Today I will mostly be doing a walk round of my, sadly neglected bike, ( haven't been able to get into the garage because of a bloody great white van in the way), polishing my visor and practicing my best "keep your opinions to yourself" demeanour, as tomorrow I shall be spending the day with the instructors of Devon & Cornwall Constabulary on a long time booked BikeSafe day. A very Marmite feedback set on this as some people hate them and some love them, although, I will say the majority that I've read about are definitely pro. More on this tomorrow evening...
Nice one Ken, I have been thinking about doing that for a while now but somehow never get round to booking it. I will be interested to hear how you get on and what you think of the course. Good luck.
Never heard of anyone doing it and saying it wasn't worth while. Some get more from it than others but if you pick up one thing that makes you safer / better / faster then worth it in my book. Like David, wouldn't mind doing it either... Even if its just to see what having the police behind you without those blue things on is like!?
Another watching with interest here, my friend did it and loved every minute but by the sounds of it he had a proper biker and had a good laugh
Hope the day goes well Ken, any training for the road is good in my opinion despite how good we think we already are, we can always learn more!
Bikesafe campaign is no more up here, think Trev was on the last ever course done up here a wee while back! I think it's like all training tho, you really only get out of it what you want out of it! We had a lot of folk tryin to decry the Ron Haslam school due to limited track time compared to a trackday with an instructor on premises. But out of the three of us from the forum that attended last month there was no mention of wasted money at the beer table that nite, more talk of going back next year! Another session was mentioned but most thoughts turned to if there was another session we would have most likely ended up having an off due to trying so hard! A big differnce was noted after our first run out on the bikes after our day at the school, both me and Col had more confidence through the corners and never had any of those "oh crap" moments mid corner! Col even removed almost all his chicken strips on his 55 profile tyre on way to first meeting point!
Good on you Ken keep thinking myself about it .I need to snap out of the habit of keeping to near the kerb on left handers I know its wrong and when I put my mind to it its ok and then next corner back in to tight which makes a bollox of it Ha! Have a top day
Heard good things about the courses from a few people that have done them. Will have to find out if they plan to do any more nearby.
Just back from my Bikesafe day and here is the skinny on how it went. First off, I arrived at Keithy's house to collect him, having worked out how to get there on time and still stay in bed for as long as possible, only to realise I'd left my MOT at home... Twat! Now had to risk getting arrested by the same geezers I was about to spend the day with by wazzing home, where J had got into the shower and locked the door, to dig it out, then get back to the drivers centre before the off! Made it with ten minutes to spare. There I saw a lad on a trail bike, in combats, trainers, fingerless woolen gloves, dark visor and a stick on mohawk on his lid, leaving the centre. As I pulled into the car park one of the instructors was stood there, watching him ride off. Turns out, he was on the course too, but after he pulled a 100m wheelie in front of said instructor then, when asked what he thought he was doing, replied, "It's a private f*****g road, I can do what I like", was told "In that case, carry on driving along it, turn left at the end and don't ever sign up for one of my f*****g courses again" I immediately took a liking to this copper. Anyway, I parked up next to all the other bikes to be confronted with this... Hmmm... Inside, the patter was all about the mohawk, but served as an excellent ice breaker. There was eight of us in all, with four instructors. The morning was the normal video and 'what did he do wrong there' Q&A, most of which was to goad us into not being afraid to give the obvious answers, which, once we started, reiterated that most of riding safe is common sense prevailing over red mist. These guys were very human, with bags of banter and to a man hated Harleys. You can't ask more than that. After lunch, we were split into pairs and given an instructor per pair and left the centre in four different directions. My group went out through Crediton up onto Dartmoor, Keithy's went east through Lyme Regis and Charmouth. The set up was, one of us would lead with the instructor in the middle. At some point the instructor would overtake the leader and the tail ender would then leapfrog them both and take up the point. The other geezer in my pair didn't know the roads so I led first through Exeter. Okay, confession time. I wasn't really looking forward to the day once it finally came around. My driving test was so long ago that it entailed driving figure eights around a trading estate while a geezer with a clipboard watched me. I have had none of the advantages of training that younger or more recent converts to bikes have benefited from. The talk in the morning session compounded things by talking about many of the aspects of said training that I had no clue whatsoever about. I am a very low mileage rider and admit freely that the feeling of 'oneness' with the blade has never quite descended on me, almost certainly due to the aforementioned lack of miles. Now, I had a police instructor 10m behind me watching every decision I made, and I was not feeling comfortable about it. About 10 miles in, he rumbled by me followed by matey on his bandit so I could, at least, settle in to watch a professional do it. After a while I felt myself dropping into his lines more and holding off the confidence braking more and more. Feeling that if his boat of a Beemer could corner without at this speed then so could my blade. Just the other side of Crediton he pulled us over and surprise, surprise, started praising my vehicle control and situational awareness of potential hazards. Nice. What he didn't like so much was that I was tending to stay in the middle of my lane on straights and the bends. The police don't like to square off the corners. They like to hug the white lines for lefties and stay in tight to the hedge for righties. This is true of all bends, even tiny ones. I, on the other hand was sitting in the middle of the road dropping Bill left and right as and