Bikesafe London report :-)

Major_Grooves · The Doctor Joined: 10 May 2002 Karma :

Hi folks!

I did the Bikesafe London course on saturday so I thought I'd tell you all a bit about it. I was originally supposed to do it a few months ago but had to postpone when my police instructor apparently half ripped his foot off on the back of a lorry in Belgium whilst biking! Confused

I did mine at the Ace Cafe, and although I live nearby I have never been and it took me about three passes along the North Circular before I eventually found it. It's a pretty cool place for bikers so I suggest you give it a look if you haven't already. https://www.ace-cafe-london.com/dis.htm

The day was mostly powerpoint presentations about accident statistics, accident causation, filtering, security, some accident case studies with graphic/gruesome accident scene photographs Confused

.

Obviously the best part of the day was the observed ride-outs. We were put into pairs and had one police rider assigned to us. We then headed up through Hanger Lane, up the A40 and into some nice roads around Denham. We were encouraged to make "progressive" speed. My bike has a km/h speedo so I usually just guess my speed - this was obviously too slow though so I was "encouraged" to speed up. The cagers must have wondered what was going on with so many cops with bikers and it probably meant we weren't experiencing "real" riding conditions at times as cars moved out of your way pretty sharpish. Very Happy

On the A roads we were told to use the whole of the road (also encouraged by the IAM but not my RoSPA!) which was cool. We were also encouraged to overtake, and I got back thinking I was either going to be bollocked for my overtaking or praised for it - I was praised Cool

! Highlight of the ride-out for me was when I was at the rear of the three bikes, and was lagging a bit - the others went past an old geezer who then decided to run out in front of me - turned out it was Jim from Eastenders! Laughing

Another funny incident was when I came round the corner to find one group stopped with a police bike with hanging off panniers. Turned out the guy behind him had jumped gear and rammed his SV650 into the back of the police bike and smashed up the panniers. The police bike had to be taken back by a recovery vehicle. Laughing

Good time to hit a police bike if there is one!

Overall my police obserever said I was a good quick safe rider. He also commented that sometimes he wondered who was on the 500 and who was on the 1100 Cool

so I guess I wasn't too slow by the end of it.

So I would recommend it to anyone near London (they have a base in south london too). I'm not sure yet if it has made me safer - I will probably try to undertake less, and be a bit safer when filtering. To be honest I would say it was worth the money (£25) just to get a ride out with the coppers.

They tell you to ride as you "normally" do so they can assess your riding technique properly (within-ish the speed limits), but to be honest it is quite difficult if you normally undertake filter to do so when the old bill is behind you. Even though it wouldn't have been much fun I would have liked to try some "heavy" filtering - ie rush hour North Circular but we didn't meet any traffic that heavy.

The coppers were all decent blokes (although you could tell which ones would be gits if you got pulled over) - and they said they all did it because they were sick of scraping bikers off the road.

There were a couple of guys with blacked out visors and I think quite a few of the exhausts were not "road legal" so don't let that put you off. The only thing they were checking was that all lights and your horn worked.

The course certificate gets you a few discounts including 10% off devits insurance and 7.5% off Carol Nash.

I think I'll try and do the IAM course once I have some more money handy.

If you've read this far then congratulations - have a look at the link and book yourself a place!

https://www.bikesafe-london.co.uk/

freestyler_onli · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Karma :

Nice 1!

Major_Grooves · The Doctor Joined: 10 May 2002 Karma :

I knew if I was patient that somebody would eventually reply to this post.

The effort in writing it wasn't wasted after all! Wink

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freestyler_onli · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Karma :

LOL.

I only found it after it was mentioned on another post................ Laughing

The Tot · World Chat Champion Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Karma :

I'm glad you had a great day. They're top notch fellas, especially Paul Mostyn and that PC Paris geeza. Both are comical characters and it was definately worth it when i went in november Thumbs Up

The photos are gruesome in the powerpoints.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit, but the highlight for me when i went was actually having a copper to myself (not sure if that's a good thing or bad and no innuendos intended!), i was the only fella on a L plate 125, but still had plenty of fun. Certainly taught me a few things or two about cagers and how truly vulnerable we are, and that NOT all HGV drivers are knobs.

Great day for those who haven't tried, and i'm sure others will agree. I think Vespa also did her Bikesafe if i'm not mistaken?

EDIT: SHIT !!! Somebody bought up an old thread!!! I just realised how old this thread was! I only just coped on. Now i understand major groove's comments!
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Ric · Could Be A Chat Bot Joined: 22 Nov 2004 Karma :

i would if i had the time but i cant get motivated

titot said when we were at MCN show how good it was, i was more intrested in the bird tryin to get me to go, if i remeber rightly she was the daugter of an instructor...............she was soooo fit Embarassed

TOM M · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Mar 2005 Karma :

I thought about doing the bikesafe that runs around here, so if whilst riding normally you speed etc, can they do you for it???????
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Sadie · World Chat Champion Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Karma :

When I did it in Warwickshire there were no problems with speeding.

The main priority was riding safely. As one of the policemen said, "we'd prefer you didn't speed, but if you are going to, we'd prefer you did it safely".

Thumbs Up

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bazza · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Karma :

Having just done a Bikesafe this w/end with the West Mids police, their attitude is "when you're with a police rider, you can have the NSL +10%" anything over that is going to end in a sharp word or two." Severe taking of the piss would undoubtedly get you a FPN.

Besides, in my case, going too fast was the least of my concerns... Shocked

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freestyler_onli · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Karma :

Do tell.............

bazza · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Karma :

Nothing juicy, just that I had so much information to take in and apply to the assessed ride, plus having a bike cop on my tail, plus having to "just ride normally" that I had a headache when I finished.

I wasn't about to go out and wring its neck under those circumstances... Laughing

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"That's it. You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college."
'98 Ducati 750SS, '08 Suzuki GSX650F ©2004-2014, Bazza's Harmless Banter