Thunder Roads Magazine of Oklahoma/Arkansas December 2016 | Page 14

FEATURES

RIDER COACHES OF OKLAHOMA EXCEL
The Oklahoma Highway Safety Office has
been responsible with implementing the best ways
to provide rider safety and education for the past
7 years using funds supplied by a $3 fee on your
motorcycle registration. Several years ago, in the
early development of how the funds should best
be used, the advisory committee recognized that
the rider safety classes across the state were not
uniform in their teaching or quality. To remedy this,
an auditor position was created to monitor all state
approved motorcycle basic riding courses. Once
all of the classes and instructors began gaining
uniformity, the procedure for endorsement licensing
began to get questioned. It was recognized that
students were taking the written and riding test
twice when obtaining their “M” endorsement if
they’d had the MSF course. With a bit more work,
it was approved to let anyone who successfully
passes the state’s official basic rider course
training which has been adopted from Motorcycle
Safety Foundation, MSF, a rider could get an “M”
endorsement without the additional testing at
the license office. This is where the law currently
stands and many riders have taken advantage of
this to procure their “M” Endorsement.
Once the pieces were put into place for the
uniformity in training, new courses began popping
up and more students were trained. Rider safety

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Thunder Roads Magazine of OK/AR

training began increasing in our state. Now that the
growth of the rider coaches and the courses are
expanding, it was time to bring everyone together
to make this uniformity a reality. That brought us
to the recent Inaugural Oklahoma Rider Coach
Education Conference. Every MSF certified
instructor in Oklahoma was invited and encouraged
to attend a two day conference held at OSU OKC
Public Safety Training Center, Oklahoma City,
OK. The day and half training was presented by
the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office’s Motorcycle
Safety Education Committee. There were 63
Motorcycle Safety Foundation Instructors in
attendance. This is 90% of the RiderCoaches in
the state. Beyond the training itself, the opportunity
to meet and converse with other RiderCoaches
from schools across the state was beneficial to
many. MSF representatives Dr. Ray Ochs and
David Surgenor shared their expertise and training
at the conference. Oklahoma offering state wide
training to the RiderCoaches puts the program
ahead of many other states allowing us to meet our
goal of quality training to the public. As quoted by
one of the RiderCoaches, Stuart Preston, “ The
networking with other statewide rider coaches will
further the comradery and understanding—making
Oklahoma’s program more cohesive, uniform,
and of the highest quality. Having the Motorcycle