Well the long anticipated day has arrived and departed. Booked the day about 1 1/2 months ago.
First off, the place is fun to find if you don’t know that neck of the woods, quite literally! Good that that I left early to arrive in good time.
I took my full license in March, so that gives me a mere 5 months experience on my FJ1200. I have been riding for 7 months longer though on a moped and a 125. I was paired with another rider who took his license in March as well and he was on an immaculate GS500 with a nice flip screen. Neale was our police escort.
The morning consisted of some bimbling around more urban areas, with a bit of traffic tailbacks. Unfortunately the other rider was not happy with filtering and so we had to play at being cars, even with heaps of space for filtering past. Due to the lack on confidence in filtering we headed out into some country lanes and had a slightly faster ride. When leading I was able to keep a decent enough pace at between 55-65 depending on the road type etc… When following the other rider we barely touched 50mph tops. It was a bit frustrating at times as the roads were really lovely. 
The lunch break was at the Spitfire Tea Room and was filling. I was given tips on better cornering lines which helped corners to flow better and gave a much better approach to and exit from corners. The slow in fast out technique was really helpful and made the corners smooth and fun.
I lead the first half of the ride up to Biggin Hill was great fun and I managed to get a good “cadence” for the corners. They followed each other smoothly enough and I was a lot more confident as a result. I even ended up scraping the foot peg on one lovely long sweeping right hander!
I probably did not go over 55-60, but it felt a lot quicker as I’ve not been on these roads before!
There was no way I could leave Neale behind though! J We got separated at one stage as I had executed some clean overtakes only to find that the others were about 8 cars behind and taking a different junction. So it was U-turn and a quick blat back to where the instructor was waiting. We then made swift progress to catch up with the other rider with me riding close to my limit, but relaxed, in keeping up with Neale.
When the other rider took the lead again, it was back to 50 tops and no overtakes or filtering. He did overtake one car, but on the approach to a blind corner, so I decided to hang back, which was a good idea as we came around the corner to find a church which had lots of people arriving for a wedding and doing the lemming thing across the road. To be honest, he was perhaps a bit slow, but was safe enough. He just would have been safer if he was just a bit quicker, in my own opinion of course.
All in all it was fun, a good day out and fabulous weather! A nice cool breeze and nice dry roads. I would recommend BikeSafe as a taster for further training and to become acquainted with our Motorcycle police force. They were all very nice blokes and lady (Katrina!). Neale said that I had a natural feel for riding and that was a real boost for my confidence. I am going to be looking at doing further training and will see what I can afford and what will give me a better edge. Oh yes, the BikeSafe course means that my insurance are sending me a £10 cheque as I get a further discount!! Lovely or what!
