Originally Posted by Ceri JC

The speeding aspect differs from group to group. Most groups disregard the speed limits on social rides (although not by massive margins), their attitude to speeding on observed rides seems to vary massively, from "so long as it's safe", to "never, not even during overtakes".

On the subject of it giving people a false sense of their riding ability, most IAM groups have at least one person who rides as bad as the worst weekend worrier on a sportsbike and yet thinks they are fantastically good because they once (somehow) passed the IAM test. We have one in our group and a large number of members want to kick him out. Whenever he is confronted about dodgy manouevers, he shrugs it off as the person critiquing him (even if they are vastly better/more experienced riders) being too hesitant/not as good at making progress as him, "Well, you might not have gone for the overtake, but I was confident I could do it in time and pulled it off safely". He overlooked the car coming the other way standing on the brakes, flashing their lights and the other IAM rider he nearly took out as he cut back in.

That all said, it'll make most people (the very extremely experienced aside) better riders. Of course, it depends on how much experience you already have, how you ride already (IE your attitude to risk), how much you're prepared to alter your riding, etc. Obviously, a new rider who currently rides like a maniac, but is prepared to change their habits will get more out of it than someone who has ridden for 20 years and already done ROSPA.