I'm about average... no problem riding in all sorts of conditions - day, night, cold, wet, bright sun... no problem when the back wheel slides on drain covers and the like, or dodging potholes mid bend... but still make plenty of minor riding mistakes... positioning, lining up for overtakes, etc. but it's pretty much inconvenient stuff, rather than anything hazardous... am pretty happy about my safety if not making progress as fast as I'd like all of the time.

Seems to be plenty of dodgy riding out there though - bad braking, aggression, relying on others to brake in order to avoid accidents, riding in cycle lanes, etc. and a lot of people probably think they have better riding skills than they actually have.

The first step has to be safe riding... see people who can carve the traffic up nicely, then they get into trouble from not paying enough attention and react badly to whatever situation they wind up in.

i always thought that i was a good rider.

had my initial assesement rideout with the IAM's saturday morning.

thought my slow speed control and smoothness were my top points.

apparently they were my worse area's. and needed the most improvement.

was explained the error of my ways, given some tips and pointers to improving them .


gotta say that overall - i thought i was pretty damn good - but going through the debrief - 90 percent of my riding could have been better/safer/swifter.

Yes, I must concede on several occassions people who are quite obviously IAM/off duty police riders (based on their riding style, bikes, lids, high vis, etc.) have left me for dust on NSL country roads. I'm not one of these people who associate IAM instructors with being slow/boring, I know a lot of them are great riders (I've ridden with an ex-examiner and he was brilliant). I just find sticking to 'irrational' speed limits (IE country roads signposted as 40 that you know should be NSL) a real pain, although I completely understand the political reasons for this and agree the IAM have the right stance on it. I also admit that their style of riding is certainly safer than that of many people.

I probably will do the IAM test once I've moved back to Wales, if only for the insurance benefits.

One question, and this isn't a jibe, it's a serious one:
Can you honestly say you ride like you do on IAM advanced observed rides, when you're out riding for recreation on your own?

no i cant . . .

but with all bad habits i have, i must make an effort to eliminate them them.

i am currently making an effort to ride like im on an iam ride everytime i ride - hoping that it will become second nature after a while.

Hmm, I observe all posted limits except 50's which are a farce IMHO. As for the rest of my riding the answer would be mostly, let me explain.

One of the key riding points in advanced motorcycling is the two second rule. some of my riding is in London and there you just can not observe this rule, some clot will fill the gap anyway. I'd say that this is the main differnce in my normal riding to observed riding.

Also ketting your pegs down is most definately not on the list of desirable behaviours but i quite enjoy doing this so thats probably a deviation as well. Oh yeah and knee down stuf is right out but I do this as well.

I guess I have three riding styles.

IAM/Normal riding
City commuting
Out right loonie

I switch between the three depending on mood but I would say that 80% of my time on a bike is at IAM/Normal riding standard, 10% is at City commuting and 10% outright loonie.

Funnily enough I have crashed 3 times in the last year twice at city riding (non fault) and once at outright loonie (my fault, pushing the limit).

My personal approach to riding is to imagine that what I do is observed by a Bike Cop, how would he/she consider my riding/ manouvers. Sometimes I know that they would be most unhappy (knee down etc) and then its a case of making a decision whether I would be happy with the consequences at that point given my mindset. Sometimes I'll back off other times I'll keep going. The same approach works for me with speed in NSL's. I have been followed at 115 mph on a bike safe course and at the end agreed with the observer that it was great fun other times I feel that 40 or even 50 would be inappropriate.

:shock:

I honestly thought they would give you a rollocking (if not recommend you get a ban) for that! What on earth gave you the confidence to do that (I mean in the precence of bike cops, not the actual speed itself...)?!

Would the people here who have done IAM, etc. say that it's an ideal to be aimed at often, but not a permanent way of riding? Or are there people here who ride full-on IAM every time and have no problems??

It was safe to do so at the time. This was on the second run of the day and we had got to understand each other quite well by then. Funnily enough we lost the other rider in the group of three.

The key was judgement, if you demonstrate that then you are given more leeway, riding at below 60ish in an NSL when there are farm entrances/ small groups of houses earns you a bit more leeway on the open road IMHO.

Bear in mind though that the scamera van only sees what it sees.

Don't think I could manage test standard all the time, I just don't have that much concentration/self control. Overtakes is a prime example, sometimes I just want to pootle along, I don't want to keep moving from following to attack positions just to make that extra progress. Other times it's a safe overtake (but not at a max of 60mph), and I want to get past.

As far as I'm concerned applying the system is a state of mind (or an approach) if you treat it as a set of unbreakable rules you miss the point. Nobody should be doing things by rote, you should do them because you need to at that particular time.

And whats wrong with that?

Thats the reason I did it. Then I learnt what they tought me and I applied it so I've ended up gaining much more than I expected.