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Recently this article in Wiki, Motorcycle training - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, was highlighted on the Wikipedia home page. The article made the point that typical police motorcycle training courses involve a lot of crashes, while public motorcycle courses involve none. The article claims that specially equipped motorcycles are used, with modifications to help prevent damage to the motorcycle and cycle designs to help prevent injury to the legs in the event of a spill.
Now, I'm not an expert on motorcycles by any means, but I am curious, what sort of modifications are they talking about? What motorcycles are used that are designed not to fall flat?
I know several friends who have broken their legs in slow speed crashes. I've always like motorcycles, but this type of thing has kept me from pursuing my interest.
In the photo in the article, do you see those big crash guards in front of the riders' legs? Those, in combination with the saddlebags behind them (also equipped with crash guards), give the legs protection front and rear if the bike falls over.
People say that those are only protective at very low speeds, and if the bike falls over when stopped. I dont care what anybody says, crash bars saved my leg from getting crushed when I was hit. The crash bar was hit with such force that it bent the frame of the bike. Bikes are replaceable, legs aren't.
The worst experience I ever had on a motorcycle was having a truck run a red light and t-bone me as I was crossing an intersection. I had big crash bars, and a spare helmet on the side that was hit (left). I had NO damage to my left leg afterward, even though I spent 8 days in the hospital because my spleen had to be removed after I went 44 feet through the air. The spare helmet was about an inch thick (flattened) after the wreck, so it helped too.
crash bars are great but they wont flip over an SUV if he decides to hit you.
fyi per DMV a motorcyclist is 16 times more prone to die in an accident than an auto driver.
I took that Police Motor course last summer, it's a hoot. The theory of the course is that you can balance a bike with the bars turned to full lock by slipping the clutch a little (avoids hucka-bucka action from slow running engine and allows quick application of torque/thrust by releasing the clutch a little) and riding the rear brake a little. More thrust stands the bike up, more brake leans it over more. All this is easier said than done.
It's a really excellent course, it took 2 complete weekends, to me the time was harder to come up with than the money, and the course was not cheap, about $800. But definitely worth it.
This course is normally taught on retired police bikes, we used KZ-1000s. The course is abusive enough to the bike that I wouldn't have done it on my own bike if that were free.
The Police Motor course is a different animal from the typical beginning rider courses, more of a "graduate" course.
Is it mostly low-speed control that is worked on? It depends a lot on the bike one is riding as to how hard it is. I imagine there was a lot of clutch slipping and a few drops. Some of those police riders are really good.
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