SPORTS BIKES: Many find experience does not equal doing it right

In fiscal year 2007, all DoN motorcycle related deaths occurred on sports bikes, singling these riders out as needing more practice before taking the streets. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter implored the Naval Safety Center to do something to take action to bring those numbers down. The focus of the new MSBRC is on the new motorcyclist with less than a year experience.

"These are all-performance bikes," said Donald Borkoski, a traffic safety specialist from the Naval Safety Center. "These machines are made like fighter jets. It's like taking a Cessna pilot, putting them in an F-18 and telling them to go fight. This course is designed to match the rider to their bikes."

Students in the new Military Sport Bike Rider Course wait in line to practice braking skills during a field exercise at NAS Jacksonville.

The course will soon be mandatory for all sports bike riders. All riders must take the Basic Rider's Course, Experienced Rider's Course and then they will be eligible to take the MSBRC. "I think it will be a big success for the Navy, as long as people understand why they are going through the course and realize it's something they need instead of something mandated," said Southeast Region's Lead Supervisor and NAS Jacksonville Rider Coach Tim Jeror.

It is the hope of MSF instructors that riders will take all three courses within their first year of riding. "You don't become a good bowler from bowling once and you don't become a biker from riding just once either," Jeror added.

Jack Heric, a rider coach trainer for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, discusses a field training exercise with a student during the course.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton hosted the first version of the MSBRC. There, they made adjustments and came to NAS Jax to run the first test course with students. "We've made several small changes, but it's really just working on the wording," said Motorcycle Safety Foundation Director of Training Ray Ochs. "We haven't changed any topics or exercises."

"This is an awesome class, I really like the skill sets," said student AW1 Lloyd Wood of VP-30.

The course curriculum should be finalized following this weeklong class and then it will be submitted to be included in the new Navy Traffic Safety Program Instruction, OPNAVINST 5100.12H. When the course will actually be offered to students is up to the Navy. "It really depends on how quickly the Navy can ramp up its facilities and have rider coaches in place," Ochs said. The instructors have one more week left to work on the course after they return to Norfolk, Va. then it should be ready to be taught Navy-wide about a month later. NAS Jax will be one of the first DoN bases to offer the course. As soon as the course curriculum is finalized, Jax instructors will be ready to teach it.

Jack Heric, a rider coach trainer for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), demonstrates how to do a proper lean on a sport bike while MSF Director of Training Ray Ochs discusses the techinique to a group of students.

"NAS Jax has always been a pilot test base. We have a pretty good reputation here and we just want to keep it," Jeror said. In April, Jeror is scheduled to attend a course making him a rider coach trainer, after which he will be able to train other rider coaches to teach the MSBRC.

The Naval Safety Center hopes to implement the program before the spring riding season begins, which is why they chose Jacksonville weather to run the first test course in.

"Jacksonville was a natural selection because of the number of riders they have here," Ochs explained. "Plus, it's warm in the winter time."

Even experienced riders will be required to take the course. "They'll be glad they did," Jeror said. "With all the critiques we received from this class, the students were like, 'Wow! I thought I could ride before I took this course.' And that's the case with a lot of people. Many people think that because they've been riding for 40 years, they know everything. Well, now they are realizing that they've been doing things wrong for 40 years."

Motorcycle Safety Foundation Director of Training Ray Ochs teaches the classroom portion of the course.

The Naval Safety Center is also hoping to implement a mandatory requalification course for experienced riders, to take place every three years. They also anticipate to some day have the basic motorcycle safety course separated into two different courses for sports bikes and cruisers, instead of just having the sports bike course be an add-on to the original safety course. They also expect to obtain funding for each base safety program to have their own training motorcycles to take the beginner's courses on, voiding out the hassle and confusion of an unlicensed rider trying to get an unregistered bike on base to use while taking the course.

The motorcycle safety courses are free and offered on a regular basis for all active duty, family members, retirees, and DoD personnel. For more information on taking the motorcycle safety course, call NAS Jax Safety Center at 542-3082.