New CDROM e-book from Survival Skills: “Mistakes We Make”

NEW FROM SURVIVAL SKILLS: new e-book!

“Survival Skills – Mistakes We Make” is
a new e-book on CDROM that looks at real riding  problems. Taking a
realistic angle, we can see how mistakes happen, how we can avoid them,
and perhaps most importantly, how we can get out of trouble if we’ve
already made the error! The content is based on actual questions asked
me by real riders.

Pre-order now for Xmas delivery!

Special TRC pre-order price £10 until 24 December 2008!

GIFT VOUCHERS: looking for a special gift for someone special?

Show
them you care with our professionally printed Survival Skills Gift
Voucher! Our gift vouchers make an ideal present for all riders at any
time of the year. From £20 to… well, up to you!!

Buy now and SAVE up to £20.00

Into November…

As the clocks go back, there’s still a chance of good riding weather into November, but it’s a bit more hit and miss, so until I shut down for the winter in mid-December, I operate a late booking system based on the latest weather forecasts for Kent. I have availability on the following dates:

Mon 27 October
Tue 28
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 31
Sat 1 November
Sun 2
Mon 3
Tue 4
Wed 5
Thu 6
Fri 7
Sat 8
Sun 9
Mon 10
Tue 11
Wed 12
Thu 13
Fri 14
Sat 15
Sun 16

More dates available later in November…

email me for full details!

Riding in low sun

We’re at that time of year again when many of us will be riding in early morning or late evening sun.

When you are riding INTO the evening sun sun you know how difficult it can be to see ahead – oncoming cars are difficult to pick up, junctions vanish in the glare, brake lights and indicators can’t be seen. So spend extra time looking for warning signs and read the road ahead to predict what might happen and give yourself a bit of extra room to deal with it if it does.

When you are riding in shadow and round a bend or over a crest where you can see sun streaming across the road, expect to be temporarily dazzled – slow down! Watch out where the roads are wet too – the effect of low sun reflecting off the road is quite blinding.

Don’t forget that if you need to turn or brake the car behind might not see your brake lights or indicators – an arm signal can work wonders here.

Think about the issues if the car ahead of you slows or stops, its own lights might be difficult to see. Even if you spot what’s happening, will the vehicle behind see what’s going on?

In both cases, certainly watch the mirrors, keep a distance from the vehicle in front to allow you to signal in plenty of time and slow gradually, and consider your escape route.

It’s also a good idea to think about the difficulties of other road users when you ride OUT of the low sun! You might be able to see the way ahead perfectly, but don’t forget everyone coming the other way will be blinded by the light, particularly where they are coming out of shadow!

The clue to you is the long shadow stretching directly ahead of you.

Other drivers WILL have difficulty seeing you – so don’t put yourself in dangerous situations where you rely on other drivers to see you and how no way out for yourself.

In particular, be very careful about doing what I saw a whole string of bikes doing recently – overtaking at high speed down the middle of two lanes of single carriageway traffic travelling in opposite directions. 

The bikes were heading towards me at 70 or 80mph me with the sun on the horizon directly behind them and they totally invisible until they were just a couple of car lengths ahead – it only needed one car going my way to swing out to the white line to try to see ahead and at a combined closing speed of around 140mph at least one of them would have been history!

Escape Routes – what are they and do we need them?

If you spend much time reading or talking about advanced riding skills, one of the concepts you’ll come across is that of an “escape route”.

First of all, a definition; escape routes are to help us deal with a situation that doesn’t pan out the way we hope it will, by keeping in mind an alternative plan – that could be a route out of trouble such as an alternative line around a bend, it could be the option to stay out of the “killing zone” where we come into conflict with another driver by swerving or doing an an emergency stop at a junction.

Of course, in an ideal world our plan would be such that it can’t go wrong – then we wouldn’t need an escape route.

How close can we get to that ideal? Is it wishful thinking? Or a practical goal?

Like most things riding related, the more that one thinks about the issues, the more complex they become. Escape routes are no different.

It should be fairly obvious that it’s the nasty surprises that catch us out when riding, so the more unpredictable the situation, the more we need to keep an open mind for alternative options to our riding plan.

