What did you learn?

First time taking any type of rider training course today via Motorcycle Life who offer a free course for locals that is funded / supported by QPS and the council.

Start time of 8am means an early start from Forest Lake. Had my stinkin’ arsehole of a period 😫 something men will not understand how sorta squishy that can be on a motorcycle 😧😧😧😧😧😧😧😧 sorry any males reading but this is another aspect of female riding and I’m prone to oversharing. And no not all women use tampons all the time and don’t even mention the menstrual cup #JustNo

Friendly greeting from the main trainer Steve and his lovely wife who organised tea/coffee and hot cross buns 🥰 we like Christine! Met a few of the other participants before it was time to get underway.

Probably couple of hours theory on motorcycle road statistics and a chat from QPS former bike cop Peter and a current bike cop Ian. I’m sure they see the worst of the worst on our roads and as partners to the programme great to hear from them and get another perspective.

One thing on the QPS talk by Peter the subject of filtering / using the shoulder came up. According to Peter you can’t filter in roadworks.

Now woah to the woah I am The Filter Kween and have read the rules many, many times on this. I filter every time I’m on the bike – suburbia, motorways, peak hour and traffic lights. I love it. It’s my main riding skill. Of course I’m going to check and double check the rules on it. Excerpt below from TMR – note how the shoulder specifically mentions road works and filtering does not.

Further to this I often get in shit fights on Facebook about the matter 😂😂😂. Below convo (note I have met Keith a couple of times on rides, lovely bloke to talk to!) that is typical of the interactions. Don’t get into a fight with me, it’s one thing I do know very well both rules and technique wise. The argument for road worker safety is not one I’ve seen before but did make me 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I get the impression police and facilitators are not fans of filtering even when done lawfully. For me it’s not unsafe and saves a fuck of a lot of time as well as risk getting run up the arse from cars in slow/stopped traffic but that’s my take on it. Moral of the story: I would probably need to whip out my phone on the spot to show a police officer I wasn’t actually doing anything unlawful lol.

Anyway back to the course. Rode to Beechmont via Canungra and back up over the goat track at Tambo to the training venue. A long day and the main take aways I got were this.

1. Motorcycles are 5% of all road users yet are involved in 27% of all accidents … 65% of those being single vehicle so can’t even blame it all on the cagers. I need to follow up with Steve on the statistics for something else I’m theorising on.

2. Enter the corner wide, stay on the outside of the bend until you can see the exit point and then start to turn in to finish tight. I have done a fair bit of riding over the last 2 years and often run wide which I know now is related to when I start to turn in. Simple turning point theory yet this has escaped me until today as I have been using car cornering theory given I have nearly 30 years of that!

While the course is probably better suited to newer riders (L or fresh RE’s) we had one lady with 30 years experience, an L plater and several Open RE and R licence holders. You can never know everything and even if you think you do, a refresher is never a bad idea nor are 2 more contacts in your riding network.

Stay safe out there, whether that is using commonsense or skills you learned on a akills course – the goal is making it home to our family and friends.