13-12-11, 05:34 PM
Personally, I think any opportunity to learn anything helpful to your riding should be taken up. You can take what you think is useful to you, and leave the rest.
I rode alone for quite a long time, and never got my little bandit over 7k. The day I started riding with a motley group who shared only two things in common, one being their love of motorcycles, I really improved. Compared to me, the boys and girls all had vastly more saddle time. The bikes ranged from a fireblade to a vmax, although the smallest cc bike was mine. My mistakes (safety critical) were pointed out to me, along with helpful suggestions about how I could improve. I found that there were a few riders (both sexes) whose riding skill sets I wanted to have. After six months, I felt confident to handle a bigger and faster bike.
Speed limits were usually exceeded outside 30 zones (30 limits were never exceeded). The routes were planned and reconnoitered by one member before their turn to lead the weekly sunday rideout, and always included some nice high speed(able) sections. If you weren't into riding at speed, there wasn't any pressure to. Regular waypoints meant nobody got left behind. The route usually included a place of interest, or was to and from a coastal town, as sitting on a beach, even in winter, was a great weekly distraction from London for a lot of us. Another group also operated in the northern region.
One thing I learnt from these people, was that if you let what you thought other people may think of you, stop you from doing anything in life, then your life was going to be limited in experience. I found the comments about meaningful looks amusing. How do you define what a look means? :pokefun
I thought the major advantage of taking an IAM test/training or similar was not mentioned, in that these groups can get you a discount on your insurance. No matter how you think they look at you :lol
I rode alone for quite a long time, and never got my little bandit over 7k. The day I started riding with a motley group who shared only two things in common, one being their love of motorcycles, I really improved. Compared to me, the boys and girls all had vastly more saddle time. The bikes ranged from a fireblade to a vmax, although the smallest cc bike was mine. My mistakes (safety critical) were pointed out to me, along with helpful suggestions about how I could improve. I found that there were a few riders (both sexes) whose riding skill sets I wanted to have. After six months, I felt confident to handle a bigger and faster bike.
Speed limits were usually exceeded outside 30 zones (30 limits were never exceeded). The routes were planned and reconnoitered by one member before their turn to lead the weekly sunday rideout, and always included some nice high speed(able) sections. If you weren't into riding at speed, there wasn't any pressure to. Regular waypoints meant nobody got left behind. The route usually included a place of interest, or was to and from a coastal town, as sitting on a beach, even in winter, was a great weekly distraction from London for a lot of us. Another group also operated in the northern region.
One thing I learnt from these people, was that if you let what you thought other people may think of you, stop you from doing anything in life, then your life was going to be limited in experience. I found the comments about meaningful looks amusing. How do you define what a look means? :pokefun
I thought the major advantage of taking an IAM test/training or similar was not mentioned, in that these groups can get you a discount on your insurance. No matter how you think they look at you :lol
Head Focced