I’ve seen the topic about CTBs and DAS in North London, but was wondering if anyone has done the IAM/Skills for Life test? Or anyone doing it now. Is it worth it?
The London IAM website seems a bit out of date - http://www.l-a-m.org/ - but of course this doesn’t have to mean anything.
I did the package and past the test a couple of years ago and yes it is well worth it.
Bikes as we all know can be a dangerous occupation especially with the amount of prats in tin boxes these days and you survive on instinct and training alone, your levels of observation will increase 10 fold and you will feel much safer and more confident on the road aswell as making much better progress.
Worth every single penny - the observed runs you do are worth their weight in gold - and it’s a really nice feeling when you get your green badge and call yourself and advanced rider
Well worth it, I’m currently working towards my test with LAM http://l-a-m.org/ . I wasn’t sure about it so turned up on one of their pot-luck days at Banstead for a free assessment. I was convinced just by the results of the assessment and the friendly helpful peole there to carry on. Worth every penny in my book.
I’m a member of the London advanced group (amongst others)… and yes: the groups web site is VERY much out of date…
there are a lot of pluses for being a member… the advice you get on riding is very good… the group does do various other training sessions for people that join…
for instance: there are a group going up to norfolk this friday for three days of training… the group size is about 30 - so, at the evening meals at the pub are always a good social event to… (and both food and drink are pretty cheap to)
London advanced have two monthly meets for people interested in joining - one is in banstead on the first sunday of every month, starting at 9:30am. The other is at bishop justas school in bromley and is on the third saturday of every month starting at 10.
other training events include things like machine control days - the exercises on this day are something like you’d want - if you were starting out to get your bike license again (the new test has quite a big test circuit that you have to go around, that includes slalom, figure of eight and collisopn avoidance parts to it…) - this day is open to all L.A.M. members…
in order to keep up the skill learnt during training, the group now holds a ‘second sunday’ rides, the start point of these varies in location, and although I havent been on one of them (yet) i’m told that a: they last most of the day and b: they are ALL very good fun, (usually stopping at a pub for lunch half way…)
there are also trips abroad that folk organise…
the other pluses for being a member - well I got £100 knocked off my insurance for it… as with this web site, there are also a lot of very knowledge-able folk that are members of L.A.M to. There are also various social meets (although not on the scale of the london bikers group…)
if anyone wants any specific info, give me a shout and if I dont know i’ll try and find out for you… (I’ll also be at the borough meet tonite: if any wants to ask a question…)
For the out-of-towners, there’s Wey Valley AM who meet in Ripley (surrey) http://www.wvam.org.uk/ . I think fridayman’s a member there but I haven’t seen him posting recently, maybe he’s just been out on his bike a lot.
I’ll be going along on the first Sunday of the month as I missed their open evening (last Tuesday of the month). If that bikesafe thing was anything to go by as a taster it’ll be very well worth the expense, and if it can save me money on my insurance it’ll be doubly worth it. And if the knowledge I can pick up helps me avoid a nasty particularly during the dangerous phase of fairly recently passed, it’ll be trebly worth it…
there are other advanced tests available: i’m told that the ROSPA ‘Gold’ test pass is the highest civilian test award given for motorcycling…
I’m not sure of the set up with ROSPA, I know a fair few of the London advanced group have done the ROSPA test, (after they have done the IAM test), but I think the training for it is different than that from the IAM… the other thing about ROSPA is that you have to re-take the test every three years…
Seems like there isn’t really a North London group. On top of the £85 for the 1 year membership including the IAM test comes the contribution for the observer per ride.
Just in case anyone else is interested in the London groups; here they are:
Hey there I’m a member of the Hertfordshire group - http://www.hbam.org.uk/ - really nice bunch of guys and good observers - and of course the roads round here are top.