ROSPA Training

Had my first short assessed ride with a ROSPA instructor last night, so along the lines of a recent thread about IAM training which I read with interest, I thought I would share my experience if any folk are interested in training and want to know what the ROSPA stuff is about and/or contrast it with the IAM thread.

Big essay follows…..

My vehicle history for sake of completeness – 18 months or so tooling about on an illegally over-bored and mostly knackered ancient DT125 20 year ago when an L plate was all you needed (the smell of 2-stroke oil – nostalgia!). 20 years driving a car, a couple of advanced car courses. Flogged car last year, went through DAS in September and have been on my SV since Oct.

Why more training? For me, having ridden quite a lot (most days) in the last 10 months, I feel pretty confident, but got the feeling that my confidence probably outstripped my actual ability in many situations. Also, I knew that some things I was getting lazy about or getting wrong, and was starting to get frustrated about getting lines right and safe through higher speed stuff. Also, I have a young son who is a big motivator to me minimising the risks of having fun.

So, ROSPA. To get training you have to join a local group (£20 per year for West Yorks). W Yorks had a free assessment night last night, hence my short 30 min ride. You join a ROADA local group, and apply for training towards the test (which you either fail, or pass on a bronze, silver or gold classification). You are assigned an instructor who expects you to meet around once per week or two weeks to ride and progress towards the test. As you get near being ready, you will likely go to a different instructor for an independent set of eyes, then take the test if ready. Test is £54 and includes actual ROSPA membership for the following year. Re-tests every three years to ensure you are still up to scratch.

Training is free. How long before you get an instructor will depend on your local group. I will have to wait a while since there are only 3 bike instructors locally, but the big cheese bike instructor said last night he will arrange for some ad-hoc sessions until I get my ‘assigned’ instructor.

How is it different from IAM? I asked last night and the person in charge of training said it was a higher standard. Since I have not done IAM, I will take his comment with a pinch of salt, as I imagine he will obviously be biased. I think that they both use the police roadcraft as a basis of the training, so they are likely to be fairly similar, but I am sure there will be those with more knowledge about this that may differ.

My impressions? Obviously this only applies to the people I met, but they seemed pretty friendly, the organiser type chap was a little formal and by the book, but the chief bike instructor I went out with was a properly nice bloke in his late 50s (with a startlingly clean Tiger 1050). There was a mix of car instructors there and they ranged from retired police officer looking types through to a youngish lass with a TVR, so a pretty varied bunch seem to join these groups.

My ride. The instructor pointed out that what ever his preference may be about hooning about, we had to operate under ROSPA guidelines and stick to the speed limit. Went out for about 30 minutes or so on mixed roads, he then gave me a de-brief.

Good news – basically good control, confident riding, good hazard perception and obs, broadly good positioning, stuck to speed limit.

Bad news – too far out to right on a LH bend when there were oncoming vehicles. He said that while being to right on LH bend is generally good for view round corner, but when there is oncoming traffic, the closing speed was 120 mph, so the 2 foot gap I had left should probably be a bit wider – I should sacrifice position for safety. Also, lifesavers used too late into a manoeuvre, at a point where if I saw something all I would do is read the number plate before I hit it. Therefore move the lifesaver to an earlier point, where I can actually do something if there is a phantom vehicle zooming up to pass me. Both were fair points.

Areas to be worked on – use more of road on RH bends, push obs further away down road, improve lifesavers, more thought about position v safety, link hazards and/or bend sequences together much more, rather than deal with one at a time, so have plan to negotiate a sequence of events which should smooth out the ride and make it quicker and safer.

The feedback was given in a positive way and was not a lecture or a ‘you should have done this’ type thing, it was a really informative session.

If anyone is interested in being bored again, I will update when I have had my first and more comprehensive ‘proper’ training session which will no doubt increase the list of 'to be worked on'.

Do you stick to the speed limits when not on Rospa?

