foot down. Once that Connie starts to fall there is no stopping it, and when it falls it breaks expensive parts. Unless I can come up with a smaller bike to get more practice with I just don’t see how I can develop the skill I need.

I would still like to coach. We started with a class of 12 students and 7 of them ended up completing the Beginning Rider Course (BRC) successfully. A couple only failed to pass because they barely did too poorly on the written test. They can come back for a remedial session and take the test again and still pass. Some of the rest of them were amazing. There was one woman in particular who we all thought was so fearful and so intimidated that she was not likely to make it. She ended up scoring the best score in the class on the riding test. We marveled all weekend amongst ourselves at her incredible strides in learning to ride. It was a real inspiration.

When the students were taking their riding test there was one thing that made me feel I had contributed something good. As part of our Rider Coach training we were required to pass the BRC with a better score than what students need. I failed the first time because I was not sure of the path of travel on the third part. Well, imagine how pleased I was when, not for the first two parts but for that third part, Ben took the students and walked them through the course to make sure they knew exactly what was expected of them. Like he had listened to what I had said and took it to heart.

So the course is over and I will get my MSF certification. I don’t feel like I accomplished something special. I feel exhausted and immensely relieved that it’s over, no matter what the outcome. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually become a riding instructor. You’ll read about it here if I do. And by the way, if you want to get a real taste of what went on, and why it was hard for me and on me, check the Examiner story I did, linked below.

Biker Quote for Today

Wrecking is bad. Your competition using your stones as traction is worse.

Half-way through this eight-day course, I’m keeping my fingers crossed hoping I pass. This is not easy!

I signed up (and paid my money–$450) to take RiderCoach training. RiderCoaches, in case you don’t know, are those instructors who train others to ride motorcycles. I figure that training others to ride is a good thing to do, it should help me become a better rider myself, and it will afford me another modest source of income.

What I never imagined was that I would pay my money and take the course and then possibly end up not getting my certification.

During the first day they explained to us that part of passing the course requires passing the riding test that students in the Basic Rider Course must pass, except that we are required to do so with a better score than is required of them. That makes sense. If we’re the supposed experts and can’t do a better job than rank novices what the hell are we doing teaching?

Well, that first day in class was so challenging that I was thinking with more than a little bit of longing that maybe I’d fail the riding test and that would put me out of my misery. I didn’t really want to fail. That would be extremely humiliating to not be able to pass the BRC test. But there was still some appeal.

Then the second day I did fail the riding test. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because on one of the exercises I stopped midway across the course because it was not at all clear to me what I was supposed to do. I’m a visual learner, and every time they read the instructions I sort of understood but figured I’d watch the demonstration and then I would understand. Well, on this particular exercise we were downhill a bit (the range slopes) and the part of the course in question was just over the crest of the slope, where I couldn’t see where the riders who tested ahead of me were going. So I took off on my ride figuring it would become clear but when I got there it was not clear at all. I was assessed 15 points for not completing that exercise, and to pass we were allowed no more than 12.

Come Day 4 when it was time for those of us who failed the first time to try again–our last chance, no more retakes–I insisted on walking the course with one of the instructors, asking questions every step of the way. I demanded that I had to know exactly what was expected of me. Then I got on the bike and rode the exercise well and passed the test. All three of us passed.

That entitled me to four more days of what they promised us will be even tougher demands. By this time next week I’ll either be certified or I will have failed the course. Either way, I’m going to be extremely, extremely relieved.

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Biker Quote for Today

Scars are a way to prove to us that the past was real.