Riders seem to cop more road rage than other motorists.
This could be because we are seen as road menaces, making loud noises, zipping through the traffic (even though filtering is legal) and skipping to the front of the queue at the lights.
It could also be because we are seen as non-threatening because of our size. It’s easy to menace another road user if you are in a big pickup and they are on a scooter or motorcycle!
And if we react to road rage, we are likely to come off second best.
So, as riders, we have to learn to avoid it and/or live with it and not react which can escalate the situation.
“Unfortunately, it seems to involve individuals from all road user groups as both the victims and the perpetrators,” he says.
“Motorcyclists and bicyclists are of course the most vulnerable due to the lack of physical protection around them. But the fundamentals of personal safety of the roads are no different to anywhere else,” he says.
Now Aussie car rental company StressFreeCarRental.com have come up with a guide to tackling road rage before it occurs.
Their following tips are relevant to all motorists and riders can certainly learn something from them:
Stay in the right: It is never a good idea to copy what another driver has done on the road, if they have undertaken a bad or wrong move. In the heat of the moment, it may seem a good idea to try to replicate them or make a gesture towards them, but it is unproductive. Stay grounded and level-headed.
Emotional intelligence: Often people get behind the wheel when there has been an argument in their life, and they may feel very down or frustrated. Then they have to turn their attention to driving, with the potential to put themselves, their passengers and other road users in danger. Always take a few moments to prepare for your journey at these times.
Music: This can be a good diversion from the stresses of the day. By playing some classical music or your favourite track, it can impact your mood for the better and enable you to counter stressful situations more readily.
Dangers of eye contact: People who feel they have been wronged on the road may have the natural instinct to look at the driver in the other vehicle, but this is rarely a good idea. If a situation has the potential to escalate, making eye contact with the other driver is not a good idea.
Time: it is worthwhile allowing some ‘injury time’ in footballing terms for your journey, to ensure you are not racing against the clock to reach your chosen destination and meaning you won’t get as frustrated in a traffic hold-up.
Flexible thinking: No matter how good people are at driving for the majority of the time, mistakes happen. Don’t allow yourself to get swept away with anger if you see something has gone wrong on the road in front – stay focussed to know how to avoid danger and remain calm.
A new theory about what causes Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You (or SMIDSY) crashes is that bikes can appear out of nowhere like planes and ships.
Rider safety exert Kevin Williams of British rider training company Survival Skills calls the phenomenon the “constant bearing, decreasing range” issue.
I have reported for several years on various theories that can lead to SMIDSY crashes.
You can check out some of the scientific studies into SMIDSY by clicking here.
The causes can be anything from drivers not bothering to look, seeing us but not caring because of the diminished threat, not seeing us because of “saccadic masking” (see video below), and plain stupidity.
If you want to know how to avoid these crashes, click here.
One of the suggestions we make is to weave around in your lane to attract the attention of other motorists.
Kevin agrees that this is important because a static rider is a small target that is difficult to see and whose speed is difficult to judge.
He says it’s like an approaching plane or ship on a constant bearing.
“The problem is that lack of lateral movement to attract our attention, and there’s a very specific form of motion camouflage that happens when two moving vehicles are on a collision course,” he says.
He says the problem is known as the ‘Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range’ issue which is a term used in navigation and flying.
It means that some object, usually another ship viewed from the deck or bridge of one’s own ship or another aircraft viewed from the cockpit, is getting closer but staying at the same angle – or maintaining the same absolute bearing.
“If they both continue on the same course at the same speed, they WILL collide. And it CAN happen on the roads,” he says.
“Just ask yourself where; for example, when you’re approaching a roundabout and another vehicle is on an intersecting course and will arrive at the same time, or when approaching a cross-roads and another vehicle is approaching head-on.
“Since neither vehicle will appear to move relative to the background, it can be difficult for either driver/rider to perceive the other, even when in clear view.”
He says riders cannot rely on drivers predicting that there might be a bike they can’t see, so it is up to riders to attract the motorist’s attention by breaking the Constant Bearing problem.
“All we need to do is change position and speed and thus create some lateral movement,” he says.
“Hopefully the driver will now see us though a wise rider would still be prepared to take evasive action,” he says.
