Only a wee bit about bikes....

We moto-bloggers tend to post about riding safety a fair bit and quite rightly so but I forgot a cardinal rule around the home late yesterday. Consequently I'm paying for it right now and having a quiet day of not doing very much at all.

A small area in our garden is paved with treated wooden blocks which have a coefficient of friction when wet that any budding perpetual motion inventor would lust after - even small animals and insects steer well clear of it. (you can see what's coming, can't you?).

In a hurry to finish a couple of chores before heading off for our weekly evening pub quiz competition, crossing those darned blocks is not exactly the best time to be distracted.  We'd just had a light shower of rain and........

This is going to hurt.......

(courtesy Poolcenter.com)

Gravity, even from a short way off the ground ensures a rough landing and there I lay in light drizzle hurting and wondering what the hell happened.  Jennie was indoors and oblivious to all this as I made tentative movements to see if there were any unusual grating sensations and wishing Mummy was there to make it all better.  Mercifully, there were no breaks although my shoulder aches and it hurts when I cough - just strained chest muscles I hope.  Didn't try to play the sympathy card as I've planned to do something about those darned blocks all winter so the response would have been predictable.  (This has been the ultimate prompt to do something sooner rather than later).  No doubt there will be some interesting colours coming out on the body over the next day or two but don't feel too bad right now having swallowed some anti-inflammatories and rubbed in Voltaren Emugel.  Just hope I'm not too stiff to take part in the IAM ride on Sunday or I'll never hear the end of it from a certain other Kiwi blogger who will see it as his mission in life to tell the other riders!!

Back to the subject of bikes, I had an experience on the Auckland motorway a few days ago which was a timely reminder that even with a high standard of riding, motorcyclists are still at risk.  I was in a line of traffic in the outside lane, moving marginally faster than the next lane in.  Leaving a decent gap to the vehicle in front, I was slowly going past a 4x4 in the next lane.  I was just past the driver's seating position when I sensed as much as actually seeing that his front wing was swinging across to the space I currently occupied!  Delighted to say that's where the IAM training kicked in with muscle memory instantly triggering an avoidance manoeuvre.  No fright, no nothing other than an instantaneous control response - pretty darned pleased with the level of internal discipline.  Reflecting on that incident, a couple of things come to mind.  In the last post reviewing David Hough's new motorcycle book, he talks about prominent vehicles capturing another driver's attention to the extent of ignoring smaller objects (like me!).  This near miss could very well have been an example of this phenomenon.  The driver may well have been fixated on the vehicle in front of me and combined with the decent space I'd left, simply assumed it was ok for him to change lanes.  Guess he'd never heard of doing a lifesaver or shoulder check.  Just take care out there everyone!

Finally, a friend has just introduced me to a supremely talented young Australian musician with a wicked sense of humour.  I can't remember when I've laughed so hard, which hurt rather a lot, given the current state of my ribs.  The satirical song Tim Minchin sings about young children is music to the ears of grandparents in particular, but also parents after they've regained their sense of humour.  I particularly dedicate this YouTube video to our fellow blogger and recent father again Chillertek !!  Incidentally, Tim Minchin has many more hilarious YouTube videos which can't fail to brighten your day.......

Mastering the Ride, 2nd Edition. David L Hough

 David Hough's eagerly-awaited new book

ISBN 978-193548486-B

 (All photos reproduced from the book)

It's always a great occasion when David L Hough puts out a new book, even more so when the great man sends you an autographed copy, but more on that later!

We all know that there are large numbers of motorcycling "improve your skills" books on the market and without spending a fortune, choosing what to read becomes a formidable task.  I have mixed views about the title of the book.  The first "Mastering the Ride" was released nearly 10 years ago.  I wonder whether some potential readers who are familiar with David's earlier books might hesitate to buy it, thinking that it may simply be a cosmetic rehash of earlier work.  At least I'm able to publicly state here that that anyone thinking that would be making a seriously BIG mistake!  How do I know?  Well, when David was putting the material together, I was genuinely privileged to be shown some draft material and asked for some feedback.  Over a period of a couple of months, there were quite a few emails flying back and forth asking for clarification of particular aspects, sharing experiences or arguing the toss!

