District Educator Article

Parking Lot Practice Tips
By Dori Dirig

Since David and I took over the District Educator position, we have had numerous inquiries about Parking Lot Practice (PLP) information. We have been organizing monthly PLP’s for CA1F over the last year, and it is a lot of fun. It is very rewarding to be able to further develop both yours and your chapter members’ riding skills. However, there are many precautions and preparations that chapter educators need to take beyond designing the practice courses.

Last month, there was an incident that made me reevaluate the set-ups of PLP as well as the protective gear each rider should wear. A large group of us were meeting for a ride at a local Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday morning (needless to say, there were a lot of car and pedestrian traffic). David & I were one of the last ones to arrive there but when we got there, there were 3 bikes practicing tight circles in the parking lot with one of more active members standing by. There were about a dozen bikes parked nearby with people mingling around in addition to the Wal-Mart customers. The 3 bikes were going every which directions at the same time in a tight area. As soon as we got there, two of them stopped practicing (often times we are the last one to arrive and it seems to signal others to gather for a pre-ride meeting). The last rider, however, remained to try one more drill. Before anyone knew it, we heard a loud crash, and the bike went down with the rider thrown off the bike 5-10 feet away after slipping in some gravel and low-siding. Now, what happened?

First of all, PLP should never been done in uncontrolled parking lot. What if the downed bike above had been facing other bikes parked nearby? What if it had been facing pedestrian(s) or a car or a planter or a building? There should be someone, namely the chapter educator(s), overlooking the whole situation including other bikes, parking, traffic through the area (if unavoidable), pedestrians walking by the area, not to mention the physical condition of the lot. When we conduct PLP's, we only practice one skill at a time and block off the area with orange cones to prevent cars and/or pedestrians from coming into the lot. If there is an unsafe area of the parking lot (gravel, wet pavement due to irrigation, etc.) this area should be swept or ‘coned-off’ so all riders know to avoid the area. A PLP should be the opportunity for the riders to practice their skills without worrying about these surrounding conditions. Therefore, one should never have ‘impromptu’ PLP's while you are waiting for others to arrive.

The other factor to this incident was that the rider was not prepared for PLP (nor any ride). She was tired from lack of sleep and was wearing a short sleeve T-shirt and finger-less gloves. When she was thrown off the bike, she hit her head, scraped her elbow and fingers on the pavement. Had she had her ‘summer helmet’ which is a half helmet instead of the three quarters helmet she had on, her injury could have been worse. We normally include the protective gear info when we announce our next PLP to the chapter but not everyone follows. This gear consists of a helmet, a long sleeve shirt or preferably a jacket, full-fingered gloves, long pants and over the ankle boots, the same as the required gear for the skills games at the Region or District rallies. We’ve had complaints from the PLP participants about the gloves and the long sleeve shirt before because “it’s too hot!” As the ones who organize the PLP's and overlook the riders’ safety, you should not give in to those minorities who refuse to comply the rules for a little comfort. We have our PLP's at 8 AM to avoid the heat during summer while we have them at 10 AM during winter. The early time doesn’t make much difference to majority of the participants for we continue to have pretty good attendance of over 10 bikes at each PLP.

Now, I have the tendency to emphasize about the protective gear more than others since my accident in May. The shoulder of my leather jacket, both knees of my leather chaps, and my leather boots were all torn up (but not torn through), and the shield, chin and right side of my full face helmet were all scratched up in this 15-20 mph accident. When dealing with powerful machines like motorcycles (especially large ones like GoldWings), it doesn’t take much to hurt the rider and co-rider in accidents/mishaps. I was very lucky when I went down, but part of that ‘luck’ was provided by wearing the proper safety gear in the first place. Consider how much worse the bruises to my legs and right hand would have been without leather gear, not to mention if I had not been wearing a full-face helmet.

I encourage everyone to take advantage of the ERC’s (1-up and 2-up) at the Region Rally in Pocatello, ID next month. If you are planning to organize PLP's for your chapter, you should follow how the ERC is conducted. It’s done in a very professional manner and makes a perfect model for your PLP, even though you may think you are just practicing with friends. Organization, preparation, and an uncompromising emphasis on rider safety should be the top priorities for those who plan and run a PLP in order to avoid mishaps. I hope none of you out there will learn that the hard way.

There is a lot of preparation needed before you can just ‘do’ PLP's. There is a really good web-site on how to organize PLP’s from scratch linked from CA1F website (http://gwrra-ca1f.org). The website link to the OH-N site on PLP design is fantastic (http://www2.wcoil.com/~don_gi/plpindex.html). Is there anyone in your chapter who is big into training and safety? Promote him/her to be your assistant officially or non-officially. This is a chapter event, and you don’t have to do all the work. You may be surprised how much people enjoy helping out in event such as PLP. After only a single PLP, David and I had a number of people who wanted to come out early and help get things set up. As always, David and I are here as a resource should you have any questions or concerns. Check out the CA1F website for more information, and give us a call or an email if you need anything.

As always, Ride Safe and COAST (Concentrate on A Safe Trip),

D&D