Last Update: 16 July 2022
A few weekends ago I was invited to give a practical workshop aimed around urban survival, Urban Riding Training for newly formed ScooToronto club of 58 members. The club also invited Pekka Jokiniemi motorcycle training constable for the Toronto police operations. We were to work together to offer the club a Saturday filled with urban riding tactics.
I arranged to meet with Pekka the day before to coördinate our training methods and goals. Pekka trains the motorcycle police who start learning on the usually large-sized police motorcycles. These can be either a Harley-Davidson or a Honda.
Saturday, and only about a dozen of the club showed up (6 had canceled) we met at the 51 division Toronto police station (I was hoping to find myself a few officers or test ride a police bike, but no luck – this time) and used their training room facilities to talk traffic survival before heading out to the parking lot. One of the members of Toronto Moto & Scooter Club had designed a slide presentation which challenged the members with traffic smarts. What I really enjoyed were the many close call tales each rider had and how they were keen to relate and share. Their stories were further detailed of challenge within the urban jungle of city riding.
Plus many of the members, being that the club was so new, had not yet made acquaintance with each other. So the workshop made for some extra camaraderie.
So off we went – we made available some good exercises for slow speed control as one of the initial lesson start-ups. Riding a scooter slow, since it has a CVT transmission is achieved by keeping the rear brake lever applied as the throttle’s turned up to the friction zone. The scooters in the workshop ranged from 50cc to 400cc.
I had to leave early for a prior commitment leaving Pekka to handle the group’s wrap up lessons.
I took a few photos and even captured Glenda, one of the clubs founders on her brand new sea green beauty scooter. If you live in Toronto, check out Toronto Moto & Scooter Club meetup page. There’s always a ride in the clubs agenda; be it short or long distance.