Riders should also identify anything that may block them from a motorist’s vision and move out from behind it so they can be seen;.
“That way we ‘uncloak’ our bike, and at least give the driver a chance of seeing us.”
It still doesn’t mean they won’t perceive a bike as a threat nor that they will misjudge our speed, so take care out there.
The survey was conducted last month in preparation for the current Motorcycle Awareness Month to gain an insight into how to get the message across to drivers to #lookoutformotorcycles.
It also found that half of NSW motorcyclists have experienced a near-miss in the past three months.
The survey was designed to capture motorcyclists experience of drivers’ behaviour that has affected their safety and what can be done to improve their safety on the road.
While there are numerous statistics and studies completed about motorcycle crashes, there is little information about the number and effect of near misses which can easily turn into a crash.
The survey used three key areas to question motorcyclists:
About their personal riding experience
Details about their last two near misses
How drivers’ behaviour could be improved to reduce near misses.
Respondents riding experience
Most (77%) respondents had over 10 years’ experience riding, with many riding for weekend recreation (86%), 63% enjoying regional NSW riding and29% using their motorcycle to commute.
Driving mistakes happen often with37% of riders correcting their riding or riding defensively to protect themselves from drivers’ mistakes every time they ride, while 36% correct their riding one in five rides.
This shows we need to continue to get the message out to drivers to be extra diligent around motorcycles.
Details about their last two near misses
93% of respondents have had a near miss, and 58% of them were shaken by the experience.
An overwhelming 52% had a near miss in the past three months.
The majority occurred in metropolitan areas and 22% occurred on rural roads.
When did near misses occur?
Most (62%) of the near misses happened during the weekday.With 55% occurred between the hours of 10-3pm, with 24% between 3pm to 7pm and 18% between the morning peak hour times.
Where did near misses occur?
A third occur on suburban roads, 19% at intersection without traffic lights, 20% on main roads/highways and 16% on rural roads.
Where there other factors contributing to near misses?
Excessive speed doesn’t seem to be the problem in motorcycle near misses with 46% riding less than 50km/h and 36% between 50-80km/h.
The majority of near misses were with cars (48%) and 40% SUV vehicles.
According to the rider, 88% of the drivers in a near miss were disobeying the road rules.
Their experience of the near miss could have been avoided had the driver followed the road rules (51%), 49% said for the driver to look in their mirrors, 23% said to slow down, and finally, 14% to not use their mobiles while driving.
How can drivers’ behaviour be improved to reduce motorcycle near misses?
The survey asked motorcyclists what the driver can do to avoid future near misses with the motorcycle.
There was a strong recurring message coming from all riders.Mentions of ‘look’ (143), ‘mirror’ (92), ‘phone’ (47), and ‘blind spots’ (36) in the comments of riders on how drivers can change their driving behaviour to make it safer for motorcycles.
Key survey outcomes
Motorcycle near misses with drivers occur too often and aren’t always a result of traffic and road conditions.
Near misses are happening primarily with cars, on suburban roads, outside of peak hour on weekdays.Mostly, speed isn’t an issue, however the driver was at fault.
Rider experience is key for motorcyclists to avoid near misses.
Drivers need to always be diligent and look out for motorcycles.
Mark from Orange suggests drivers: “Don’t even look at your phone. Stay on your own side of the road especially on blind corners and crests. Look twice.”
“Use your mirrors. Don’t use mobile phones and don’t think just because your vehicle is bigger you have the right of way!” says Trudy from Cessnock.
Windsor motorcyclist Cameron says: “Check your mirrors, turn your head, make sure there is no one beside you when changing lanes. Give more room when following and stop tailgating please”
What would be your message to drivers to keep motorcyclists safe on our roads?
Once the pandemic lockouts finish in Australia, we’re all going to need a good travel guide book and one of the best places to start is with the guides from Bridget Hallam and Alan Cox (pictured).
The second edition of their South east Queensland and northern New South Wales guidebook has 29 ride routes.
It comes with maps, directions and navigation waypoints for every ride and beautiful images of the roads and scenery.
“We’re excited to share even more of our favourite rides in this amazing part of the world with other riders,” says Alan.
