One frosty November morning Devitt’s Head of Marketing, Chris Bottle and Graham Darrah both set off on two wheels for The Metropolitan Police Sports Club near Bromley in Kent to attend their first BikeSafe London Skills Day. Here Chris writes about their experience.

With Graham aboard his Aprilia RSV-R Mille and me on a Honda CBR600F, we were both slightly apprehensive about the thought of being followed and scrutinized by the police for the next six or seven hours, however the day proved to be incredibly useful and very enjoyable.

Upon arrival Graham, I and eight others were given an introductory briefing by PC Adrian Alsop and PC Ian Burchell about the timetable and what we should take away from the day.

First up were useful classroom sessions on Collision Causation Analysis, The System of Motorcycle Control and Filtering and Hazard Awareness. Then it was on to our first observed ride of the day, where we were paired up and allocated a police rider to follow. By now, the early morning frost had melted to leave a bright, dry winter’s day.

On the road

The first ride was into nearby Orpington for some town riding. I found this quite hard going as there was a myriad of hazards to avoid including pedestrians wandering aimlessly into the road, delivery vans double-parked and learner drivers doing 1mph up the high street. In a convoy of three, the Police BMW sat in the middle whilst we took turns to lead and follow.

Once complete it was back to base for a debriefing and some much needed lunch. My observer PC Ian Burchell gave some positive feedback and a few handy pointers. I particularly liked “What does it mean if a white van is indicating right? Nothing more than that the bulb works!!”

The second observed ride saw us back in our pairs for a ride down into the biker-friendly twisting ‘A’ roads of the North Kent countryside. I had been forewarned that the police observers ‘didn’t hang about’ and this proved to be the case as we stopped intermittently for feedback on techniques for reading the road and road positioning, all aimed at making swift but safe progress.

After a further hour or so it was back to Bromley for afternoon tea and debriefing. This was followed by final classroom sessions on Collision Investigation and Security. A few of the images here really brought home the reality of what can happen if you get it wrong, or fail to ride defensively to allow for mistakes by other road-users.

We rounded the day off with a certificate of attendance (which now proudly sits on my desk) and thanking the Police observers for their time and words of wisdom.

For £30 (which included our buffet lunch) it was a very worthwhile day to attend. BikeSafe is not used as an opportunity for law enforcement and the feedback is designed to help riders get the best out of their machines. The participants were spoken to by the Police Officers on a ‘biker to biker’ basis and the focus was very much on safe, enjoyable riding. Both Graham and I would recommend you put it on your ‘things to do’ list this season.

Remember

Attend a BikeSafe Rider Skills day and Devitt can offer you up to 10% off your motorcycle insurance premium (subject to conditions and acceptance criteria), because we believe it shows a commitment to further learning and training. See the BikeSafe website for further details.

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BIKESAFE EXPERIENCE

By Chris Bottle