when needed. This, he said, I needed to address. To help, he led the next sequence and said 'keep up, try and do what I do', and he was off. Granted, I wasn't caning the blade, but I was definitely putting more effort into it than I would normally have to when following a fat, top heavy boxer twin. This guy could really, really ride and we were pressing on at 80 plus in some places on a notorious biker killer of a road, the A377. I shit you not, just mimicking his positioning, I was cornering faster than I've ever cornered and virtually instantly. The difference was, this bugger never seemed to use his brakes! We stopped again in Bow and he told me he was pleased that he could see the difference too. Real, proper encouraging feedback. Matey took over the lead and we went on to Okehampton where even our instructor seemed stuck for a route back. I suggested the old A30, ignored since the dual carriageway. He agreed and told me to lead again. With my confidence boosted I decided it was time to press on and gave the old road some serious attention. 70 on a twisty 60 limit with a copper behind you waving you on is very disconcerting but quite exhilarating too. Unfortunately, we caught up to first a scaffolding lorry, then, after five miles or so, a horse box. Bugger! Twice, the horse box tried to wave me past but twice, I turned down the offer. The first time was doable but only in a banzai way that I didn't want to demonstrate to my new found friend and the second time, an oncoming car made it just a bit too lairy. I was further pleased when, at the next stop, he again commended me for making the right decisions without being pushed into a wrong move. A point of interest here is that this guy was seeing, noting and remembering every nuance of my body language, every twitch, every reassessment I was making as the situations developed was visible to him. You can't get away with a thing. Matey took over again on the run from Moretonhampstead to Exeter. Anyone who knows this road will know it's not for the faint hearted, but the guy on the Bandit did well and I was puffing to be in the right gear at the right time and still have Bill where the instructor want me to put him. Back at the centre and I get his assessment. Two C's. One for my 'middle of the road' stance, which he admitted had gone by the end of the 90 mile run. And one because I didn't manage an overtake for him to observe, which again, he admitted the route he chose was cruel to me and praised me for not taking the two chances proffered me as, in his opinion, they were bad situations. I'll take that as fair. Two A'. One for vehicle control and one for 'road attitude'. (Jeanette laughed at that one). Everything else was a B. A fair crack, I thought. Excellent, excellent day. These guys were bloody good company and sweet zombie jesus, do they know how to ride a bike. I have come away, with no instruction or training, just some pointers, feeling more confident in my entry speed and positioning for corners, and therefore faster and, I think safer. Plus, I've been convinced that I'm actually a bit better a rider than I thought I was to start with. Thirty three quid and 90 miles worth of unleaded that's cost me. The grin on my face when I left was worth twice that. Now, where's me knee sliders...
Sounds like a great day well spent. A great write up Ken 90 miles, I would have had to stop for fuel at least once and twice to give my wrists a chance to get some feeling back. I love the Mr Mohawk, what a total twat…. Regarding the positioning you mentioned, I have read that a million times in the 'Police rider's handbook to better motorcycling' which sits permanently on my bed side table for the one week a month when I have nothing better to do in bed other then read or sleep. For those that have not read it, it’s the best £13.99 you can spend on an instructional book, and, it’s full of pictures to keep you interested. I would love to do this course and I don’t mind swopping my dark visor for a regular one or number plate back to OE but how do think they would react to my termi pipes, even with the revs down they are very very loud.
They were waving that book around and I thought I might put it on my BJ day list for next month, especially after being so pumped from my day. They do a walk around the bike before the off to check its all tickety boo. Didn't see them checking a running one though. Your termis are factory spec though, the baffles are in place, so I don't see the sound ( can't call it noise) being a problem mate.
It’s a great read Ken, mines a bit dog eared as it get regularly thumbed. It’s a lot to take in during one sitting but certainly makes you think about things from another perspective, all related minimising risk and common sense. The problem is once on your bike you tend to forget most of it and revert back the same old as you are concentrating so hard on what you are doing rather than what you should be doing. Although I have noticed that the more you read it the more you remember and put into practice out on the road. After your good experience I will have to pull my finger out and get it booked, probably not till next summer though and lets just see what they say about my pipes. One last thought, have you ever see a bike copper with his knee down…..didn’t think so.
The pots on those beemers would get in the way I 'spect. Their process does seem complicated, especially when you add all the hazard awareness gubbins they lay on it, but they were insisting that it eventually works like muscle memory an d becomes natural.
Sounds like you enjoyed yourself, i'm always a bit apprehensive having someone tailing me when out riding as you never know who it is.
I kept telling him that when we stopped and he was nagging me about not worrying about speed limits and grabbing the odd double white. It's easy for him to say, he hasn't got a big, hairy policeman right up his arse.
I had magazines like that David but that was before the Internet took over! I picked up the police riders handbook up for 3 quid few yrs back in Amazon's second hand section! It is worth a read, I also picked up a cheap copy of "police advance riding techniques!" on DVD which shows video footage of the practices being used on the road. It's an old recording and could easily be updated using HiDef cameras of today but it still shows the relevant info along with commentary!
Great write up Ken - made me even more motivated to attend one of the courses now. I might wimp out until next year tho for more chance of a dry day
good write up ken, I am on one of these days next month so hopefully I will get as much out of it as you did