Some otherwise good skills books can nonetheless be quite hard going.  They can being overly prescriptive without the benefit of clearly explaining why you should follow a particular course of action.  We each respond to learning in slightly different ways but from a personal viewpoint, having some background as to why a particular course of action is being recommended really helps me to engage with what is being presented and retain that information.  It's this aspect which helps David to stand tall among his peers. In other words, he treats his readers as adults, giving sufficient background in terms of photos and clear text to get his point across with a complete absence of self-promotion.  Here is an example:

Just how much did that car driver about to cut across your lane really see?

In the chapter about conspicuity, David discusses visual priorities.  A big, intimidating vehicle may draw the eye in terms visual priority and a motorcycle being in front of it might not even register in the brain with potentially dangerous consequences.  This then leads to what motorcyclists can do for themselves  in terms of conspicuity tactics. A fascinating and insightful chapter - I learned a lot about this subject.

In a discussion on rider training, a graph of the USA motorcycle fatality rate is presented, showing an upward-trending increase.  An argument is presented that in the US, the motorcycle industry quite properly promotes getting as many people as possible to share our passion BUT that the industry's training developers created a very simple "learn to ride" course and a commensurately easy skills test.   Many new riders may feel that having been "anointed" once, this adequately equips them for the rest of their riding  career.  David then discusses independent training courses for renewing/enhancing your skills and where training can be tailored to specific needs of students at any level of their experience.   This is music to my ears having been exposed for the last 18 months or so to the "continuous improvement" environment of IAM advanced roadcraft.  You never stop learning and the moment when you think that there's nothing else to learn is when you put yourself at extreme risk.

There's a specific chapter on improving situational awareness although this topic manifiests itself time and time again in other parts of the book  when dealing with particular road and traffic conditions.

Spot the errors!

The photo above reminded me of  a ride home on my bike from Auckland a week ago.  On the Southern Motorway in reasonably dense traffic, I was followed by another rider who positioned himself too closely, and in my blind spot.  He would also occasionally switch to another lane which occasionally moved faster than the one we were in to try and make progress.  It was clear that he wasn't scanning ahead for a sufficient distance because he got baulked several times as the traffic in that lane slowed.  He would not only lose his place behind me, but to the following vehicles in my lane too.  Had he looked well down the motorway, it would have been clear what was happening.  This is what David refers to as developing "expert eyeballs".

There are many more chapters in this book dealing with other aspects of motorcycling which are treated in the same depth and background analysis than the ones I've briefly described.  However, I'd like to conclude this review by mentioning the section covering the Ageing Rider.  This is is of profound importance as coping strategies are rarely discussed in the public arena..  Consider the following table:

Quite a change in the demographics

The average age of riders continues to increase for all sorts of reasons.  Probably one of the biggest ones is the switch from a cheap form of transport from a younger person to a lifestyle choice for an older one.  This presents all kinds of potential difficulties in terms health, skill, motorcycle choice and so on and if you get that combination wrong, it could mean a world of pain at a time when you're supposed to be enjoying life.

Resulting from an earlier blog article I'd written, David wrote to me and asked when I was going to get off my arse and do something about upskilling (my words, not his but the meaning was abundantly clear!).  It was our subsequent correspondence which lead to a whole load of data collection through various international motorcycle websites about attitudes and intent.  This chapter summarises some of that material and I'm hopeful that David will write a stand-alone publication on the topic as there's a substantial need.  Really proud to have played a small part in this chapter.  Regular readers of this blog will also remember that it was the exchange of emails with David which "got me off my arse" and train with the IAM, arguably one of the world's best advanced roadcraft training courses and for that, I owe him big time.

David's pals Andy Goldfine (l) and Fred Rau (r)

In summary, no book can replace high quality ongoing roadcraft training but this one is an absolutely outstanding adjunct.  It will help prepare riders to lift their skills by better understanding the background to many issues.  It is also invaluable to an experienced or advanced rider as a refresher to help arrest that imperceptible slide in skills which happens to us all if we don't frequently work on our riding skills.

Simply put, this is a wonderful book and you won't regret buying it!

Starting to join the dots....

