I.A.M - How many younger riders consider advanced riding?

[JamesMio]

I'm 28 and am due to sit my IAM test on Saturday. For me, as a still fairly novice rider, the experience and training has been really useful.

The £80 or whatever it was I paid for it at last years Scottish Bike Show has been more than covered with the drop in this years insurance premium (also taking into account the new 6 points I acquired last year), and to compare it against other Advanced Training by local riding schools at say, £50 a lesson, it's not that expensive at all.

I suppose every local group is different, the Dumfries & Galloway one is pretty good, reasonable mix of people from early 20's up to 70's, with the bulk somewhere between 35-50 I'd guess.

There's no 'Elite' attitude down here, far from it in fact but I'm 100% convinced I'm a better rider than I was before doing the IAM training, no question about it.

[JamesMio]

PS - It's £89 for anyone under 25 for the Bike IAM, and I think it's about £100ish for over 25's. Bearing in mind, that's all you pay apart from your Observer's petrol money each week and it's not that bad, certainly nor for all I've learned from it anyway.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Baph

In that case, pardon my french, but feck that! £80 was too steep!

it must save younger riders shed loads on insurance though, bearing in mind my insurance is about £700 tpft.

Originally Posted by JamesMio

The £80 or whatever it was I paid for it at last years Scottish Bike Show has been more than covered with the drop in this years insurance premium.

I acknowledge that some may benefit from the reduced insurance cost, but that's by no means guranteed. Also, reduced insurance cost isn't the motivation behind me trying to improve my riding. That's driven by my urge to have fun on the bike, and survive a little longer.

I doubt in my case that my insurer will more than half my premium just because of IAM.

So when I've been told I'd already pass with ease (if that's true or not I don't know, but I'm inclided to believe he wasn't lying), then there's relatively little benefit for me.

I'm looking more towards ROSPA because the gold is "the highest civilian riding qualification available." I'm still not in any major rush to do that.

EDIT: I suppose I'd best clarify the insurance comments, I'm 26 and paying £144/year fully comp on the SV. My location probably helps that a lot.

My other reason for not doing IAM training is their members are often insufferable bores who have this 'holier than thou' attitude to anyone who doesn't ride to their system.

And... I don't ride to a system, I ride instinctively - I'm of the mind that if you have to religiously follow a system to do something like ride a motorcycle, a system that robs you of the freedom to think for yourself, then maybe you should find a different hobby.

I would like to do one if the cost is not too high and there was one nearer to me. But i totally agree that it's a grest idea. I have lowsided my first bike through (and it pains me to say it) inexperience in controll when things do get out of shape due to the unforseen. Big repair bill and bruised pride still has knocked my cornering confidence as it was a dry day at the time and i leant too far on a fairly new rear tyre

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by JamesMio

I'm 28 and am due to sit my IAM test on Saturday. For me, as a still fairly novice rider, the experience and training has been really useful.

The £80 or whatever it was I paid for it at last years Scottish Bike Show has been more than covered with the drop in this years insurance premium (also taking into account the new 6 points I acquired last year), and to compare it against other Advanced Training by local riding schools at say, £50 a lesson, it's not that expensive at all.

I suppose every local group is different, the Dumfries & Galloway one is pretty good, reasonable mix of people from early 20's up to 70's, with the bulk somewhere between 35-50 I'd guess.

There's no 'Elite' attitude down here, far from it in fact but I'm 100% convinced I'm a better rider than I was before doing the IAM training, no question about it.

How did you get a drop in premium without first passing the test?

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

My other reason for not doing IAM training is their members are often insufferable bores who have this 'holier than thou' attitude to anyone who doesn't ride to their system.

And... I don't ride to a system, I ride instinctively - I'm of the mind that if you have to religiously follow a system to do something like ride a motorcycle, a system that robs you of the freedom to think for yourself, then maybe you should find a different hobby.

I honestly don't know what this system everyone goes on about is. am I going to fail?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by JamesMio

PS - It's £89 for anyone under 25 for the Bike IAM, and I think it's about £100ish for over 25's. Bearing in mind, that's all you pay apart from your Observer's petrol money each week and it's not that bad, certainly nor for all I've learned from it anyway.

I echo Baph's sentiments about what exactly you get for the money. What do I get for £100? Just joining a club? Seeing as to get any practical benefit I need to pay the instructor's (oh sorry, he's not qualified therefore he is an observer) petrol and my own a Saturday ride will cost me £80 odd. (Fair play the observer is a volunteer, so I see nothing wrong with paying his petrol - just this is on top of my joining fee)

I have also heard the rumours that advice / assessments are not consistent therefore the £100 does not seem a good investment.

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

i haven't officially joined but i do ride a lot with an IAM instructor, very nice chap who can hustle a pan when he wants to, i haven't considered joining IAM or similar but would definitely do a BikeSafe course to inprove my road perception and/or one of the track based instruction courses that focus more on bike control than roadcraft

+1 - I ride fairly regularly with a couple of DAS instructors (both highest instructor lvl). I know they watch my riding and both advise (or otherwise) when they see fit. I am planning to do a Bike Safe course this year and have also considered track riding to improve my cornering skills.

Personally I don't think the perception of IAM etc does it any favours thb. As you say the mean age of its membership is high, that's not necessarily an issue, but there's the cost and the fact that it's a non-compulsory element (rightly or wrongly). More a "nice to have" as opposed to necessity.

Also in my experience quite a few IAM qualified riders tend to "look down their nose" at those that aren't "qualified". Esp if you don't show an interest. That's not to generalise in anyway. I have also met people quite the opposite, but it does seem that you're pigeonholed rather quickly if you haven't or aren't interested. Which is not to say you don't think it's worthwhile.

Obviously the training would benefit my riding - no question. Improved awareness, bike control, road craft etc. I'm not totally familiar with the scheme, but perhaps a redesign would help attract more people.

My 2p worth.