Advanced Riding - Progressive or agressive?

[dirtydog]

It's not true, I was set up. Honest I was

[Stu]

Originally Posted by DanAbnormal

Lack of forward obs I would say.

I always get taken from the rear

Originally Posted by Stu

I always get taken from the rear

I've heard that about you!

[Mark_h]

IAM and ROSPA are not for everyone. Both encourage you to ride to exactly the same standard, and both use well meaning bikers to coach you to the standard to pass your test. IAM is pass/fail, ROSPA have bronze, silver, gold and a retest.

Both have good observers and bad observers. I sometimes cringe when an observer gives patronising advice or appears to be completely oblivious to the reasons a rider is doing what they are doing.

However by far the most consistent thing you'll find is that most of the people who talk it down have never actually given it a go or gave it a go, got one of the patronising dullards and hated it from that day on. Pretty much anyone who sticks with it will bore the pants off you as to how good it is if you give them the opportunity.

Like Stu, I'm an IAM observer and like to think I am not patronising or too pushy with riders and love the grin you get off someone who gets confidence to go round bends or deals with a situation that previously would have been a lot more dramatic.

As Stu said, you will ALWAYS be told to ride for yourself. You'll never be "forced" to ride faster than you are comfortable. At the end of the day there is only one person controlling your throttle, and it's not the fat pipe smoker on the Pan.

Give it a go. If you don't like what you're being told, then challenge the person telling you. If you feel they are going too fast, let them go. They'll wait up the road then you can talk about it.

Both WVAM (Stu) and TVAM (me) are big bike clubs (1000 members for TVAM) that also do IAM. Try them both, it will cost you nothing but time and you may enjoy it. If you don't then at least you'll know.

This is a lot longer than I had planned, but back to the original question. Will I be forced to be aggressive....No. Will I be patronised as a girl......highly unlikely. Will I get anything out of it.....only you will know!

If you end up trying TVAM, let me know and I'll look out for you.

Cheers,
Mark