Unlike St Paul on the Road to Damascus, there has been no blinding light to set me on the road to more competent riding - I'm not smart enough for starters to pick up on anything quickly.  It was simply a creeping realisation that were gaps in my riding ability which increased risk. Most regular readers will be well aware of the path I chose to correct this earlier in the year.  When a fellow Kiwi bike enthusiast, Ron Prichard, recently lent me a motorcycle book I'd not heard of; I initially came close to mailing it back with a neutrally-worded note of thanks.  (A euphemism for not initially understanding a bloody word of it for the first dozen or so pages).  This is the book in question:

ISBN 978-1-884313-75-2

Dr. Berndt Spiegel is a psychologist, has lectured at university and has his own consulting company.  It was his academic writing style about psychological theory which which initially put me off , but the fact that his personal blurb said that he was an enthusiastic motorcyclist persuaded me to persevere and I'm really glad that I did.  It's not an easy read.  Some of his chapters required a "once over lightly" approach to get the gist of it, followed by a slower, in-depth second go.  This isn't a book review as such - it would be very difficult to review properly in such a short post.  However, it's the first motorcycling book I've read which has succinctly explained the reasons behind comments about riding which a lot of bloggers have raised in their posts, including me.  I suppose you could call it "joining the dots" of what we might have thought were unconnected observations about the way we ride, but in fact have a common root.  What I'll do is give a few examples and see if it triggers anything - certainly did for me. The title of the book could well have been called "The Top Three Inches", referring to the impact of the human brain on riding skills.

Let's take that that phenomenon that I've always called "Zen riding", where a rider seems to be on rails and in an almost detached state.  The normal thought is, "Why can't I ride a lot more frequently like this than I actually do?"  Conversely, why is it that when you're super-eager to get out for a ride, you often end up riding quite poorly and stuffing things up?  Dr Spiegel explains very clearly and in a lot of depth how some relatively repetitive tasks are much more effectively carried out at a subconscious level.  By way of example, he cites the simultaneous tasks of balancing the throttle, changing gear, braking and other "routine" components of riding.  Where it tends to go wrong is when these activities get brought into the conscious level where you think about them too much, i.e trying too hard or something suddenly going wrong and so on.  Without going into detail here, quality practice and training is a great way of making sure that routine tasks stay buried in the subconscious level more than they would otherwise do.  An interesting example given which is unconnected with motorcycling involves the great jazz trumpeter and singer Dizzy Gillespie.  When asked about the transition between the trumpet solo and his vocals in a particular song, he was unable to answer the question because it was carried out at a completely subconscious level.  We can all think of things we do which fall into that category.

So what about the conscious self - what do you do with that?  Well, one of the most important things is monitoring for external dangers.... what lies round that bend?  How do I prepare for the unknown?  It all makes sense, yet how many riders do we see who don't construct good mental pictures of potential hazards?  Taking racing lines round blind corners, not moving out from the road edge when an entranceway with an obscured view  is observed and so on.  These monitoring and forward-thinking actions are what are commonly referred to as situational awareness.

What can't you see?  A car cutting the corner perhaps?  A mob of cattle?

What are you doing to prepare for any eventuality?

I particularly like that all this fits in with my current IAM training but more importantly, understanding WHY things happen is the best way for me personally to lock any learning into place.  This book does it brilliantly.

Another topic which the book covers extremely well is how to become self-critical of your own riding.  The author makes a valid point that downplaying self-criticism certainly soothes a rider's ego but it also throws away opportunities to reduce error and improve.  The chapter covering this topic gives some very practical advice on how to raise your own self-awareness.  It's only when you're honest in admitting to yourself that there are gaps in your riding skills AND being motivated to want to do something about it that any lasting progress will be made.  Taking that first honest step is probably the most difficult of all - it certainly was for me.   Dr Spiegel's chart below shows the improvement process rather nicely (click to enlarge)

The author gives a telling example of repetition and training which will be recognised by many of us.  He says that he's always amazed at how well overall the British ride in the rain.  Whilst riders in drier countries prefer to avoid those conditions, the British have little choice because of the frequency of wet weather so they are not intimidated by the conditions.  Think about a long ride you've done in challenging conditions - you dial into it and gradually become more relaxed and proficient, don't you?

The book isn't all academic - Dr Spiegel gives eminently practical advice on how to apply the psychology of riding on an everyday basis.  Overall, this is probably one of the most important books about riding well that I've ever come across.  As already stated, it's not always an easy read and it's likely that if you haven't been riding all that long; the impact might not be as great as for a more experienced rider.  It's definitely a book which can be read repeatedly and still learn a lot.  Particularly good for those who are planning to become instructors themselves.  For me, it's helped to join together observations about my riding which I thought were loosely connected at best.  I've just ordered my own copy from Amazon!

Now that's got to be good for someone who is 64 today and trying to stay safe on 2 wheels for as long as possible eh?

Book Review: Proficient Motorcycling, 2nd Edition. David L Hough

I've never undertaken a motorcycling book review before so wasn't really sure how to start. Let's begin with a photo which might give a clue to my overall thoughts about this book!

