Bike Safe

---

Once again I was up early taking “Chet”, my German Shepherd Dog out for a walk before I headed off for the day on the bike. Today was the Bike Safe course that I’d booked onto quite a while since and something that I’d been looking forward to. The course was run by the South Yorkshire Police and was to commence at 8-am sharp from the SY police workshops at Chapletown near Sheffield and was to finish at 5-pm later that day at the operations centre at Catcliffe, Sheffield, the place where the Egg Run started from a couple of months since.

I was one of the first to arrive with the others students and police motorcyclists arriving soon after me including one officer on new police Honda Fireblade. The theory lasted about 2-hours and gave a very good explanation of the Physics and the Theory of motorcycling. Soon it became time to head out on the road and we were all allocated a police motorcyclist as an observer on a 2 to 1 basis. I was paired with a guy buy the name of Dave and our observer was Sgt Graham Sayner.

Graham firstly checked our document, MOT, Insurance and Driving Licence then briefed us on riding etiquette i.e. the rider being observed with Graham in the middle and third man at the rear, and the route we were taking up to lunch. Dave seemed happy to take the first leg of the journey leaving me at the rear. I don’t know how long we rode before our first stop because I was busy trying to put the theory into practice, but Graham pulled us into a lay-by for some constructive criticism before putting me into the lead up to our lunch stop. My concentration was intense having noted some of the comment made to Dave and I was gripping the bars so hard that son pins and needles set into my hands. I noted a few errors in my riding and Graham picked up on these and others that I didn’t realise I was doing but he did really highlight both Dave’s and my good points to build our confidence.

After lunch we were back on the road with Dave leading, the pace had really picked up as we’d both taken onboard Graham’s comments. Overtaking slower traffic became smoother due to better positioning and when my turn came to lead I felt more at ease with the riding in general but then it started to rain and I had already mentioned to Graham how my confidence dropped in the wet and sure enough I dropped of the pace but gradually, noting the advice I’d been given about wet weather riding I slowly got back on the pace as my confidence came back.

Back at the operations centre, Graham gave us a final debrief and completed an assessment sheet. We then had a general debrief one all the groups had returned and were handed a goodie each bag with T shirts, DVD’s and other things and also a certificate for completing the course. All in all it was a good day out and I’d like to do it again maybe in a couple of year’s time.

---

Photos

Police Honda Fireblade
Can you imagine riding one if these for your job?