Riding skills

[pdedse]

A few random thoughts on this subject:-

I think one of the most important aspects of our riding is being totally honest with oneself regarding our abilities. To be fair, I'm reading a lot that suggests many here are doing just that.

On a connected note, during training I was taught to continually assess my riding. Evaluate what went well and what I could have done better.

I get particularly dismayed with myself should I not see a situation (hazard) soon enough when I had the opportunity. Such occasions are fortunately not too frequent but are very powerful reminders to myself that I must do better if I am to actively manage my own on road safety sufficiently.

Having undertaken advance driver/rider training here in the UK both in car and on bike, with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and RoSPA, two safety focussed organisations, I find I have developed a riding style that is smooth and safe whilst still making progress. However, it seems to me, these courses have had an unexpected consequence. Despite what I said earlier regarding lapses of observation, I am reasonably proficient in hazard perception, decision making, planning, positioning, travelling at legal speeds etc etc. But....... because of these risk minimising factors, I never seem to need to brake hard or abruptly change course to avoid a sticky situation. I have surely become deskilled in these essential elements of machine control! Not so when I was a kid blasting around the local highways and byways. Then it was all part of the thrill of motorcycle ownership. But now, do I have the ability to safely carry out an emergency braking manoeuvre? Or deftly change course in an instant? I very much doubt it! My thanks to Gecko for his post which reminds me I still need to practice the contingencies for when it all goes bad. It is probably a good time for me to get some suitable professional instruction/training to get me sharp again.

Can never have too much rider training.

Once a year it seems, I'm thinking of "whatever" and suddenly I notice a car coming from the opposite direction, with it's left turn signal on...and it slightly begins its turn, and then pauses because the driver see me. This bothers me, because I realize I could have noticed the car a lot sooner. I immediately say a silent "thank-you, kind, more-attentive-than-me driver" and will give a quick salute or wave in appreciation.

And then I realize, my motorcycling days could easily have ended right there a few seconds ago, I put my life in another driver's hands...which may very well have been texting!

The following scenario has repeated itself several times for me over the years: There are two lanes each way, with a shared center lane specificly used for turning left. I'm in the far right lane with a slow-moving car in front of me. I am behind this car, so it's difficult for an on-coming car in the middle turn lane to readily see me. I switch lanes from the far right to the open lane to my left, and that's when I see the on-coming car beginning to turn left in front of both me and the slow-moving car now on my right...except I've sped up and am not slow-moving.

I've become a lot more careful with overtaking a slow moving car in city traffic, but the above happened again just last week. This time, the on-coming driver wasn't in a hurry, patiently waiting for me and the slow-moving car to go by, so said driver could turn.

I wasn't going all that fast and I think I would have been able to stop if the driver had turned.

Still...."Thank-you, kind driver, for not being in a hurry today!"