Tags, tags and more tags!

I'd like to think I'm a reasonably proficient motorcyclist after 4+ decades around bikes but that raises the question of what sort of rider should I be reviewing it on behalf of?  Would it matter whether the rider was experienced or not?  In the end, I started reading it from cover to cover and every time I found a sentence, paragraph or whole chapter which said to me, "Hey, that's pretty important", I stuck a self-adhesive tag close by.  By now, you'll get the picture that this is one heck of a good book and it's not stretching things to say that if it was given away with every motorcycle sold, motorcycling accident statistics might be a whole lot lower than they are now.

Even though you might have been around bikes a long time, the book demonstrates a couple of things....

- There's always something new to learn.
- The brain leaks like a sieve and the book is a fantastic refresher for stuff that you'd forgotten.  Use it or lose it!

David Hough has been riding bikes, talking about bikes and writing about bikes forever.  His 70+ years of age and over a million miles on two wheels make him a person who is seriously worth listening to.  Before we get into the book content, a word about his style.  There are other good books about motorcycling proficiency but some of them are a bit technical or evangelical which can be hard going depending on how you learn best, or what your current level of experience is.  David's approach is both rare and extremely effective.  Let's take his section on braking as an example.....

The first thing he does is gets your buy-in straight away by giving real-world examples of the consequences of failing to use good braking principles, often citing his own mistakes or those he's witnessed in simple, uncomplicated language.  It immediately takes you to your own shortcomings and grabs your attention.  David then moves to the theory of braking, aided with photographs, sketches and again, uncomplicated language.  He then shifts to the proper techniques for braking in a wide range of environments, how and why they work and even sets you practice exercises!  And whilst he's dispensing this wisdom, David does it with gentle humour and is never condescending.   As an example of his humour getting the message over, he's having a discussion with a young rider who is recovering from a broken leg from a collision with a car.  The rider was outraged that the other person didn't have right of way which reminded David of a little ditty  his father used to say:

He was right, dead right, as he sped along

but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.

When read in conjunction with the detailed advice he gives, it's a powerful message to hone your situational awareness skills.  So is his comment, "You're only paranoid if they AREN'T out to get you"!

The other thing about this book which I really like is that each topic is treated in a holistic manner.  Not only are improved technical riding skills covered but the psychology of situations and their importance in getting a good outcome are superbly covered with the aid of both photos and clear explanations.  Being aware of your surroundings is a vital and recurring theme but your emotional reaction and the reactions of other road users to various everyday situations also has a major impact on outcomes. Not reacting adversely to a perceived slight by another road user and getting distracted from the task of staying safe is indeed wise counsel - and too often ignored!

Your job is to get out of the way and get over your indignation!

Everything in this book is valuable but if I may pick on some additional examples which have a personal connection, they also serve to demonstrate the tremendous breadth of the topics covered.  These sections are extremely detailed and I'd be willing to bet that most readers will learn a heap of stuff about the effects of riding in adverse conditions, how to recognise you're in trouble and what to do about it.  People are a lot more susceptible to risk than they perhaps realise.

Physiological effects of heat and cold on motorcyclists.
Some years ago, I was on a weekend ride with friends in extremely hot conditions.  I knew about dehydration risks from a largely academic viewpoint so drank what I thought was an adequate amount of water, but in reality, nowhere nearly enough and began to feel a little unwell.  That evening when we got to our destination, a beer and a delicious seafood dinner were setting me up for further grief which didn't appear until arriving home the following day.  Dehydration, exacerbated by eating shellfish triggered a dose of gout in a big toe.  I'd never previously experienced gout and I wouldn't wish the pain on anyone.  Our family doctor explained that dehydration and often in combination with seafood is a fairly common cause.  Had I read this book at that time, I'd have certainly been much better informed about some of the real risks of overheating and dehydrating.  The impact of cold and wet are also excellent.

Riding a road bike on dirt.
Sooner or later, most of us will find ourselves on a section of dirt, either from a wrong turn or road works that make a moto-cross track look tame by comparison!  Growing up in urbanised areas of the UK, I didn't have the early off-road riding experiences that many of my fellow Kiwi and Aussie riding mates seemed to get as a matter of course.  I owned dirt bikes after emigrating to NZ but by then, I didn't bounce too well!  Consequently, I've always been nervous about significant dirt riding on a road bike, especially with big sports tyres and loaded for a few days away.