“We’ve added more videos of rides in Edition 2, so you can view the actual rides by scanning the QR codes in the book – and we have GPX and ITN (TomTom) navigation files for every ride, free for anyone who buys the book.
Bridget Hallam and Alan Cox
“We’ve also included a section on preparing for your adventures, with handy information on everything from self-care to packing for weekend rides,” Bridget added.
After selling out of two print runs of the original edition, and with motorcycle sales in Australia surging by 22.2% in 2020, Bridget and Alan know that motorcyclists are keen to explore regional areas.
Motorcyclists are generous, too. “Motorcycle tourism makes an important contribution to regional economies because we travel light and spend money locally on food, fuel and accommodation,” Bridget explained.
About the authors
Bridget Hallam and Alan Cox
Avid motorcyclists and adventurers, Alan and Bridget ride two-up on Beauty, their 2008 model BMW 1200 GS.
“Beauty has over 120,000km on her odometer and we’re just getting started,” says Alan.
“We’ve ridden many roads in Australia and Europe on her and when the world opens up again, we’ll ride many more.”
Alan navigates the routes and Bridget videos and photographs from the pillion position.
The second edition of Throw Your Leg Over South East Queensland & Northern New South Wales and Throw Your Leg Over Tasmania plus their Throw Your Leg Over Europe are available online at throwyourlegover.com.au and 60+ stockists throughout Australia (see website for locations).
The world’s first pay-as-you-ride insurance scheme has launched in America allowing leisure and seasonal riders and those who own more tan one motorcycle to reduce their insurance costs.
It makes a lot of sense and we hope it takes off in Australia where you have limited options to reducing your very hefty insurance premiums.
We would also like to see something similar for registration fees. After all, why should we pay full registration for a motorcycle that may sit in the garage for weeks on end?
Riders are already used to pay-as-you-go road tolls and there are several cities in the world where you pay to enter CBD zones.
There is also talk of such systems in Australia to reduce peak-hour congestion.
So it makes sense t ave insurance and eras registration tied to distance travelled.
The pay-per-mile scheme launched in the USA by insurtech company is called VOOM.
It allows riders to accurately tailor their insurance premium to the number of kilometres (or lies in the States) that they ride.
So if you are snowed in for several months or only get out on the weekend or have several bikes, you could substantially reduce your premiums.
It will be launched first in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and is underwritten by Markel American Insurance Company.
VOOM says its research shows that the risks associated with low-mileage riding can be more than 80% lower than that of high-mileage motorcycling.
Some other products do allow riders to stall their insurance during winter months, but this is the first pay-as-you-go system in the world, the company claims.
VOOMdoes not require a physical device or mobile app to track mileage or behaviour. Instead, riders simply submit a photo of their odometers every month.
Coverage is accompanied by online policy management, and varied other coverage options available to qualified riders, including liability, comprehensive, medical payments, collision, uninsured motorists, and accessory coverage.
The UK Highway Code is being revised to incorporate a hierarchy of vehicles where bigger vehicles have to look out for smaller, more vulnerable, road users such as motorcyclists.
Sounds like fair deal, right?
After all, big vehicles such as trucks have huge blind spots and drivers need to take care to ensure that small vehicles such as motorcycles, scooters and bicycles are not in the way before taking a turn or other manoeuvre.
And most riders would like to see road safety messages include an education component to make drivers more aware of them.
However, we are not so sure that legislating a hierarchy of vehicles is such a good idea, especially in Australia where our roads are shared by everything from bicycles t 50+m road trains.
For a start, how would police patrol for offences?
Impossible.
And if a law can’t be policed, it shouldn’t exist.
The only use for such a rule would be in the wake of a crash where the onus of driving innocence would then fall on the larger of the vehicles involved.
However, this onus of proof runs contrary to our justice system where people are innocent until proven guilty.
It would also apply to motorcyclists if they were involved in a crash with a cyclist.
It’s quite ridiculous and an example of safety Nazis getting in the way of a commonsense approach.
The Australian bicycle lobby has been arguing for something similar for some years.
However, road safety signalling should be about sharing the road, taking responsibility for your own actions and penalising those who operate outside the road rules.
