Advanced Riding... in 500 words

[The Spin Doctor]

"Advanced riding is really complicated, isn't it?"

"I'm not good enough to be an advanced rider!"

"It takes too long to develop the skills to be a really good rider."

If any of those are the reasons you've been put off post-test training, read on!

-----------------------------

So you think advanced riding's only for experts?

Here's how you too can learn advanced riding... In just 500 words!


• Safety & Risk: riding isn't 'safe' - we're actively MANAGING RISK to deal with HAZARDS and avoid conflict with other road users.


• A Hazard: is anything that offers the threat of personal harm and makes us alter speed or direction to reduce RISK.


• Risk: is "the chance of something going wrong multiplied by the impact on us if it happens".


• Risk Assessment: our job is to ANTICIPATE and avoid high risk situations, and to eliminate high risk manoeuvres from our riding.


• Anticipation: is asking “What if...?” to avoid SURPRISE! to avoid triggering panic reactions.


• Systematic Riding: is about building a flexible riding plan that encompasses the WORST CASE SCENARIO to allow us to deal with hazards.


• Worst Case Scenario: don't plan for things to go right, plan for them TO GO WRONG. Anticipate mistakes - by other road users AND by us. Plan how to deal with them! When cars pull out of junctions (driver's mistake) can we stop or swerve? When bends tighten up unexpectedly (our mistake) can we lose speed or change line? If we're continually caught by SURPRISE! we're not planning for things to go wrong.


• Two to Tangle: riders blame drivers for collisions with other vehicles. But if the driver sets up the crash, we still have to ride into it to make it happen.


• The Killing Zone: is the ‘at risk’ distance where we are committed to negotiating a hazard, and can no longer take evasive action.


• Be Pro-active: and shrink the Killing Zone. Reducing speed, changing position and improving view can widen our SAFETY BUBBLE .


• The Safety Bubble: is a zone of safe space that surrounds us in traffic, in bends and at junctions. Keep the Safety Bubble as big as possible - ride wide of threats and maintain good following distances. Staying clear of high-risk positions allows ourselves and other drivers time to think and react.


• View: what we CAN'T see is almost always a bigger risk than what we CAN see! So to work out where to position for view, ask three questions:

1. where are the areas we CAN see into?
2. where are the areas we CAN'T see into?
3. is there a position which gives us a VIEW into those blind areas?

Add a supplementary question:

4. if we move there, would we be safe and can others SEE US?


• This works equally well for approaching bends and blind junctions, as well as other hazards such as parked cars and pedestrians.


• Speed: can we stop if a vehicle appears or a bend is blocked? Can we at least swerve? If we can't, we're riding too fast.


• Prioritise the bigger hazard: which will hurt most? Keep clear!


• Overtaking: frequently goes wrong, and often kills when it does. That makes overtaking high risk so just because we CAN doesn't mean we SHOULD. Look for overtakes that make USEFUL progress at MINIMAL risk.


• Finally: continually review our decisions and actions:

1. is what I am doing SAFE? We shouldn't put ourselves or others at risk!
2. do I know WHY I'm doing it? Question techniques taught by rote at basic AND advanced level. Don't apply them without thinking - what we do should have a reason!
3. does it LOOK safe to other road users? If it doesn't, they may not behave as expected!
4. learn from mistakes. We all make them. But plan not to make the same mistake twice!


There! That wasn't difficult, was it?

And if you want some practical help from an experienced and qualified post-test trainer, now you know you're in the right place!

www.survivalskills.co.uk

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Doesn't sound like a whole heap of fun

Though I should really listen to the advice on over taking, I got away with a very stupid over take on Wednesday evening.

[iansoady]

Depends on your idea of "fun" but riding safely and briskly is very satisfying. Maybe not to the tiktok generation however.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Depends on your idea of "fun" but riding safely and briskly is very satisfying. Maybe not to the tiktok generation however.

I was probably a bit harsh, but I find riding to a conscious formula tends to take the fun out of riding, but I suppose you have to go through a process of consciously thinking about this stuff before it becomes an unconscious thought process.

I'd add to the above,

Don't ride faster than you're comfortable with.
Don't be afraid to abandon an overtake if it doesn't feel right.

[Rockburner]

"How to ride without pain"


There you go - 5 words.

[slowsider]

Doesn't sound like a whole heap of fun

Though I should really listen to the advice on over taking, I got away with a very stupid over take on Wednesday evening.

Finishing a ride is where the fun is.

[The Spin Doctor]

Doesn't sound like a whole heap of fun

Though I should really listen to the advice on over taking, I got away with a very stupid over take on Wednesday evening.

Getting into trouble is rarely fun.

We all make them - I certainly can't claim that my riders are faultless. And I have made some very bad ones indeed. But I do try to avoid making the same mahoosive mistakes twice.

Riding really is a lot more enjoyable when it's not a near-death experience every ride, whatever the thrill-seekers say.

[The Spin Doctor]

"How to ride without pain"


There you go - 5 words.

That's a GOAL... not a 'how to...'

[Horse]

"How to ride without pain"

There you go - 5 words.

Ya reckon?

https://www.devittinsurance.com/guides/ ... er-riders/

[The Spin Doctor]

Finishing a ride is where the fun is.

