ART - Advanced Rider Training

AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW

Well perhaps predictably following reports that a biker lost his life through absense of gear. I beg to respectfully question does gear always make the biggest differance ?

Tell us what you think in the comments please.

HOW IMPORTANT IS GEAR – YOUR 3rd LINE OF DEFENCE
Is it because bikers are too concerned about “show & tell “ does it make us look good in our GEAR / do we feel good in it too ? does wearing gear sometime create false sense of security about the level of safety and perhaps even result in us taking more risks or riding faster in the belief we are dressed for a crash. I have asked riders at times – if you were to complete that journey again riding naked – would you have been more careful? The answer is generally yes – id have ridden slower and studied the other traffic more. My next question is predictably – so why did you not ride with the same caution today?
Our first line of defence in terms of road safety is in that space between our ears – it’s about how you think – not only your attitude towards your ride but your knowledge and understanding of how to identify risks developing, your observation skills, where to look for the risks and how to conduct active risk assessments and your decision making process in how you plan and respond to changes in your surroundings / risk. When to adjust your position and speed for example to reduce risk or manage situations safely.
Your second line of defence get activated when you are unsuccessful with your (stage one) First line of defence skills . In this capacity your bike control skills become employed such as emergency braking or emergency avoidance/swerve , leaning or even combination of both or even cornering / turning the bike harder. , When your first line fails you are already in trouble and but unfortunately here at (stage 2 ) second line of defence skills - is where inexperienced rider think they need to concentrate their learning , yes the skills need to be developed but rider must begin to understand that one you’re in trouble the chances are you will run out of luck because sometime the situation youve put yourself in through stage one failure is so dire there is no way out
so we need to learn how to defend at the first line of defence as this provides maximum safety .
Your defences systems one and two fail – yeah ok now you hope you wore your gear. It’s at best the 3rd line of defence so why invest in this ahead of investing in lines one and two. While I do advocate for riders to wear gear appropriate for the journey and the anticipated risks , The fact sadly remains that like stage 2 skills – if you’ve messed up bad at stage 1 your gear might not be enough to save you. That does not mean we ride with no gear irresponsibly its about minimising risks of injury of course and helmets are the biggest life saver – so helmets need to always be worn .
So for new riders / when people plan to buy a bike for sure budget for a helmet – absolutely, and gloves jacket , boots etc, they will serve to minimise injuries ! of course especially if they are good standard items . but I do wonder why gear is the thing that everyone calls for – yet no one call for better training or a more responsible approach to riding . do we all secretly not want to be responsible – it that negative biker stereotype image about being wild and lawless really accurate ? well there might be some of that but its definitely not everyone.
Alongside gear, in my opinion there is too much focus on things like "high-vis waistcoats to use in conjunction with existing personal protective equipment, in a bid to make riders more visible to other road users".
Given the known limitations of hi-vis clothing as 'passive aids' (ie, the other road user has to see you and take the necessary action to avoid you), I think it's rather more useful for riders to have the opportunity to improve their road craft skills, and hopefully become more proactive about riding into collisions set up by other road users.

Speed is always a factor as if thing happen slowly we have more time to respond – and yes its respond rather than react – reaction is something of reflex suggesting its already gone past stage one – response is something that is part of the plan – means we identified it might happen already and have the response primed in our brains ready to deploy if needed – responses are more effective as we don’t have to use up valuable time processing ( which usually translates in to distance at speed) after the surprise element occurs which evokes a reaction – when reacting we don’t always make the best decisions on what actions to take either.
Hopefully the message is more than just "slow down". As I've said before, as a safety intervention, 'riding slower' is only a partial solution at best as it completely fails to educate the rider (or the driver for that matter) as to why a crash is about to happen. The important decision we all have to make when riding is just WHERE to go slow! Given that 70% of accidents in urban areas are the old favourite, the SMIDSY collision, that's been happening since the dawn of time, it would be far better to be teaching riders to:
a) Recognise the warning signs of the potential collision as it starts to unfold
b) do something about it a bit more positive to take evasive action
In my view the driving and riding schools in Kenya don’t focus much on this areas as the student generally evaluate his own skills on how he moves said vehicle from point A to point B and the student is still the client . It’s not surprising that businesses (yes they are businesses -not just training schools) have learned to please their clients as simply and as cost affectively as possible. What benefit is there of introducing theory and thinking skills to clients who don’t understand that they need it. With students I wonder – is it because people had such an overdose of theory and books at school that they don’t want to sit in a classroom and think anymore? To coin one of my favourite phrases “people don’t know what they don’t know” and of that includes many of the people who work in the NTSA and operate riding and driving schools also. For I don’t see anyone pushing stage 1. Most certainly most riders who approach us to learn want practical lessons – stage 2 skills , they want to lean more – corner faster , (I wonder again about what’s important to people do they need to show off or ride that fast on the road ? ) , yes we can do that and while s certain level of competence is needed in practical skills to be a safe rider, it’s so frustrating because I recognise how many more lives can be saved at stage 1 . With the students who come for these sessions I can really see the difference it makes.