The UK Highway Code does require drivers and riders of all vehicles to be responsible for looking out for more vulnerable road users, but the concern is the implied guilt simply because a vehicle is simply bigger.
Australian motorcycle trainere motoDNA has developed a computer software system that analyses rider behaviour and uses a computer game environment to reward riders and improve their skills.
Founder Mark McVeigh says the system is “100% data driven”.
Using a GoPro mounted on your motorbike, the motoDNA software analyses riding, grades the rider and compared them to thousands of other riders.
Their algorithms are used to teach riders how to improve their skills in a “gamified” rewards-based community platform.
Mark says its black-box thinking similar to that used in the aviation industry.
“Aviation industry crashes are taken very seriously and as a result have an astonishing safety record,” he says.
“Every plane has a black box which is opened when there is an accident or close call.
“The root cause is clearly understood and then recreated with quality training in a simulator, so pilots take the correct and intuitive reaction to the problem when it happens again in the future.
“This evidence-based analytical loop ensures that procedures are adapted so that the same mistake doesn’t happen again.”
However, motoDNA doesn’t use crash data. It uses data collected by participants in their training courses.
Mark says high-quality training and rewards have worked in other countries.
In Norway, high-quality training has reduced the percentage of motorcycle riders involved in accidents from 5% in 1980 to 0.26% in 2020.
Mark also points to the success of the New Zealand Government’s Ride Forever program which rewards riders riders who undertake extra training with rego discounts.
He says this rewards system has resulted in a 27% for reduction in crashes for those riders who have done a skills course.
What started out as a leisurely ride from Brisbane to Tenterfield and back over a couple of days with three friends and family turned into a bit of an adventure simply because one of our riders hadn’t checked his tyre pressures.
I have been banging on about checking your tyre pressures for years. Check out our article on correct tyre pressures here.
In the article we say:
You should check your tyre pressures every time you go out for a ride or it can result in bad handling, increased wear, fatigue cracking, increased chance of a puncture, decreased grip and lower braking performance.”
I probably should add that it is also important to check your mates’ tyres, particularly important when heading off on a longer ride over multiple days with several others.
Sadly, one of our riders had never checked his tyre pressures since he bought his bike and got his licence about eight months ago!
We were unaware of this before our ride. In fact, I only became aware after the inevitable happened.
I had charted a course that took us over some notoriously bumpy country roads on the NSW/Queensland border ranges and recent floods in the area had made the roads even worse with plenty of unprepared potholes.
My crew didn’t hold back in criticism of the route, either.
So, as lead rider, I kept the pace down on known bumpy sections and unleashed on sections which I knew had been repaired in recent years.
With 20/20 hindsight, I should have kept the pace down everywhere.
Just south of Old Bonalbo where the Clarence Way has been resurfaced in recent years, we went through a lefthand sweeper shaded by a big old gum tree.
Right in the middle of the corner were two massive ruts in the bitumen with jagged edges. It looked like a truck had hit the skids when the tar was still hot and wet!
I didn’t see the ruts because of the shade, but as I went through I noticed I had luckily ridden right through the middle.
Not so lucky was my riding partner whose back wheel hit a rut which immediately ripped a gaping wound in the sidewall of his KTM 390 Duke’s rear tyre.
However, there is not much you can do about a 3cm tear and we were at least 50km from the nearest town.
Hours passed waiting for the RACQ/NRMA to send out a tow truck, so we never made it to Tenterfield, instead diverting to Casino overnight.
After the tyre was replaced the next morning, we fuelled up and checked our tyre pressures.
The front tyre on the KTM was 21psi when it should have been 39psi, so we assume the rear tyre may have been similarly low on pressure, causing the impact wth the pothole to split the tyre.
We all learnt a valuable lesson tat not only should you check your tyre pressures before as ride, but you probably should also check your riding partners’ tyre pressures as well!
“No matter what bike you buy, you’ll drop it at least once.” We’ve all heard the saying, and being honest (come on guys and girls!), we’ve all done it at least once. Parking lot practice, coming to a stop at a red light, getting a sudden gust of wind when you’re setting off, the bike and you have gone down at least once. Often, these drops are the source of some good-natured laughs, a little bit of embarrassment, and a lesson in humility learned.
