The above link gets you to the on-street safety program as it exists in North Carolina. It is run by the State Police there. The program developed out of the program run in the United Kingdom.

Today, I managed to get into the inagural class run by the Illinois State Police. First, I had an excellent time interacting with the State Police who proved to be open to discussion on all things motorcycle safety-wise. Second, it seemed to be pretty well thought out and pretty well executed for such a new program. I expected more and bigger snags to be found by us beta testers. Thirdly, police officers know how to tune and adjust a program in short order to overcome sticking points in such presentations. I expect the course to be substantially different in a few places as they tweak it. So I am going to refrain from criticizing anything now.

I invite anyone to post up their experiences with the Bike Safe programs as found in the UK, NC, or IL. Right at the moment there is no rider cost for this. I can see where demand might grow enough that some costs will need to be covered. Therefore, riders should contact program coordinators asap and get the fun and education while it is still 'free'.

I will say this much. Any rider who is looking to get some feedback about how well they ride the street by a motor officer who knows what really counts on the street should enjoy the Ride Safe Program very much and learn good stuff to boot.

I can see where this would be a very good program for clubs to get their usually varied members' skilz all on the same page. Bike shops might put together something for their patrons and have the program run out of their store once or twice per season? Lone riders and couples, 2-up or solo, might contact the coordinator and see where the program is being offered and join that group for the day.

Riders living in nearby states might ask if they can participate? I have no idea what out of state regs might be, if any?

Figure the usual safety course requirements: ATGATT, correct lics&ins, good tires, safe bike to ride, sign releases, etc. I was 'TOLD' that my license wasn't going to be run for priors/warrants. And I wasn't arrested. So, either they didn't run me, or I didn't have any outstanding items, or I did and they didn't care? Who knows, but I lived thru that little worry. Now, if they had run me thru the IRS, anytrhing might have happened?! 

More as I think of it....

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

drummer (9/23/2011)

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   ...   He recites statistics about what they learn from accidents and a great deal of it goes against common thought. As I remember it, Mark stated the biggest reason for accidents with bikes is .... (drum roll) ... lack of skill, followed closely by alcohol related accidents then cage induced accidents. These stats shocked me, but it did make me want to learn more about driving safely.
Thanks for the reminder of the class/school. I have it on my things to do list.

Have a great time, drummer, and let us know how it went for you.

And your post reminded me that a "lack of skill" is not limited to bike control. "Skill" in this sense is much bigger than bike control. It takes real skill to assess trafic scenarios and decide on riding line choices. Nearly anyone can learn to opperate a motorcycle well enough to move around on it in about 20 minutes. The understanding of how to do it in traffic and in a wide variety of conditions without killing yourself is the much larger challenge and almost all of the fun too.

The best is that the riding part happens on the street in the real world where the skills really count. Really, really an excellent experience for me on many levels that were not readily appreciated until the next day or several days after participating in the program. The sort of training where it keeps paying residuals that I wasn't quite expecting until they came to me in A-Ha moments of clarity.

Fer instance, I know that I get a creepy feeling when something is wrong but I haven't gotten cognition as to what exactly the problem is. If I am riding on the X-way, I am now much more watchful of my 'outs' and don't let myself get boxed in by traffic as easily. There was a pretty good classroom video of a rider losing all his 'outs' and getting 'collected' in an x-way collision. You better believe that I am better tuned to that scenarion now. And the same sort of scenario presented itself when I was riding with the Illinois State Police Officer. The training provided exactly the sort of early warning that I needed to stay out of harms way. A big part of riding is the BRAINS part.

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

Oh good grief. Now I've replied to it too.