Motorcycle Safety

@famoustwits recently tweeted this question: "17 year old want, can afford and is legally entitled to get a motorbike. WTF do I do to stop this madness?" And I thought that was a great subject for a blog post. So here's my answer:

As parents we have a limited amount of time to influence our kids. And if you stop the motorcycle purchase now, he'll just buy it later when you have no control over the situation. So the best bet, in my opinion, is to embrace the motorcycle and impose some restrictions to make it as safe as possible while you still can.

If he buys the bike before he's 18, odds are his insurance company will either have restrictions about the size of the bike, or seriously oppressive pricing for larger bikes. This is to your advantage. Get him on a smaller bike now so he'll be stuck with it for a while. One of the ways people get hurt is they take a few hours of training on a 250 and then go home and buy an 1800 for their first bike. Get him on something in the 450-600cc range now and he'll be stuck there for a few years until his finances allow for an upgrade. That's a good thing - and it's something you can control while he's still living at home. Instead of outlawing the bike, just insist that it's smaller than 600cc. The insurance company may even want it under 450cc. But don't make it too small - it needs to have enough power to get out of the way if something goes wrong.

Younger riders tend to think that speed equals skill. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Speed tends to equal accidents. But our kids have a very real need for speed. So the question is how to satisfy that need safely so that he's a better/safer motorcycle rider the rest of the day.

I think you have to address the issue of speed on both sides of the equation. You have to demonstrate that speed kills (or at the very least injures painfully); and you have to find a safe outlet for that speed.

For the former, I suggest talking with your local fire department to see if your son can ride-along on a busy FRI or SAT night. If he sees enough nasty crashes up close and in person he's likely to want to avoid the number one and two causes of those crashes. Speed and Alcohol. It certainly worked for me! And be sure to let the Fire Department know what you're up to so they can offer the proper dialog during the course of the evening. They probably even have some good training pictures and stories that they can share in-between calls.

Finding an outlet for speed is more difficult. As a Motor Escort Officer, I get my fill every time I flick on the lights and siren. Your son isn't going to have that outlet so you'll want to look around the area you live in and see what you can find in the way of tracks and/or training programs that will let some of that need for speed out of his system - legally and safely.

Training is paramount! Both safety and rider skills training. And the rider skills really should be refreshed at least once a year. I get that from work, and I go out and practice a couple of times a year on my own. You'll have to work a little harder to instill that discipline. Really good training is hard to find. Look until you find it.

Here in Idaho we have a nice program for beginners called STAR. Find a program like that and make it a condition of the purchase while you still can. After that he's going to need to train regularly to improve his skills. Kids tend to think that cone drills are pointless, but those drills create skills that can save your life when the unexpected happens. Successful cone drills, not speed, are what produce real skills. My favorite training resources are: http://www.motorcops.com/ and http://www.ridelikeapro.com/.

Good luck! And don't be afraid to buy a bike and go ride with your son. He'll respect all that training more if you're right there learning it with him!