I've been having a look at advanced rider training and wondered what people's thoughts and experiences were with each one. I've only been riding since October and done about 2000miles I'm just about to go back to my full time job so I'll be doing 2 jobs and having my daughter 40% of the week which doesn't give much time but if like to improve my skills without being tied into something every week. Are one of the usual types best i.e. ROSPA, ERS, IAM or is there another option. Currently my spare money is going on my daughter and getting my bike up to the standard I'm happy with but I feel what money I do have is best put to me becoming a better rider.
Hiya, good luck with your endeavours! There's a related thread in "The lounge" that may well answer many questions https://www.thetriumphforum.com/threads/becoming-a-blood-biker.28003/
I have read through this, it was this that got me thinking about it . I think partly as the lads I go out with are a lot more experienced and ride alot faster than I do but I just let them go and meet up further on.
Nope no local IAM to me, oh well at least that narrows it down a bit . I might put it out there to pay for someone's fuel if they fancy a ride out if local to give some pointers.
I'm Tipton, I put my postcode into that search box you sent and said no groups local, I also put my parents in just to make sure
I'm a fool I put my who postcode in instead of just first part. It's come up now, thanks for your help bud
Additional training is always a good idea, and as Ade has said is money well spent but should be looked upon as a way of making your riding safer, not necessarily faster. The key is increased obsvervations, a basic principle in theory but one that has a huge bearing on how you ride, or drive. Think along the lines of “if you’ve seen it, you can deal with it” and you are on the way to understanding advanced riding. Whilst it’s true that successful completion of an advanced riding course may make you a faster rider in terms of your ability to plan and deal with hazards more effectively thus allowing you to cover the ground more efficiently and safely I’d still stick to the principle you quote above and let your “faster” riding mates go off and you catch them up later. They may be faster, but are they riding with that crucial margin of safety that you will be once you have experienced the advanced way of riding. Best of luck and ride safe.
I'm not too bothered about getting faster as I know that wil come with time and ability, I'm a lift truck instructor and tell people this regularly that being smooth and precise is quicker than rushing and constantly correcting. For me it's about being more confident in my abilities to read corners, improve cornering and confidence in the rain or wet floor. I'm annoyed at myself quite a bit which doesn't help so I try to get away from that because when doing my direct access on a z650 I felt great, super confident, cornering, breaking hard, speed, route planning, it all felt easy but since having this daytona 650 I overthink most aspects.
Hi @Chubzilla, following on from reading your post I’ve had a look at my local group. I’ve done the odd day here and there, with Rapid Training which was great but I also like the club thing with a local group. Only thing I’m not sure about is sort of being preached at if I join but then do things that are frowned upon. By that I mean not always wearing full protective gear etc. And I’m not one for riding around in full dayglow or most annoyingly those ‘POLITE’ vest wearing morons who wanna be policemen! The local group to me do free taster sessions so I may book one of those.
Yes I get the not being preached to, I've always thought a relaxed informative approach is best as people learn better when at ease. Could be a good option for you as they seem to be many members at each group, for me it's being able to commit to specific days so I'm going to look at all options.
It's funny this thread just came up, I've just signed up to my nearest IAM group WYAM, I did my IAM car training a few years ago, and decided I'd better have someone pull me up on some of my bad habits on the bike. As for friends going faster than you, remember you're the one that gets to pick them up and call for the ambulance!
I've never thought about advanced car training, maybe that false sense of security by have a cage to protect me is partly to blame but the vulnerable feeling yiu get on a bike when someone pulls out on you makes me think a lot more about being safe. Well done for signing up and fair play. IF I'm honest my mates are pretty good about it, they've all been riding a few years so have a lot more skill, I have intercom with one of them and they all stay with within comms distance and occasionally race off and will wait for me a few miles down the road which I'm happy for them to do
I did the ROSPA course for a few weeks and learned a lot from it. I stopped partly because of the slight push to 'go faster'. It wasn't really an issue and we didn't fall out or anything - far from it. But it was an interesting discussions in our debrief coffees. RoSPA I believe has Gold, Silver and Bronze pass levels. My instructor told me of one of his pupils who was happy to pay with a Bronze (or perhaps silver, can't recall), and he said that the limiting factor for the gold pass was her speed. None of these things were deemed 'bad' or 'better' or 'worse'; just discussion points. I wondered whether the IAM route was different at all. I'll be interested in your experiences as they come. RoSPA instructor always said, most importantly, enjoy it!
Thanks for this, always good to hear about more people's experiences. Was it a case that she was going to slowly aswell? My current employer goes through rospa and your correct they do bronze silver and gold, I just didn't realise this was the same.
An interesting thread... I can't stress this enough, the push to go faster was entirely with the caveat of safety first. And never ever tried to push me beyond my limits... There was great emphasis on efficient and safe riding technique - how to take bends for best view etc. This was all great, useful, enlightening. The difference for me personally was, I, in my general course of riding am sometimes happy to filter (if I feel it is safe to do so) and sometimes I don't and am happy to while away sitting in the queue. Sometimes I am happy to bimble along at 45 behind a van on an A road, other times I like to overtake. Depends on my mood at the time. The difference though, and the "step up" is that; if it's safe to do so; why wouldn't you filter? If you can go 50 and there's a safe overtake to be had why wouldn't you take it? It is that switch in mindset that I slightly wrestled with, and I assume is the difference in qualification level. My trainer would often get me to try to "turn it up"...not to 11. Just to 7, 8 or 9 should I feel happy to - as that was the 'gold' standard to gun for. We would often discuss at coffee debrief why I could have or couldn't have done that. It didn't mean I'd fail. It would just manage my expectations. It was interesting and I could only ever recommend it as well. I may even go back to it at some point! Hey...my 955 is blue, so it's already the fastest colour
I did this a few years back, around 2006-7 IIRC. Wa sceptical at first, only signing up as part of the fee went to charity but enjoyed it and would recommend it, not really waht you'd expect with a bike cop on your shoulder. I had a IAM "taster" rideout some years before that and decided it wasn't for me but each to their own of course.
Contacted them about booking it and got a reply so just need to sort dates. As has been said above, the need to make progress does start to feel like you have to at all times. That was the same issue for me as for the other posters in this thread, sometimes I’m quite happy to go with the flow of traffic even if overtakes are on.. However I guess it’s not hard to switch between taking every overtake as it comes for test purposes then dial it back a bit for when the mood takes and you are out on your own.