20th October 2019

13th October 2019

2019 Advanced Rider Training loading.........

We will in turn run some posts about how Training with us can help reduce your risk of being involved in a crash but first it is good to think for a moment about the cost of being involved in an accident or crash

Many people don’t fully think through the overall cost of becoming a biker (or using a bike to commute with) I find it scary that many people do not factor Training cost into their budget when buying a bike for the first time. Often they concentrate all their money on a bike and then struggle to fund a helmet and other essential gear to protect them when they crash. But training is equally valuable as it is aimed at providing you with the skills and knowledge to avoid that crash through riding skilfully and intelligently. ART really don’t want riders to crash, we recognise every rider that crashes and many who die as a result of crashing causes others to give up biking or deters would be riders from enjoying the fun and freedom motorcycling provides.

We recommend your bike buying to do list looks like this in priority order

Training – do this before you buy a bike always – as otherwise you may be tempted to ride without the knowledge and skills to survive on the roads.

Accident Insurance – get your personal cover sorted out so you don’t need to ask others to pay your hospital bills, you are a grown up aren’t you? Then act like one and don’t side step this responsibility to yourself and your family and friends.

Gear – work out what gear you need for the type of riding you will be doing and get the cost so this is factored in your overall budget

The Bike – now you can look at your overall budget at the planning stage and determine if your budget can get you the bike you “need”, note I say need and not want. Our wants can come later if necessary – all we need as s beginner is a small bike to learn and gain some valuable experience with before we upgrade. Get this part wrong and your more likely to become a crash statistic.

What follows is an article from Canada , don’t dismiss it simply coz it’s not African – motorcycle crashes , research shows the types of crashes and the statistics follow the same trends worldwide from including what may be thought of as more rule compliant countries as well as those where it’s the polar opposite .

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Motorcycle accidents are costly in terms of lives and health care costs. Compared with car accidents, motorcycle accidents cause 3 times the injuries, 6 times the medical costs and 5 times the deaths, found new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Despite better motor vehicle safety, injuries from motorcycle crashes have not improved.
Researchers looked at data on adults who presented to hospital for injuries from either a motorcycle or car crash between 2007 and 2013 in Ontario, Canada's largest province with a population of more than 13.6 million people. During the study period, 26 831 people were injured in motorcycle crashes and 281 826 injured in car crashes. People in motorcycle injuries were younger, with a mean age of 36 years, and more likely to be men (81%) than those injured in car accidents. Compared with car accidents, motorcycle accidents caused 3 times the injuries, 10 times the severity, 6 times the medical costsand 5 times the deaths. People with injuries from motorcycle crashes were much more likely to be hospitalized and to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) compared with car crash victims.
"The main results of our study were that each motorcycle in Ontario causes 10 times the severe injuries, 5 times the deaths, and 6 times the medical costs of each automobile," says Daniel Pincus, author of the study, PhD candidate at Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and an orthopedic resident physician at Sunnybrook Hospital. "We know that the additional risk associated with driving a motorcycle has not translated into improvements in motorcycle safety. So we hope that estimating the medical costs of care for motorcycle crashes may provide an additional incentive to improve safety," adds Pincus.
Before this study, there were no reliable estimates of medical costs from motorcycle accidents on a broader scale, as most calculations were from single hospitals.
"Although exact health care costs vary in other health care systems, we argue that the conclusions drawn from the relative comparison of motorcycle to automobile crashes apply beyond Canada to the rest of the developed world," write the authors. "For example, in a privately funded health care system, insurance companies and individual providers may accept a larger share of the direct health care costs than we have estimated in this study."
Limitations of the study include the inability to capture health care costs for outpatient rehabilitation for people with brain injuryand other longer-term health needs. As they also could not capture health care spending by insurance companies and individuals or indirect costs such as missed workdays, the authors suggest that their cost estimates may be lower than in reality.

More information: Daniel Pincus et al. Direct medical costs of motorcycle crashes in Ontario, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2017).

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