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 Chapeltown 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 soon 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.

Johnny Boy

Just after 1130 we made our way out to the bikes and our documents where checked and I was paired up with a nice chap on his VFR.  we road out to hope and had a cuppa and some breakfast and a chat about our ride out where we could make improvements etc then out we went again on some more great roads.  Try to take in what the Officer had told us might help our riding we where making much better and smoother progress around the roads.  by the end of the day we had covered around 130 miles on back roads and had a big smile on my face.  Once back at the Police Headquarters at Catcliff we where debriefed and Certificates where handed out along with a bag of goodies and T-Shirt.  If anyone is think about taking a Bikesafe course I can Fully recommend it,  The advise the officer gives you really does make you ride better if you take it in.  I started out the day using breaks on corners by the end of the day I was taking them faster and smoother without applying my breaks hardly at all, combined with the knowledge of better lines / Views whilst on the bike.   I feel that my riding has improves x10,  so don't think anymore about it go BOOK IT.

I would like to thank All the officers on the day for coming in, on there day off to help make South Yorkshire bikers ride better and safer.  THANK YOU!!!

Paul Gbel