Clinton Smout - BMW Certified Instructor
Clinton Smout — Rider Skills
Clinton Smout has spent a lifetime riding motorcycles, teaching, and helping people understand what a motorcycle is really doing underneath them.
He is the kind of instructor who brings more than theory to the conversation. Clinton has taught new riders, off-road riders, adventure riders, ATV riders, snowmobile operators, and people who simply want to feel more confident when the ground gets loose, uneven, slippery, steep, or unpredictable.
A former Chief Instructor for motorcycle licensing courses at Humber College, Clinton saw early on that many riders were being taught how to get a licence, but not necessarily how to handle a motorcycle with real confidence once the pavement ended. His passion was off-road riding, and he recognized a gap that needed filling.
So he built the training that riders were missing.
Through CMTS, SMART Adventures, and SMART Performance Centre at Horseshoe Resort near Barrie, Ontario, Clinton helped create one of the most complete rider-training environments in Canada. It is not just a classroom or a parking lot with a few cones. It is a year-round powersports facility with forest trails, varied terrain, motorcycles, BMW GS adventure bikes, ATVs, side-by-sides, snowmobiles, certified instructors, and the space to teach real-world control in real-world conditions.
Over more than 25 years, Clinton and his team have trained more than 130,000 students, with over 70 percent of them being first-time riders. That matters, because it means Clinton knows how to meet riders where they are. He can talk to someone who is nervous about their first ride, and he can also help an experienced adventure rider understand why a bike reacts the way it does in sand, gravel, mud, rocks, hills, ruts, or tight slow-speed situations.
After watching Long Way Round in 2005, Clinton saw where adventure motorcycling was headed and added BMW GS rider training to his programs. That decision helped shape a path for riders who wanted to take bigger bikes beyond the road and learn how to manage them properly in the dirt.
Clinton’s motorcycle knowledge is respected across North America and beyond, but his real gift is making good riding understandable. He has a way of breaking technique down so it makes sense, whether he is talking about balance, braking, body position, traction, fear, mistakes, recovery, or the small habits that make a big difference when things get tricky.
For many years, Clinton has been Adventure Rider Radio’s Chief Instructor on Rider Skills, helping riders improve not by showing off, but by explaining what works, why it works, and how to practise it.
If you want to ride with more control, more confidence, and a better understanding of what your motorcycle is doing underneath you, Clinton Smout is one of the best people to learn from.
