Just joined this place today, so hello to you all!
I’ve been riding 7 years but I’ve always been nervous with faster cornering. I’m definitely happier (in terms of feeling happy with my own riding) in the middle of London than on country roads.
Can someone tell me if the advanced motorcycling tests actually teach you how to do this? Or is it just an assessment of your current skill.
One thing I’ve never liked with the DAS is that they didn’t really “teach” how to corner. As long as you could naturally do it, which is pretty easy at 10-30mph around town, then you could get through the test fine.
There are 2 options that will help with this massively.
Either go to a Race School and learn on track, this will help you no end!
Or
Do a Bike Safe course with the Met Police, they will assess you and advise on what to do. I’ve done both and it improved my riding ten fold
3rd option, after you’ve learned that cornering on the roads IS NOT THE SAME as cornering on an empty track with perfect tarmac free of gravel, potholes, other vehicles, trees etc.
go out at weekends and practice riding until you get rid of your fear. join rideouts with people of your similar skills. follow others into corners and learn the lines.
Oh definitely, I didn’t mean “fast” just… faster than inner city. But still speed limit. I ride to my own comfort level and have read a bunch of books for tips which definitely helps. I wish you could reset time so that you could do the same corner over and over until you was happy (without having to drive up and down the same road). Bit like failing a mission on GTA V. haha
doing a track day will be fun but won’t teach you a thing about cornering on the road. Once you have done Bikesafe, get your self onto the IAM or ROSPA, whichever has a group closest to you. With advanced training though, you get what you pay for, you would be far better off seeking the advice of a professional, I would highly recommend Paul Mostyn, he invented bikesafe and since leaving the Met is a freelance trainer, and he really knows his stuff. you can find him at
alternatively have a look at Rapid Training, they are all ex OB and track racers, so a very rare breed indeed, and again, amongst the best tuition out there.
Defo do a Bikesafe first and when they ask what you want from it tell them you want to feel move comfortable on faster roads. This is what me and my mate did, so they went straight out to the faster roads and didn’t bother with any town riding skills.
Awesome, I was wondering that as the website obviously has to entice every type of rider and it mentioned more general safety and awareness items that (I’d hope) I don’t need to spend too long on and instead move to higher-order items like cornering/road-position/technique
I beg to differ regarding the Race school and road riding, I found doing the Ron Haslam school actually helped me on the country lanes and other “Fast” roads, It may not help everyone but for me i definately got a better understanding of corner speeds and positioning, But like already said, it was the Bike Safe course i done a week after the Race School that actually gave me the biggest helping hand towards being a safer rider.
Wouldn’t it be the case that if you learn corner at high speed in safe conditions that are meant for it (ie. track) then when you are cornering at lower speeds when the conditions are not as good (country roads) you would be more prepared because you know what you should be feeling? Once you have the feel for cornering (or other situations - think bicycle balance when you first started out vs now), then it never really leaves you and your mind and body just do what they need to do without thinking. It all comes down to making how you ride feeling like second nature so you can concentrate on the things that matter like other road users, wet patches, potholes etc. Not having done advanced training or race training/track day I can’t say for sure but this is my gut feeling. I would have to agree with GSXR750_Sam.
I played ice-hockey for many years. To many people it looks complicated - ice skating, holding the stick, controlling the puck etc. When you can’t skate, sure it looks intimidating but once you can skate then you don’t think about skating, you just skate and concentrate on the rest of the game. Your mind and body just put themselves in the positions that you need to be without thinking.
It is probably different for everyone as some get more from something than others, For me the RHRS really helped with my road riding, I may just be lucky and it doesn’t help others at all. But i think the general concensus is the Bike Safe course helps everyone, Especially the Hazard perception part of the course, that is a real eye opener
I have to agree with GSXR750_Sam.
If your main issue is corner speed and you’d like to keep trying the same coners again and again till you get them right…
Then do a track day, the experience will be valuable on normal roads, you just need to be aware that normal roads are two way, etc, not difficult.
Also have to agree with others, Bikesafe is superb, I’ve done it twice so far and intend to do another one before too long.
I tried IAM for a while but found them a tad anal and didn’t get around to completing it,
they will teach you how to ride 100% within the law and as safely as possible.
I can definitely appreciate the logic of doing some racing training. Personally, for my own circumstance, I could see it greatly increasing my confidence in how to corner and what a bike is capable of.
Yes I’d been riding for about 20 years, I never thought I would be able to corner quickly.
Then I bought a ZX6R (one of the first in the UK) and started doing track days.
And yes my cornering, on normal roads as well as race tracks, has improved* considerably.
not sure if “improved” is the right word, I think these were the words used by one of the
bikesafe police after some nice twisty lanes… “you were just show-boating, hanging off is
not neccessary or recommended.”
I did the Bike Safe day at Bromley last week - very useful and jolly good fun. I got a free place and they may still be doing the promotion - try emailing [email protected] with the subject ‘BikeSafe-London Corporate - METOP’. Think they were trying to get businesses involved, but I work freelance and they seemed very happy to give me a Voucher Code. Think you can only get the freebie for the weekday courses. If I’d paid the £45, I would still think it was good value.
