Bikesafe (UK)

[London_Phil]

Had a great day out with the Met Police on Friday, with the BikeSafe initiative.

Apparently I'm "Not Dangerous"

Had a couple of hours with some classroom stuff, then  2 riders with one Police rider went out for a good few hours around Herts and Cambridge.
The day is based around "Observational" riding, and the idea is to encourage people to look at how they ride, and encourage self improvement.
Having passed my bike test in the early Eighties, I have never done any other rider training, and combined with my low bike use now, it shows.
Essentially I was rated C... Competent, but room for improvement...(apparently, the vast majority of non advanced riders are a C)
Great day, great guys, the one branch of the Police I hope most of us respect, their riding ability is quite something.
I got a free place , bit I think its less than £50 anyway.
Guys on Gromms, Guys on New Sportsbikes, we all had a blast.

If you get an opportunity, try it..

[Tiger-G]

Hope it will inspire you to do some advanced riding with your local ROSPA group, it's amazing how it changes your ability to ride safely   :icon_wink:

[Chris Canning]

Each to his/her own The Western beach race and the Welsh Two Day or any of the many other Welsh nationals did it for me 

[Lee337]

Did a Bikesafe many years ago, followed by a number of great rides with the local RoSPA group in Milton Keynes. Improved my skills and confidence no end, but that was a while ago & I've moved areas twice since then. I went for one ride with another RoSPA group in the mid 'noughties' but very quickly decided against taking it further. Compulsory flourescent vest a consistent 10mph below the speed limit, yes even in 30 limits ('it's a limit, not a target') and I just couldn't see me getting on with any of them. That and it appeared that a comb over hairstyle was the norm and I wasn't prepared to go that far, meant I never went back.

I have since had a ride out with the Peterborough branch which was great fun, but sadly I've had little time to make it a regular thing.

As has been said, each to their own but it can be a great social thing.

Now if only I was more sociable...

[Tiger-G]

You don't even have to join an advanced driving/riding group nowadays, there are soooo many great advanced driving/riding video's on YouTube, you can pick up nearly all the information there  :icon_wink:

I was going to comment on your "ABS used for the first time in anger" post from an advanced rider's perspective, but it always comes across as pompous and I'm better than you, so I didn't bother. But that sort of thing just wouldn't have happened to a good advanced rider, as they are that far ahead of what is going on, on the road, that they never get into that sort of situation.

Damn......I've said it now !! 

[London_Phil]

You don't even have to join an advanced driving/riding group nowadays, there are soooo many great advanced driving/riding video's on YouTube, you can pick up nearly all the information there  :icon_wink:

I was going to comment on your "ABS used for the first time in anger" post from an advanced rider's perspective, but it always comes across as pompous and I'm better than you, so I didn't bother. But that sort of thing just wouldn't have happened to a good advanced rider, as they are that far ahead of what is going on, on the road, that they never get into that sort of situation.

Damn......I've said it now !! 

Indeed you do sound like a Pompous Ass, but hey ho, I'm Not Dangerous, so its Saul Goodman.....

[Chris Canning]

Now it's turning into an interesting thread!!!!

Have ridden a bike since the clock turned midnight July 1969 all the lads that I got into biking with all treated learning to ride a bike just like a job of work non of us bought a big bike for 5 years me personally went 200/250/350/500/500/750 and that took me to 1974 and by which time i'd Already done several trips across Europe currently now well over 200 and pride of place for me/us have done two 1000 mile days.

Very quickly realised I could be riding a bike on public roads and at best I would learn to survive but what I wanted was to learn how to ride a bike which is something totally different and I went racing an enduro bike I learned about compression and rebound/preload tyre pressure and a multitude of other things and when the front wheel is going one way and the rear another all is not lost not by a long chalk it ain't.

Fast forward 50 years feck knows where that has gone..... frankly nothing has changed i'm Still learning and MOST of those guys I learned to ride a bike with are still around it's just that a couple of their offspring have turned out to be considerably better at such than we have ever been but that's not really for these pages even though most will have seen them on TV.

I've always stuck to the same script when talking to newbies about learning to ride a bike 'It's not a game your first big mistake will probably kill you treat it like a job and hopefully you'll survive' the irony I see people being instructors when they've been riding less than 20 years which frankly is laughable but hey ho that's today's world for you.

[Tiger-G]

Indeed you do sound like a Pompous Ass, but hey ho, I'm Not Dangerous, so its Saul Goodman.....

Thanks  :icon_wink: