London Based Riders - FREE BIKESAFE

[shiftin_gear98]

Just got this....Bugger..


Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for booking a BikeSafe-London workshop, unfortunately the voucher code that you were given to use is only allowed to be used on weekday workshops and the workshop you have booked is on a weekend. I have transferred your booking to a holding date for now until we can transfer you to a weekday workshop that is suitable for you.

[shiftin_gear98]

Unfortunately there isn't an available weekday - no holiday left. Pity.

[Littlepeahead]

I got the same too. I could take a day off but Stu won't as that costs him a day's wages so we're going to cancel.

[DJ123]

Don't forget that a Bank Holiday is classed as a weekday still. You have 2 next week & 2 in May.

[shiftin_gear98]

Alas no courses those days, easy come easy go.

[pookie]

did the bike safe in romford today.. top chaps and good comedy value. Made me realise what fun it is to be on a bike again. Thanks OP.

[ophic]

Did mine today! This is a great day riding and I might have even learned a few things along the way! The team are really good, clearly love their jobs and make an "educational" day an awful lot of fun as well. I finished the day grinning from ear to ear.

Thanks to Viney for passing on the info!

[millemille]

Forgot to post this at the time. I took advantage of the TfL offer to do a Bikesafe day as I've been involved in 3 RTC's whislt commuting in the last 6 months (all of them were judged by the insurance companies to not have been my fault) and wanted to a 2nd opinion whether I was inviting trouble with my riding.

Did the day a couple of weeks ago, at the London South centre near Bromley, on a Friday in biblical rain.

Staff were all very friendly but I realised pretty quickly, when the punters were going round the room introducing themselves and saying how long they'd been riding for and how many miles a year they rode, that it didn't look like I was going to get what I'd hoped for from the day. Everyone else had been riding for less than a year and did a few thousand miles a year, whereas I've been riding about 30 years and cover more than 20k miles a year. Even the coppers raised their eyebrows at that one.

Morning was spent on supposed "city" riding through Orpington, lunch at Frankie and Bennie's near Farnborough and then the afternoon was out into the country roads around Edenbridge, Hever and Croydon hills.

Instruction from my assessor was to ride as I would do normally but not break any speed limits.

I was on the yellow peril ("T" plate SV650S with 75k miles on it) and the copper was on his fully loaded BMW police bike.

I rode exactly as instructed and, to put it bluntly, the police officer couldn't keep up. I had to continually keep stopping and wait for him to catch up.

It got to the end and all he said was "there's nothing I can teach you about riding a bike".

Waste of time - if I'd have paid my own money I'd have been mightily unimpressed.

[ophic]

Could be viewed as a waste of time, but it is an assessment.

I'd say that being assessed as being already fully competent is definitely worthwhile having. Also it might save you some money on insurance.

and you get a free solar powered torch in the goodie bag...

[millemille]

Originally Posted by ophic

Could be viewed as a waste of time, but it is an assessment.

I'd say that being assessed as being already fully competent is definitely worthwhile having. Also it might save you some money on insurance.

and you get a free solar powered torch in the goodie bag...

I don't for a minute that I'm fully competent, you can never stop learning and improving. I think the officer who was assessing me just couldn't be arsed - either on the bike or with the paperwork. He didn't fill in any assessment forms at the time and promised he'd email them through to me afterwards. Which he hasn't done.

Yes, you're right about the possible insurance discount - that was another reason for doing it, in the hope that it may go some way to offsetting the inevitable premium increase that will come with 3 claims - even no fault ones - in a year.