Norfolk Safe Rider Training

[StevieL]

Hi all, during a recent chat with Gary ( Mr Gazza ) the subject of training came up, we are both of an age where Roadcraft was the bible of safe riding and are both aware that things have moved on since we first jumped on two wheels. It just so happens that my brother in law and a fellow Police Motorcyclist decided that perhaps if some form of training was offered then the accident rates involving motorcycles might be reduced, so Safe Rider was born. Moving on several years BIL is now Road Safety Officer (Motorcycles) for Norfolk County Council and is still involved with the scheme, after the chat with Gazza I gave him a ring to find out about costs, availability and numbers for any of us who are interested in improving our riding, below is an abridged version of the reply.

The course consists of a midweek evening classroom session at Wymondham Police HQ and a road session at the weekend with a police rider and the cost is £50 per person, those taking part are asked to read the Rider Skills Downloads that are on the www.think.norfolk.gov.uk and are free downloads, the evening classroom session will require that the downloads have been read. The road session will be with a police rider on a 3 to 1 basis, and will be broken into assessed rider and tea/coffee stops with debriefs and fault highlighting, this will last no more than five hours.
In addition to Safe Rider there are Huggers Challenge which is one to one tuition, I2i Machine Control Courses which are aimed at people who would like to improve their technique on track days ( read getting your knee down )
Courses are limited to a max of 15 persons per course and they try to group all participants on similar size machines so that each group is balanced.
There are 10 courses throughout 2016 and 5 are already full, if there are sufficient numbers within the club that would like to do this they are quite happy to run an MOC course. If any of you would like to pm me with your email address I will send you the attachments that are too large to upload to the forum. atb Steve

[Mr Gazza]

Yeah Stevie...My copy of Roadcraft is all yellow and curled up!!
When I started riding, a link was something that went in your chain.

By pure coincedence I used the phrase about old dogs, leading up to this and have been riding for 41 years...

“As you know, I have been riding bikes for 41 years now and had been an advanced police motorcyclist for over 10 years, and a DSA instructor up to CBT standard for just over a year.
I didn’t know what to expect from the courses, at 57 and with my experience I honestly wasn’t expecting to learn much but I went in with an open mind, and would have been happy to just take away from them just one or two tips that may improve my riding.
I can honestly say I learned so much more than I ever expected and they were a real eye opener.
Without doubt my riding will benefit, but more importantly I now understand why bikes do what they do, how they do it, why things go wrong and what to do about it when they do.
My confidence was always high, but now its so much higher because of this understanding.
I'm really looking forward to MC2 and MC4 next year.
It really isn't true what they say. you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
I would recommend these courses to anyone, no matter who they are or how good they think they are.”

Thank you for doing this Stevie...Hope there are some in the County and within striking distance who would be interested in this...I'm in.

[Mr Gazza]

StevieL has informed me that the weekday classroom sessions start at 7pm and go till 9.30pm... Sounds very doable to me.

There are four interested so far...Maybe more when we get dates fixed.?

[RossObey01]

Did anything else come of this? Would be interested but limited to weekdays I could do.

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks for the reminder Ross...Steve was looking into dates the last time we spoke...We should get onto this again.

[RossObey01]

If it must be weekdays the only time I can really do is the first 3 weeks of August, but let's see what available.

[StevieL]

Apologies for the time slipping away will send those interested the application form over the weekend not enough for a group booking but I'm sure that the forms can be 'synced'
to get everyone on the same course, will be in touch atb Steve

[Mr Gazza]

I now have an application form for the safe Rider Course.
It's a "Word" document. So I can email it to any interested parties...All are welcome.

PM me your email for a form.

Filling in the form doesn't commit you to any money now, until they find a date we can all do together...

Looking forward to this being a good laugh along with some seriously usefull learning...:biggrin:

Mr Gazza

[Mr Gazza]

I've just had an instant reply from the very jocular sounding organiser of the courses....He Rides a Moto Morini too, so I think we will hit it off..:biggrin:

The only date left for the weekday classroom session is now Wed 14th September.
That is from 19.00 to 21.30.
The riding assesment is for Sun 25th september at 0900 to 1400.

This clashes with the wonderful Reepham classic show in the Market place, so I have asked to see if there is any chance of an alternative to that..Otherwise we will just have to do a late cameo at the show...Or perhaps I could wangle a blues and twos escort into the show...:chuckle:

[RossObey01]

Unfortunately I'm not in the country Sept/Oct, so won't be able to make it.

