GoByBike Rider Assessment
Added on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
GoByBike Rider Assessment
Having a day’s ride with a qualified riding instructor can make you plan your riding better, anticipate dangerous situations, ride smoother and stay alive. Virtual Vic persuaded insidebikes Alastair Walker that he could use a day out to brush up his rusty skills.
The first thing which surprised me about meeting Bob Pinder from GoByBike - based near Andover in Hampshire - was that he was riding a Honda Fireblade.
Yep, I know most of you reading this would have expected the instructor to be riding a Pan-European - me too - but not everyone who teaches advanced biking likes big heavy touring machines.
“I like all kinds of bikes.” says Bob, who has raced bikes, ridden street machines and even competed in events like the Roof of Africa off-road rally, as well as offering tuition to many different riders, some leisure bikers, others professional motorcycle users on two wheels for work reasons.
Firstly, we met up with Jeanette, who was also joining us on her Suzuki GSX600. Over a coffee Bob asked us both about our riding history, our strengths and weaknesses and told us to ask about anything in particular we didn’t understand from the pre-ride paperwork he had posted out to us both. Then we got plenty of warm kit on and checked over the bikes, as it was February outside and about 3 degrees Celsius…ooh, shiver me shock absorbers matey.
“One of the things I stress is the pre-ride check,” explained Bob, “because unlike a car, a motorcycle can be vulnerable to having an accident due to a relatively minor fault - like a slow puncture for example. Also, if something like your brake light bulb has blown that could cause a serious collision, so it’s always good to know that you - and your bike - are 100% ready for the ride.”
For the first 40 miles or so, Bob followed Jeanette and talked to her over his walkie-talkie type radio. Jeanette couldn’t answer back, but was getting a steady stream of tips and advice on the ride as it unfolded and later commented that she soon got used to Bob chatting away in her lughole.
We took a circular route around Hampshire and Dorset, which covered some 120 miles in total, which I reckon is about the right distance for one day, with stops for drinks, fuel and of course lunch. After a very decent sausage and onion baguette in the pub, Bob wired up my helmet with the radio kit and I set off to get us back from Dorchester to Southampton.
What was immediately obvious from the radio comments was how much Bob was seeing ahead - in terms of potential hazards - compared to what I was noticing, whilst bumbling through traffic. Also, Bob also uses the `track one, track two’ method of riding, which basically means you choose one wheel track to ride along, on the left side of the carriageway.
” I always advise that approach,” says Bob, ” mainly for the simple reason that there’s less chance of hitting debris, or picking up a nail in your tyre, by using the same patch of tarmac that the four wheeled vehicles are `clearing’ for you.”
Good point and I’d never really thought about it before.
The other benefit is that you take a constant radius around bends of course, making sure you maintain the maximum visibility. Now that was something I struggled with all afternoon, as a few trackdays and some road racing have made me all too willing to use as much of the carriageway as I can.
I also found that at low speeds - especially in town - I tended to ride on autopilot, checking my speedo half the time, neglecting my mirrors and not thinking about where the bike is on the road. Bob recommends `sweeping’ your mirrors about once every 7-10 seconds, especially in town.
All those things are precisely the kind of points which Bob picks up on, via the radio commentary, then he suggests better riding habits. Things like treating petrol stations, or car driveways as junctions for example - you never know what might pop out from them, or whether a vehicle may suddenly makes a turn in. Another good one is being wary of delivery vans from outside the area - the driver’s may well be looking at street signs, or shop names, rather than the reading the road ahead.
At the end of the ride-out, which incidentally took us along some beautiful roads near the South Coast, back over the Hythe ferry, we were tired, freezing and still in one piece with no `near-misses’ to report. All good stuff, but also time to de-brief over another hot drink.
Jeanette reckoned the day was `great fun’ and she had learned many new things;
” I didn’t know that traffic joining on a motorway slip road was obliged to give way to traffic on the motorway - I thought both lanes had to sort of filter each other.” She commented, which was something I assumed happened too - should probably re-read my 1977 copy of the Highway Code eh?
But as Bob noted from our return through Southampton’s ring road; ” Being in the right, according to the Highway Code is good, being assertive with your road positioning, your attitude is also good, but never get confrontational on the bike - stay calm - as you will always come off worst, regardless of whose fault the incident was.”
Indeed that was one thing I noticed on the day - many local drivers etc tended to be more aggressive, keener to crack on to their destination, than oop North where I live. In particular, there are too many `white van man’ characters on the roads, shoving and bullying traffic along whenever they can.
But I was pleased to receive my assessment a few days later, as Bob noted in my own assessment, ” Your basic skills are good, your attitude to other road users is very good. But your positioning of the bike needs watching, as does your tendency to creep over the speed limit.
Otherwise, learn to plan your riding a bit more and especially avoid traveling three vehicles abreast on motorways - if anything goes wrong and one vehicle changes lanes, it leaves very little time, or room, for you to evade trouble.”
In the end, I was happy to have had someone else look at my biking skills, even after 30 years on two wheels, because I think that when you `switch off’ learning you do put yourself that bit closer to having a crash.
I would say to anyone who has come back to biking after a few years off them, or just bought their first really big bike, have a serious think about getting tuition, because there’s lots to learn beyond the basics needed to pass CBT or the Direct Access licence course.
There’s so much traffic on the roads now, plus many illegal drivers, uninsured drivers, not to mention endless roadworks, that you need to stay on the ball to ride reasonably fast, smooth and safe. Good day out, cheers Bob.