For instance, if we’re heading round a corner on a wide, well surfaced road with little traffic and good views, at a speed where our stopping distance is well within the distance we can see is clear, we don’t need to worry about unpleasant surprises.

But… in a narrow country lane with tall banks and tight turns, we do very much need to be on our toes.

So it’s where there is a high risk of things going wrong at short notice that we need to think “what are we going to do if it all goes pear-shaped?”

But that in turn pre-supposes two things:

• we first of all recognise the hazards we’re facing and the risk attached to it. For instance, consider that narrow lane; hardly anyone realises that if it’s a single track lane it’s no use being able to “stop in the distance you can see is clear”, BOTH vehicles need to be able to stop in HALF the distance they can see is clear. So simply thinking “if something comes the other way, I’ll brake when I’ll see it” isn’t a good enough escape route to deal with the problem.
• the escape route plan has to be ready and waiting at the front of our mind. If it’s not, we’ll never pull the rabbit out of the hat when we need it [which is one reason I continually push the idea of 'planning for disaster' as a way of riding - some people think it's a negative and gloomy way of looking at riding, but in reality when the bad things happen I just accept it, and if they don't I'm pleasantly surprised].

Secondly, I think we also have to look at the effectiveness of any escape route – the chances of it actually being available when we need it, and actually working!

Can we actually guarantee that? Back to understanding how to do a risk assessment of the hazards we’re facing, as that would give us an idea. Take the change of line to negotiate a hazard in a bend – what if the road is completely blocked? It won’t be enough – we’ll need to stop! What about a car pulling out from a junction in front of us – can we swerve if there’s a car coming the other way, can we stop if there’s a car close behind?

Escape routes are inextricably bound up with risk, and though they may give us a good chance of playing our ‘get out of jail card’, there’s almost always a point where we are nevertheless committed. We HAVE to negotiate a junction, we HAVE to go round a bend – sure we can moderate speed and lean angle, change position, open up lines of sight and plan how to get out of trouble, but ultimately there’s always going to be some situation we can’t avoid – how about finding a car overtaking in the middle of a blind bend? Would you, indeed COULD you have planned for that? There aren’t that many escape routes available in the middle of an overtake that goes wrong.

So it may actually be a better idea to take a step further back and looking to see if there is an alternative that avoids the need for escape routes altogether, or at least reduces our reliance on them.

Some months ago, someone on one of the forums was talking about the risks of turning right from the middle of a left hand bend, and asking what he could do to avoid being hit from behind. There were lots of useful answers along the lines of signalling nice and early, making sure he showed a brake light, using arm signals whilst slowing, staying in gear when stopped and watching the mirrors, keeping well to the right, all based around how to protect himself whilst stopped in the dangerous position on the curve.

One short question later and I’d determined that if he went 400 metres further up the road, he could take an alternate right turn that was far more visible from behind! Sorted!

Similarly, we DON’T have to overtake everything that’s moving (it’ll just take us longer to get where we’re going), we DON’T
have to follow inside our stopping distance.

And that narrow lane I mentioned earlier – rather than risk the driver coming the other way being unable to stop (even though we might be able to), why not look and see if there’s an easier route, even if it’s a bit longer?

The reality is that escape routes should be part of the usual constant process of re-evaluation of what’s going on; as the situation changes, some avenues open to us close, others may open.

But if they all start to look complex or even close altogether then we need to re-evaluate the situation we’re committing ourselves in to.

What I’m trying to say is that the less we need to rely on escape routes, the better! And there are certain circumstances where relying on an escape route seems riskier than others.

Motorbikebuddy.com

To quote from the press release:

“Motorbike Buddy is the new home of motorcycling.  The site is a free social network website for serious motorcyclists who want to meet other bikers and organise events, ride outs, tours and track days.”

It’s quite attractive in design and layout, with the option to build a profile which allows others to see what kind of riding you’re into.

The site’s new, and a bit skeletal at the moment, but in the next few days the management plan to launch a forum, which should add a bit more life.

Check it out if you are looking for riding buddies.

