[Andy.Wood]

Have recently completed a Bikesafe course run by Cheshire Police and have to say that I thought it was really good value.

The course consists of an evening (approx 3 hours) going through the riding style and thought process used by police and emergency response riders to keep them safe while riding at high speeds. This could sound tedious in script but was presented really well by PC Andy Griffin, Police motorcycle instructor, who used real life examples and observations to demonstrate and re-affirm points made.

A couple of weeks later I was then taken on an "observed" ride (note this is not training and as such intercoms are not used). The ride is on a 1:1 basis and I have to admit initially having a fully marked up Police bike in my mirrors was a little off putting to ride "normally". However Andy again was able to help me relax and identify both strong and weak areas of my riding to improve on each time we stopped (about 3 times within the ride).
After 2 hours (which flew by) we headed back to our starting point where I was debriefed on my overall ride. This then gets typed up and sent out so as you have a hard copy for future training or development.

Considering this course is run for £50 I have to say if the choice is a new rectifier guard or something else to "bling" up the bike or this course, I would definitely opt for the course. Check out if a force near you runs this and get on it it's well worth it.

 

[Deano968]

Looks like this thread is old and didn't amount to much, perhaps there's a better thread on post-test training here somewhere but I couldn't find it so I'm resurrecting this one

I've ridden bikes for over 30 years, very on and off. With a half dozen year break before I jumped on the Scrambler. I've wanted to do a 'refresher' course of some sort for a good while now. When I took my test in the UK on a Suzuki 125, you rode around a block clockwise. Then anti-clockwise. After that a bloke jumped out from behind a car that was 500 metres away, if you didn't hit him and answered a few simple questions you could go from the test centre to your nearest motorcycle dealer and buy the fastest, meanest bike you could and off you went (I didn't do this by the way, mostly due to financial restrictions but never the less happy I didn't).

Anyway, despite failing to live up to my "the best mod you'll every buy is rider-training" mantra for most of those years, I finally took a course this weekend:

NSW Advanced Motorcycle - Honda HART Australia

This was in Australia but it's run by Honda so I'm guessing they have similar courses all over the globe. In fact I'd take a punt any training outfit would be just as rewarding as I found HART but that's who I went with. You can hire one of their bikes or take your own, I obviously wanted to do it on the Duke.

I chose the Advanced 1 course. It was a half day course and I personally found it a really helpful refresher and lots of fun. It doesn't matter how many good videos you watch you can't beat real-life practice under the gaze of a professional instructor (MCrider was introduced to me by Max Kool on this forum and he's certainly worth checking out on YouTube). The class was small, 4 other riders of mixed experience, and took place on a private road so you were the only 5 on that road for the course. The track at St Ives in Sydney is actually an old police motorcycle training track and when I say 'track', it is really a road with all the usual assorted imperfections - ideal for brushing up on road craft. If you want to do track work that'd be a different course.

We covered:

• Posture
• Counter-steering
• Revving on the down-change
• Emergency braking
  
• Riding curves using the Three P’s – Preparation, Posture, and Pathway
• Slow-speed riding techniques
• Trail Braking

All things you'll all know about I dare say but as I say I found it really useful to practice and have instruction on tweaking my technique/s where required.

I'm defo signing up to do the Advance 2 when I get a few more pennies in my pocket. I just wanted to flag up the importance (IMO) of keeping your skill levels up for safety AND for personal enjoyment. Especially if like me you've had no formal training for over (cough) 25 years! None of us should be too proud to do this kind of thing, though I do appreciate you have to have the spare cash.

Would be interested in hearing of different courses that may be worth a punt, for example, I did do an off-road riding course a million years ago and would be tempted by another I think.

 

[Little General]

I took the bikesafe course here in NC and it was free. It seems the governor of NC is "bike friendly" and wants anyone that wants extra training to get it . Also, the police officers do it for free in their spare time.It was an all Saturday event limited to 10 riders. great deal in my opinion.

 

[Pete W]

Looks like this thread is old and didn't amount to much, perhaps there's a better thread on post-test training here somewhere but I couldn't find it so I'm resurrecting this one

I've ridden bikes for over 30 years, very on and off. With a half dozen year break before I jumped on the Scrambler. I've wanted to do a 'refresher' course of some sort for a good while now. When I took my test in the UK on a Suzuki 125, you rode around a block clockwise. Then anti-clockwise. After that a bloke jumped out from behind a car that was 500 metres away, if you didn't hit him and answered a few simple questions you could go from the test centre to your nearest motorcycle dealer and buy the fastest, meanest bike you could and off you went (I didn't do this by the way, mostly due to financial restrictions but never the less happy I didn't).

Anyway, despite failing to live up to my "the best mod you'll every buy is rider-training" mantra for most of those years, I finally took a course this weekend:

NSW Advanced Motorcycle - Honda HART Australia

This was in Australia but it's run by Honda so I'm guessing they have similar courses all over the globe. In fact I'd take a punt any training outfit would be just as rewarding as I found HART but that's who I went with. You can hire one of their bikes or take your own, I obviously wanted to do it on the Duke.

I chose the Advanced 1 course. It was a half day course and I personally found it a really helpful refresher and lots of fun. It doesn't matter how many good videos you watch you can't beat real-life practice under the gaze of a professional instructor (MCrider was introduced to me by Max Kool on this forum and he's certainly worth checking out on YouTube). The class was small, 4 other riders of mixed experience, and took place on a private road so you were the only 5 on that road for the course. The track at St Ives in Sydney is actually an old police motorcycle training track and when I say 'track', it is really a road with all the usual assorted imperfections - ideal for brushing up on road craft. If you want to do track work that'd be a different course.

We covered:

• Posture
• Counter-steering
• Revving on the down-change
• Emergency braking
  
• Riding curves using the Three P’s – Preparation, Posture, and Pathway
• Slow-speed riding techniques
• Trail Braking

All things you'll all know about I dare say but as I say I found it really useful to practice and have instruction on tweaking my technique/s where required.

I'm defo signing up to do the Advance 2 when I get a few more pennies in my pocket. I just wanted to flag up the importance (IMO) of keeping your skill levels up for safety AND for personal enjoyment. Especially if like me you've had no formal training for over (cough) 25 years! None of us should be too proud to do this kind of thing, though I do appreciate you have to have the spare cash.

Would be interested in hearing of different courses that may be worth a punt, for example, I did do an off-road riding course a million years ago and would be tempted by another I think.

Hi Deano,

I live on South Island, New Zealand, and here the "Ride to Live" organisation runs motorcycle riding courses at various levels, basically targetted at the participants' levels of riding experience. Several councils (certainly Tasman) subsidise the participants' costs for courses

I've been riding for several decades and have attended two Gold Courses, one on my 1986 BMW R65, the other two years later on my Ducati Scrambler. Go to the Ride to Live, NZ, website for courses and details, if you're interested. Both day-long courses were very worthwhile learning curves. Any motorcycle rider who thinks he or she knows it all, regardless of previous experience, is stupidly arrogant. There's always more to learn, techniques to improve, and these courses prove it.

So, keep it up , Deano - your attitude's spot on!

Best wishes, Pete W.

 

[Deano968]

I shall snoop around the internet Pete. Thanks