Up Front

UP FRONT

Allan Girdler

THE GRADUATE

When my son and I signed up for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s beginner rider course, we did so with two public goals. First and foremost was for him to get the best basic training he could get. Next, I thought it would be good for my job if I really knew how rider training works, rather than rely on secondhand accounts.

What I didn’t mention when the project •began was that I had another goal, in the back of my mind but not expressed: I Vanted to see if I know how to ride a motorcycle.

Pause for mocking laughter. I do after all have a license and began riding before there was such a thing as a motorcycle »license. I ride every day, I ride most every model on the market, and I have a terribly important title and authority and all like that, how can I possibly wonder if I know how to ride?

Because I’m self taught, or taught by example that may or may not have been ►correct. Perfectly normal, at my age, nor am I alone. In the course of the job we 4notojournalists get to take various tests of skill and it’s always been a source of secret amusement that so many of the press don’t manage to get tested.

But. To begin with the important part, the kid did fine. He already knew the basics, having ridden on the dirt, but he Jcept his part of the deal and listened to lectures about things he already knew, i.e. control locations. As we progressed he listened to things he didn’t know, about riding in traffic and positions in the lane and how pavement isn’t always like dirt, and riding with other people nearby and so forth.

The image strongest in my mind occurred during braking practice. One of the exercises involves coming to a quick stop ►with both brakes. He came across the line at target speed, applied too much rear brake and locked the wheel. He’d never done that before and the noise was new to him. He relaxed the front brake and looked down to see what had gone wrong and coasted beyond the planned stopping point. If he’d done that on the street, locked the rear wheel and lost concentration, odds are he’d have hit something more hazardous than a rubber cone. Aha, I said to myself, here’s where the training pays off. Mistakes made in practice are better than learning the hard way.

So it was for the full course. As mentioned some months ago, MSF supplies instructor training and rider training materials and then must find other sponsors for the actual schools. The level of instructor skill and enthusiasm must therefore vary and one can’t say all the schools are equally good.

This one, at Saddleback Junior College, Mission Viejo, Calif., was good.

We students were a mixed lot. There were other father-and-son teams, some with riding experience and some without, with the median age in the 30s, I’d guess. Nearly one third were women, a surprise, and there was the variation in natural talent you’d expect from what was a crosssection of the population. Some of the students caught on quickly, and some were outright klutzes. Whichever, the instructors, both state police officers and bike riders on duty and off, were unfailingly polite and patient and helpful.

Being a professional observer I watched out of the corner of my eye and the true beginners came along faster than I would have believed. As a graduation ceremony a tester from the local state motor vehicle office showed up and we all went through a much tougher test than the state requires. All it was, was the stuff we’d been doing already so we all passed and got our motorcycle licenses right there on the riding area. Full marks to MSF and my previous endorsement stands.

As for myself, it turns out I do know what I’m doing. All my reflexes are selftaught, as mentioned, but no great glaring errors were revealed. Just as useful, I did learn some subtle things I’d either not known or hadn’t put into words; pressure on the rear brake can help the bike stand up in tight turns, for instance. And I got some practice at the basic maneuvers we all should practice more, like brake balance on quick stops and controlling the clutch and so forth, which didn’t hurt. Finally, I scored 100 per cent on the written test and was on my way to getting 100 on the riding test until I became overconfident and sloppy in the slalom, hit a cone and lost three points. Just like trials, alas. In case I got puffed up, there was an older man who said he was reluctant to ride a motorcycle at all, but somehow managed not to hit those same cones and beat my score in the exam. So. I am a good rider. I am not a perfect rider and I’m not the best rider. Keep practicing, in sum.

There was a fourth lesson concealed in this project.

We pre-OPEC riders were almost all self-taught. The former owners of our new secondhand machines said “That’s the brake, that’s the clutch, push that peg with your toe for first” and rushed down to the bank to make sure our checks were>

good. This didn’t help the accident ratT but it did develop in us a sense of pride, or hardship overcome. Since motorcycling became mostly acceptable, and outwardly practical and there are now schools in which one learns without falling down o A demolishing the neighbor’s rosebush, I have detecting sniffs of disdain, of snob^ bery. There are those who don’t like the idea of low-risk training. They extend it to~ threaten of low-sport riding, with visions of joyless clones plodding through joyless schools and ruining the sport for the rest of us.

Don’t sell your bike just yet. When Jof and I bought our textbooks, the lady in the bookstore remarked on how much fun the* course had been for her. Oh, I said, what do you ride? She doesn’t. She didn’t want' to ride motorcycles, she simply wanted to know how.

Next, the school had a steady rate q,f attrition. Every class night there were a few more empty chairs. Every riding ses-^ sion another bike was left parked in a corner. I never did manage to get any figures^ on this but what seems to happen is that people see the notice about the school iif the paper, or learn of it from a friend, and think motorcycles sound like a good idea*! They enroll in the course—no commitment, by the way, the school supplies bikes and helmets on loan—and they get ^ chance to actually ride . . . and they don’t like it.

Further, research to date shows that while the trained riders have fewer acci* dents and citations than self-taught riders, they also ride fewer miles and don’t sta^ with motorcycles for as long. Again, no big^ surprise. The factories and even the government are inviting people to ride, and., it’s only human nature that people who are invited to do something probably aren’t as enthusiastic, deep down, as are people who insist on doing the same thing. Whit we have, at the end of all this safety planning and training and dealer involvement and donated time and work is a better way for people who will like motorcycles to get into the adventure in the best possible wa^

For a closer, a correction. Last time the MSF school was mentioned in this spaced recounted how MSF has a list of rider schools in all parts of the country. All anybody who’d like to enroll needs to do, I said, is call the toll-free number.

Well. Ever since we’ve been getting calls and letters asking just what this number is. Seems people can’t find it. I wei*t carefully through the files and discovered, to my chagrin, that there is no toll-free number, not nationwide, anyway. Instead, those who’d like to learn how or learn how better can get the list from Motorcycle Safety Foundation, 780 Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum, Md. 21090. ^