Another Column in Citybike

I could not have been happier to see that Citybike published another column of mine, making me a motojournalist once again.  I like the guys at Citybike, who are as real as it gets when you talk about motorcycles and riders.

This column was a little different than my usual safety rant.  Having just taken a course in police techniques, I wondered what studies showed about the effects of these kinds of courses.

To my surprise, I found an article by James Ouellet summarizing a detailed study of 800 motorcycle accidents.  Ouellet worked with Harry Hurt on the famous 1981 study, so he knows what he is talking about.

His conclusion is basically that anyone, trained or not, who is about to get creamed by a car will have involuntary panic reactions. When a car makes a left hand turn in front of a rider, and they realize they are probably going to hit, the rider grabs the brakes as hard as they can.  Training does not seem to overcome this basic animal reaction.

Anyway, if you get a chance, Citybike is one of the top publications in the motorcycle field, and we are lucky to have it available to us.