That sinking feeling......

David discusses the topic of riding a road bike on dirt both from a practical and theoretical viewpoint so that you clearly understand what's happening and why, and what course of action to take.  I'm sure it's going to pay off in spades from a personal viewpoint!

Group rides
About 10 years ago, some of my regular riding partners and I met some other riders at the remote coastal village of Kawhia and decided to ride the 40-odd km of largely blind corners and narrow road back to civilisation with them.  I won't go into detail but their riding was so appalling that every other road user on that stretch was put at extreme risk of serious harm and we pulled out after a handful of km.  It was that ride which made me gun-shy of riding in large groups.  On the same theme, we live a few scant minutes away from a stretch of road called the Coromandel Loop, one of the most popular roads for bikers in the north island.  It's a safe bet that on a fair percentage of large group rides on the Loop, it will result in one or more people decking their bike.  As a result of past experiences, the only people I'll group ride with are half a dozen or so mates whom I've ridden with since time immemorial.
 

 Hmmmm.....

The relevance of  the paragraph above to Proficient Motorcycling is that it covers group rides in huge detail, including the organisation and dynamics of such events as well as a fascinating insight into the psychology of what can happen on such rides.  Some people love organised rides, others steer well clear.  I'm in the latter category but at least I know in more detail why!  For those in the other camp, reading this section of the book will definitely help you to stay safe and organise much better rides if that task ever falls your way.

Conclusions.
It's a job to judge whether I've done Proficient Motorcycling any real justice in the main part of the review but let me say that if I was going to recommend just one single book to a rider, either new or experienced, it's going to be this one.  Both the content and style lend themselves to an easy understanding of each topic, as does the practical advice.  Going back to an earlier comment, experienced riders need skills refreshment as much as learner riders benefit from upskilling and the book will help immensely in this regard.  I'll confess that I'd heard of David Hough a few years ago simply as a prominent American Motorcycle author but had never read any of his work until our recent collaborative posts on this blog about ageing riders.  The most honest and contrite way to sum it up is that I'm very pleased to have corrected that omission.

One final comment for the benefit of the part of the world that drives on the left.......  the photos, sketches and narrative completely transcend whether you drive on the left or right hand side of the road so don't worry.



Proficient Motorcycling - the Ultimate Guide to Riding Well, 2nd Edition*
David E Hough
Bowtie Press
ISBN 978-1-933958-35-4


* Includes a CD of additional motorcycling information

Have a wonderful and safe Easter everyone!

Who rides to music?

Time for one final teensy post before we depart for overseas next week........

Music....  I love music......

On the bicycle, music takes away the fatigue of a decent ride and also takes the mind off the inevitable chafing of the sensitive regions!

If  I'm in the 4x4 on my own, there's always music on.  Having said that, it's rarely on when Jennie's with me because a bollocking is likely on the grounds that it blocks meaningful wife to husband conversation.  Now I'd better be careful how I phrase this, even though I don't think Jennie or our daughter Victoria reads the blog.  Guys actually like not talking (apart from aforesaid music which is really like silence to us).  It doesn't mean we're brooding by not talking, we're probably just mulling over "guy stuff" and don't want the train of thought to be interrupted.  And really pushing my luck with the better half, the same reasons apply to why I resisted buying a bike intercom despite pressure from certain quarters but 'nuff said on that subject!

Anyway, back to music. It's nice in the 4x4 when driving solo as most times, I amble along at well under the speed limit and it helps time to pass.  It doesn't seem to be distracting because of the pedestrian pace.  If I'm driving Jennie's sports car on my own, it's normally at a pace that would earn a right earful if the "one careful lady owner" was alongside.  Playing music on these occasions is rare because the great exhaust note and the sound of the wind with the top down are both music enough.  Music also interferes with concentration when you're ahem... enthusiastically "pressing on" down a twisty road.

With motorcycles, there always seems to be more than enough to fill the senses in terms of concentration, listening to the bike and just plain 'ol enjoying the ride not to need any other stimulus.  Went for a 300 km ride early this morning and I was almost in sensory overload as it was.  Mind you, I rarely commuted to work by bike pre-retirement as it was only 10 minutes down the road. A bit of music might be a different on a slow daily commute. 

Now I'm certainly not inferring that listening to music on a bike is bad in terms of safety because I have no idea.  It's simply that I personally find it distracting. Maybe I'm easily distracted!

What are your thoughts?

