QUOTE:
Motorcyclists need training courses
VERN FAULKNER
The Prince Albert Daily Herald

Sometime Thursday afternoon, Luc Bourdon became a statistic. The 21-year-old defenceman of the Vancouver Canucks was killed in a motorcycle crash near his New Brunswick home.

In North America, there are two specific groups at a very high risk of a fatal crash, or a crash resulting in serious injury: young men with little experience operating very powerful sportbikes (Bourdon's GSX-R1000 is rated at almost 140 horsepower) and 40-somethings with insufficient experience climbing onto large cruiser bikes - Harley Davidson models or look-alikes.

Power plus inexperience too often leads to messy results.

"A lot of these higher-power motorcycles, it doesn't take much: a flick of the wrist and you're in trouble," Kevin Denouden of the Saskatchewan Motorcycle Association says.

My path to motorcycling began 10 years ago, as a full-time commuter cyclist. Four years ago, I purchased a 50cc scooter. A year ago, I obtained a 650cc dual-sport motorcycle.

Despite significant applicable background experience and a lengthy motorcycle safety training course, the 68-horsepower machine was for the first month a challenge to handle. It will easily hold highway speeds while hauling two people comfortably. It is not a machine I'd recommend to someone new to riding.

Bourdon's machine had almost twice as much power as my own. It would scare me, despite 15,000 km and a year of experience. Bourdon, his license two weeks old, did not know this, and he has paid the ultimate price as a result.

Crashes like Bourdon's lead naturally to arguments that new riders should only ride small-displacement, low-horsepower machines.

"It's something other places do, and it does seem successful," Denouden says.

However, with the vast expanse of open highway in Saskatchewan, a modest 40-50 horsepower machine is almost necessary to traverse highways at a reasonable speed, he says.

"Part of the problem with horsepower, is how do police go about policing it? You'd have to have a dyno in the trunk," he adds, noting that a few simple changes can vastly increase the power of a motorbike.

Denouden and his peers met with agents of Saskatchewan Government Insurance, dealers and other motorcycle enthusiasts this past winter to deal with the issue of inexperienced riders and crash rates.

"Everyone came out of there saying (new riders) have to have some kind of mandatory training."

Dealers, Denouden says, often "have to go out and do a five-minute drill, teaching (new riders) where the controls are."

In Saskatchewan, it is not that difficult to obtain a motorcycle license. In Denouden's words, for $30, and a simple test that requires little more than "reading through a booklet" a rider "can ride with no real restrictions."

A learner's permit restricts new riders to operate within a 100km radius of their home, carry no passengers, and ride in daylight only.

Until SGI makes adjustments to prevent new riders from climbing onto machines they can't handle, safety courses are the only tool to prevent motorbike carnage.

But in this province, a lack of training courses is a problem. To the best of Denouden's knowledge, no such course exists in Prince Albert at this time: that means no available training courses to help new riders deal with a learning curve that is far steeper than many new riders can possibly imagine.

In the meantime, new riders ought to practice emergency braking and low-speed maneuvering for weeks before heading out to the streets - all on low-displacement machines.

The SMA website, www.saskma.com, features a number of tips and ideas on ways to stay safer on two wheels.

Faulkner is the Herald's managing editor.