Howdy from the plains. - Page 3

Water Warrior 2 · 03-29-2009, 02:02 AM

Alan, sounds like you got short changed in the rider training. When Lynda and I went for training we had two 3 hour evening classes and four days on the bikes for actual riding. A total of 30 hours and it was well worth it. Please do not judge all rider training schools as a waste of time based on your experience. You are doing a disservice to a lot of dedicated instructors out there.

alantf · 03-29-2009, 06:22 AM

Can't say yes or no to the training classes. Like easy, I started riding before they were even thought about. In the 60s, when I started out, there just wasn't that much traffic about. The test (in England) just consisted of the examiner standing on the sidewalk while the rider went clockwise round the block, then anticlockwise. A few questions on "the highway code" (the government book on do's & dont's), then you got your licence.
The one thing I do know, though, is that I had not had my licence very long when I braked hard on a patch of gravel, flew over the handlebars, & suffered the only broken bone I've ever had in my life. I was 3 months in plaster with a broken wrist (the scaphoid bone, doc)
I do think, however, that nowadays there is much more to riding than there was in my youth. Given the much lower volume of traffic, we could concentrate on the riding. Now I find that I need to do the actual controlling of the bike automatically, while 90% of my brain is watching what's going on around me. Like I said, I don't know anything about the course, but it can't hurt, can it?

03-29-2009, 02:02 AM	#21
Water Warrior 2 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Squamish B.C Canada Posts: 11,409	Re: Howdy from the plains. Alan, sounds like you got short changed in the rider training. When Lynda and I went for training we had two 3 hour evening classes and four days on the bikes for actual riding. A total of 30 hours and it was well worth it. Please do not judge all rider training schools as a waste of time based on your experience. You are doing a disservice to a lot of dedicated instructors out there. Login or Register to Remove Ads
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03-29-2009, 06:22 AM	#22
alantf Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Tenerife (Spain) Posts: 3,719	Re: Howdy from the plains. Can't say yes or no to the training classes. Like easy, I started riding before they were even thought about. In the 60s, when I started out, there just wasn't that much traffic about. The test (in England) just consisted of the examiner standing on the sidewalk while the rider went clockwise round the block, then anticlockwise. A few questions on "the highway code" (the government book on do's & dont's), then you got your licence. The one thing I do know, though, is that I had not had my licence very long when I braked hard on a patch of gravel, flew over the handlebars, & suffered the only broken bone I've ever had in my life. I was 3 months in plaster with a broken wrist (the scaphoid bone, doc) I do think, however, that nowadays there is much more to riding than there was in my youth. Given the much lower volume of traffic, we could concentrate on the riding. Now I find that I need to do the actual controlling of the bike automatically, while 90% of my brain is watching what's going on around me. Like I said, I don't know anything about the course, but it can't hurt, can it? __________________ By birth an Englishman, by the grace of God a Yorkshireman.
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