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[I posted this message on July 8, 2002 at the Discussion Forum hosted by Mr. James R. Davis, a self-claimed certified MSF instructor. MSF is Motorcycle Safety Foundation which claims to promote motorcycle safety. The message has remained at the forum even though another post "The Truth Is Stranger Than..." which attempts to clarify some of the views/opinions expressed in it was deleted within a few hours of posting.

The text has not been edited since posting. All errors in the writing are left uncorrected to preserve the integrity of the text as a record.]

Comments
 
I haven't taken either Basic Rider Course nor Advanced Rider Course offered by Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) but have read the text book used in the Basic Rider Course and almost all of the tips Mr. Davis provides at this web site. Taken individually, almost everything MSF and Mr. Davis teach/advise/recommend makes sense and I have no trouble accepting and following most of them; however, I have had this suspicion that as a whole what MSF and Mr. Davis have been doing may be doing more harm to riders, especially new/inexperienced riders, than doing nothing.

After reading messages at this forum, I am more convinced of my suspicion. The impression I get from reading messages here is that people seem to think they can ride more safely believing if they read about safe riding and become knowledgeable about technical details of safe riding, they will be able to handle dangerous/emergency situations better. I wish riding a bike is that easy. If you can execute maximum hard braking, recovering from a slide, etc., I don't think you are frequenting this site. You are making a living as a professional racer!. And I don't think most people have the talent nor ability to even approach the caliber of professional racers even if they trained for years because riding a bike is a SPORT, very, very different from driving a car. Of course, as Mr. Davis insists, we know we need to practice what we learn from reading, but how many of us can afford or are willing to practice to their limit things which, if not done well, may result in dumping their bikes. Dumping a bike and falling onto the ground even at 5-10 mph, in my opinion, can cause serious damage to the bike (cosmetically, at least) and bruises or severe scratches on the rider's hand and/or knee unless he or she is wearing leather gloves and leather pants or knee pads. (Believe me, jeans tear rather easily on the asphalt.)

What I think MSF and Mr. Davis are doing is, intentional or not, encouraging people to think they are or will be better riders if they know more about safe riding. I am surprised to see this ill founded confidence which I think grows to most people who take MSF courses or frequent this site manifest in the response to Mr. Emonk's message which details his recent accident (Dogs are dangerous! EMonk 04Jul 2002). The poster asks:

"...I'm wondering if the crash could have been avoided by first braking and then rolling on the throttle a fraction of a second before impact to extend the forks and maximize their ability to keep the wheels on the road? Or maybe the dog was just too big to "go over" and the only option was to slow down (assuming swerving wasn't an option)?..."

I know rolling the throttle just before the front tire hits the object you DECIDE to ride over helps reduce the downward pressure on the front wheel so that the impact to the front wheel will be minimized, but to me it's not clear what the poster is suggesting to accomplish. Trying to stop without damping the bike? Or trying to "go over" the dog? I don't know about most of you, but I am 100% certain that I won't be able to DECIDE in a split of a second whether to "go over" a live dog, no matter how tiny it is. Do you really think Mr. EMonk who seems to have had about 15 years of riding experience without a major accident couldn't do what most of us can? Isn't it more natural to think he encountered one unfortunate situation which most of us cannot handle. It's very ironic that Mr. Emonk who had managed to ride some forms of two-wheeler for 15 years without a major accident got into one in less than two months after discovering this site. (See his message: Eye opener EMonk 25 May 2002.) I won't venture into guessing whether what he has read here made him too confident thinking "I have learnt all these from experience," but we know for sure that he got unlucky this ONE time.

The odds against motorcycle riders are just too high. According to Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts for 2000(available at www.state.ky.us/agencies/ksp/traffic.htm), with 44,490 registered motorcycles, there were 951 injury collisions involving motorcycles and 36 motorcyclist deaths. Assuming the number of riders was the same as the number of registered motorcycles, that's is 1 out of every 47 riders got injured and 1 out of every 1236 riders got killed in motorcycle accidents in a year. It would be interesting to compare these figures with those for other sports. Skiing, skydiving, scuba diving, hang gliding, etc. (I would appreciate it if you can find more data about motorcycle accidents, especially newer ones. If you do, would you post them?)

I have actually one serious complaint about the Basic Rider Course given in California. In California, people under the age of 21(or 20?) are required to take the course to get a motorcycle license, but if they do take and pass the course, they will be given a waiver for the skill test. And I know one part of the skill test in California is missing from the tests given in the course: going in a circle about 24 feet in diameter three times in a row without putting your foot on the ground, in both directions. Whether useful or not, most people find it difficult, and they end up having to practice for days if they want to pass the skill test. I even started suspecting that the Basic Rider Course is meant to produce more less skilled riders than otherwise possible.

Why? The only reasonable answer I could come up was to bring more people to this dangerous sport of motorcycle riding and sell them motorcycles and related products. Of course, I was just joking...but today I found the following in a report critical of the effectiveness of helmets:

JAPANESE CONTROL OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY

Most of the helmets today are produced in foreign countries. This is mainly due to product liability evasion. Forcing people to buy helmets will cause much more of our money to be sent to foreign countries, thereby furthering our imbalance of trade. Japanese motorcycle manufacturers produce the majority of the helmets sold in this country. It seems as though our D.O.T. standards are set around their helmets, standards which are not acceptable in England. Until the Japanese motorcycles infiltrated our country, there was not any pro-helmet use for street bikes. But since the propaganda has steadily rolled out of Japan, they have managed to start and control the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, which is the only motorcycle training course that is recognized in the United States. This is a course which encourages people to buy their products instead of American products. The same people from Japan who control the Motorcycle Industries Council also control the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

You can view the full report at

http://www.kena.net/phd/docs/holt.htm

I have always thought that leather gloves, pants, jackets, and boots are very effective against road rash when a rider falls to the ground. And for minor falls at lower speed, definitely more valuable than a helmet. Why aren't they mandated by law? Well, do you know of many Japanese manufactures of these products? I can think of only Kushitani. And I guess Kushitani is too minor to influence legislatures in the U.S.

I have no idea if the accusation at the above web site is true or not. I hope Mr. Davis or someone from MSF will respond to this accusation.

Comments
 
I've been exposed!

I didn't think that anybody would notice that I have $20,000 in equipment and services invested in this effort, six years of my time and much creative energy to write and post 162 safety related articles, became a certified MSF instructor, provide a forum open to the public, including contrary opinions - all free - just so that I could help out the Japanese economy and let someone else sell helmets.

I'm so ashamed.

[Obviously, he must have thought he could dismiss me by sarcastically evading the questions raised in my post.]