SometimesSansEngine

I agree and this is exactly what I meant by "the higher up the food chain (better trained) you go the better attitude and the better conversations I had with them" If the answer to a situation is "do it that way because it's what it says in Roadcraft" then it's moronic and not necessarily leading you to being a safer rider. If the answer is "it depends" you're getting there. And in fact one piece of feedback on my assessment when I did it was "Positioning: Why position close to the left if there are no advantages of view stability or safety in doing so - e.g. A4 Bath road, that could have been an invitation to the vehicle travelling behind you to chance an overtake in the face of oncoming traffic." Don't swallow the manual, consider whether the advice fits your attitude to riding (I will overtake a lot less than other 'advanced riders' because I believe many of them do it in risky situations where they're relying on things not happening to keep them safe, and every time they get away with it they chalk it down to their superior riding skill as opposed to luck on the day) and create your own version of what it means.

The guy's kickstand leans his bike more than he does

And on that - you can buy and read roadcraft yourself, you can watch some really good YouTube content on riding. But I do think you'll only see real improvement with someone watching you ride and feeding back. You don't know what you don't know, you can't see what you spot. Many people go right over to the left hand side for a right hander, because it's a "faster line" and/or "gives a better view" and it's what they read in Roadcraft. But then someone behind you points out that you weren't thinking about the car in the nearside junction, and had completely buggered up options to get yourself out of a sticky situation if they decided to start to pull out. That's the element of the thinking rider that's being mentioned here. I await for some people to respond they do that and don't need someone to tell them to do it but again - it's amazing what you may miss yourself. But hey, if you self-assess that you're already a complete rider then you're never going to take kindly to someone giving you some feedback anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It doesn't have to be an advanced course. There's freelance trainers doing their own flavour of this, there's the DVSA's enhanced rider scheme, there's Bike Safe etc.

Another aspect on IAM groups: the one I was a member of recognised that skills may get rusty and IAM don't retest as standard. So they offer an annual assessment with a national observer. You may find the same in a local group, I don't know how common this is. Otherwise within IAM the only route is Masters or become an observer yourself (unless @Steve_M knows any different) I'm also still dead against the common lack of radios for training. Feedback should be immediate. The old fashioned "no radios means you learn to frequently check your mirrors" view is rubbish, in my opinion. Groups are allowed to use radios (although I believe observers need to do an additional course to do so) but it seems most groups are overtly traditional here in insisting you check your mirrors for directions, then bringing things up in a debrief an hour or two later.

I attended the Motorcycle Skills School at Castle Combe, hosted by Mercury Motorcycle Training on Monday. https://www.mercurymotorcycletraining.co.uk/motorcycle-skills-school Think of it as an introduction to the track, whilst also trying to help you with technique to incorporate into your road riding. Whilst you can attend a track day by itself and access instructors if you ask for them, on this course you are allocated an instructor throughout the day, as well as having short theory sessions before heading out to try and apply it on the circuit. Three groups based on ability/experience, max of 15 in each. Each group then broken down further with 3 instructors, so you have a LOT of access to your instructor on the track and in debriefs. And for people like me, who wasn't interested in a "track day", this format breaks down the intimidation factor somewhat. Several hours of track time and because only one group are on at a time acres of space to go at your pace. A real mix of bikes and riders. The day was £175, I cannot recommend it enough. Many people there had attended more than one of these, several were seasoned track day enthusiasts but valued the access to the instructors (one of the ones in our group has raced the IOM TT). I'm happy to answer any questions on it, I'm not on commission (!) but I have now seen how a session like this can create some huge leaps in your road riding, having been out a few times since. I wouldn't have considered a track day before this, if that's you I'd say this is one to consider..... Next bit of personal riding improvement I want to try is some off road!

CBF 125 was my first. Many happy memories with that bike. Motorcycling isn't like driving. Driving you learn to drive the car, you pass your test and whilst your driving can improve and/or you get exposed to different driving conditions you've pretty much 'done it'. When you ride a motorbike, you can be years down the line and still feel like you're trying to improve aspects of your riding. There are things when driving a car that you mostly don't have to worry about. Balance, grip, if you enter a bend a bit to hot you can hit the brakes without much grief. Obviously it can all go horribly wrong still but it usually requires you doing something moronic. But on a bike? You are more sensitive to the road surface, if you come into a bend too hot you're likely to target fixate, grab the brake and the bike well stand up and go in the direction you didn't want it to go etc etc etc This isn't to try and put you off, but it explains those times you finish a ride and feel like you rode like a sack of spanners and wondering if motorcycling is for you. BUT. When you get a ride right, it's a million times more rewarding than driving. I don't nip out at lunch 'for a drive'. But I nip out at lunch for a bike ride. My advice is ride, be honest with yourselves on the bits of your riding that you wish to improve and work on them. Learning to ride is a bit of a rollercoaster and just try to know that when it doesn't quite feel like it's coming together it will in time.

