North Wales BikeSafe

[Luckypants]

Was not sure where to put this, but it's a review so here goes.

I decided to go on a BikeSafe course for the observed rides, for a bit of a health check on my riding as I predominantly ride on my own. I wanted to know if I had picked up any bad habits and get some tips to improve my observation. On addition was the chance to talk to someone on the inside of N. Wales road policing to understand where they come from and what they are trying to achieve regards motorbikes.

The course costs £80 and is run over two days at N. Wales Police HQ in Colwyn Bay. Each day was made up of theory in the morning and observed rides by in the afternoon. The instructor is a retired (2 years) police Class 1 rider, the observers a mixture of IAM / ROSPA / Coppers.

The theory content was not all that illuminating if your are familiar with 'Roadcraft' - the book. It was kept simple, covering road positioning, picking up hazards early, crash causes etc. I think more time could have been spent on this rather than 'the message' which was heavily biased towards the 'speed kills' mantra. The new BikeSafe DVD was quite useful, with some pretty graphic animations of accident types, all of which made me shudder a little. The DVD can be seen on the new BikeSafe interactive screen at the Ponderosa. The information on the causes of bike deaths in N. Wales was very useful and without going into details it has to be said that rider error is the primary cause, with running wide on left handers being the main killer. I think more could have been said at this point on how to read bends better, visual clues etc.

My real reason to go was the observed riding. I wanted to get some feedback in a finite time, so the IAM did not appeal. I reckoned they were all beardy weirdies any way, smoking pipes and riding BMWs and Pan-Europeans. We went in groups of three, one instructor between two. Here we put the road positioning and throttle / gear selection theory into practice. The rides were stopped every 10 miles or so to allow the observers to give feedback to the observed. Both myself and my partner on the ride understood what was said, how it made a better ride and felt an improvement on the first day.

The second day was more of the same, but with the added bonus of being filmed for a BBC documentary. We were now paired up more by ability, based on the observer's feedback forms from the day before. So now the observer's comments were more focused and applicable to both observees. We covered a mixture of roads from single track to dual carriageway and were encouraged to make progress. At this point I had to back off a little as I left my observer behind, as the point was to be observed I decided to stay in view! That decision paid divideds as my next observed section was taken at good pace without being too quick and improved my smoothness.

By the end of the weekend I had learned quite a lot about what causes bike crashes and how to avoid them, how the local police think with regards to bikes, improved my riding, met some other bikers and decided that the IAM is not all beardy weirdies (they all ride Pans and BMWs though).

A very useful short course and it has made me decide that I'll give the IAM a go.

A very good review Mike, the course sounds similar to the S. Wales Police version, but they include a first aid session run by a paramedic (and biker) he includes the safe removal of a full face helmet.

As for the IAM, they dont all ride "Pans" et al. In our group there's a Tiger, VFR, V-Strom, TL, Gixer. I've never seen a pipe and the only beard has been attached to Ceri JC. Not sure about weird though .

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Mogs

A very good review Mike, the course sounds similar to the S. Wales Police version, but they include a first aid session run by a paramedic (and biker) he includes the safe removal of a full face helmet.

First Aid is removed from this year's course curriculum. BikeSafe offer a FBOS (First Bike On Scene) one day First Aid course, covering bike specifics such as safe helmet removal and also general First Aid.

The reason the courses are similar is they have a national curriculum for BikeSafe.... blah....blah.....

As you can see, a lot of the theory was also a sales pitch.... preaching to the converted though, we are on the course fool!

Originally Posted by Luckypants

The reason the courses are similar is they have a national curriculum for BikeSafe.... blah....blah.....

Ah, they didn't have a curriculum when I did it, it was down to each group to do thier own thing.