The start of my Advanced Motorbike training

[@BriKinsella]

Well done Gav 👍🏼

[@jonchilds1637]

Brilliant stuff and SO familiar!! I had the same thing about getting into higher gears (in fact it almost led to me quitting the course!) but we found a compromise and I confidently expect the benefits to creep up on you unexpectedly as they did with me. My thing was that my FJR is more than happy to poodle around at 1300-1500rpm in town and will get up and go from any speed in any gear BUT I had a problem with downhill control which the lower gear thing fixed easily. Slow speed stuff is worth practising any time you come across and empty car park, Just select two reference points and aim to get tighter and tighter between them without getting into difficulty. Dragging the back brake really helps. I think you might surprise yourself - I went from nowhere to a Gold pass in around a year - once you get the bug, who knows? Great to see you enjoying your riding!!

[@GavCritchley]

Thank you Jon!

[@marcusrichardson3472]

This is great. Any kind of further training is a very good thing for motorcyclists. There’s so much to consider - road positioning, machine control, confidence on the one hand, bad habits, over confidence on the other. I’ll follow your progress as keen to do either ROSPA or IAM but not sure which one would suit me better. Cheers

[@GavCritchley]

@@marcusrichardson3472 Marcus, both are very similar and use the police Roadcraft manual as a basic text. However there seems to be no firm delineation about the ‘style’ between the two groups. All my research, and all the comments I’ve had, suggest that a local IAM group in one area will have a very distinctive style compared to another IAM group in the next city. Same goes for ROSPA too. It’s all down to the local group, its riders, and their approach.

[@ColonelBandit]

Regrettably you have been misinformed about how IAM Roadsmart conducts advanced training - it is 1-2-1 with an Observer just like ROSPA

[@GavCritchley]

And is it based on Roadcraft too?

[@daveshakespeare1610]

Yes

[@MarkKenworthy-d2d]

What about common sense ? It just cant be taught.

[@GavCritchley]

I think you can get a lot from people sharing their experience and expertise.