Loud enough for ya?  (Acknowledgement Techblog website)

Motorcycle accidents - half-truths and lies?

On April 16th, I posted a piece about motorcycle safety in New Zealand.  I won't repeat it in detail as the article is here: Road Skills - what keeps you from harm?.

What I will summarise however is that:

Firstly, vehicle licensing costs for motorcyclists are due to rise substantially and the reason is likely based on either flawed/incompetent assumptions by public policy makers or even worse, a deliberate political agenda. This is bad enough but it does nothing to address the root causes of accidents, leaving motorcyclists still open to harm as well as being a waste of taxpayer money from probable inappropriate use of increased revenue.

Secondly, the protests and suggestions for safety improvements by NZ motorcyclists have apparently fallen on the deaf ears of public servants.

However, motorcyclists have found support from a prominent NZ academic, Professor Charley Lamb, Head of Business Management, Law and Marketing at Lincoln University.  Charley is also Director of the Australasian Institute of Motorcycle Studies (AIMS) Project. Using the same base data available to the public servants (including the police), he has dispelled the "myths" that public policy towards motorcyclists is being based on.  This research has only reached public domain the last few days so it's too early to tell whether the sh*t will hit the fan, or whether the research will be conveniently ignored.  He's off to the U.S at the end of the week to present his research there so keep your eyes peeled! I have a full copy of  Professor Lamb's research, plus his slide presentation and am happy to make it available on request (My contact email is under the blog profile).  However, I thought I'd attach a few of his summary slides to give some background and an indicator of the myths he has dispelled. (Click to enlarge) This is important for motorcyclists everywhere, particularly for public policy setting.  Incidentally, Professor Lamb's material is not inconsistent with UK research: Car Drivers’ Skills and Attitudes to Motorcycle Safety: A Review  and IAM Motorcycling Facts.

The following slides hopefully show NZ public policy is being based on flawed interpretations (or deliberate political connivance!) and that's a warning for us all.  The only major thing I'd like to add to Charley Lamb's recommendations is raising the level of compulsory training for car drivers and motorcyclists alike.  The standard of car driving in NZ is lamentably poor and most drivers seem to think that once they have a license, no further driver education is required.  Incidentally, the reference to "red mist" concerning the police in his recommendations is some recent pursuits which have gone badly wrong.  I'm a supporter of the police as they have an unenviable task but having said that, some recent pursuits have exposed some flaws in the system.

ADDENDUM
I might also add that whilst motorcyclists in NZ and elsewhere may be unfairly penalised by flawed policy, there's still a lot we can do to help ourselves.  The motorcycle community in general tend to be scornful of the lack of skill or situational awareness displayed by the average car driver.  That may be true but experience shows that there's an awful lot of riders out there who also display a lack of skill and improved situational awareness would also substantially improve the accident rate.   From a survey which American motorcycle author David Hough and I conducted, resistance to re-skill or upskill is widespread.  I put my money where my mouth was and enrolled with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and whilst I've been riding for 40+ years, the learnings since joining have been humbling and somewhat ego-denting too.  There are some later posts on my experiences - just type IAM or Institute of Advanced Motorists into the blog search engine.  Yes, we can moan about the "I didn't see you mentality" of many motorists, but it's entirely up to us to get off our backsides and improve our own roadcraft skill sets!

I hope that the slides  below provided by Prof. Lamb are of interest.

Road skills – what keeps you from harm?

Riders in NZ are about to pay a whole lot more for annual motorcycle registration and I’m not happy, not happy at all. When I cough up for annual registration next month, I’ll be paying NZ$511 as opposed to the current fee of NZ$253. (The new fee being equivalent to $US363 or ₤230). It's not about money, it's the rationale for raising the fees.

This has come about partially as a result of laziness, incompetence and probably arrogance by our public servants in reviewing legislation and statistics covering injury/accidents. Let me explain....

In the mid 1970’s, legislation was introduced for an injury compensation scheme which signalled a significant shift in how New Zealand dealt with the consequences of injury. It proposed a move away from a litigious, fault-based system, toward a completely new ‘no-fault’ approach to compensation for personal injury.

The recommendations were for a national scheme that covered:

- All injuries to earners whether occurring at work or not, funded by a flat-rate levy on employers for the cost of all injuries to their employees. A levy on the self-employed to pay for injuries occurring at work or outside of work was also proposed.

- All motor vehicle injuries, funded by a levy on owners of motor vehicles and drivers.