Yet, not all drops happen at low or no speed. What happens when you come across, or witness, a drop when going 100 KPH? What if you are doing a long-distance tour and come across someone that has cut their hand trying to fix the battery lead under the hood of their car? Having first aid knowledge is definitely a plus, but having a ready-to-go first aid kit is the best kind of preparation for these scenarios.
First Aid Kit Limitations
Carrying Size
In a car, you can realistically carry a full aid kit, with everything and anything you could possibly need in an emergency or aid situation. On a motorcycle, unless you have a dedicated top box or pannier for a kit, there is a significant size limitation. Often, a motorcycle first aid kit is the kind you can fit into a pocket of your jacket, in your backpack, as a pack around your waist, or sometimes strapped down over your pillion seat.
It also means that you have to be prepared for the most common types of injuries that may require first aid. You cannot realistically carry a spinal board on a motorcycle, and while spinal concerns may be common in accidents, it’s often more important to stop bleeding and help the patient through shock setting in.
Injuries You Expect To Encounter
The most common types of injuries experienced by motorcyclists are not major traumatic injuries like broken bones and major cuts. In fact, the most common type of injury is either a burn, via sunburn, accidental contact with the exhaust pipe, et al, or an eye injury, from riding with the visor cracked open or fully open with sunglasses that are not road protection rated.
You can also expect scrapes and cuts from quite literally hitting the road, although the severity is often dictated by the road surface and the speed of travel. In the worst cases, you can expect to encounter fractures, breaks, and lacerations.
With this in mind, let us examine what really should be in your motorcycle first aid and/or trauma kit.
First Aid Kit Contents
Image courtesy of Road Guardians. The Basic Kickstart Kit, including almost all of the items listed below in a small pack you can wear around your waist
Firstly, we at MotorBike Writer must give our heartfelt thanks to Road Guardians First Aid Training For Motorcyclists for their invaluable assistance in helping build out this list. We highly recommend checking to see if a similar first aid for motorcyclists course is available in your area.
Basics
The first thing in any first aid kit, no matter the size, is at least two pairs of nitrile gloves. Protecting yourself from bloodborne diseases, as well as having a somewhat sterile field of treatment, is priority one. If you cannot safely perform first aid, it may be an extremely tough call, but you have to look after yourself first.
On the subject of sterility, having a small squeeze bottle of hand sanitizer that carries an anti-microbial rating is key. Make sure it is at least 60% alcohol, and if possible, be waterless so it cleans quickly and doesn’t stick around on the hands.
The third most vital thing in your first aid kit is a set of trauma shears. You can find these at most medical supply stores, where they may also be labeled as paramedic shears. You want ones that are at least inches long. They are designed with a flat bottom to be slipped under clothing, leathers, and the like, to cut away said clothing or leathers to allow access to potential injury and trauma.
A first aid field guide, a small first aid book, or even a cheat sheet that is laminated to protect against the weather is always helpful. In the heat of the moment, while you may be remaining calm externally, your mind might be racing, and having a quick lookup can ensure that you apply first aid correctly.
Having a syringe of sterile saline is recommended, but not fully necessary, to wash out (irrigate) any deeper cuts or surface abrasions, getting rid of the dirt, and cleaning the wound for treatment
Heavy-duty ziploc or even freezer bags are extremely useful for putting biohazardous material such as used gauze, used gloves, et al in to keep them separate from sterile areas or as part of the post-aid cleanup.
A collapsible rescue breathing mask is important in today’s world, especially with the pandemic. These masks will cover the mouth and nose, and often will have a one-way flutter valve in them to allow your breath to pass through, but not allow any return breath to prevent contamination.
Cuts & Abrasions
Since abrasions and cuts may be encountered anywhere, the first thing to really take care of is having a variety of bandages. Along with an antibiotic ointment either in a small tube or single-dose tear packs, everything from some regular bandaids, at least four butterfly bandages/steri-strips/adhesive sutures, and four large 4×4 packaged, sterile gauze pads are the priority.
It is also recommended that you carry a few folded paper towels in a ziplock bag, as these can be used to wipe away blood or other fluids to get to the site of the bleeding. Once the cut or site of bleeding is identified, then using the gauze pads to put pressure on the cut is advised.
