Direct access good or bad..... Gimme some facts!

[fizzwheel]

agree with you Tim, it does only teach you the basics, Lucky for me my brother and Dad both ride and the taught me all the other stuff such as counter steering, also I read lots of articles in magazines / MCN and then went out on the road and tried it, plus a fair few brown trouser moments.

I dont think that theres any substitute for experience and thats something that you arent gonna get through a DAS course, trouble is I dont think that restricting licenses for two years will help, in fact it will make things worse.. as people will just not ride for two years and then go and get what they want anyway..

I think we need education rather than legislation.. and no matter what happens you'll always get people who spoil it for everybody else

Passed the DAS 18 months or so ago, no offs so far! I agree with most folks opinion that the DAS teaches how to ride a bigger bike within the rules of the road. It's when you start to push yourself to go that bit faster, overtake the bugger in the BMW, see how fast you can take this corner, that's when it all goes wrong.

Not done the IAM thing, but did go on a number of ride outs with the riding school that taught me. They were the ones who told me to forget the stuff I learned to pass the test, and gave me loads of pointers regarding observations and road position. They leave the offer open to anyone who trains / has trained with them.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

trouble is I dont think that restricting licenses for two years will help, in fact it will make things worse.. as people will just not ride for two years and then go and get what they want anyway..

What the market needs are fun smaller bikes to attract learners onto stock 33 BHP bikes that will actually be fun to ride. Something like this...





What I'd like to see are more people on bikes, Suzukis preferably

For I think it made a *huge* difference that I'd ridden smaller bikes before doing the DAS. I had a year on a 50cc (knocked off twice), and a couple of years on 125's (slid off about three or four times). I then had a few years off, did the DAS, rode a GPz550 for a month, then finally got the SV. No accidents or incidents since being on the big bike so far!

Basically I think I developed a health distrust of a) the road itself (unexpected bends, crappy surface, diesel, ice, snow) and b) everything else /on/ the roads. DAS just got me used to a bigger bike and taught me how to pass the test.

[northwind]

Not sure... In my case, while I did have an off within a month or so of doing the DAS, it was a stupid mistake and not really a failing of the training. On the other hand, I was a lot better on a bike than most candidates from the word go, and could probably have had a good stab at the test after just a couple of hours on the bike bike, and not bothered with the rest of the training. One of the other guys on my course was absolutely gash, bloody terrible, and he passed somehow, so in the light of that I'd say it doesn't work.

I reckon DAS needs a longer test as well as a bigger bike, to be honest. And it needs to be on a proper bigger bike that bears some resemblance to what 9/10 of candidates will go onto, not the usual 500cc, impeccably behaved, maneuverable machine. I think that's the real failing- even going onto an SV froma GS500E is a giant step, and you could get on a Blade if you had deep pockets, or a Busa, or a GSXR 750.

Originally Posted by northwind

I reckon DAS needs a longer test as well as a bigger bike, to be honest. And it needs to be on a proper bigger bike that bears some resemblance to what 9/10 of candidates will go onto, not the usual 500cc, impeccably behaved, maneuverable machine. I think that's the real failing- even going onto an SV froma GS500E is a giant step, and you could get on a Blade if you had deep pockets, or a Busa, or a GSXR 750.

Not feasable. Riding schools aren't going out and buying anything as expensive as an SV, let alone blades for learners to go crash on (well, at least not without making leasons more expensive than anyone can reasonably afford).

People really need to get this idea out of their head that the state can (or even worse, that the state should) legislate in order to protect them against their own stupidity.

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

People really need to get this idea out of their head that the state can (or even worse, that the state should) legislate in order to protect them against their own stupidity.

Here here.

It would be nice to be given more experience on much larger bikes, but at the end of the day, you are taught plenty enough to deal with a very powerful bike, if you are sensible.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Not feasable. Riding schools aren't going out and buying anything as expensive as an SV, let alone blades for learners to go crash on (well, at least not without making leasons more expensive than anyone can reasonably afford).

People really need to get this idea out of their head that the state can (or even worse, that the state should) legislate in order to protect them against their own stupidity.

I don't want to be ptorected against my own stupidity, I want to be protected against other people's incompetence... Since I've nearly been had off twice by tossers on big bikes that they don't know how to ride.

The thing about schools, I'm not suggesting that schools buy Blades. There's other ways of doing it- compulsory post-pass training for any bikes above a certain power, for instance, to be done on your own bike once you've bought it. If there was more training money coming in, most schools could afford to run a single higher performance machine as well.

Originally Posted by Jabba-the-Hutt

Since then I've had 9 months on my Hornet and done a Bikesafe course with the local plod. No "offs" or drops and no really scary moments. My short-term target is to keep it this way through my first winter of biking.

Jabba, I thought you had been riding for years mate?

Also nice to know, that you say you're a safe rider

Originally Posted by northwind

I don't want to be ptorected against my own stupidity, I want to be protected against other people's incompetence... Since I've nearly been had off twice by tossers on big bikes that they don't know how to ride.

I hear that. Usually a blade or an R1 that overtakes me just before a bend then stuffs his brakes on so that I nearly run into him.