Master road safety

When Bendix decided to apply its decades of brake friction material expertise to the motorcycle category in 2022 with the Bendix Moto range, its goals were to not only supply riders and motorcycle workshops with high quality braking solutions for their bikes, but to develop a community that explored the many benefits of riding beyond the simple need to commute.

Given that braking performance is hugely important for every vehicle, promoting strong safety and educational measures were also crucial for Bendix, leading to a close partnership with highly regarded motorcycle trainers, motoDNA, along these shared values. To learn more about the origins of the partnership, read the motoDNA Partnership Media Release.

Who is motoDNA?

Practice makes perfect - it can take up to 10,000 hours to perfect a new skill, and when it comes to riding skills, that investment is well worth it to keep you safe on the road. That’s why Bendix has teamed-up with motoDNA Motorcycle Training school to deliver a series of engaging training videos for the Bendix Moto community, to help riders get the best from themselves and their bikes.

Founded over 10 years ago by Mark McVeigh, a rider with more than 35 years of road and track experience, as well as close involvement in MotoGP as an engineer, motoDNA’s training courses offer a range of beginner to advanced options for the road, along with adventure courses for riders wanting to tour in remote and tough off-road environments.

More recently, motoDNA has expanded its services with its unique motoDNA Digital Academy, which is currently overseen by Mark. The Academy is accessible online and is data-driven, allowing riders to view and engage with relevant training content in a convenient and efficient way, anywhere, anytime.

motoDNA Digital Academy

The Digital Academy is not just about putting in hour after hour to perfect riding skills, it takes a clever approach that promotes practicing the correct technique for a rider’s individual skill level; after all, you can’t expect to brake like Rossi in a week or two! Riders should learn step by step, because unlike learning an instrument or playing soccer, if you make a mistake – and you’re likely to – the result can be a big problem.

So how do riders currently learn new riding skills?

Smart riders will regularly attend a quality training school, learning and honing their skills in a controlled environment before going out on the roads. However, there are common excuses that some riders make to avoid this kind of training, such as: ‘I have no money for training’, ‘I’d rather spend to accessorise my bike’, or maybe they don’t see a need because the rider has never experienced an accident or had a close call.

Subconsciously, the rider may also think that their skill levels are actually higher than what they really are in reality. The accident statistics don’t lie though, with motorcycle riders consistently being over-represented in the data, showing not all riders are as proficient as what they believe.

To address these problems, motoDNA used learnings from its rider training tuition courses to build the motoDNA Digital Academy. Unlike other online sources, the Digital Academy is 100 per cent data driven, not opinion driven. Here’s how it works.

How it works

Think of the motoDNA Digital Academy as a personal virtual coach. Over 100 algorithms analyse riding behaviours using data from a GoPro camera. Unlike dataloggers that show a heap of squiggly lines that can be hard to read and understand, and have no baseline to compare to, the motoDNA Digital Academy automatically interprets your data, grades your level of throttle control, braking and steering across a variety of riding drill situations.

The system then grades the rider’s performance compared to thousands of other riders and then advises them on how to improve and ‘level up’, step by step. Points are given and riders ranked across 10 levels, ranging from ‘intro’ and ‘inter’ for beginners, through to ‘master’ and ‘alien’ for the most proficient achievers.

Learn more about the Digital Academy

The motoDNA Digital Academy offers all this and more on a gamified and video-rich online community platform. So, if you want to learn, have more fun and reduce your risk on the road when riding, invest in yourself and get more training. Head over to motoDNA to learn more and enjoy the ride.

The Bendix Moto range

While having good road awareness and riding skills are paramount to safety, it’s also critical that motorcycles are regularly maintained, particularly the braking system. Bendix Moto offers two pad options Ultimate+ and Street Road Track, to suit a broad range of Japanese, European, American and Chinese motorcycle models across a variety of categories.

Ultimate+

• Perfect for the everyday commuter or casual rider

• Suitable for cruisers, commuters and small / medium trail and touring bikes

• Use dense ceramic materials that provide maximum durability and braking feel

• Features embedded fine copper fibres that increase friction and heat conductivity

• Low dust and low noise performance

• Low wear design

Street Road Track

• For spirited riding of mid to large capacity bikes and heavier machines

• Use stable friction substances for more predictive braking in all conditions

• Manufactured from sinter materials for increased durability

• Longer pad life even when pushed to the limit

• Designed to stick to rotors faster for more rapid braking and increased control

• Low fade design