The ride I went on was for people who had passed the assessment. I got the impression that as they all had a piece of paper they felt they were god's gift to riding. YMMV. The organisation for the route with a drop off system and TEC I couldn't fault, I just didn't enjoy the group experience nor the self-assessment of those I was with.

I'd suggest that if that's what you're hoping as an outcome then don't bother. The difference in my premiums was measured in several pounds. That's before you net off any membership fees. Might be worth running a few dummy quotes.

I'll always be fair to my specific observer, we'd have a chat, and even if he wasn't 100% my view he'd say "fair enough" and was happy that at the very least I'd demonstrated I'd considered the situation and explained my thought process. He never pushed me to do anything I didn't want to do. However, when I went on a group ride it was rife of stuff like that.

This is why the A1 is a shambles. The CBT isn't enough for most people, in my opinion. Surely we want more training for riders, especially younger ones. But then they chuck that in front of them, with the 'sales pitch' that in a few years they'll need to do it again for their A2 and then again for their full A. When I rode with a CBT for a couple of months before doing more training I frequently had other drivers driving aggressively around me. But to be fair I'm occasionally overtaken on 30mph roads when I'm doing the speed limit, probably because people are getting frustrated they're stuck behind a bike and "bikes aren't meant to do the speed limit" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I did IAM in 2019 but am not renewing my membership (either to IAM itself or my local group) this year as for me membership isn't worth it, and I don't enjoy group rides. It's worth it but you need to apply your own perspective to the advice you're given. For example, if I'm following someone who is doing 40 no matter what, I don't see the point in overtaking in a 50 just before a 30 when I know they're then just going to be up my arse, all because on that bit "I could make progress". Generally speaking I find the higher up the food chain (better trained) you go the better attitude and the better conversations I had with them.

That really sucks, glad they're sorting it out so you're not out of pocket but they really should have spotted that so they should. I can only assume they "glanced" at your documents rather than study the dates as 99 times out of a hundred it would all be in order.

Had my first ever noise test, checking my new exhaust is within track limits well within the skills day I have booked later this year. The chap put three fingers up ....to signify I was at 103dB, 2 below track limits so all good.

Did anyone see this pic the other day? Well, I'll admit I was one of those wondering if the van driver had tried forcing their way through. It turns out....

In our CBT at the stage you're talking about we were told to pull the clutch in if we got a bit overly enthusiastic (although once we got the hang of those very basics and started doing figure of 8s etc we were of course told not to pull it in mid lean) and yes use the clutch to smooth the snatchiness out. I'm sure he rode around hammering the throttle to prove his point From memory I'm also pretty sure our instructor was keen to impress on us too that once we got into second gear things would be a lot less snatchy. Not to refute what your friend says as I wasn't there, was it definitely 10 mins? I've known people who if the instructor is worried about their overall safety, and also not to hold up the other participants, will tell them to come back another day.

Problem with that sequence of photos is you've made it look like you ate the child

Whoever stole the 115cc Honda moped I spotted in a field on a dog walk this morning. Reported it via 101 and fair play to the police got a phone call a couple of hours later from an officer at the scene thanking me for reporting it as it was reported stolen a couple of days ago and they were arranging recovery. It didn't look in bad nick so hopefully not much needs to be done to get it back on the road once the owner gets it back.

What's that blue stuff above the castle?

How did he know no other traffic was around if he didn't do a shoulder check? Only partly serious there - but yes normally it would have been a couple of missed ops and/or you missed something, eg passing another road user who then may have come up your outside, or they were stationary for some time waiting to turn in so a quick check would have verified nothing unexpected had changed alongside you. I think it's usual for an examiner to say "the rest of your ride was fine" in a test where you failed on only one thing.

My first of those units was problematic, cleared up after they sent a replacement* So maybe they had lots of issues with them. Shame as surely they could have just sourced a new supplier *They actually sent me a whole new full set, ie an additional wireless charger, as they could see I was willing to find which specific part was failing. Which was great, as once done I was able to keep it and put it on @Magpie84's bike

My wireless charger came with pig tails, but it was an early version. Have they really stopped offering those with it? It was just pig tails into a usb socket, so you could then plug their usb plug into it. It's currently connected to the handy GPS power socket BMW provide though, so it's switched.

On, and I bodged a bicycle mount with a spare I had

Yup, happy with mine but I accept that you end up drinking the koolaid with it a bit... I also have the carrying ring/stand and an in car mount. That's in addition to the wireless charger for the motorbike that I bought first Seems very secure and once you get the hang of attaching it easy as anything

Learn when people may not see you and why https://ko-fi.com/post/READ-FOR-FREE-ToT-May-1-SOBS--how-hard-is-it-E1E44MII0

Very unexpectedly got a covid vaccine today. Managed to have one that somebody didn't turn up for. Thank you person who didn't turn up