Steve_M

It’s been over 23 years for me. I’d previously graded in 1973 They say you shouldn’t have regrets but having a 22 year judo hiatus is mine.

Congratulations. The difference between a red belt and a black belt is that the black belt didn’t give up.

All the best with your grading. Shame it’s not judo, mind.

I can’t see the wear indicators - they’re in the tread pattern - check them. As a leisure rider I usually replace the tyres when they’re around 1mm from the tread. Not sure if that is a good description of what I do.. I used to let the tyre go all the way to the wear indicators when I was commuting as well as leisure riding as I was doing around 12,000 - 13,000 miles a year so I needed to get full value from them.

Tyres square off through lots of motorway / straight A road riding with little lean.

Just from my experience, some bikes are affected more than others as their tyres wear and square off. My VFR800fi would readily squirm over slightly raised white lines as the tyre wore, while my R1200GS doesn’t feel in the slightest affected until just before I replace them at around 2mm tread depth. I did a day at Cadwell Park on my FJR with tyres that were nearly ready to be replaced and quite squared off - made little difference on track. As a bike that was bloody awful in the first place it wasn’t a whole lot worse - just needed a more of a push to get it to lean and was stable once leant over.

What a tosser! Good to see you holding your hands up on this. I’m sure most of us have skipped / forgotten checks at some point. EG. I don’t check tyre pressures each time I ride the bike despite advocating regular POWDERS checks.

Suspension settings. Oh the joy of ESA and mode settings.

It’s simply an automatic response to make the bike turn - we learn to do that on pushbikes (assuming you rode a pushbike) and instinctively do it without consciously making the effort. Not being aware of it is not unusual. I first learnt about it while doing a machine skills course. I’ve just noticed your location. You might want to consider Essex Firebike training. Some of the instructors are the same as did the courses I attended. They call Counter Steering “Postive Steering”..

I would recommend attending a i2i machine control course.

I’d forgotten the IAM publication. It wasn’t around when I took my IAM test.

Banham? They’re a load of animals I recall from visiting once. Ah, sorry, that’s the zoo.

Yes,, I have seen the video… nuff said.

That came up in a “Highway code / Roadcraft” quiz session that I took part in as member of an IAM group (car section vs bike section) way back in the 1990’s and, I seem to recall, the answer being 1.5m at that time. Which is either an indication that my memory is poor - probably true - or the figure has changed.

Incidentally, I also have a copy of A Twist of the Wrist by Keith Code which, though track biased, provides some useful information about how a motorbike responds to inputs from the rider. I last read that a few years ago, too.