A fun ride...

[Grahamm]

[quote author=Grahamm link=topic=1048.msg7501#msg7501 date=1323717875]
So *WHO* exactly is putting people off joining the IAM and stopping people from getting the advanced training they could well do with...???

(Fortunately I'm willing to actually go out and *meet* these people and see what benefit I can get from joining them, rather than listen to the pontifications of "some bloke on the forums" who has as much credibility as "a bloke down the pub")

For me you've just answered your own argument with your bracketed text.

It's the preaching aspect of it that puts me (and many others) off doing it, from RoSPA and the IAM both.
I'm all for people getting extra training, but to my mind unless it's DSA approved and regulated then it is exactly what you mentioned, just a group of blokes from down the pub sharing what they've picked up.[/quote]

For me, you've just demonstrated that you're a bloke pontificating on the forums without any clue about what he's talking about.

To quote from the IAM site:

The tests use the principles of advanced driving, pioneered and applied with great success by the Metropolitan Police, and are accredited by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). All tests are taken by IAM Examiners who hold a Police Advanced Driving Certificate and have extensive experience working with Police Services throughout the UK.

Or do you think the IAM are lying?

Others go on it, think it makes them invincible and denounce all non-believers as fools.
Usually just before they redecorate a field with their fairing.

There are plenty of bikers who have redecorated the fields (or trees or cars or roadside furniture) with themselves because they think they're invincible *without* having taken any advanced training...

As a wise man once said to me, the best training you can get is putting the miles in on your machine.

Is it?

Someone who hasn't taken any other training other than passing their test might consider that the best way to take a right-hand bend is to get as close to the centre line and get their knee down. If they do it enough, they'll probably get very good at it.

The problem is that they're still in the "decapitation zone" and one day they'll do that on a blind corner, a lorry will come the other way, drift a bit wide and *splat*.

Practice is all well and good, but you have to be practicing the *RIGHT* things!

Through watching others you recognise what you're comfortable with, what is safe, what is sheer, unbridled madness (MOFF!!) and what works to keep people safe.

Sure, provided you don't kill yourself *before* you figure all that out...