Gritters stop gritting at the end of March unless there is a cold snap in April/May/June/July/August/September, you never know with this country. I'll be out come April once we have a nice dry warm day.
@outintheopen, if you think you can do better, step up to the plate. You have the two UK road safety charities, IAM Roadsmart and ROSPA and a number of small businesses who deliver post test pass training to choose from. Both IAM Roadsmart and ROSPA use Roadcraft, the police rider’s handbook, as their source document for their training programme and the hope is to give a rider the skillset to be a “thinking” rider who is “better than average”. IAM Roadsmart and ROSPA observers are all volunteers and certainly in my IAM Roadsmart affiliated club, the volunteers pay for their own petrol and get no financial help with the business insurance required. I am retired so my time is mine but many of the observers in our club are in full time employment so only have their free time to give. Our club gets approximately 250 new members year on year and about 90% of them take and pass their test in that 12 month period. The average age of our club membership is 54 and we have a programme of financially supported mentoring to encourage the under 35s. I suppose I must be a bit altruistic but I do it because enjoy it, I’m out on my bike more often than not and I do get a sense of achievement when my associate gets that light bulb moment when the benefit of the system for everyday road riding makes sense. Andy
The guys and girls at the club I went to where absolutely hell bent on getting me to do my badge. I never saw the need as I'd learned to ride the roads with one of the older and most senior members (who could actually ride) and was no longer really involved on that side as he strongly disagreed with the way the club had gone. I went on many club runs and road rides and witnessed some of the worst riding I've ever seen by observers including many of the senior ones who often possessed shocking machine control. I remember doing a machine control day with them and the examiners going nuts because I was braking with either one or two fingers. Despite the fact I stopped the thing miles before anyone else did. They really did not like my motorsport background and they disliked even more anyone who could seemingly think for themselves. I mean who on earth cares if you use the rear brake to do an emergency stop!? I can categorically tell you that you can only brake so hard before there's no weight over the rear anyway. They've honestly got no idea. I do however believe that if you are a green rider it is worth doing but the whole thing has become ultra PC and not about improving riders in real world situations, it's now about ticking boxes and following crap text book stuff. It's a shame because the idea of it is a good one. It's just full of people who talk a good ride and want to feel important whilst spouting out of date bs from books. The club nights however once you digest the endless unwarranted ego's are actually nice to be a part of
An experience I think shared all too often and I’ll put my hand up, there are observers in our club just like the people you describe but IME not everyone. In my world, riding safely isn’t about adherence to inflexible rules and dogma, it’s about riding in a manner appropriate to the circumstances. Get the basics right and you can engage with the ride, have fun and park your bike in the garage at the end of the day. Sadly, too few riders learn the basics or if learned, forget to use them. Andy
Maybe i'll get back to the club this year. I virtually never ride on the road anymore, this whole thing has reminded me of the relationship I had with my ex father in law whom I sorely miss. It was him who got me involved in riding full stop. I don't miss the ex, but I do miss him haha funny old world. I lost my whole road riding 'life' in the divorce
It needs riders who can change the perceptions from inside, younger, experienced and competent riders ........ like you Andy
You have no idea how much this made me laugh. I hardly meet any Nigels but my god they're all in the IaM. Amazing!
I am an observer in an independently run club, we write our own training manual, but it follows Roadcraft. At the end of the day it’s all down to interpretation, it is not a bible, just a guide. The basic rules will hopefully vastly reduce the likelihood of getting into a position that ends badly. Now we have observers who like to adhere strictly to all speed limits, and then others who stick rigidly to urban ones, but once out in the open it’s ride to whatever the road conditions allow. I am in that category. I have undergone training for 12 years, 4 Rospa tests with 3 different examiners, all minimum police class1 riders, some way above that but it’s confidential etc. So 2 of those examiners were quite happy to see me over 100mph, not fussed if I came into a 30mph at 33 and still slowing etc. The other 1 would have shot me at 1 mph over any limit. So it’s all down to interpretation. Some say why ever give tuition above the speed limit as it’s illegal, well I like to prepare riders for the real world. First ride I will always ask them to ride as they normally do, so if they do like to go for a blast you can equip them, however they ride normally. Many moons ago I was a total loon, often doing 3 figure speeds in London etc. I’m not boasting, it’s a long time ago and things change, but what I want to say is I now do not exceed lower limits, and often below if the conditions require it. I don’t care if anyone is getting impatient behind. So now using the system of Roadcraft and all the other training from certain police influences I thoroughly enjoy my riding, more than when I was a loon trying to sneak in an overtake with a microsecond to spare. oh and we do not insist that any member has to take a test, it’s their choice, the main thing is they have come because they want some extra help , and they come in all shapes and sizes, from Barry Sheene wannabee to grandmothers I kid you not. And as Andy says, the pleasure of them getting the light bulb moments are very precious.
