Tarik Kiddoe presenting at the Liguanea Back to Basics Motorcycle Safety Workshop.

Tarik Kiddoe does not ride a motorcycle as often as he once did. Still, the Shango Bikers riding group he is a part of has provided Kiddoe with lessons in motorcycle safety in two ways the value of safe riding practices in saving a friend’s life and the 17-strong group has also been a sounding board for the principles he passes on in the Back to Basics Motorcycle Safety Workshop he has started.

Kiddoe, whose first motorcycle was a Suzuki GSX!R bought in 2010, left a club one Thursday night with other riders, went home and heard in the morning that one of them, Nick Deane, had been hit head-on by a motorist driving on the wrong side of the road. The bike was in shreds but Deane, who had on protective gear, survived. Despite wearing the gloves that he would while riding competitively at Dover Raceway, Deane still suffered serious damage to his hands. However, Kiddoe can only imagine what would have happened if Deane had not been properly attired for riding a motorcycle.

It is a lesson he passes on Back to Basics workshop participants, where the emphasis is on reaching back home alive. Back to Basics is a progression on presentations at the Jamaica Road and Traffic Expo in 2014 and 2015, with what Kiddoe described as “the first true commercial workshop” done for 45 National Irrigation Commission employees last year.

Four hours out of each five-hour workshop are spent in a classroom setting, reflecting the intention of changing the motorcyclists’ mindset. It can be challenging initially, Kiddoe recalling one workshop in which someone who had been riding for decades was especially resistant to the content. At the end, though, when the participants gave feedback, he was one of those who spoke about learning a lot from the workshop.

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