How to introduce your child to the world of motorcycling

How do you introduce an 18-year old to riding.

In all my writing about safety, I have met quite a few peers with sons and daughters approaching 18, including my own son- many of whom had this worry on how to introduce their kids to the world of motorcycle riding.

The topic broke up into three view points, all equally important. View points arranged upfront looked like this

From the Parents:- A single paramount worry seems to be the increased ‘rashness’ of riders on the road these days, and the growing indiscipline seen.

From the 3^rd party:- Kids who ride rashly, and break rules, get into accidents and bring grief to their parents

From the Kids:- the need for freedom to travel, the ability to be untraceable for those few stolen moments- the increased ‘Area of Operations’ with the wheels under them.

I do believe I have been a reasonable influence on a few riders through my blog and my interactions on group rides over the past 4/5 years that I have taken this ‘Promote Road Safety’ campaign that I run in my brain.

In my minds eyes, motorcycle discipline is always a part of the upbringing- the safety, the road discipline that children imbibe from their parents first and then their riding partners. So what they watch, writes half their riding DNA, and then thats severely challenged by their peers.

I find that if the parent/elder friend/family member- decides to take the youngster under his/her wing, then group rides are usually the best way to start. Group riding usually enforces a decent speed discipline, and eliminates the rush of wanting to reach some place fast and then wait for the others.  The group offers riding safety, covering the front and the rear of the new rider and that makes for a very good starting environment. I would assume that the guardian knows what kind of a group to align with for starters. There are reckless Pulsar Riders and very safe Z1000 riders, so I find that there is no point in talking about bike categories in regards to this topic.

On group rides, the simple things that fellow riders do- be on time, greet fellow riders, gear up properly, all of this gets imbibed and that slowly becomes becomes habit. Gloves, jeans with knee guards or riding pants, boots, and most important- the full face helmet, all get automatically enforced and the benefits of that will be evident- no strainto eyes, less wind fatigue, less noise in ears, protection from the sun and most important, protection from the tarmac.

A long time ago, on a wall of store selling safety gear, I read the sign-' There are two kinds of riders, those who have fallen and those who will.' I strongly believe this. Nothing I say prevents a fall. What it does is it prevents injury. Preoperly worn gear dramatically reduces the extent of the hurt, and therefore the dismay at home, the fear quotient of family members- and also the fact that you get back in the saddle sooner.

Helmets prevent other than grievous hurt to the head region- the dust and other particles from entering the eyes and distracting the rider. Evening riders are plagued by the problem of bugs as also trucks that carry debris or sand/mud and cause havoc for the ill protected riders in their wake.

Gloves- the best example I use is the fall in the parking lot, or the fall at 2kmph at a traffic signal because there is scree or oil or some other substance on the road- that causes a fall at a minimal speed- and then the lack of good gloves results in a skinned palm.

I don’t like to present high speed accident stories and then have teenagers tune out half way through the narrative. I prefer these sand-in-eyes and skinned-palm-a@2kmph stories that they find palatable, relatable- and more importantly avoidable. 

The one thing that did not work, was negative pressure- the threats of 'don’t ride, else…' 'If you ride I/we will...' from parents. That funnily had a poor response, where the kids then borrowed bikes and then in an effort to maximize the pleasure, rode fast/furious and obviously had no proper fitting gear to protect them and minimize collateral damage when the spills ended the thrills. I would think it is better to give them the leeway and monitor that rather than blanket ban activities. Parents have no idea how their kids travel by train, or board running buses. Parents have no idea how kids climb into other kids houses using drainage pipes and neighbours balconies. All this happens, like it or not. These activities are far more dangerous than letting our child have a bike and then taught the responsibility that goes with it.

Talking to kids- they see bikes from two very important points- one is the absolute freedom from the limitation of public transport, and the vagaries of the taxi/auto drivers. The ‘instantness’ of the ability to travel is what propels most of them into riding- and possibly %’age wise a greater ‘driver’ of the need to ride. Imagine at 8PM to want to meet a friend 3km away- you could just be there ina flip of a switch and click of a gear or two. 

The second being the 'cool' factor- the smart wheels where a Duke wins over a Pulsar and Ninja wins over Duke - something like that, without getting offensive to any brand. I have been asked about what bike for a starter- that article comes up next.

Fine, I say, but then two things that make a better rider, is the removal of the word ‘urgency’ from the riding and then the small but religious habit of wearing safety gear- helmet and gloves for sitting on a bike, immaterial of distance, cause or immediacy.

How does one tackle this? Various means worked for various folks- and a few methods did not work. So there is no perfect rule or set of rules that will teach your ward to be dressed for the crash.

In 1987, my father refused to let me accept delivery of the then prized Hero Honda CD100, after a wait of 6+ months because I dilly-dallied on buying a helmet.  Day One was with helmet, and I never rode without a helmet after that. In 2013, a full 26 years later, I was flung over my handle bars on the picturesque Kaas Plateau, in broad daylight, in clear weather, in an ‘single-vehicle-accident’- into a laterite rock wall at about 45Kmph. A very poor imitation of Superman, if you can imagine, the entire point of contact with the rock face was my temple and the helmet saved my life. Thanks Dad.

Kids from colleges that we met at a recently concluded Castrol-initiative meet, told us how ‘skinned’ colleagues often went home and hid their injuries from their parents. Lucky they were to get away without requiring hospitalization- else imagine the horror of the parents.

To sum this- I feel that a healthy exposure to good riding habits is primary, and the parents/elders can and must play a significant role in taking the lead in arranging rides with groups of riders who have reasonably good safety beliefs and records.

A healthy respect for the law goes a long way in making a good citizen and a good rider too.  Early knowledge of what is good and what is not-riding habits goes a long way from staying away from trouble.

Eventually, your child will meet riders who are either gifted, or foolish, or both or neither. It is at that time, that your efforts in inculcating these habits of proper riding, and safety gear will stand by them and tell them what is not to be done.

Bungee jumping, horse riding, paratrooping, trail running are just as exhilarating- and as you treat them- with healthy dose of respect, so should you treat motorcycling

Other safety related article are available at--
http://beagoodrider.blogspot.in/2015/09/learn-to-lean-your-motorcycle-part-1.html