05-14-2016, 10:49 PM
I truly believe that training does make for better riders. There will always be those riders who think they know better than the others, and have an excess of confidence with or without training. For sure there are some that after doing some courses will believe they are better than they really are, but I think these would overdo things on the street no matter what. I meet with riders like that pretty much every weekend on the road behind my house as it is the rallying point for most motorcycle riders in the area, and there are always some of the hot-heads.
Having participated myself in trying to teach beginners to improve a little bit, what I have found is that it is probably with braking that they have the most problems. The dynamics of a bike, and the force of the front brakes, is all too often misunderstood and underestimated. Just a simply exercise of trying to lock up the front on a parking lot teaches you a lot about this. By having this understanding, a rider can improve their chances of getting out of a difficult situation on the street that would otherwise have led to disaster by panicking.
I did learn riding on my own, and gained a lot of really bad habits over the years. By then participating in several riding courses many years later, I was finally able to correct some of those, and I think become a much better and safer rider. Sure, age and simple life experience has probably led to me also better understanding my limits. But you are never too old to learn.
Having participated myself in trying to teach beginners to improve a little bit, what I have found is that it is probably with braking that they have the most problems. The dynamics of a bike, and the force of the front brakes, is all too often misunderstood and underestimated. Just a simply exercise of trying to lock up the front on a parking lot teaches you a lot about this. By having this understanding, a rider can improve their chances of getting out of a difficult situation on the street that would otherwise have led to disaster by panicking.
I did learn riding on my own, and gained a lot of really bad habits over the years. By then participating in several riding courses many years later, I was finally able to correct some of those, and I think become a much better and safer rider. Sure, age and simple life experience has probably led to me also better understanding my limits. But you are never too old to learn.