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Risk Hierarchy: Information - Rider Ed - Driver Ed - Conspicuity - Bike Defect - Ultra-Defensive Riding - Crash Avoidance - Injury Mitigation - Crash Scene

        

MSF Basic Rider Course classroom content.

The BRC typically, and in Memphis, runs over a Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday all day.

Classroom sessions are from 6 PM to 10 PM on the Friday, and from about 1 PM to 4 PM on the Saturday, and generally run until all material is covered.

The students sit in pods of up to four, with pairs facing each other. The layout is designed for interactivity.

In the first session, students are assigned to question their neighbors about what they do, their previous riding experience and objectives for the course. Then each student introduces their partner.

Course Requirements

The course requirements are listed in in unit I. All participants must attend all sessions, which are this classroom session, Saturday AM range session from 7 AM to around noon, and another classroom session from around 1 PM until 4 PM or 5 PM. Sunday's session starts with range work at 7 AM and finishes with a skills test at around noon.

The skills test has four basic exercises which must be performed in a timely manner without mistakes. Points are deducted for errors, and an accumulation of 21 points, or dropping the bike, will cause a test failure.

The written test is a 50-question multiple choice test on which the student must score 80 percent or better. The 126 possible questions and answers are listed in the back of the course manual.

Students can be dismissed during the course if an instructor decides for good reason that they can't complete the course safely.

Course Introduction

There's a video monitor in front of the class. Kevin, the instructor, shows an introductory video, emphasizing how much fun riding is.

The course is divided into topics. Each topic starts with the distribution of cards, which have different questions for each student to research in the course manual. The students highlight the passages they have been assigned. Later, the rider coach leads a discussion of the topic, and each student is questioned on the points he or she has looked up. The topic concludes with a short video presentation of the material. This seems to be an effective way of covering the material, as each item is looked at three different ways.

The topics are summarized in this page. The BRC manual is available on the MSF site here.

Unit II - Risk Awareness and Management

Unit II of the manual covers types of motorcycles (e.g. cruiser, sportsbike etc), risk awareness versus car driving, a discussion of risk awareness with an example of a crash, and risk management strategies, with the introduction of the S-E-E (search, evaluate, execute) strategy.

This section concluded with the presentation of a second video concentrating on risk handling.

Unit III - Ride Readiness

Unit III, ride readiness, has two presentations and covers ride preparation, including sections on personal protective gear, the T-CLOCS pre-ride checklist and preventative maintenance. The personal protective gear section is pages 10 through 14 from the manual and is a very reasonable summary of the subject. Page 15 covers the T-CLOCS pre-ride checklist and a short section on the importance of routine maintenance. This discussion finished with a video and a short break.

Unit III - Motorcycle Controls

At 7:30 PM about an hour and a half into the evening, the presentation of Unit III continues with a session on bike controls. Pages 16 through 19 of the manual was assigned, discussed and presented on video. This covers all the basic mechanical and electrical controls, with graphics. Detail is provided on gear shifting, and stopping and starting the engine. There's an exercise where the student is asked to label the controls on a drawing.

Unit III - Basic Riding Skills

The last section of Unit III is then done, which is pages 20 through 24. This covers the clutch friction zone, riding posture, turning, gear shifting and braking. Each topic has its own page with graphics, and there is a video.

The Friday evening session finishes with a discussion of range rules and rider coach signals, aimed at safety during the next morning's range session.

My estimate of the actual instruction time on Friday, not counting breaks and organizational overhead, is about two hours, but this was a small class and larger sessions would probably take longer.

Saturday Classroom Sessions - Unit IV.

The classroom sessions continue Saturday around 1 PM, after a morning on the range and an hour for lunch. Debbie presides today.

The Saturday topics were presented the same way, with distribution of topic cards, independent study, verbal presentation and discussion led by the Rider Coach and the final video.

Unit IV has material on Street Strategies, including positioning, Being Visible, RiderRadar, Mental Processing, Common Riding Situations, Braking and Swerving, Special Situations and Impairments, with a final wrap-up and discussion of the written exam, which is to take place the next day.

Unit IV - Time/Space, Perception and Conspicuity

Page 25 of the manual covers lane choice, with an introduction to strategic riding and lane choice to optimize the time/space cushion. Page 26 covers sublane positioning and conspicuity. Bike and rider visibility and the use of signals are discussed. Page 27 covers 'rider radar', the 2-second following distance rule and the components of stopping distance. The video for this section has additional emphasis on blind spots and use of brake lights and turn signals to indicate intentions and promote conspicuity, plus the re-introduction of the S-E-E strategy. One has to remark that the students are a bit tired after the morning on the range, Debbie has her work cut out to get them involved in the discussion.

Unit IV - Strategies and Safety Margins.

Pages 29 and 29 covers the 4-second immediate path and the 12-second anticipated path, with advice to increase the 2-second following distance for adverse circumstances. The S-E-E strategy is revisited, with discussion of mirrors and blind spots. The trade-offs are described between time/space margins and risk tolerance, with consideration of road conditions and rider and cycle limitations.

Unit IV - Intersections and special situations.

Pages 30 through 36 cover strategies for intersections, detail on blind spots, truck-specific issues, tailgaters, curves, including their S-E-E considerations, parking situations, dealing with obstacles and road hazards, lane changing, passing, group riding and night riding, including the issue of over-riding the headlights.

Unit IV - Braking and Swerving.

Pages 37 and 38 cover brake systems (e.g. linked and integrated or ABS brakes), braking, including emergency braking and braking in curves, front and rear skids and their recovery, and swerving in an emergency situation.

Unit IV - Hazards, Cargo and Bike Failure

Pages 39 through 43 covers various issues, including weather-related and road surface hazards, carrying passengers and cargo and animal threats. Techniques are suggested for dealing with bike problems like tire or clutch failure and weave or wobble problems.

Unit IV - Alcohol and Drug Issues.

Pages 43 through 46 is a detailed exposition of the additional dangers which alcohol and other drugs pose to motorcyclists. This includes the effects on the additional cognitive skills needed to ride a bike as opposed to driving a car, suggests a lower limit than the law requires, and offers some techniques for dealing with impaired riding buddies. The video included additional dire details including the financial costs of a DUI and statistics on the eleven fold increase in crashes for a 0.05 blood alcohol level, which is a legal level in most states.

Wrap-up.

The final wrap-up included discussion of the statutory requirements for obtaining a motorcycle license, insurance issues, helmet laws and related issues.

My estimate of the time spent on Saturday afternoon, not including breaks and organizational overhead, was a little over two hours. This was a small class, a total of five hours for the two classroom sessions is more typical.

The manual also contains 126 sample questions, of which 50 will be in the classroom part of the assessment. There's a customer survey questionnaire, a glossary, a group riding introduction, including hand signals graphics, a T-CLOCS pre-ride checklist and a list of other MSF publications and products.

Summary of the classroom content.

My take on the classroom part of the course is that the information is mostly reasonable. The material and teaching technique seems appropriate for an adult audience, and is generally well organized. The multimedia portion is nicely integrated with the live-instructor material, and the techniques for encouraging class participation seem to work, considering the short duration of the course.

Given that the material has to be teachable to a group of 12 people of differing skill and literacy levels in a total time of about six or seven hours, the level of detail is appropriate. Bikesafer.com goes into much greater detail on a lot of the topics discussed, but we don't have the time constraints that the course has. The MSF should consider giving course participants additional home study materials with suggested ongoing study and exercises, and Web support.

The MSF, like the rest of the motorcycling community, would benefit from the authentic and powerful data we could get from a new crash causation study. They, like us, are doing the best they can with inadequate information. The MSF does studies from time to time to validate their material, but they don't have the resources to do a full study like Hurt or Maids, which is the research model that provides the best information for crash causation.

I discuss a couple of issues I noted about the course here.

I have studied motorcycle training in other jurisdictions. In most countries of Europe, a motorcycle license is granted with a probationary period. A restricted license is given after initial training, and the rider is limited until he completes the probationary period, usually with additional training. The final test, which usually includes theoretical, range and road exercises, qualifies him for a full license. The statutory situation in the US is weak in comparison. Tougher licensing standards would allow the MSF to expand the information offered during the BRC. I feel for motorcycle safety trainers, they are not getting the support they need from government or from bikers.