I've ridden with some police riders. I actually coached a few of them last year at Donington. They're good guys generally. I will never forget being out on a run with a police class one rider and him taking no notice of any speed limit bar the 30's. I thought it was a trap haha!
That’s my point, he has seen your are competent and riding within your limits, even if it’s at 150, but I always go slow in urban as you can kill hitting a pedestrian at 30, but at 40 they have much less chance of survival. I probably feel this as I was the driver of a fatal accident, of which I had no blame, but left 4 kids motherless. I always wonder what could I have done to have a different outcome, it was a NY eve, and thank god I had refused all drinks, therefore I know I was attentive as possible.Probably what got me interested in this whole training molarky too.
I tried the IAM thing a while back but didn’t get on with the rigidity of the whole thing. Like with @Advikaz they got their panties in a bunch over my two fingered braking and also turning in while still on the brakes (ie: trail braking). I can’t recall if they disapproved of that technique per se or wanted me to follow some sort of system before adding it back into my riding repertoire. I didn’t enjoy the inflexible approach and tbh found the instructor to be a bit of a bell end so I only did two classes IIRC before sacking it off. However I wouldn’t mind giving it another go. I’ve read Roadcraft a couple of times and found there’s a lot of good advice in there, my favourite being something along the lines of that “when describing an accident or near miss incident a rider should never find themselves using the word “suddenly” as they should have been sufficiently aware of their surroundings and hazards to anticipate it”. Obviously that doesn’t apply if part of a jet engine lands on your lid or someone shoots you with an arrow from a behind a balistraria while you’re riding past a Norman castle, but it’s something that’s always stuck with me. Maybe once we are allowed out to play again we could get a group of chaps near to me (Herts/Essex/Beds/N London) to do the course together. If you’re interested then PM me.
It is like ALL OF YOU live in California!! Where they keep imposing severe lock downs... and then the state leaders are caught out... BUT, they say sorry... so it's all good when they want YOU to pay a ticket... Yeah, maybe more have died over here. Maybe. According to how everything is counted. It's even worse than there. BUT I am generally a news "Headline" junkie. I scan a lot of news, yet read few articles. I might scan the first paragraph to see where they stand. If it sounds like they are trying to report facts I read more. I cannot remember the last time I read where someone received a ticket or something for leaving their house. Did you open your restaurant against rules? or something like that? Yes you did if you were not in GOV. Outside of that, It must have been June or July since I read where someone received an infraction. So You are all generally locked down... but nobody seems happy with the rules ore results. You know what works best in my mind? Personal responsibility. Give the ACTUAL facts... Then actual useful guidance... Then let people make their own decisions. Do you guys still have? have ever had a draft into the armed services? We have not for a looooong time. It's like that. Yes if you want you can volunteer to go and fight and possibly die for the cause... Or not. Depending on who you meet they will have different feelings on your choice. But the choice was yours. WAIT!!! Before whomever that is that is going to say again that the people that get infected didnt want that... I am betting that the people you would go and shoot or bomb didnt want it either... Freedom of choice, and taking responsibility of your own actions is the best way forward.
Personal responsibility. Now there’s a thing. Most people seem to want to blame everything on someone else, especially on governments. Or maybe it’s the media sticking this to us in dramatic fashion and personal responsibility does exist but only quietly. I thought ‘Personal Responsibility’ died out along with his good friend ’Common Sense’. Believe me, I mourn the passing of both.
Common Sense was never common. Even less so inside of Corporations or Gov! I think the saying was developed as a way to say you were smarter than the person you were talking to. Even if you weren't. Years ago, when I was young Nearly every shop owner in NYC was a first gen immigrant. They all swept their own sidewalks and streets to keep the place clean. They all appreciated the opportunity. Decades later with too many liberal policies in our cities they stopped and said... That is someone elses job. Sad. Out in the country (more conservative they still do it) It used to be... "How can I help" now it is (Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee) What happened to... "Ask Not what your county can do for YOU, but what can I do for my country" Funny thing is, He was left (liberal) not conservative. How times have changed. They instituted the welfare state and everything changed.
So back on topic...........what is the general consensus about when we can ride our bikes recreationally without fear of being stopped, reprimanded and fined? March 29th? April 12th?
