hongman
31-07-11, 08:21 PM
Just thought I'd give a little report on my bikesafe today. I think it was well worth the £55 cost to be honest.
Started off running late as the projector bulb blew and they had no spares ;) Took us to another room, and got to walk through the Police vehicle servicing department (clock a mental note of all the unmarked police car plates ;)).
Got going with the roadcraft stuff, which I fell asleep towards to end. Classic stuff, nothing you shouldnt already know. As always there was one eager beaver in there who had the correct-to-the-word answer to every question.
Got paired off with a 2 to 1 ratio. I was lucky, my partner was a no show so I got 1-1, with none other than one of the Essex Police bikers from the TV show "Emergency Bikers" :D
He asked me to be honest in explaining to him the way I ride, and I answered him 100% honestly. We discussed what I wantred out the day, which was corner assessment and corner obs.
Did a few road positioning drills, and did an assessed ride through Beeleigh bends. Stopped for lunch at a local cafe (yum) all the while chatting like a mate and getting very good feedback.
Few more assessed rides and back to base to finish up.
All in all, very informative, and very good feedback. Reckons I have natural ability LOL. I reckon he says that to everyone...but I did feel an improvement, and I was shcoked at how much information I was missing by riding as fast as I could and hoping for the best.
Going forward I will try to slow down a bit (not too much!) and concentrate on getting the lines right, and then gradually building speed back up. So a corner I'd normally do at say 80, drop to 60, get the lines bang on and then creep it back up.
For the record I asked him about speeding. He said 30/40/50 must be kept to pretty rigidly but on national (60), anything up to about 70 was fine.
Dont know if this is the same for all bikesafe either but no radio coms...had to keep tabs in my mirror to see if he was signalling to turn and get my directions that way.
Come tomorrow/tuesday I shall be planning my route to the AR, next adventure!
Started off running late as the projector bulb blew and they had no spares ;) Took us to another room, and got to walk through the Police vehicle servicing department (clock a mental note of all the unmarked police car plates ;)).
Got going with the roadcraft stuff, which I fell asleep towards to end. Classic stuff, nothing you shouldnt already know. As always there was one eager beaver in there who had the correct-to-the-word answer to every question.
Got paired off with a 2 to 1 ratio. I was lucky, my partner was a no show so I got 1-1, with none other than one of the Essex Police bikers from the TV show "Emergency Bikers" :D
He asked me to be honest in explaining to him the way I ride, and I answered him 100% honestly. We discussed what I wantred out the day, which was corner assessment and corner obs.
Did a few road positioning drills, and did an assessed ride through Beeleigh bends. Stopped for lunch at a local cafe (yum) all the while chatting like a mate and getting very good feedback.
Few more assessed rides and back to base to finish up.
All in all, very informative, and very good feedback. Reckons I have natural ability LOL. I reckon he says that to everyone...but I did feel an improvement, and I was shcoked at how much information I was missing by riding as fast as I could and hoping for the best.
Going forward I will try to slow down a bit (not too much!) and concentrate on getting the lines right, and then gradually building speed back up. So a corner I'd normally do at say 80, drop to 60, get the lines bang on and then creep it back up.
For the record I asked him about speeding. He said 30/40/50 must be kept to pretty rigidly but on national (60), anything up to about 70 was fine.
Dont know if this is the same for all bikesafe either but no radio coms...had to keep tabs in my mirror to see if he was signalling to turn and get my directions that way.
Come tomorrow/tuesday I shall be planning my route to the AR, next adventure!