bikesafe

[Dave20046]

Thought I'd post a quick review of the bikesafe day I went on the other day for anyone considering it (it's the time of year they're running).
Sorry if this is the wrong section was looking for a suitable place to plonk it in the reviews bit but only 'ancillaries' looked the closest.

For anyone that doesn't know; bikesafe is a day long course run by the police (all over the country bar two constabularies) to try and preserve a few bikers' lives and to counter the damage some officers do re. motorist alienation and public/police relations. Idea is to get supersports wielding 21-45 year olds through the doors (biggest KSI age group) and to have them leave thinking 'wow the police are wicked, I'm gonna try riding responsibly from now on to save them the hassle of scooping me up'. Although from what I saw it was responsible cb500 riding blokes and old women who couldn't corner that showed up and I didn't get the impression the coppers were too overjoyed by that. (some of you may be quick to point out I fall into the latter category )

So paid my £50 and arrived bleary eyed at 8am where I was welcomed by some coffee and a room full of bikers watching an advanced riding dvd.
First part of the day is theory, aided with videos clips and a advanced police rider talking you through which finishes about 10.30. It was all good info and a nice refresher but I've got to say (and I feel a complete nob saying this and it's probably an indicator I'll be dead soon) that can't think of one thing I learnt that was new, if you've ever done any sort of other advanced training you will have most of it drilled in already. but don't get me wrong, all valuable stuff you want to be 100% to get refreshed on given the chance.

Next part was the riding. Before we set off the copper inspected our bikes (tyres) and I felt quite glad I'd bought and installed a baffle just for the day as I heard (or not) everyone elses bikes start - saved a bit of embarassment/being sent homeness. He then went on to cover where we'd be going and explained (quite rightly) not to feel funny that there was a copper behind you and that he's not come to work on his day off to give pointless feedback to people riding as if they're on their test...faking it. He wanted to see us riding naturally and making 'progression' as we normally would. But if he saw anything unsafe he'd pull us on it.

Had a shaky start, felt a bit nervous did some boring motorway miles got the impression it went quite badly. We pulled up and I was right he gave me a bit of constructive abuse and basically said don't be nervous because it was showing.We then followed the other bloke on his fake gsxr. Had some lunch (free thank god as there was no cash machine about) then set off out into the sticks, at this point I thought '**** it' he wouldn't have the audacity to give me a ticket so I'm going to ride as normal. Went some lovely roads, not far from my house that I don't know how I'd never found..really got into it. Next lot of feedback was very good, other pupil was smiling broadly and the copper looked slightly releived and seemed 100% more upbeat. Think the phrase 'struggled to keep up with you on the bends' came up (...well..I know it did. Shamelessly it was my proudest moment of my biking career thus far). The attitude to speed certainly is different, borderline seriously hypocritical. At one point we were doing, ahem, '012'mph in a 50mph zone.
We finished the day and got given a couple of the DVDs, the roadcraft handbook (wanted that for ages!), a neckbuff (needed one for ages too) and some other merchandise.

All in all a good day, not 100% if it was worth the £50 as it was really something I could have done with a set of mates for free... bar the valuable professional feedback,bag of goodies, and feeling of impunity from tickets. I'm glad I did it and say it's definitely worth doing atleast once, especially if you;ve never done anything like it before.





Sorry for the drivel, not sure if it'll be any use to someone - but hopefully will.

does this lower your ins?

sounds good to do as a new biker.

[Dave20046]

yes it does lower it (god I need mine lowering!).
Yeah would be stupidly useful as a new rider. No brainer really.

£50 is probley the cost of all the things you got at the end!
Sounds like a good day spent.
We have a copper that comes up to our local road for chats with us. Nice bloke and he just says so long as your not doing anything really stupid carry on.
Last time his phone rang while he was chatting on the Police bike and it was his sergant on the loud speaker asking him to get some curries in classic!!!

[yorkie_chris]

I'll be looking at this with the West Yorks lot, will let you know how it goes.

so how do you go about booking this?

Dave, would the one you did be my nearist one?

[Luckypants]

There will most likely be a link from your local council website, local police website or http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/

[Dave20046]

As luckypants says custard, google 'sheffield bikesafe' or similar and you can book and pay online. I'm guessing it will be your closest as some people came from staffs to the one I attended. It's the sypd operations centre on europa link off sheffield parkway.

I've just had a 'phone call tonight from my local IAM instructor following the Strathclyde police bikesafe presentation a couple of weeks ago.
Here we have the 'bikesafe' few hours and then an assessed ride at a later date from the IAM group.
Tbh I didn't get an awful lot from the day, apart from learning how to remove a helmet from an injured [and choking] biker. Perhaps it'll all fall into place when I train with the IAM group.
Think it was aimed at the sports bike mentalists who like to do 130mph on the bends.....not really for auld gits like me who take it easy!
Tha statistics and dvd involved scare tatics and the gory pics of biker injuries made the guy sitting next to me faint!
On the plus side, we didn't pay a thing, were given a useful cd rom away with us, and I got to meet two lovely members of the org!

Originally Posted by Dave20046

It was all good info and a nice refresher but I've got to say (and I feel a complete nob saying this and it's probably an indicator I'll be dead soon) that can't think of one thing I learnt that was new, if you've ever done any sort of other advanced training you will have most of it drilled in already. but don't get me wrong, all valuable stuff you want to be 100% to get refreshed on given the chance.

Dave, I'll come sit in the "door handle" corner with you.

I felt exactly the same following BikeSafe in North Wales. The classroom theory work I knew beforehand from other things, mainly the Motorcycle Roadcraft book.

On the ride I did for BikeSafe, I seriously tamed my riding down at first. The guy out with me noticed, and at the first stop asked "is this your normal riding style?" to which I honestly answered. From there on in, we upped the pace, but I was still holding back. I still got positive feedback from it all though.

For me, the most useful thing was the First Bike on Scene (FBoS) element I elected to do. Brushing up on First Aid, with a little traffic/incident management thrown in.

I'll add though that BikeSafe itself is well worth going on, even if it's just to check you haven't got into bad habits, or that you understand the advanced principals correctly.