If there is room in your kit, a tourniquet is recommended as well, one made of a strong strap with some kind of handle to turn the tourniquet tight. This is to be used for the most serious of blood injuries such as an open amputation, and it’s always better to have one and never need it, than to need it and not have it. It’s better to prevent someone bleeding out and they lose a limb than for them to die. Harsh truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Burns & Insect Bites
Believe us, you’ve never pulled over and parked by the side of the road as fast as when a wasp gets in your helmet. Even then, you’re probably going to get stung a few times, so here are some items you should carry.
Most importantly, if there is room in your kit, an EpiPen is highly recommended, and it should be changed out when it is close to expiring. Many people who have major allergies or anaphylactic reactions will have an EpiPen on their person, but if you identify such a reaction, having an easily accessible EpiPen, instead of searching that person for theirs, can quite literally mean life and death.
Due to how commonly people get a sunburn, an accidental heat burn from touching a hot part of their bike, or even an insect sting, some burn gel and/or sting relief gel in your kit is one of those things you will use more often than not. A small tip, aloe vera-based gels, or those fortified with aloe vera extract, work extremely well here.
As well, having some instant cold packs designed for first aid kits will be immensely useful. These are the little folded packages that you squeeze one side to break open a vial inside, and due to the chemical reaction taking place, it gets very cold, very quickly. One of these applied to a minor burn or major sting will bring quick relief, as well as reducing the stress the patient is experiencing.
Breaks, Fractures, and Sprains
It is human nature to extend the hands in front of us when falling or flying through the air, so that the “least important” part of us, the arms, take the brunt of an impact, protecting the head and torso, the so-called “life box.” As part of this natural instinct, arm, wrist, and hand fractures are quite common non-life-threatening injuries, as are collarbone breaks.
In terms of first aid, having a few triangle bandages can be extremely helpful. These bandages can be used as slings, can be wadded up to be padding, can be rolled quickly to form bindings for splints, can be used to tighten gauze, can be used as tourniquets in extreme situations, and are generally just damned useful. While air splints are a bit too large to carry in a motorcycle first aid kit, if the patient’s motorcycle has suffered severe damage, a triangle bandage wadded up inside a front fairing, with two more bandages tying an arm down to that fairing means you have a makeshift split. Triangle bandages are literally the Swiss Army Knife of a first aid kit.
As breaks and fractures are the most common type of injury that can send someone into shock, having an emergency blanket or two in your kit is vital. These can be used as makeshift rain covers, are designed to reflect body heat back into a body with the shiny side, and can also be used as a treatment blanket if you need to sit someone down on the ground and prevent them losing body heat to cold or damp grass/mud/etc.
Useful Extras
It is highly recommended to carry a ziploc bag that is nicknamed “the small pharmacy.” In this bag, clearly identified, should be anti-diarrhea tablets, antihistamines, antacids, regular or extra-strength over-the-counter painkillers, and a few packs of water-soluble electrolytes you can mix in with water or take straight from the package. Not all first aid is direct and dealing with broken bones and cuts. On a long, multi-day motorcycle ride, diarrhea can dehydrate you very quickly, and having electrolytes to replace the ones lost is vital.
If you can squeeze it into your kit, having a couple of 2 inch wide rolls of gauze is another one of those “you never know” types of items. They can be used to wrap burns, hold gauze pads in place, help tie splints, and generally just be useful.
A few glowsticks are extremely useful, especially in multiple colors. These can be used for everything from emergency light to work by at night, to signaling traffic away from an accident scene. If you have multiple colors, having green, yellow, and red as those colors can help with triage, with green as OK, yellow as a concern, and red as emergency aid needed.
Especially in Australia, having a good pair or two of tweezers in your kit is important. Stings, bites, and nasty plants abound, so being able to pull plant spikes, spider mandibles, stingers, or even the odd splinter from your skin quickly is important.
Summary Checklist
Image provided by Road Guardians. The Rebel Kit, which has everything you could possibly need in a first aid kit that will fit in a backpack or pannier/top box on your bike
While this may sound like a hell of a lot of stuff to fit into a small bag, you will be surprised at how many items can be folded flat, naturally lay flat, or can fit around each other in such a kit. In fact, all of these items will slide into a kit small enough to be slid down the outside of a camelback, or tucked into the front pocket of an adventure riding jacket.
