KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Ed. Note: The following content was provided by Top Gun Motorcycle Training Centers, who is a client of KHTS AM-1220.
A Santa Clarita motorcycle school is striving to enhance the safety of motorcycle riders by teaching them the skills they need to protect themselves while on the road, school officials said.
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“Our whole goal is to try to bring down the fatalities and the crashes of motorcycle riders in the state of California,” said Rick Ford of Top Gun Motorcycle Training. “We give them the skills they need not just to control the motorcycle, but skills that will help them out in the real world protect themselves.”
Motorcycle instruction focuses on teaching riders safety strategies they can use on the road to avoid accidents before they happen, while striving to make these strategies become “second nature,” Ford added.
By using the acronym SIPDE– which stands for Search, Identify, Predict, Decide and Execute –riders are taught to constantly be looking for potentially dangerous hazards.
“You identify these, you predict what could happen and you make a decision on how to avoid that,” Ford said. “So you’re constantly trying to avoid everybody else that’s not paying attention.”
Several motorcycle courses are available through Top Gun Motorcycle Training, but the basic California Motorcyclist Safety Program (CMSP) consists of about six hours of classroom time and ten hours of motorcycle riding. Participants average approximately 28 miles over the course of two days.
School instructors offer three “promises” to their students, and ask for three promises from students in return.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at [email protected].“You will learn specific, measurable, demonstrable riding skills; you will learn a basic understanding of how your bike works and how what you do affects your bike’s ability to maintain traction and control; you will be able to recognize risks out on the road, know what the solution is and be able to manage them on the fly,” Ford said.
In return, instructors ask “you keep an open mind regardless of skill or experience, you accept the coaching from your instructors and you respect the learning of your peers,” he added.
Classes are held in Santa Clarita primarily on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at College of the Canyons in Valencia.
Santa Clarita residents interested in motorcycle training at Top Gun can stop by the 2015 KHTS Home and Garden Show at the Valencia Hyatt on April 25 and 26, call the center or visit their website.
Top Gun Motorcycle Training Centers
800-593-7909
I took the “top gun” class this weekend and was extremely disappointed. These guys are more into robbing you of your money than teaching you what you need to know to pass there 50 question exam given before you’ve even taken the last class. This was such a rushed course. We were told if you didn’t pass the exam you must be retarded. Well I guess I must be retarded along with a few others. I paid 250.00 to come in here and get called retarded and not pass there exam.
What does that say for there teaching abilities? There motorcycles were in poor condition. Mine kept stalling unless I reved the gas, guy in front of me was spitting out smog so bad my eyes were burning, another lady had to have them push start her bike several times. There was even a racial comment against Asians in the class. I did not pass their exam and did not attend the last day of their class. I have never attended such an unprofessionally run class. Oh I also meant to add the instructors kept arguing with each other out on the range, the list just goes on and on. My advice don’t attend this class! Not worth the 250.00 you will be ripped off for! Harley runs a much better class.