May 2021

by Gary Klinker

We just returned from a great weekend at Heartland S.T.E.A.M. Safe Rider was one of the sponsors of the event and had a booth with our new banner and brochures, along with some hand-outs. The conference was very informative and a lot of fun. A huge thank you goes to Jennifer Dewitz and her crew of dedicated volunteers. After many years of attending events like this a guy can tell when they are well planned and run. It was really good to see many long-time (I hesitate to say old) friends from the other Heartland states. In addition to them it was good to have Mark Buckner from Colorado back in Wisconsin. Though he is now the Executive Director for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, we go back to 1990 when we were both Executive Directors for our state’s ABATE organizations.
Ron Braaksma, a fellow Rider Coach from Iowa, attended and was operating one of the Honda Smart Trainer units. If you have not seen or tried one of these, they give a rider the ability to test their operation of a bike in traffic. Try it sometime. Ron also did his workshop on Rider Responsibility. He is good at making us look at things we encounter while riding from a different point of view.
As I write this the Safe Rider season is still a month away, but for the last three weeks we have had full classes for the first six weeks of the schedule. If this keeps up, we should have another record year. In May we will have our prospective Rider Coach, Patrick in training every weekend. We are looking forward to adding him to our roster.
I hope most of you have gotten out to shake off the winter cobwebs and enjoy some of the nice spring weather we have already had. Don’t forget to practice your braking and swerving skills to make sure they still work. Your skills along with situational awareness-paying attention-will go a long way toward keeping you safe on the roads.
May is Motorcyclist Awareness Month, but it should also be time for all of us to be aware of other road users and traffic hazards. Self-defense is good for many aspects of life.
Ride Safe,

Gary