SMART is a road safety initiative of the Gold Coast City Council that offers professional instruction for licensed motorcycle riders. The program’s overall objective is to reduce the incident of motorcycle crashes in the city and to promote safe motorcycle travel by improving rider skills and knowledge of local and hinterland roads.

The program has been running for 3 years and has won two Queensland Road Safety Awards for its contribution to road safety.

Five times 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan supports the program as its patron and wants to help motorcycle riders be the best they can be. He believes rider education and ongoing training are the keys to avoiding crashes.

The training is conducted on carefully selected public roads under the guidance of professional motorcycle instructors. With Council subsidy, one day’s tuition with HART (Honda Australia Rider Training) costs $45.
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We all know that excessive speed, and also riding at a speed that is inappropriate for the conditions or our skill level, is a major contributing factor in many motorcycle crashes. But what about travelling below the speed of the surrounding traffic - is that dangerous too? Can you put yourself at risk by travelling too slowly?

Well, the short answer is a very definite “yes”.

Now before I get too far into this let me make two things very clear….
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I heard this ad campaign mentioned on a motoring show on Brisbane radio today and thought I’d seen it somewhere - where else but YouTube

Welcome to the Bike Safe Newsletter 2/2009.

I would like to thank all those that attended the first Bike Safe presentation on 25^th November 2009.  With over 30 people attending it was a great success.  I hope that even if you left with a small amount of information then it was a worthwhile experience.  My hope is that you leave the sessions with those prompts in mind and next time you are out riding they force you to think about some of the safety issues that occur.
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For those of us with little aspiring motorcycle champions the news that Honda Motorcycles and former National Motocross/Supercross Champion Lee Hogan have teamed up to launch “MotoKids” in 2010 is certainly good news.

The program is already gaining widespread coverage, and rightly so.
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Those people who have already expressed interest in participating in the BikeSafe program being organised by Sgt Bradyn Murphy would have received an email from him today with an update on the program.
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I was chatting to Sgt Bradyn Murphy from the Gold Coast District Traffic Branch recently about his involvement with BikeSafe.

BikeSafe is a UK national police led initiative that seeks to engage riders in a conflict free environment with the aim of increasing their awareness, creating a genuine desire to learn about safer riding and ultimately to help lower the number of motorcycle rider casualties.

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Many years ago I was involved in driver and rider training at the Police Driving School in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe).  I was intrigued one Saturday morning, during the weekly spit and polish session, by the antics of one of our new recruits.  My attention was drawn to this unfortunate soul who had just filled her Vespa scooter with petrol.  She had managed to kick start the ungainly machine and had mounted the saddle with the intention of riding it away from the fuel pump for further polishing and later inspection.  (more…)

Motorcycle safety ad produced by the Transport Accident Commission in Victoria

If you think you’re an experienced rider, take our multiple choice test to see if you measure up.  Topics include Braking, Cornering, Traction and General Knowledge.

Good luck, and don’t forget to post your results in the comments section! (more…)