Signed up to RoSPA Training

[Winston Smith]

Steve,  shame you are getting inconsistency.

There will always be variances in riding techniques/styles/confidence, advanced riding (and driving ) is about arming yourself with the right tools to do the job - the test is an incidental and safety is paramount.

You are with the newly fromed West Yorks bike section I believe, which I also understand is very rigidly structured.  I am surprised you have had such inconsistency and if I were you would raise it with Mike (senior trainer if I am right?)

Put in for your test but specify out of your own area so you get independant examin ation.  I do a lot for Midlands / Lincs region and have also done some Cleveland and North Yorks test too.

Apply for Cleveland area, Steve Darby and Nick Walker are spot on and very consistent in their approach.  They are also very balanced and pragmatic.

Don't give up on it, but feed back or the consistency will never be acheived.

Or come and join our group in Hull!  1930hrs 1st Tuesday of the month (3 April!!)

[Nok12rs]

Totally off post (now there's a surprise) but ............ah! Hull. 

The love of my life (we met in 1985) was bought up at Anlaby where I spent many a great weekend with visits to Hull and also all that beautiful Yorkshire stuff; Dales 'n hills 'n moors 'n whatsits.........gateposts made of horse shoes.....more daffs than a Dutchman's nursery...   Kate Bush running buck naked searching  for ............Brill pubs and amazing cish and fips plus mushies 

Though no longer together we are still best of friends.

I taught her to ride five years ago; she did a CBT, came out with me (intercoms) for three days, then one day on the schools 600 and passed!!!!   Scored 100% on the computer based HC test. (very bright!!!!!)


Rides a 300cc Vesper now.  Bless

[Winston Smith]

Indeed NoK - Hull's a great place actually that suffers with a reputation it doesn't deserve.

[Lonewolf]

Indeed NoK - Hull's a great place actually that suffers with a reputation it doesn't deserve.

A bit like Bradford.....

[Nok12rs]

  No to mention Leeds    

[O.C.]

Indeed NoK - Hull's a great place actually that suffers with a reputation it doesn't deserve.

there's an expression..."Hull, Hell and Halifax     

[Nok12rs]

there's an expression..."Hull, Hell and Halifax     

[aldav]

(I'm the slowest rider I know, ask anyone on here)

you have not seen me yet 

[Lonewolf]

you have not seen me yet 

Massive respect to ya 

[Andy]

Steve,  shame you are getting inconsistency.

There will always be variances in riding techniques/styles/confidence, advanced riding (and driving ) is about arming yourself with the right tools to do the job - the test is an incidental and safety is paramount.

You are with the newly fromed West Yorks bike section I believe, which I also understand is very rigidly structured.  I am surprised you have had such inconsistency and if I were you would raise it with Mike (senior trainer if I am right?)

Put in for your test but specify out of your own area so you get independant examin ation.  I do a lot for Midlands / Lincs region and have also done some Cleveland and North Yorks test too.

Apply for Cleveland area, Steve Darby and Nick Walker are spot on and very consistent in their approach.  They are also very balanced and pragmatic.

Don't give up on it, but feed back or the consistency will never be acheived.

Or come and join our group in Hull!  1930hrs 1st Tuesday of the month (3 April!!)

Another option if you are short of time & have the money you can pay for your training and take your test at a later date  I can recommend Steve & Nick also  Ex-copper's but they're not all bad  http://www.ridewellteesvalley.co.uk/ I did the required training with them before my RoSPA test. I'd already done IAM etc.

[cpettifer]

Right... session 3 with my tutor. Figured I would just post a map from session 2, so here it is:

http://g.co/maps/aubyw

Another delayed ride out, we were due to go out the previous Saturday, but my tutor's bike was stuck at the garage being serviced and they'd ordered the wrong part. Doh!

Weather was really mixed. When we met in Tewksbury there was a nice hail downpour. We stood under cover and discussed where we were going to ride - essentially the same start as the previous ride, but continuing on to include some different roads and a motorway stint. Once the hail had stopped we left and had the odd shower while out, but generally stayed dry, although the roads were mixed wet and dry, which was really useful...

Once more my tutor was very complimentary about my riding. I didn't have any problems myself riding, but these were the sugestions to help me improve this time:

• A couple of minor pointers on road position down particular stretches of road - on one straight road I could have positioned myself right down the road centre (the far right of our lane) to give a great view with the added benefit of being further away from the edge should furry animals run out.
• When the road is generally wet but has a dry line, ride on the dry line (unless there's some good reason not to) as the grip is better. I did this some times, but not always.
• When moving back over to the left hand lane on motorway / dual carriageway there's not always a need to indicate.
• Right foot down at junctions to allow for quicker getaway if required (i.e. something doesn't look like it's going to stop behind you).

I think that was it, I'll edit when I get my feedback on e-mail if there was anything else.

Here was the route we took this week, essentially an extension of the route we did before. The roads north of Gloucester are pretty good, if you're ever riding in this neck of the woods. They are all new to me though, even though I live fairly locally.

http://g.co/maps/x2fsq

We're meeting again in three weeks, because I'm too busy in between, and running from a different start point earlier in the day. This is likely all to be on roads I don't know, so it'll be good to see how I read them.