The Checklist:
Essentials
Two (2) pairs of Nitrile Gloves
Anti-microbial, >=60% alcohol hand sanitizer
Trauma shears
First aid guide book/field guide/cheat sheet
Syringe of sterile saline for irrigation (if possible)
Collapsible rescue breathing mask (with one way valve if available)
Regular bandaids
Four (4) butterfly bandages (can substitute adhesive sutures or steri-strips)
Four (4) sealed, sterile gauze pads, at least 4 inches square
Paper towels folded flat in a ziploc bag (for wiping/fluid cleanup)
Burn and/or sting relief gel (Aloe vera based or infused highly recommended)
Instant cold packs (we recommend at least two or more, as space allows)
Three (3) or more triangle bandages. The most useful multitool in your kit
Two (2) emergency blankets if possible, one (1) if not
Really Nice To Have
In-date and sealed EpiPen
Tourniquet with handle and strong strap (if possible)
Heavy-duty ziploc/freezer bags for biohazardous waste and post-aid cleanup
Most motorcycle road craft courses are only as good as the training on the day, but Riders Academy by motoDNA also provides riders with the tools to improve long after their street skills day-course has finished.
I recently sent our casual reviewer James Wawne for a day course in road craft at Riders Academy held at Brisbane’s historic Lakeside Driver Training Centre.
James suits up
It’s a $350 full-day course on the tight asphalt course with alternating classroom sessions followed by practical skills tests on the course.
James says the day was well run, “with an emphasis on safety balanced well with providing enough breathing room and practice iterations to push boundaries and provide real learning & tangible skill development in a safe environment”.
“The guys talked about sports psychology and their interpretation of being in a state of flow and increasing boundaries in safe increments which was useful.” he says.
Riders Academy was started by Mark “Irish” McVeigh who has been a Racer, MotoGP Engineer and a V8 Supercars Engineer.
Mark instructs praticipants
“I’ve seen a lot of my Irish racing friends die,” he laments, giving seem credence to the adage “ride like everyone is trying to kill you.
Furthermore, Mark bases all his training courses on science and statistics, not gut feel or conspiracy theories.
So when Mark speaks, the 25 riders at the street skills course listen intently, nod in agreement and soak it in.
“The classroom sessions were instructive,” James says.
“Irish struck a nice balance between covering important elements of theory but relating it to its application and the bringing the various elements together in the real world.
“The on-track coach also pitched in with useful, practical pointers, which he then emphasised during the on-track practice sessions.”
Mark pointed out early on that 50% of all motorcycle accidents are single vehicle and that riders underestimate available grip.
I’ve heard all this before, but there is a difference in how Riders Academy courses are taught.
It’s called “flow”.
Mark learnt the theories of “flow” when he was working with the Triple 8 Red Bull V8 Supercars team in Brisbane.
Basically, it’s a learning program where you take small steps at a time, pushing yourself about 5% beyond your limits. It’s also evidence driven with science and data.
The street skills course not only takes this approach during the duration of the day, but also arms the participants with the skills to continue to stretch their goals and improve as riders long afterwards.
“The course reviewed a number of useful fundamentals and then went further than you would during the process of getting your licence,” James says.
“It underscored the importance of using reference points and using them to optimise line in terms of entry, hitting the apex and exiting corners.
“A few items that we practised of particular use which I will continue to practice included emergency braking, steering with your eyes and using peripheral vision.
“I also plan on experimenting with my position on the bike; gripping the tank with my knees while keeping core engaged and arms relaxed while shifting my weight on the bike to increase turning efficiency.”
Riders Academy by motoDNA’s street skills course teaches cornering lines, emergency braking, hazard avoidance, slow speed control, scanning for hazards and body position.
Here’s a video showing the street skills course in action at Lakeside.
While the emphasis is on safety, it’s also fun and the skills learnt can be taken to their trackSKILLS days.
Mark says their training business ground to a halt under the pandemic, but since coming back in June, they have been busier than ever.