In general, this legislation has worked very well by largely keeping lawyers out of the equation and dealing with injury compensation quickly and fairly. Problem is, medical care costs have been rising at a higher rate than contributions to the scheme so increases are required.

The motorcycling community has been hit harder than any other single group. The proposed increases were in fact going to be significantly higher but nationwide protests have caused the increases to be lower than originally proposed, albeit still substantial. It wasn’t just the protest rides on parliament that caused the rethink, it was public questioning of the statistical basis used by public servants to justify these increases and in short, the justifications were found wanting; not only by motorcycle groups but by academics and others. Nonetheless, we still find ourselves saddled with increases based on dubious statistics.

In any case, simply increasing fees to meet increasing costs whilst failing to address the root causes is in my view, bordering on criminal incompetence by our public servants – a real “cost plus” mentality which is a drain on the public purse and does nothing to actually reduce injuries. This is what has outraged me more than anything.

Along with many other motorcyclists, I have made submissions based on raising the standard of compulsory training for both learner motorcycle and car drivers before they are able to attain a license but incredibly, there has been no response to date whatsoever by public policy makers.

There’s obviously a lot more detail behind the overview I’ve just covered but getting down to the nitty gritty, if I were to recommend a couple of additional skills to be introduced to inexperienced riders/drivers to reduce road accidents; what would they be?

When I undertook formal advanced roadcraft training in 2002, my instructor was the ex-head of driver training for the New Zealand Police, covering police motorcyclists, highway patrol, and special driving skills for groups such as Diplomatic Protection. In other words, here was a guy who really knew his craft. The first casualty on the course was my ego (massive damage!) but it became clear that the instructor had laid the platform for mitigating the risk of serious harm and for that, I’ll forever be in his debt. Although he taught me a wide range of techniques, the two aspects of roadcraft which he stressed as having the greatest impact on my well-being are:

Situational Awareness. This is a slightly fancy name for being aware of your surroundings. It’s incredible how few pure car drivers have good situational awareness and I’ll freely admit that prior to attending this course, my own skills were lacking; even having ridden a motorcycle for over 30 years at that stage. This isn’t the place to talk in detail about what exactly was taught but some of the techniques could easily be applied at a more basic level of training. An example of one such technique is what’s called the “12 second rule” where the rider or driver constantly scans the environment all round for a distance equivalent to the distance you’d cover in 12 seconds at the speed you are currently maintaining. If done properly, you’ll not only be aware of other vehicles and what they’re doing, but taking note of road surface conditions, side turnings, the potential for wildlife to run into the road and so on. Not rocket science at all, but still a life-saver.

Avoiding any implied criticism (and thereby life-threatening injuries) of my wife’s driving as she’s pretty darned good anyway, I subtly introduced her to the 12 second rule and it was noticeable how much more she subsequently picked up in the way of potential hazards and their mitigation. I know I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but this video:  Great roads, great rides pt 1   and  Great roads, great rides pt 2 is the best I’ve ever come across in showing just how powerful good situational awareness is in keeping you safe. So why don’t we ram it home at a much earlier stage of riding or driving?

Emergency Braking. The instructor prefaced this part of the course by saying that one day, knowing just how hard I could safely brake would mean the difference between avoiding an incident or coming to serious harm. He was absolutely right. He taught “staged” braking which increases the force of braking without locking up and it was drummed into me with repeated practice until it became the norm in real life situations rather than just grabbing a handful and locking everything up with all the attendant risks. On the course, I ended up braking so hard under perfect control that my wrists and elbows were creaking and my wedding tackle was painfully wedged hard into the tank! I would never previously have dared brake that hard for fear of coming off.

We could go on and on about safe riding and driving techniques but my perceptions (in NZ at least) are that:

- Current standards to get a full licence are lamentably low.

- There are additional simple techniques which will reduce the risk of injury and which should be taught at beginner level.

- Raising the cost of licensing does nothing to address the root cause of accidents and therefore, accident statistics are unlikely to improve (and discriminates against those with a good record).

- You can never afford to stop learning. This may be apparent to more motorcyclists than pure car drivers, many of whom seem to think that a full licence means that they are adequately equipped for the rest of their lives.

- Don’t rely on public servants (including politicians) to come up with an effective answer. They will do what is politically expedient, not necessarily an effective solution. To support this contention, a close friend and riding partner is a senior engineer within a government department dealing with all manner of transport issues. A fair amount of his time is spent undertaking objective analysis (filtering might be a better description!) of proposals by public policymakers who have little idea of the impact of their proposals. These are my words, but I think he partially sees himself as a gatekeeper to rule out the ideas of fools if anyone will listen!

