IAM or other advanced skills?

I don't know if it's a factor for you, but from what I've heard, IAM is the cheapest advanced training (in terms of cost/hour/mile) by a long way. IAM is very good, but I cannot help but feel it would benefit massively from covering filtering. To me, this is one of the most crucial (main puprpose of me using a bike for work), dangerous and most often cocked up/misjudged facets of riding. Neglecting to teach people it simply because it is dangerous and of questionable legality* is borderline negligent in my view, as I don't know any IAM riders/observers who don't do it away from IAM. I was chatting with a lad who did his test in London and apparently there filtering is focused on a lot and you have to do it in your test. On mine, I was advised not unless the traffic is <10mph and even then overtake at only 2-5mph quicker than the cars and be sure they have seen you/wait for them to move over. Again, questions of consistency amongst groups arise, but as someone else mentioned, it's basically a franchise of smaller clubs/riding groups with their own interpretations of the rules... Still that's just my big gripe and like most organisations, you'd be hard pressed to find any individual (bar the odd zealot) who agrees with all aspects of the org's policies/practices. This is just my pet moan.

As Mogs says, the idea of them being slow is wildly inaccurate. They are on the whole quicker on most roads than most weekend warriors and only on the motorways/straight bits of dual carriageway does the slow pace really grate. I most confess, initially (even after commencing my training) I fell into the camp of "it's 20mph slower than I ride normally, so of questionable relevance", but have come to realise that like most skills, doing it slowly and focusing on quality does actually allow you to get faster (even without realising it) whilst still maintaing the vast majority of the quality you had when doing it slower. I still do 90 on country NSLs (away from IAM) with reasonable regularity, but now I feel pretty much as relaxed as at 60, whereas before doing 90 I was pushing my limits and making far more mistakes. As an aside, once you've passed your test, the 'social' rides you go on, where the rules are relaxed a bit are the quickest group rides I've ever participated in, often far quicker (point to point, rather than top speed) than thrashes with groups on full on sportsbikes.

* Yes, lets not get into semantics, the fact it's so often deemed 50:50 in a prang, would imply it's not exactly "yes, it's perfectly legal", even though I happily/regularly do it in front of police.

Just got back off holiday (wasn't being rude not replying) and read all these replies, thanks everyone for all you advice!

I will look into the Nottinghamshire IAM groups.

Ended up doing Bikesafe aftenoon with Lincs on saturday just gone.


It started with 1 hour chat, some video demonstrations and discussion. Then about a 2 hour observed ride, stopping every 10 or so miles to talk about the last 10 miles, the good and bad. Mostly it's about positioning and observation rather than technique and the like.

I came away thinking that I hadn't learnt much, until I started riding home.....

Then I realised how much more confident I felt and how much better at cornering I was, and how much safer I felt! It was worth every penny in the £35 charge for it. Feel a lot better and I'll be off to my local IAM soon I think.


Bikesafe = Highly recommended by me.

[G]

Nice one

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

but I cannot help but feel it would benefit massively from covering filtering. .

I was taught filtering on an observed ride. i.e. the observer took me down the M3 onto the M25 so I filtered at 40 mph through moving traffic, the observer was happy.*
In my test, the examiner made reference to the fact that riding a Pan, he wouldn't be able to keep up with me on my ZX7R filtering but to go ahead and do it anyway with some consideration to letting him catch up. So I did & probably could have failed for lack of progress if I hadn't (although IIRC it was mostly filtering to the front of traffic queues, so probably not exactly what you meant)

*The observer asked me afterwards what speed I would be happy to filter at, I said 90 which he didn't think was a great idea.

Originally Posted by Stu

I was taught filtering on an observed ride. i.e. the observer took me down the M3 onto the M25 so I filtered at 40 mph through moving traffic, the observer was happy.*
In my test, the examiner made reference to the fact that riding a Pan, he wouldn't be able to keep up with me on my ZX7R filtering but to go ahead and do it anyway with some consideration to letting him catch up. So I did & probably could have failed for lack of progress if I hadn't (although IIRC it was mostly filtering to the front of traffic queues, so probably not exactly what you meant)

*The observer asked me afterwards what speed I would be happy to filter at, I said 90 which he didn't think was a great idea.

I know different groups on this have different policies on the matter. One of our lads did his test in london before moving here and he said not only was he taught it, but it was given a great deal of focus (because it can be so dangerous) and he was required to do it in his test. Our local lot don't like it (although they all admit to doing it away from IAM). Probably stems from the local bike examiner not being fond of it, he reckons no quicker than walking pace and only if the car has definately seen you/moved over to let you by. I ended up slow controlling at 2mph for about 4 minutes instead. Afterwards he said he liked my slow control!