Motorcycle ROADCRAFT - Book Review
Motor officers are amongst the most well trained motorcycle riders in the world. When a motor officer offers training, endorses a training program or provides information that will make you a better safer rider… the smart thing is to take advantage of the opportunity to learn.
Officer Ruben Torres started blogging about motorcycle safety in November, 2008 at Better Motorcycling. I read this on Ruben’s blog:
Basic police motorcycle was my first real training. It was valuable and I learned much, but it was primarily parking lot practice with no real ‘on the street’ riding. I began to research alternative training that would address street riding.
I discovered the Roadcraft system of motorcycle control. This system is what I was looking for. I found the information to be so valuable that I started writing about it within police circles and then decided I would do whatever to introduce these techniques to as many as would listen.
Ruben was referring to the textbook put out by The Police Foundation and published by the Stationary Office called: Motorcycle ROADCRAFT - the police rider’s handbook to better motorcycling. I was impressed with Ruben’s endorsement and asked him if I could borrow his copy and he was kind enough to mail it to me. Thanks Ruben!
If there is information out there that will make me a better rider, I want it! If there is information out there that will make me a better Road Captain, I want it! If there is valuable information out there for my readers, I want to tell them about it! So I read the book and it is indeed a detailed text book. If you’re not the text book type then this is not for you. If you want to read a text book about a 5 phase system of riding with lots of diagrams and illustrations then this is for you.
I enjoyed Chapter 1 the most. It is called: Becoming a better rider. The rest of the book details the the Roadcraft system. Chapter 1 gets you into a safety mindset like a preride speech before a group ride. It discusses the big picture concept of ”attitude” which is probably the single most important factor in deciding who is going to be a good rider and who should trade in their scooter.
I have to give you a heads up; this book is from London, England. There are some important differences which you have to take into consideration such as which side of the road they ride on.
You can order this book at my Amazon.com bookstore where I have pre-selected many of the best motorcycle titles available in books and DVD. Click here to visit my store and click here to get more information on Motorcycle ROADCRAFT.
