ACC/Pro Rider Silver course

[Old Steve]

Saturday I did the Pro Rider silver course in East Auckland. Well worth the time and money (I paid $50, ACC pays the rest). In the absence of data to date, ACC will be tracking riders completing bronze, silver and gold courses and by year's end hope to have enough data to determine if riders who have completed these courses have a lower accident rate or not. There may be some problem with the size of the population field, there were only 5 riders on the course I did - great for the amount of one-on-one instruction but not conducive to building a large population of trained riders on which to draw conclusions.

But the instructor did show one statistic the ACC has generated that was interesting. We know that motorbike riders comprise approx 3% of the vehicles on the road yet we're 22 times more likely to be injured or killed. But riders wearing hi-viz jackets are 37% less likely to be in an accident, so hi-viz wearing riders are only 14 times more likely to have an accident. This justified to me my stance that if it reduced my likelihood of having an accident by 1/10th of a percent then I'd wear a pink ballet skirt when riding. Luckily for me and those who see me out riding, ACC has no data to support the rate at which wearing a pink tutu reduces accidents, so I'll just continue wearing the fluoro hi-viz.

Highest recommendations for the Pro Rider course. Great instructor, lots of one-on-one instruction, lots of riding, some good low speed instruction, instructor used radio to pass on instructions and advice. Great rides through some roads in the Hunuas that I haven't ridden on before.

[george formby]

+1 on the pro rider courses. I've done silver and gold and thoroughly enjoyed them. I think it's commonly agreed by participants and instructors that those most in need of training are the least likely to do it.

The same may apply to hi viz. Accepting that it may make you more visible and wearing it demonstrates a safety focused attitude. I'm not assuming that hi viz does make you safer as the stats imply. They don't allow for rider attitude.

Not knockin hi viz, like you say, every little helps and it's a small price to pay for potentially greater visibility. A pink tutu? That's a KTM thing.

[nzspokes]

Saturday I did the Pro Rider silver course in East Auckland. Well worth the time and money (I paid $50, ACC pays the rest). In the absence of data to date, ACC will be tracking riders completing bronze, silver and gold courses and by year's end hope to have enough data to determine if riders who have completed these courses have a lower accident rate or not. There may be some problem with the size of the population field, there were only 5 riders on the course I did - great for the amount of one-on-one instruction but not conducive to building a large population of trained riders on which to draw conclusions.

But the instructor did show one statistic the ACC has generated that was interesting. We know that motorbike riders comprise approx 3% of the vehicles on the road yet we're 22 times more likely to be injured or killed. But riders wearing hi-viz jackets are 37% less likely to be in an accident, so hi-viz wearing riders are only 14 times more likely to have an accident. This justified to me my stance that if it reduced my likelihood of having an accident by 1/10th of a percent then I'd wear a pink ballet skirt when riding. Luckily for me and those who see me out riding, ACC has no data to support the rate at which wearing a pink tutu reduces accidents, so I'll just continue wearing the fluoro hi-viz.

Highest recommendations for the Pro Rider course. Great instructor, lots of one-on-one instruction, lots of riding, some good low speed instruction, instructor used radio to pass on instructions and advice. Great rides through some roads in the Hunuas that I haven't ridden on before.

Who was the instructor?

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk

[Old Steve]

Paul Pavletich (spelling ?).

On the matter of lower accident rate with hi-viz, it may well be cause and effect - conservative riders are more likely to wear hi-viz, and as a group they may have lower accident rates.

But as I said about riding a KTM, oops, wearing a pink tutu, if it reduced my chances of having an accident I'd do it.

[Hobbyhorse]

I did the silver course late last year, out west, and found it to be a day well spent.

[george formby]

Paul Pavletich (spelling ?).

On the matter of lower accident rate with hi-viz, it may well be cause and effect - conservative riders are more likely to wear hi-viz, and as a group they may have lower accident rates.

But as I said about riding a KTM, oops, wearing a pink tutu, if it reduced my chances of having an accident I'd do it.

I think your $50 pro rider investment will make you safer than a pink tutu. Have you seen the price of them! My last one, plain white, was a lot more than $50......

[Maha]

Who was the instructor?

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk

Is one better than the other?

Sent from a comfy seat at the dinning room table using a keyboard/Monitor combo.

[nzspokes]

Is one better than the other?

Sent from a comfy seat at the dinning room table using a keyboard/Monitor combo.

Obviously some instructors are better than others.

[george formby]

Is one better than the other?

Sent from a comfy seat at the dinning room table using a keyboard/Monitor combo.

They have different experience and teaching styles. This became apparent to me during the Gold course.
I hope your not sat in front of the computer eating your tea. How rude. Unless your home alone waiting for a vid to load up. That's ok.

[george formby]

Obviously some instructors are better than others.

Ditto pupils so it's moot.

[iwilson]

Done bronze and silver for the money it's a no-brainier. But like others have said those who should be on them won't be. Could be an idea to incorporate it into the CBTA to shave a bit more time off as an incentive.

[nzspokes]

Ditto pupils so it's moot.

With one on one you can engage far better with the pupils.

[nzspokes]

Done bronze and silver for the money it's a no-brainier. But like others have said those who should be on them won't be. Could be an idea to incorporate it into the CBTA to shave a bit more time off as an incentive.

You would have had Chris down your ways? He is a good sort.

Fully agree on the those that need it wont go. The "Ive been riding decades so are perfect" type.

[george formby]

Done bronze and silver for the money it's a no-brainier. But like others have said those who should be on them won't be. Could be an idea to incorporate it into the CBTA to shave a bit more time off as an incentive.

Definitely scope for newbies but what about die hard "I've been riding 40 years.........." riders? They're the challenge. I've tried to cajole a couple of mature riders into training and practice, not interested and they would really benefit from it.

[russd7]

have done the gold course and the same course before it was called gold course, well worth the coin but i still won't wear hi vis and don't believe it has any benefit at all.
as has already been said, these courses are only effective if people attend them and what i found and why i did them was because i had become lazy and entrenched some bad habits. even though i knew i had bad habits and knew what most of them were it was still hard being critiqued on my riding on the first course i did.