Dave Fields is the motorcycle safety coach for Team Arizona.

Benjie Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

Other articles by Joseph Barrios:

Heed law, real estate folks are warned Real Estate by Joseph Barrios : Home buyer got a scareReal Estate by Joseph Barrios: New Pulte project is its own building Deal OK'd in Rocky Point dispute Real Estate by Joseph Barrios : New service can expose your home's hidden hazard history Survey: Signs of cooling in local job growth Real Estate by Joseph Barrios : New landlord working wonders with apartments Banking scene shifting Fatality is first in parade's history Real Estate by Joseph Barrios : Wendt, mover at Long, moves on

Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS Administrative & Professional
JEWISH FEDERATION
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Education
Yavapao College
Nursing Instructor Restaurants and Clubs
Frog & Firkin
Server General
Copperstate OB/GYN
Operator Computer
Flowing Wells Schools
Computer Technician Health Care
CD Therapist
CD Therapist

In bright-red suspenders and fishing hat, Dave Fields watches attentively as the motorcycles rumble around him.

The motorcycle safety coach for Team Arizona, a Phoenix-based riding school, calls his students over during a Tuesday class. They cut their engines, take off their helmets to listen to him describe how to drive over a piece of wood as part of an exercise in driving over obstacles.

"Now these are probably going to get out of alignment, kind of catawampus. Approach it at 90 degrees," Fields said. "Old man isn't going to go out there and straighten it for you. Sorry, kiddies. You're going to have to change your path of travel."

Students chuckle as they learn. As site coordinator for Tucson, Fields has a hand in all the Team Arizona classes taught in Tucson. He makes sure that the practice bikes are maintained and all necessary supplies are available for all Tucson classes and acts as a liaison between Team Arizona and Arizona Honda, 4710 S. Palo Verde, where classes are held.

"It's a fancy term to say chief grunt," Fields said.

Only Pima Community College offers a similar safety course, Fields said. There are roughly 18 instructors in Tucson who teach the safety courses.

Fields said he wanted to start riding motorcycles as a teenager, but didn't start until his early 20s, when he was an Army police officer in Oklahoma. After moving back to Tucson, he rode a motorcycle for several years until his wife saw him riding his Harley-Davidson one day and felt he wasn't driving very safely.

"She grounded me very effectively for 30 years," Fields said.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, he worked in finance for Chrysler Corp. for about 30 years. After retiring and returning to Arizona, he decided to buy a motorcycle again. He's been teaching the safety courses for about five years. Fields helped move classes about a year ago from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to the Honda dealership, which he said is a more convenient location for students.

They draw new customers to the Honda dealership, said Philip Cowell, a sales manager.

"It's really convenient for our customers to see the class right here on our property. It generates a lot of interest in the shop," Cowell said.

Cowell, a former police officer who rode a motorcycle for seven years, said Fields is a great teacher.

"He's one of the best instructors. He takes a great pride in making sure everybody understands the concepts," Cowell said. "He's very patient. He's very direct and firm. You've got to consider he's dealing with people who just decided to get up one morning and, over a cup of coffee, take a class."

Cowell said Fields is a pleasure to work with because he's fun to be around but also called him a "a great ambassador for safety."

During Tuesday's class, Aaron Kirkland, 32, told Fields she was driving and braking faster than other students because she wanted the practice.

"Well, you did a good job. You scared me half to death, but you did a splendid job," Fields said.

Kirkland said she learned much from Fields.

"He's articulate. He sees your weakness and he's made me kind of see the light in a few situations where it just clicked," Kirkland said. "If we do something correctly, we hear that we're doing it. But they're not negative in a way that's demeaning."

Michael Morehouse, 47, a pastor at Catalina Lutheran Church, was at Tuesday's beginners class with his son, Jacob Morehouse, 18. He said Fields was informative — and entertaining. He laughs remembering Fields' sage advice: "no clutchy touchy," a reminder that a rider can't pull the clutch during certain maneuvers.

"He's got a voice you could listen to all day … one of those Edward R. Murrow things," Michael Morehouse said. "He does a good job of relating the abstract to the concrete."

SEE fields / D5