[cpettifer]

Just had my comments through from my tutor... additional comments this week were to do with making sure I am learning the Highway Code and Roadcraft fully. I have both... so had better get reading! :-)

[cpettifer]

Oh, also, I've heard we're going to be riding a route similar to this next time:

http://g.co/maps/ajpzt

[cpettifer]

Right another ride with my tutor. Much longer this time, took in 52.4 miles starting in Gloucester and ending in Tewksbury but via Dursley, the edge of Stroud and then the M5. Here's the map:

http://g.co/maps/87tpm

I haven't had any comments through on e-mail yet... but here's my summary.

I wasn't really in the right frame of mind this week. I've had a poor sleeping week and I think this probably had an impact. I also hadn't been out on the bike at all and I think this too contributed to not such a good ride. However, my tutor is still really positive about things.

Main points were looking to make progress a bit more as we rode through and out of Gloucester (it was reasonably busy and I just pottered along happily in the inside lane when I could have been overtaking on dual carriageway). Then A38 was good (I know it well, which probably helped), then off this through Dursley and round some twisties making our way to the M5. Here he commented that I wasn't as smooth as previously, perhaps slowing later than usual for some corners. I was just aware in myself that I wasn't riding as well. Still, overall it was OK. Motorway blast back up to Tewksbury was great. He said you could tell I rode on motorways all the time and he had nothing really to note at all there.

Overall it was OK I think.

We're going to ride a similar route again in a couple of weeks and, provided all back to "normal" we'll arrange a pre-test ride with another tutor after that.

We sat and went through a number of Roadcraft and Highway Code items. We did a pre-ride check before we set out, which he was happy with. I talked a bit about my machine, which I will get asked apparently. Then I have to know where to check various bit and pieces, fluids, electrics etc. We also discussed the system, to test my knowledge of it (Information, Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration) and an example of how I might use it in a particular situation.

Highway Code, we just had a chat about a few things. Did some road signs and stuff like that. All OK. I've not finished reading the Highway Code yet, but general knowledge of it is OK. Hope to be fully up on it by next time.

[cpettifer]

Hey folks - I'm back!

Well it's been a REALLY long time since I've logged in here as so much has happened. I'm still doing my RoSPA training, but really close to taking my test. I am, in fact just about to book it. So, what has happened:

1. The summer came, including holidays etc, so I wasn't able to meet up with my tutor as often as we liked. We probably only met once a month at best over summer / autumn. This meant it took us ages to book me a pre-test run.
2. I got a new job - this complicated things and it the main reason for me not being on the forum for ages.
3. After continuing to have some very complimentary sessions with my tutor we put in for a pre-test check with another tutor in the group. I met with a guy who is a diploma holder and we ran through what would effectively happen on a full test. So it started with a weekly check of the bike following the POWER (or rather POWDER) acronym that the book mentions. This is something I need to practise before my test (although it went ok). Doing this check I noticed I hadn't put my new tax disc on my bike - oops.

We then went for a good 40ish mile ride that would be typical of a test run. This included a motorway stretch and town stretch and some flowing A / B roads. I was quite familiar with the roads and had a good run largely. We then parked up for a cup of tea, a run through a few highway code / advanced riding technique questions, which were also OK, and a debrief of the ride. Main points to take away were that he was very impressed with riding generally, knowledge of highway code and advanced riding book good (with some advice to polish up on specific terminology). Only point about riding was that I used gears to slow down a lot, rather than losing speed first, then changing to the correct gear for the hazard ahead. It makes sense when I think about what I had been doing and going away have worked on ridding myself of this habit.

4. I then contacted my tutor to find out next steps to book a test.
5. Waited...
6. I then heard back from the group coordinator that my tutor was having a break from tutoring! So he was taking on my training for the last bit leading up to the test. He sent me through the stuff I needed to book my test and we arranged to meet up. One thing I haven't actually done any of during training was overtaking (bizarrely never had the opportunity), so we arranged a long ride on a road that was likely to give lots of opportunities. We did this ride last Saturday.
7. Last Saturday we rode from Tewkesbury to Oxford and back! There were lots of opportunities for overtaking and we stopped a few time to discuss this and filtering and took it in turns to lead. He was able to demonstrate good (and bad!!) overtaking and filtering. I then had a go in the lead and did some, which gave us some points for discussion over one of our several cups of tea!

We discussed positioning and being in the right position enables me to make better decisions about whether an overtake (or filter) is on or if the situation is a risk, rather than an opportunity. Just the way we spoke gave me confidence and on the way back I was able to demonstrate good overtaking and filtering at appropriate times. We actually split or journey back and parted half way home as he was confident we had achieved what we had set out to at this point. In total I covered 125 miles - which is by far the longest session I've had with RoSPA.
8. So what's left is I need to book a test. I'm looking to take it in January now. I'll head out another couple of times with my new tutor between now and then so he can badger and pester me and polish up the small points. He is very positive that I should achieve a high grade, provided I demonstrate the same riding and knowledge that I did to him on Saturday.

Fingers crossed eh?

Will try and keep this post better updated leading up to my test.