For The Serial S.A.D. or Dropsies Types There Is Hope....

I was at my local Harley Dealer this afternoon and saw the new Riders Edge training bikes sitting in the new bike prep area. It looks like Harley went all out to prevent the bike from being damaged by installing nice orange "crash bars" and "sliders" over just about anything that could touch the ground! Check out the exhaust protection and rear shock sliders! And the handlebar extensions! There may be hope for those who are serial S.A.D. members yet....

Now if they would just make all that protection for my Switchback...in chrome of course....

Right Side: Check out the exhaust hoop!

https://flic.kr/p/npgpzChttps://www.flickr.com/people/39243635@N03/

Left Side: The lower shock mount "slider" is my favorite....




https://flic.kr/p/npgMnVhttps://www.flickr.com/people/39243635@N03/

I like the orange color for the protection. It embraces the drop rather than trying to make it a dirty secret.

Not a bad idea at all. These training motorcycles will get dropped......a lot. Should help keep maintenance and repair costs down.

And those of us prone to SAD events might be interested.

tawilke46 said:

These training motorcycles will get dropped......a lot.

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Yep, the last time I took BRC we had a new, young, short rider in our foursome and she dropped the Honda CRM230M trainer at least five times...that bike was way too tall for her. The good news was nothing new was damaged in all her Stop And Drops....

These bike look like they will be fun to ride... Unfortunately they were all jammed in and I could not easily get to one to "try it on". My son just "upgraded" to a new Street Glide and we are going to take Riders Edge BRC together in the near future. I'm looking forward to zipping around on one of these...

Reminds me of a couple of years ago I was in charge of propery management for this area and one of the locations was the Ontario Police College. One day when I was there, they were doing m/c training. Of course I stopped to watch for awhile. The instructor came over to chat wondering why I was watching. I told him I was a rider and was interested in the session. These big burley (soon-to-be) moto-officers were dropping their big harleys all over the parking lot trying to do these tight turns through the pilons. There was one small rider though that did very well, not dropping their bike even once. I noticed a pigtail out of the back of their helmut and made a comment about how well she was doing, thinking that they may have been another instructor. The Harley instructor (HD brought their training bikes and instructor to do the course) said that she is doing so well compared to these big macho guys was that she was the only one who listened to him. The rest already knew what they were doing. haha

All the bikes though to keep on topic were equipped with a lot of fall-down protection, and it was really needed.

Another topic for discussion on a different thread is why the US and Canada insist on using HD for their moto-officers, and the rest of the world does not.

No Harley's on patrol here in Albuquerque. They switched over to Beemer's several years ago. However, I do see an occasional Kawasaki being ridden by the County Sheriff's department.

Several jurisdictions around Atlanta use BMW RTPs as well... With BMW Marketing using photos like the one below in their marketing materials it is surprising they sell any RTP's...

In Colorado, several cities are using ST1300s, some are using Concours 14s, and the Highway Patrol is using some BMWs. Montrose, CO, has an ST1300 and a Wee-Strom.

Training bike or not, I actually like the exhaust protector for any bike. Although I guess my panniers serve that purpose as well.

Sam,
That is exactly the answer I got from our Sheriff's Department.--No Tupperware, easy access to the engine and everything else, and Harley Dealers everywhere for parts and service

We also still have a few with Honda ST's.

When in Tucson I watched a speed trap at work. 2 HD's a Beemer, an ST and even an older Kawa.

Why do other countries stay away from HD's? Maybe they're smarter

It also might be that they need higher highway speeds. When I was in Europe in '08, we spent a lot of time at 85-95mph (I was on an '89 Concours). I don't think a Harley would be fun at those speeds for long.

[There was one small rider though that did very well, not dropping her bike even once. The Harley instructor said that she is doing so well compared to these big macho guys was that she was the only one who listened to him. The rest already knew what they were doing. haha]

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In my years of teaching, I found that women were generally much better students then men because they didn't arrive with preconceived ideas, unlike the men who'd already "learned to ride" from friends via bar stories.

I once had a dad call to enroll his son and he made it a specific point to ask "You're not going to teach him to use the front brake are you?" I said "Yes, since it's the most powerful brake on the motorcycle." He wasn't a happy camper to hear my side but I didn't hold that against his son when he came to class. Yup, he learned how to use the front brake and did well.

DirtFlier said:

In my years of teaching, I found that women were generally much better students then men because they didn't arrive with preconceived ideas, unlike the men who'd already "learned to ride" from friends via bar stories.

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I can relate to that... I used to teach intro / basic handgun shooting at a local range. I'd take a woman student over some "Macho Man" who had watched too many Steven Seagal movies any day. And I truly enjoyed watching one of the women out shoot the Mister Macho's....

Did the men try and shoot with the handgun turned on its side?

DirtFlier said:

Did the men try and shoot with the handgun turned on its side?

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Yes, it was pathetic...:rolleyes1: That and what we called "spray and pray" shooting in the Army... In "Spray and Pray" the theory is if you put enough lead in the air you'll hit something...you don't know what, but something... I'd tell them "One Shot, One Hit" should be their goal...but it was more like "One Magazine, One Hit" was their mentality...

Women for the most part are much better instinctive shooters and even in precision shooting can frequently out shoot the men.

We only had one rule when teaching women. The man doing the instructing cannot be a father, husband or boy friend.

charlie b said:

The man doing the instructing cannot be a father, husband or boy friend

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Back in early 1940, my dad tried to teach my mom to fly. She had 21 hours when they gave up and had not soloed yet.

I couldn't teach my son how to drive, but my wife did.

She couldn't teach our daughter how to drive, but I did.

Here in Houston, the motor officers get an allowance and ride what they want, so long as it is the -P version of whatever. Most ride Harley. The next most popular is Goldwing. Beware in Beaumont. Their cops look like Euro-cops, mostly ST1300s and lots of high viz yellow.

LOL yeah that would do it

Like why a white helmet and a white sport touring bike make people slow down around here.