Motorcycle Training by e-learning – courses now available

I’ve got through my really busy time for on-road training and can now take some people on the e-course.

If you’re interested and you haven’t already done so, you can find more information at:
http://survivalskills.backpackit.com/pub/688691?

This is the home page of Survival Skills on the interactive Backpack, and the information on that page should hopefully answer many of your questions. There’s some more information for you to read below.

Survival Skills to launch e-learning course in advanced riding skills!
———————————————————————————-

* I’m sure that the majority of people reading that are already thinking with some disbelief “how can you train someone to ride a bike by e-mail?” and it’s a reasonable question.

There is actually a very reasonable answer too. Let’s look at what a practical course covers – there are a number of elements in the way I cover each part of advanced riding technique. We discuss a topic of riding technique, so that first of all, we cover the theory. When we’ve done that, we go out on the road with the trainee to a place where we can find examples of hazards that illustrate the theory of the topic we’ve just discussed, look at them, understand them in the context of safe riding and if necessary I can demonstrate what I mean.

The balance of time on each topic is spent observing the trainee deal with the hazard using the techniques outlined in the theory, followed by correction if necessary, and assessment by me as to whether the exercise has been successfully completed.

With nearly every topic I cover, that general formula is repeated.

* So you might well ask “how can that be translated to online learning?”

Well, actually surprisingly well. E-learning has taken off in a big way in the field of education generally, and many practical subjects that many would have thought quite impossible to teach in this way are now done routinely via the internet – open heart surgery for instance has been demonstrated to students via the internet. It’s particularly useful where there the people who want to learn new skills are a long way from a potential tutor. With new developments in interactive learning environments online, it’s now technically possible to support e-learning.

* Another question that has been asked is “what experience Survival Skills has in e-learning and how can I be sure that I’ll be getting a well-designed course?”

For the last 12 years as well as being a full time motorcycle instructor, I’ve also been engaged in informal coaching of riders via the intenet, being first of all an active member of the Compuserve Ride forum, and for the last seven years as moderator of the Survival Skills section on Visordown.com, more recently as a contributor on TheRevCounter.com, as well as directly through the Survival Skills website, where typically I answer four or five emails a week on riding issues.

The result is that I’ve built up a huge database of information about the problems that riders face and the solutions that work for them, along with considerable experience of delivering those solutions without any face-to-face contact. I seriously doubt there are more than one or two other instructors in the country with the experience I have of online coaching.

Much of this information has found its way into the Survival Skills series of CDROMs, which have been well received by those who have bought them.

So I’ve decided to put that information to good use by offering formal online training. The only real difference from what I’ve been doing will be that the advice to be offered will be “proactive” rather than “reactive”. In other words, rather than you contact me asking me to try to fix an existing problem, the online course will tell you how to avoid it in the first place.

And to ensure the program that I have put together for delivering these e-courses is realistic and effective, I’ve successfully completed a level 3 NVQ as an “e-tutor” with
Sheffield College.

* So, I hear you asking another question. “Why should I pay for this advice when I can get it for free online anyway, or couldn’t I just buy the CDROMs?”

Well, the answer quite simply is that with structured coaching, however it is delivered (online or face-to-face), three of the most common statements I hear are:

“I never realised…”
“I never thought…”
“I never knew…”

Many riders are simply unaware of how much their riding could be improved by learning new techniques. Just like trying to learn to ride as you go along, if you try to learn by picking up bits of random advice from the internet, it’ll take you years to get better, and there are pitfalls a-plenty along the way to trap you, the consequences of which are often painful and nearly always expensive. I know that from personal experience!

And you’re right – if you buy the Survival Skills “Course Notes” CDROM, what you’ll get is a structured “rider improvement” program.

The extra that you get with the Survival Skills e-learning course is a series of exercises designed to make you think about the content of the CDROM, 1:1 support and personalised feedback on your development. You’ll be set tasks to complete, have access to training resources I’ve put together and be able engage in real-time chat with myself and other trainees.

* “So who is it aimed at?”