Well, I enjoy the ride to get to the end

Usually... I can think of a few I haven't enjoyed... freezing cold, p!ssing rain, and one ludicrous high-speed run down a French autoroute that ended up turning what would have been a lovely 70 mile cross-country journey into a dog leg 120 mile blast on busy, dull roads... all because the group leader fired up the GPS, picked 'fastest route' and set off without actually looking at the map.

He was riding so quick, the Hornet nearly ran out of fuel - we rolled off the m-way, the nearest town was 5 miles away and downhill just off the main road. I espied a filling station down from the main road, turned off from the middle of the group and ran on to fumes on the way downhill. I just about managed to splutter up to the pump.

And then he bollocked me for an unscheduled stop! I led my own rides after that, on that trip.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Doesn't sound like a whole heap of fun

Though I should really listen to the advice on over taking, I got away with a very stupid over take on Wednesday evening.

Getting into trouble is rarely fun.

We all make them - I certainly can't claim that my riders are faultless. And I have made some very bad ones indeed. But I do try to avoid making the same mahoosive mistakes twice.

Riding really is a lot more enjoyable when it's not a near-death experience every ride, whatever the thrill-seekers say.

This would have been definite death if something had came the other way and I'd committed to over taking a bus on a country road when I really didn't have enough visibility to complete it, I realised this when I was alongside the bus, I should have braked and dropped back behind the bus, instead I accelerated to silly speed to get past the bus before the corner.

As soon as I'd done it I realised I'd been a twat, hopefully I'll learn from the experience and not do it again, my reason for over taking was not that I was in a hurry, but that I wanted to ride faster than the bus was going on a nice piece of road, I should have parked up for 5 minutes and waited for the road to be clear or been content to ride a bit slower.

[The Spin Doctor]

Ya reckon?

https://www.devittinsurance.com/guides/ ... er-riders/

There were more questions than answers in that study, though I didn't find some of the conclusions that hard to believe.

This one is interesting though - "Asked if they find riding ‘quite demanding’, 37.6% of advanced riders agreed, compared to 33.6%." Does that represent 'ordinary riders' underestimating the task? Or 'advanced riders' who are actually not masters of the task of riding, but learning its real complexity?

It might be said that if you do master a skill, then the performance of that skill runs almost entirely within the unconscious.

[The Spin Doctor]

This would have been definite death if something had came the other way and I'd committed to over taking a bus on a country road when I really didn't have enough visibility to complete it, I realised this when I was alongside the bus, I should have braked and dropped back behind the bus, instead I accelerated to silly speed to get past the bus before the corner.

As soon as I'd done it I realised I'd been a twat, hopefully I'll learn from the experience and not do it again, my reason for over taking was not that I was in a hurry, but that I wanted to ride faster than the bus was going on a nice piece of road, I should have parked up for 5 minutes and waited for the road to be clear or been content to ride a bit slower.

Can't honestly say I haven't made the same mistake... fortunately I'm still here too.

And I've done exactly that - pulled over and taken a break.

I was up in the Peaks with a trainee (very nice bloke, highly qualified too - RoSPA tutor) and we got onto a nice bit of road without a 50 limit... and got stuck behind a bus. I was quite surprised that he followed it all the way down the road - quite a few miles too - before the bus stopped just the other side of the 30 limit in the town at the bottom of the hill.

We had a chat. He didn't know the road (which was good, since he knew all the others I took him on, better than me) but he said that had nothing to do with it. He said he'd spotted several places he could have got past, but that it would have been hard work to follow the bus down the road looking for those locations. He said it was much easier to drop back, not worry about passing and wait for the bus to stop... as it was bound to. He said it was just a bit of bad luck it didn't stop at any of the intermediate stops but that's life

[slowsider]

Finishing a ride is where the fun is.

Well, I enjoy the ride to get to the end

I meant that any ride you finish is fun, when you consider the alternative, (in response to Cheesey's comment).

[The Spin Doctor]

I meant that any ride you finish is fun, when you consider the alternative, (in response to Cheesey's comment).

I know what you meant...

But there are riders out there who are just glad to park the bike up. I've just had a slightly frustrating correspondence with a potential trainee who's not enjoying his riding, but doesn't want to do a training course just yet, because he wants to be enjoying his riding before he spends money on it.

I've been trying to explain that the job of the course is to improve his riding so his rides go from 'no fun and glad to stop' to 'lots of fun and don't want to get off again'. I am struggling with the messaging!

[Count Steer]

This is probably covered in the original post in other terms but...

Just because that bend hasn't had a dump of diesel on it the last 300 times you've been round it doesn't mean it hasn't today. I'd like to know how many accidents happen on roads 'that I know really well'.

(I know there were stats showing what a high proportion of accidents happen within 5 miles of home but there are other statistical factors at work there besides familiarity).

[Yorick]

5 words.

The boring old farts club.

[The Spin Doctor]

5 words.

The boring old farts club.

Don't forget... we've a place for you

[Horse]

5 words.
The boring old farts club.

See my sig

[Yorick]

5 words.

The boring old farts club.

Don't forget... we've a place for you

What day is it ?