If it comes up again, please let me know!

[Grumpy]

I've just had an instant reply from the very jocular sounding organiser of the courses....He Rides a Moto Morini too, so I think we will hit it off..:biggrin:

The only date left for the weekday classroom session is now Wed 14th September.
That is from 19.00 to 21.30.
The riding assesment is for Sun 25th september at 0900 to 1400.

This clashes with the wonderful Reepham classic show in the Market place, so I have asked to see if there is any chance of an alternative to that..Otherwise we will just have to do a late cameo at the show...Or perhaps I could wangle a blues and twos escort into the show...:chuckle:

We could ask for the assessment to finish in Reepham!

[Mr Gazza]

The very nice Andy Micklethwaite who runs these courses, has managed to move my road session to the 17th...So problem solved.

Not sure if that date would be available to subsequent applicants or if only 25th available?

He also informs me that there are only 7 places left this year and that he is hoping to fill these on friday at an Police event at Whitwell....Looks like we got in at the last minute for this year.!

So if you are thinking of going on one of these very interesting courses, please send a completed form before Friday.

[Mr Gazza]

Having had some lengthy email chats with Andy since my initial contact sending my application. I nipped round the corner to Whitwell this evening, to meet him in person, along with many of his Police colleagues and training partners.
The Blood bikes were also there and I ran into one of my old AJS & Matchless owners Club buddies, who now happens to be the Chairman of the local Blood Bike Group.

I'm starting to feel a little like I'm joining a new club, Though I'm not too sure the uniform would suit me...And all that horrid reflective gear!!

They are a seriously nice bunch of ladies and gentlemen and I'm looking forward to starting on a new learning curve after 41 years of riding...The 5 hours of riding in close company with a Police Motorcyclist is beginning to sound very interesting indeed.

New folk interested in the courses were rolling up all the time I chatted with the Boys in Blue and at least one more signed up.
Applications will soon be closed for this year but there might still be a couple of places if you hurry...And I urge you to do so.

PM me your email address for an application form...I will happily oblige...:biggrin:

[Dirty]

I can say even with the strict adherence to the speed limit it was still a good days fun

[Mr Gazza]

I did my assessed ride with a Police motorcyclist this morning.
I must say I was bricking it, as I nearly got spat off on a bit of lube at a roundabout before I even got to the start. It was wet and very greasy all morning!

I had nearly twice as many years riding experience than the Police rider and my fellow "pupil" put together, but I learned a lot.

Old things need a bit of a polish sometimes, and putting their teachings into practise with some very useful hints along the way has made my riding so much more enjoyable through the course of the morning.
I found out that an M900Sie out accelerates a fully laden police bike very decisively and was described as a nice progressive rider.. :D

This carries a very high feel good factor and I will be doing more of the same next year. I will also be on your collective cases to join in...Watch this space... :thumbsup:

[StevieL]

Nice one Gary pity this coincided with my annual excursion to Cyprus which is fast coming to an end just a week doing a few Greek islands left, sail from Limmasol on Monday for Thessalonica, Leros, Skiathos, Simi, Milos and Rhodes then back to reality 36C is probably bad for the complexion anyway............... atb Steve

[Mr Gazza]

Following on from the course I did in September, I have just spent most of the morning hooning around Norfolk's finest, in the company of the County Road Safety Officer(Motorcycles), Andy Micklethwaite.

It was a 1:2:1 session otherwise known as "Hugger's Challenge".
Billed as a 90 minute session, we were actually out for 3 hours on some splendid roads.
Frequent pitstops are filled with constructive critique of my riding and then off again to try and put his tips into practice. Any questions I had were happily answered and he even treated me to a posh coffee at half time.

Interesting to find much better alternatives to my self styled "self preservation" techniques, developed over the last 42 years. I've never had the benefit of any post test training before (Nor pre-test come to think of it)...It's never too late (if you have survived!), but don't leave it as long as I have.

I will be posting up details of the Safe Rider courses next spring, but you can still do a 1:2:1 session this year in the next few weeks to come, while the weather holds.

Call Andy on 01603 638115 (Say you know Gary from the Monster club and he will tell you I ride like a plonker..:chuckle:)

http://www.think.norfolk.gov.uk/motorcyclists/training/safe-rider-scheme