Hi I have done IAM training and am doing ROSPA, I have also completed a Standard Police Motorcyclist course and I'd agree with your summary on the whole, I can confirm your suspicions over the similarities between the two are correct in that there is not much difference, all 3 of the above courses run from the Police Handbook. The difference between the two civilian courses is that with ROSPA you must retest every 3 years and their tests are graded, Bronze, Silver and Gold, they also offer a diploma course which is big bucks. IAM don't retest and have only one grade.
Speed limits are generally strictly adhered to although does depend on the Instructor/observer, I have found ROSPA Observers to be a little more relaxed and 'real world'

The Police Course I did because of my work, (I am not a Policeman but a Fire-fighter) and it was superb, a real hoot, on their bikes with a completely different set of speed limits on A-B roads and Motorways. All three groups taught me things. Your never too old or long in the tooth to learn new skills!

Originally Posted by fatneck

Do you stick to the speed limits when not on Rospa?

You mean with the instructor in tow, but not officially on training? Not sure.

You mean in general on my own? Not always.

interesting. im going to pop along to the next meeting in august! free food and hopefully get the books you get for signing up

Originally Posted by Weirdfish

Your never too old or long in the tooth to learn new skills!

Agree.

Originally Posted by AndyBrad

interesting. im going to pop along to the next meeting in august! free food and hopefully get the books you get for signing up

Prob see you there. Roadcraft is a pretty dull read, but its the basis of the training and hopefully actually being on the bike putting it into practise will be more interesting.

i'm trying to find time to get along to the local Thames valley group. Hopefully I should get more time to do the rides in winter - do you know if they still do observed rides in the dark? I'd assume so, just might make seeing your lifesavers etc hard from the instructor.

No idea as yet about observed rides at night/in dark. I would have thought so. However, I imagine that unless you have a matt black lid, they will pick up your head movements OK.

Had my first proper instructional type session this morning after my initial observed ride the other week. Got my lovely hi-viz vest given to me, with ROSPA logo etc on the back. When I put it on I had a strange feeling that I should be heading to the nearest BMW dealership, and maybe grow a beard…

Started, once away from the meeting point (not far from Squires) with about an hour of me riding in front while Mike the instructor rode behind and gave signals on where to go. A fair mix of derestricted A roads, some urban, some dual carriage way. Was pretty tense a lot of the time as I find it a bit off putting having someone follow me.

We then stopped for a cuppa and a quick de-brief. His comments were per my first ride with him, OK positioning for bends, but not really linking them together, lifesafers a bit too late, and often staying out too close to the crown on LH bends when there were oncoming vehicles. He said there were some other things to work on, but we would start with these big areas first.

After chatting about how to improve these areas we set off again. Firstly, me following Mike for about 20 minutes, then me leading for about 20 minutes. Following Mike it made it clearer how he was linking the position for bends in a way that made progress seem pretty effortless. I was surprised at how quickly we were going, how overtakes were timed so that they were safe and we never really got held up by traffic. Also, his lifesavers were way earlier than I would ever have done them. In the twisty stuff, as soon as he was far enough through a bend to see the road ahead, he would either tighten or widen his line so that he was in position for the next one without it looking like he was moving around the road. Also, where I would usually charge up to the give way at a roundabout and usually have to stop, his approach was much more measured but timed with a lot of observation so that he hardly ever had to stop, he could just cruise into a suitable gap and get round.

When I was leading and trying to put it into practise I started to feel like I was going quicker and smoother, and started to actually enjoy the ride. We have to stick to speed limits on the training, but for most of the roads this was not an issue. The only ‘difficult’ time was through wide open 30’s, where we would sometimes get cars backed up behind us. I imagine they were slightly surprised however, when we got to the next black and white sign and disappeared into the distance.

I asked about the issue of overtaking and speed limits. My instructor stated that he could not advocate breaking the speed limit, but when you are on the wrong side of the road you want to minimise your time there, as long as you do so safely and get back in lane at and continue at the ‘right’ speed. I also asked if I would be expected to overtake if for instance I came across a car doing 55 in a 60. He said that you would certainly be expected to be seen to be looking for the opportunity to pass, positioning to get views, and to pass if a safe opportunity arose, but if the chance does not arise then no problem. He did say that if you just throttled off and plodded behind, while it would not bring a fail it would not bring a higher level pass.

All in all, once I started to relax and had a chance to ‘see’ what I should be doing and then have a go myself, I really enjoyed it. I just need to try and keep practising before the next session.

Im interested in doing something like this, ill keep reading with interest.