Advice pls of Adv Riding Courses

[Grendel]

I was planning to do exactly what you describe; join for a rideout and then bum off back to uni . I think it says something on the website along the lines of "everyone welcome, but please join if you like it".

I did my Advanced test with the Warrington Group, they were all very friendly and I would be surprised if any group would not let you go for a ride to see if it what you expect or not.

I think they all like to meet new people and if you pay up all the better.

Our group does a ' Chippy run' on a thursday night and a end of month social run on the last Sunday of the month.

So give the organiser a call and tag along for one of those and se how you get on

E-mailed Solent IAM and this is the answer i got:

Thank you for your mail, we do allow non members to join rides but only for one or two rides due to insurance reasons. You will only be allowed to join leisurely rides

So think I’ll go along to there pie shop run from Southampton to Reading on Saturday. Better take top box and possibly panniers to stock up on pies to return to Southampton with.


I have just found in the past with joining motorcycle groups in my area it's either i'm the youngest there being in my mid 30's or all sportsbike riders doing 0-100mph on ride outs.

[Frad]

Well done Grendel glad they work the same way as our group

Most of the regulars who do these social rides in our area ride BMW touring bikes or Pans and just like being on the bike and generally ride as fast as conditions and speed limits allow.

Enjoy and good luck

[Nareef]

IAM sounds great, well done to the recently passed My brother passed a few years ago and advised me to really get to know this bike before joining, it sounds like groups certainly vary his were very conscious of speed in that they wanted maximum all the time, if you were doing 57mph behind a car I'm a 60 then you failed making progress was their be all and end all it seemed.

The fellas that have done the IAM, I assume your experiences weren't like this?

Hmmm... Odd that, I had my first observed run yesterday and he said that the ONLY time he'd accept going over the speed limit was if you were overtaking and something unexpected happened and you had to accelerate to clear what you were overtaking...
So with that in mind I wouldn't bother overtaking a car doing 57 unless I had a long length of clear road.
Really enjoyed the observed run even in the heavy rain and wind with leaves everywhere. Safety overrules "making Progress" so we weren’t exactly hammering along!

[alpslapper]

the ONLY time he'd accept going over the speed limit was if you were overtaking and something unexpected happened and you had to accelerate to clear what you were overtaking...
So with that in mind I wouldn't bother overtaking a car doing 57 unless I had a long length of clear road.

It's always worth asking your tester when the time comes what their view is on this. Reason being, in the group I was in they has a few testers. One basically wanted you to nail every overtake and get on with it. The other, if you overtook and this required exceeding the speedlimit you failed. His attitude was you deliberatley took a manoever which you knew would force you to exceed the speedlimit, thereby deliberately breaking it. I think he used to work for the North Wales Police Always worth asking and they wont mind if you do.

[Tony Varadero]

Done the Bikesafe day yesterday Friday 13th at the Ace! Weather was was pretty bad and rained a lot but no regrets. The day was well worth attending and the guys who run the course are absolutely fantastic. Top blokes who made the day really enjoyable and usefull. Plenty of good tips and honest assessment of my riding both in traffic and in country A and B roads.
Felt really nervous riding with a police officer in my rear mirror but they were very good and came up with plenty of advice and suggestions.
All in all highly recommend it. Well worth £ 30.00!!