How do I become a motorcycle instructor?

[rapid]

Hi all,

Can anyone offer some guidance/advice on how to best go about becoming a motorcycle instructor?

I am almost 30, have had my Cat A licence for 8 years and its clean (touch wood haha).

In my day job I do a lot of coaching of my staff, so I think I have the skills and patience which would translate well as a motorcycle instructor.

Are any of you out there already instructors? can you give me some insight into what the job is like?

Many thanks

[TimR]

What area you in . Go speak to local schools see if their looking for cbt instructors and whats involved and the pay rate . It can be a morally rewarding career but sometimes a hard financially rewarding career

[Oasis]

I had a long chat with my instructor about this. Well I say chat, I didn't ask and was a bit miffed that we were stood around instead of riding.

Anyways, he said there was a couple of ways. First is to go on a residential course and get certified. He did say it was bloody expensive. And then find a school that is willing for you to work through.

Second was paying a school to let you tag along, learn and would certify that you had enough knowledge to be put through the test. Or you may be lucky and find a school that would let you work for free.

The first option sounded the best to me but he seemed to think the instructors who have only done the course and not learnt with real students where the worst kind.

He mentioned that £100 a day before deductions was the going rate.

This is second hand info so do check it out before you make any decisions.

[TC1474]

Having been instructing since the days of the old RAC/ACU courses right through to about 6 years ago as a CBT and DAS instructor so about 30 years experince and having run my own training busness and employed instructors in the past, I do have a little experience of the subject (although I would also add that the goal posts keep moving, so things might be a little different now)

Firstly you have to have held a full bike licence for (I believe now) 3 years. I think you are also allowed a maximum of 6 points on your licence but the DSA were talking about reducing this to 3.

To qualifiy, you can either go directly to Cardington, or you can become a down trained instructor with a local school. From what I hve been told, 99% of those that go to Cardington directly tend to fail because the DSA want you to instruct in a certain way. It is not the right way but their way and so you have to bite your lip a lot which is why going to a local school and becoming downtrained in the first instnce allows you to gain the experience of what is required before going to Cardington if that is what you want to do later on.

As a down trained instructor, once your principal is happy with you, you can conduct CBT courses on your own. You will be subject (or at least should be subject) to spot checks from the DSA, but you are unable to run DAS courses without having qualified at Cardington which to be fair is a real joke (or at least it was when I did mine.

If you are looking to become an instructor because it is your calling, then great and good for you. If you want to make a good living, much more difficult but not impossible, if you want to get rich, then forget it.

When I conducted my last CBT and DAS course, it was the happiest days of my riding life. Instructing learners can become very frustrating and repetitive, in fact you could put all the answers to the same questions onto a dictaphone because the same questions keep getting ask and the youngsters don't listen anyway, and CBT and DAS can kill your enjoyment of riding.

As a Police rider I would look for any excuse to get out on the bike either work wise or personal, as a CBT/DAS instructor after a while I would put te bike away at the end of the day and have no more interest. (just something to bear in mind)

Find a local school, and see if 1, are they looking to recruit and 2, if they are ask if you can shadow someone for a few days and get a feel for it. You may change your mind once you see a course being run.

Also bear in mind that there are far more very poor schools than there are good ones. So, speak to different people who have maybe passed theor test recently and get some ideas of who may be worth approaching and who to avoid..

Once I reverted back to just doing advanced work my enjoyment of riding went back through the roof and that is all I have done since I gave up teaching learners on top of which also had some very good overseas contracts which got me out of the UK during the winter months for a few weeks at a time at someone elses expense and I got aid very well for it and on top of which being an examiner as well really allows me to enjoy myself.

But teaching learners? Not for me anymore and I speak to a lot of long serving instructors who like me cannot wait to give up, but if it is your vocation, then I wish you well.

Hope that has been of some help to you.