The course will cover most aspects of the Survival Skills two day advanced riding course, so is suitable for any rider who want’s to find out about advanced riding skills. Whilst you don’t actually need a motorcycle or indeed any riding qualifications at all, you’ll get the most out of this course is you have basic riding skills and a motorcycle to try out some of the more practical aspects of the course.

* “OK, so assuming I can get a good training course from Survival Skill online, what advantages are there for me?”

The answer to that there are quite a few:

 1) flexibility – learn at your own pace and when you want to
 2) expert, personal advice – your tutor is focused on your individual needs
 3) communication – be put in touch with a wide body of learning and information resources available on the internet
 4) easy access – if you can access the internet, you can access the course anywhere you happen to be

In particular, don’t discount the ability to learn in your own time at your own pace. When you come to me for face to face training, I have a timetable that I have to (more or less) adhere to and there is quite a lot to take in – like any training course, it would be great to double the length to make everything more relaxed, but it’s doubtful that you, the trainee, would appreciate the doubled cost and I can’t afford to work for half the money! This isn’t an issue with e-learning – you can devote more of your time to a topic before we move onto the next.

* But I’m not a “techie” person?

You don’t need to be. Other than basic typing skills, you will need an internet connection, some basic experience using the internet, a FLASH and Shockwave-capable web browser, access to email, a basic digital camera for snapping photos to upload as part of the exercises, approximately 4 hours a week for two months and the enthusiasm to try a new way of learning about riding.

* “OK, I’m nearly sold but what will it cost?”

The online equivalent of the two day Survival Skills advanced course will cost  £150, and at the end you’ll get a free copy of the “Course Notes” CDROM to act as an aide-memoire to the course.

E-mail (naturally!) Survival Skills at survivalskills@clara.net for more details!

DSA cancel the new format bike test – but hang onto the new fees!

As I think just about everyone now knows, the Driving Standards Agency proposed to introduce the new, EU inspired bike test with new off-road elements at the end of September.

The DSA added a hefty premium – from £60 to £80 – to cover the cost of implementing the longer bike test incorporating the new off-road element.

Needless to say, although the fiasco of the lack of centres capable of staging the test led to the delay in implementing the new style test for six months – it won’t now come into operation until March – they didn’t postpone the rise in fees!

Hopefully, the lobbying groups in the bike industry will get onto this too, and insist that the price rise is reversed and anyone who’s paid the higher fee and taken the ordinary test is re-imbursed the difference.

Whilst I’m on the subject of the new test, the point that the “supercentres” are far more widely spaced than the old test centres has been made repeatedly.

As far as I know, up to this point critics have focused entirely on the risk to trainees posed by the long journey times, and the consequent early starts and late finishes which could make for some seriously unpleasant rides in the winter.

A point that has been missed, as far as I know, is that the DSA from time to time have to cancelling tests, and not always at the last minute either. But with the extended rides that many trainees will now have to make to reach the test centres, it’s going to cause a lot of unnecessary grief.

On occasion, the cancellations are for very valid weather reasons, for instance when there is snow and ice, or strong winds to make riding conditions dangerous.

Sometimes the examiner may be sick, or there might be some other problem – I had all the tests cancelled one day after an unauthorised parker managed to reverse into the examiner’s bike, knocking it over.

I’d say at a guess that in a summer of instructing, with perhaps 10 or 12 tests a month being done, 1 in 20 or 25 would be cancelled.

That may not sound many, but it adds up. Whatever the reason, for trainee and school, it’ll mean many more wasted hours – the trainee will have to take another day off work, and the instructor will have to escort the trainee to the school without the school earning any more cash for the extra day’s work.

And I can’t see the instructor wanting to do the day’s work for nothing.

On top of that, there’ll be all the wear and tear on the bike, not to mention fuel burned unnecessarily which is hardly environmentally friendly, something the DSA are keen to promote at the moment.

I doubt we can expect the DSA to start offering compensation but they could perhaps improve the means of notifying trainees and schools about cancellations – it shouldn’t be impossible to set up a system that automatically texts the person due to sit the test, hopefully in time to prevent a wasted journey to the test centre.

It won’t be possible to catch all the cancellations – like the damaged bike I mentioned above – but where the DSA know in good time that they can’t run the test, it would help enormously.