Clearways  were opening up all around Sydney and required lots of Police on Motorcycles to keep them clear.  I did that for about three months, then the chance to do the Motorcycle Instructor course came up and the rest is history. The next 12 were spent instructing Police Riders. At that time there was only about 550 Motorcycles in NSW!

I was playing Rugby Union and in the Bilgola Surf Club, so the thought of having every weekend off and no shift work was appealing  to me. Those 12 years with Police Driver Training gave me the idea that training people to ride safely on our roads was needed for the general public.

On many occasions people would ask where they could go to learn to ride – there were not many options! The Police school was only for Govt Departments and the Army at the time. On Public Holidays, the School was open to the Public, where we put on riding and driving displays.

After years of procrastinating about setting up a school for learner riders, a friend of mine and former school instructor, started up Stay Upright Pty Ltd.

The name came about from the catch phrase used when I was stationed at the Special Traffic Patrol headquarters under the approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge – “Stay upright!” were the words we yelled to each other before riding off.

We started doing weekends and ran Advanced  Courses at Amaroo Park and Oran Park (both now housing estates). This grew into Advanced courses interstate.

During those years I decided to look at how training was conducted in the USA so I went and completed the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation Instructor Training). There were three of us from Australia at the time and we all agreed our teaching methods were the best to promote rider safety in Australia. Our teaching was avante garde at the time, it still is, in that it’s the motorcyclist’s duty to keep themselves safe, no matter who is at fault. Don’t put yourself in bad positions, make good choices, take responsibility for your own actions.

From 1981 to 1989, we ran Pre-Licence courses in NSW and the ACT.  The ACT was the first Territory to make it compulsory for Learners do a course before getting a certificate to ride. It was not until the early ‘90s that it became compulsory in parts of NSW. We then started to do post Licence training in most parts of Australia.

To this date NSW is the only State still subsidising rider training. Victoria and Queensland use an accreditation system and NSW is  a Tender system.

We have a long way to go before all States and Territories are on the same training page – it would be a great thing if Instructor training was the same in all states, for instance.

Our roads have become so crowded these days and riding on a good open road through many corners is becoming harder to do without traffic. Riding in that traffic is all about treating every driver you see with the thought that they have not seen you.

The distractions facing a driver now is higher – texting behind the wheel, for instance, is deadly. Riders must be aware that a large percentage of drivers out there have never sat on a motorcycle, never known anybody who has one, nor had any relation to motorcycling – therefore it’s not front of mind for them to look out for us. One of the most important  aspects of operating on the Public Streets is CONCENTRATION! Our concentration, that is, to make up for their lack of it.

It is worth remembering that the Pre-Learner course is designed to teach you the basic skills and Roadcraft strategies to be safe on the road, it won’t turn you into an expert in seven hours. The course is a first step: the more you practice your skills and apply roadcraft (Observation, Slow Down and Buffer) the more expertise you will develop.

You wanted to ride a motorcycle, now you know how, you have a learner licence to say that you can – so just go and ride a motorcycle! Sometimes it’s not that simple to get past that last hurdle of just getting on and riding on the road.

If you are new to motorcycling and the Learner course was the first time you have ridden then you are going to need to allow yourself time to become comfortable with your new bike and practice the skills you learned on the course.

First step: be honest with yourself. What do you feel confident to do on the bike?

Do you feel you are ready to start the bike up and go for a ride around your local neighbourhood? If “yes”, then put your riding gear on and head out on the road, just make sure you do it with a plan. Is there a time of the day or day of the week when the roads are quieter? You are going out to practice, so be deliberate, decide what you are working on, maybe it is vision and positioning, or braking and gear changing.

Perhaps you are concerned about stalling and stopping? Then why not practice just moving off and stopping, again be deliberate about practicing what you learned on the course. You might not get your left foot up for a while, but you’ll feel great when you know you are in control and can move off smoothly and not stall. This is an essential skill you want to be able to rely on in traffic, why not perfect it through practice?

Maybe you have your new bike and you organised the bike shop to deliver it to your home. You look at the bike and it’s so shiny and new and big and so very heavy: the bikes at the course didn’t seem so big and heavy. You start to doubt yourself and wonder if you will cope… Of course you will, if you have a plan. Set a goal for yourself – we suggest the goal should be for you to become more comfortable with the bike. Don’t bother to start the engine yet but sit on the bike, put it in neutral, move the bike around and get a feel for the front brake.

Get your owner’s manual out and read it, find out as much as you can about your bike and how it works. Use the switches, do they feel like the ones on the training bikes or do they operate differently. Practice putting the bike into first gear and finding neutral with the engine turned off. Spend time with the bike, if it’s not shiny enough for you then give it a wash, the more time you spend with the bike the more familiar and therefore more comfortable you will become.

That’s what was going through my head when I went for my motorcycle learner course. Um, no.

I diligently undertook the two day learner course, soon realising road riding wasn’t quite as simple as I thought: there was so much to remember; new physical skills to learn; risks I hadn’t thought of; tactics for lane positioning. I passed and was issued my learner permit – but it wasn’t like I thought it was going to be.

Now for actually riding on the road…

I nervously opened the garage and warmed up my shiny Kawasaki GPX250. I felt very much on my own. Remembering my roadcraft, while continuing to improve my bike control, was going to be a whole new level of concentration. In just two days, my perception of road riding had been turned on its head!

Before long I came to my first round-a-bout. A car was slowly approaching from my left. I tentatively entered the intersection, making good eye contact with the driver to make sure they had seen me. As I rounded, the car started to enter, all the while keeping eye contact. I came to a nervous stop and so did the car. Barely a metre apart. The driver looked up as if in a daze, then startled. Even though their eyes had seen me, it hadn’t registered that I was a vehicle they needed to give way to. They waved “sorry”, I waved “it’s OK”, then continued on. Hmmm.

Barely five minutes into my first road ride, I had learned that riding a motorcycle on the road has a whole new set of risks to driving a car.

Fast forward to today…

In March 2016, VicRoads introduced the Motorcycle Graduated Licensing System. A major component of this is for novices to be coached and assessed in roadcraft, on the road.

As an instructor, I find that before the road ride, students range from highly nervous to over-confident. Some ask if they really need to go on the road. That’s actually a reasonable question!

When we head out for the first time, they are usually hesitant, riding slowly. At the first stop the relief on people’s faces is evident. Smiles permeate, nerves are reduced. We discuss the ride so far and what they have observed. They see the instructor moving away from traffic, leaving space, setting up their brakes, reducing the risks. They see why head checks are so important at intersections. A common response is that the classroom training now makes more sense.

After more practice the students return to the training centre. They now ride a little more confidently, keeping up with the speed limit, applying their new-found roadcraft skills. As an instructor this is very rewarding.

Students often claim it’s “the best part of the course”.

The VicRoads system involves subsequent on-road coaching during a Check Ride, and finally an on road license assessment. As an instructor, I see a night and day improvement in the roadcraft and risk reduction between riders who learnt under the old system with no on road training, and the new system.

20 years ago, riders first went onto the road with zero training, then were removed from the road until they had been trained on the range. Now we are in the middle, heading onto the road with training – a good place to be!