Road safety is a complex subject and I’m far from being an expert. I do know however that WE and no-one else have primary responsibility for our own safety and consequently, we also have the responsibility to continually raise our skills, both for our sake and the sake of our loved ones. If we wait for leadership from others, Hell will freeze over first.

Hope that I’ve stirred a few thoughts about how we ride safely and our personal responsibilities. I don't have the answers but at least by raising my personal skills, especially situational awareness; I'm better protected than I used to be.

Addendum:  See the post HERE which summarises the direction I chose to raise my skills with the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) in New Zealand.  Literally the best thing I've ever done on 2 wheels.

Global driving standards or the lack of 'em...... grrrr

I need to get something off my chest with a bit of a rant so bear with me!

The Coromandel Peninsula where we live is a motorcycling Mecca - around 300-odd km of loop road comprising of twisties, sweepers and stuff-all straights; running by the coast and over a mountain range.  A technical, challenging road if ever there was one, particularly as a lot of it is relatively narrow with more than a few blind bends.  It's what every experienced rider craves and it doesn't disappoint.  On the downside, it has breathtaking scenery which means that it draws tourists both domestic and international to add to the local population.  Even then, it can hardly be described as overcrowded on most occasions.

Me, decking everything on the Blackbird!

Idyllic you might say and to a large extent, it's true but there's one big blot on the landscape.  The big blot is the motoring public on 4 wheels trying to kill me at every opportunity!  I take a dim view of that and am known to get a mite testy.  All I can say is that I'm forever grateful that my advanced rider training instructor spent an inordinate amount of time on situational  awareness or I might not be writing this!


Tourist vans, rental cars, 4x4's towing boats (but only if the driver has a baseball cap and moustache - why is that???) - they're all out to get me but how, you may ask?  The favourite form of assassination is by straight-lining/offsiding corners, that's how!  Doesn't matter if you're closing on them from behind or they're coming towards you, show the knuckle-draggers a corner or a sequence of bends and they'll cut it, irrespective of what else is on the road.  Even better if a corner is completely blind. The look of complete surprise on their faces when they discover someone else occupying the correct lane on a collision course beggars belief - INCOMPETENT BASTARDS!  Sorry, built up quite a head of steam there!

Let's have a think about the business of straight-lining. In the UK for example, straight-lining (or whatever local term fits) is taught as an advanced riding technique to improve sight lines, less risk of binning it in adverse conditions and a whole heap of other advantages.  There's a critical word I've left out and that word is BUT! The BUT comes in association with the words ADVANCED and JUDICIOUS  in knowing when to apply the straight-lining technique.  In other words, let the average member of the motoring public go straight-lining and you have the potential for serious injury or death through poor situational awareness.

In NZ, you risk a hefty fine and demerit points on your license for straight-lining -  "failing to keep in your lane".  Given the propensity for straight-lining being used by people who are simply lazy or terminally stupid, perhaps staying well in your lane is good insurance.  I must admit that I use the technique a lot less than I used to although I do still shift position all over the road to get the best possible view when preparing to overtake or get a good forward sighting of conditions.  The debate about whether to straight line or not ran to 11 pages or so in the Kiwi Biker forum thread: Straight-lining corners or not? with good points raised by both sides, plus the normal amount of crap by people who can't be bothered to think deeply enough to put a good argument together.

I don't think there is a completely watertight argument on either side of the debate but do think there's something upon which we can all agree. The level and quality of instruction received when first learning to drive a car or motorcycle is woefully inadequate, at least in NZ and probably elsewhere.  This translates into putting other members of the public at risk as well as the perpetrators, especially you and me as more vulnerable motorcyclists. There are situational awareness techniques plus some others which are only taught at an advanced level, yet are simple enough to be taught to learners so why don't we do it to reduce the road toll?

Handling potentially dangerous industrial equipment usually requires high level training to operate it and yet operating a road vehicle where the consequences and high cost of accidents are beyond dispute only requires pretty basic instruction to get rolling.  Sounds crazy when you put it like that, doesn't it?

Anyway, rant now over and I feel better for it, especially as Jennie and I went out in the boat this morning and caught 9 snapper (6 for Jennie, 3 for me which is par for the course but who's complaining when there is great seafood going into the pan!).

Catch you later.....