Did my evening class last night and was very good. Heading out Saturday and need to be in Norwich police headquarters for 8:45am. There will be three people to each police instructor. Should get back to the headquarters at 2pm. Anyone else done this course? Reviews are good so I thought for £30 I would give it a go. One of the lads I sat with last night has lost both his legs from the knee down He rides a CBR600RR. Thanks Gary
Will be intrested to see your views once you have done this. I'm tempted but don't want to ride like miss daisy then told that's now how you would ride on lovely back roads
Mate it's more to do with safety and the best road position to be in than riding like a daisy lol We was show certain accidents that had happened around the Norfolk area and we had to come to a conclusion why e accidents happened!!! Very interesting and once you have read the manual (downloads) from the website you really look at it in a different light!
I followed some old bill when they were out and about with some other dudes and just copied what they were doing and yes they used the road better than i would and also seemed to be ok with overtaking over white lines? Ithink it can only improve any rider.
See this previous thread for some Bikesafe reviews and comments: http://1000rr.co.uk/general-1000rr-discussion/1003.htm But in general they are keen on talking to you as bikers-to-bikers than cops-to-bikers, and want to show you that you can ride fast AND safely. Definitely worth doing if you haven't done it before - it was a real eye-opener.
Our local force stopped doing Bikesafe, but I never spoke to one person who'd been on one, hard faced, know it all bikers to a man who didn't own up to benefiting in some way from them. And the cost is laughable.
PS. They must be short on resources if it's 3 to each copper, as I thought most forces did 2? Shouldn't be too bad though as you can observe the others to see what they're doing. One thing I was amazed at was how little the copper used his brakes. After one particular stop for a chat he mentioned overuse of brakes and comfort braking and said 'watch mine' as we barreled round Amersham at breakneck speeds to crawling speeds, and back again. I thought his taillight must have been broken until I saw it flicker once near the end of that stretch!
we did one and it was really good, lots of info to help, we were hitting a close to 3 figures in some places, and the the feedback was directed not at the speed as the roads we were doing it on was appropriate. the feedback funnily enough was about the lines i was taking lol. at one point he led at that speed to show me how to do it haha. I did stick to my principles and do 30 in the 30's etc, the only places we 'enjoy' the roads are on the nationals. came away with some different opinions which give you a new perspective, lunch at frankie and bennys Mmmmm, worth the 30 quid
Mel, did you do your one from the Warren? Thats where I did mine and I agree with everything you said about the course.
Ok guys I completed the ride put part of the course yesterday and it was a great day out. Got over to Norwich for 8:45am with a full tank of fuel as requested. We was all then put into groups of two then assigned a police officer for our ride out. I ended up with the chief constable in charge who also took our classroom session. We then had a debrief on speed and what was expected from us! Basically we was to keep to any 30, 40 or 50mph limits but on national speed limit roads he would be expecting us to make in his words "progress"! We followed the officer for about 20mins at a swift pace before we pulled over for a chat. At this point he asked what speeds our speedos read at certain points. He then informed use how much our speedo's where out as his is calibrated! So when we was in built up areas in 30 or 40 mph limits we could go that little bit quicker! My speedo was reading 34 in a 30 and 45 in a 40mph limit! He then tells us you have the 10% to ad to that!! Upto this point I was at the back with the other guy I front of me and the officer up front. We not switched so I was behind the officer so I could see his lines and he would point out hazards on the round ahead. We then stopped for coffee and cake. After this the other guy took the lead with the officer right behind him and me at the rear. This went on for 20or so minutes the we pulled over and had another chat and debrief on what the officer thought about the other guys riding. Now it was my turn! A bit nervous at first! As anyone would be with a police bike literally 1meter of me rear wheel at all times! But once settled in it was great. I made a couple of overtakes one of which I took three cars at once! Hit just under the 100mph before pulling back in. This was on country b roads! I looked in my mirror and the officer had pulled in after the second car! I thought oh shit maybe I over did it! But when we stopped for the debrief he was well happy and said the only reason he didn't overtake was due to the oncoming car and the pace I had was more than enough to complete the overtake safely. We swapped and took the lead three times each and had we both had great feedback. When we returned to headquarters he then gave the final debrief and informeds us both that we was the best two riders he has ever instructed on the course and couldn't fault our riding! We was marked A,B,C or D on performance on each catorgary eg. Cornering, overtake, bike control ect. Both me and the other guy got all A's. I was shocked. Nearly all the other guys on the course where marked all B's He told us we are IAM standard but we would be board if we did it as we had nothing to learn! He was a IAM examiner. Anyway it was a great day with a lot learnt and confidence at a all time high. Well worth the £30. Thanks Gary
