OV9

Just finished the morning session and it’s definitely an eye opener. I consider myself to be pretty steady and careful but it’s still made me question pretty much everything I do.

Just about to go out on the observed ride on the pissing rain. I wasn’t nervous this morning but I am now.

The observed ride was fantastic. The rain started off torrential, and then got heavier, for the first ride at least. So, the nervousness plus the weather meant my first bit of feedback was OK but my positioning wasn’t consistent and I held back on an overtake (but I had a good excuse which the observer accepted). The second ride I was riding more like I usually do (albeit sticking rigidly to the speed limit due to being followed closely by an on-duty copper) and was pretty good. Overall I got a “B” rating which I’m very happy with.

The copper observing us (I was with a mate) was brilliant. He gave us the talk about us drawing the short straw as all the other observers weren’t serving officers so their riders could get away with more whereas he would have to book us for anything we did that was too stupid. But he gave us loads of great advice and he bought us a coffee and we had a good chat just gassing about bikes.

Best £12 I’ve ever spent.

NotoriousREV wrote: Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:48 pm Best £12 I’ve ever spent.

Good to hear you found it useful Dave.

Bloody £50 here in Suffolk, though I've heard from others that it's well worth doing. I might book me and my dad on it sometime next year, as he has expressed an interest when I was chatting to him about it.

£12 sounds too cheap for them to be able to do it, £50 still sounds vgvfm.

nuttinnew wrote: Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:13 pm £12 sounds too cheap for them to be able to do it, £50 still sounds vgvfm.

It’s subsidised by the Welsh government, hence the cheapness.

Nice, good to hear you enjoyed it. I get a lot of satisfaction out of progressive RoSPA style riding, you can cover ground very quickly without leery speeds.

We had an ace 45 mile ride out this morning with the group, with a couple of newbies too. I took a brave pill and went on my 748 so obvs I'm now partially disabled, but the road through Heveningham Hall estate made it all worthwhile

NotoriousREV wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 8:04 am

nuttinnew wrote: Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:13 pm £12 sounds too cheap for them to be able to do it, £50 still sounds vgvfm.

It’s subsidised by the Welsh government, hence the cheapness.

The Welsh have a government??!!

Whacked a set of these in the Yamaha today, mainly because it's the one vehicle in the fleet without some form of chav lighting :

https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/ ... p_165.html

Really impressed. About as bright as 35W HIDs but no ballasts to find a home for, and they come with bigger rear covers to house the LED cooling fans. Cut-off is scalpel sharp in the projector housings

I put the standard can back on the KTM on Friday ahead of the Bikesafe course (just playing it safe). I’m actually not in too much of a rush to refit the Remus can. Is this what it’s like being an adult?

That same adult who bought the bike about 17 minutes after he said he was hanging back because adult

JLv3.0 wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:57 pm That same adult who bought the bike about 17 minutes after he said he was hanging back because adult

Quiet you!

I was similar when I put the db killers back in the KTM Akras - it rode better and didn't perforate my ears every time I cracked the throttle.

It’s definitely a bit less sensitive to the throttle at 30-ish in 2nd/3rd.

No, it's not a sports bike, JL can bite me if he has a problem with that.



(I will try a sportsbike some time in the future though)

Shonkda.

Enjoy, Marv!

Marv wrote: Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:26 pm No, it's not a sports bike, JL can bite me if he has a problem with that.



(I will try a sportsbike some time in the future though)

No mate, not in the slightest. If you've got exactly what you want, all to the good

Looks good Marv, enjoy.

Congrats on the new bike Marv

So I did this: https://www.i2imca.com/KneeDown.asp - we were riding a completely standard road tyres Triumph Street Triple 675R

and at the end of the day, was doing this:



Honestly one of the best things I've done on two wheels.

We spent most of the day riding around without touching the throttle and barely the handlebars. The idea is to retrain yourself to allow the bike to do what it's going to do, without being unduly affected by the person riding it. We saw and experienced first hand how bikes are inherently stable once they're rolling and will self recover if you leave them the fvck alone. It's a hard thing to do, but once you rewire your brain it really hammers home the "light touch on the bars" a lot of us know is good practice, without really knowing why.

Your core is the key. It becomes locked to the bike, using your knees to grip the tank, and not a death grip on the bars. We did circuits of the runway (ex RAF Coltishall was the venue) trying to keep the bike in a straight line without touching the bars. Hard to begin with! Up to 6th, and let go, the bike settles at ~17 mph. Just one finger to push the inside bar up to turn, then let go when you want to come out of the turn. Freaky stuff, but eye opening.

Before we got into the mechanics of hanging off and knee-down, we were doing figure of 8 circuits completely hands free, just resting on the tank, at some pretty decent lean angles. Keeping your eye-line level and looking into the turn is another key element - you see (and I'm guilty of this too) a lot of bikers leaning into a bend with their head level with the bike - it sounds stupid when you type it out, but it's what a lot of people do.

Next was experiencing what it's like when things start to drag, so they had us cornering with our heels on the peg and knee out, so that the tips of our boots would scrape long before anything else. A few laps like that then we got into the mechanics of hanging off. Again you keep your core straight in line with the bike, not all crossed up, and slide over as a complete unit to whatever side and back wards into the seat, so your opposite knee is tucked in and alongside the tank nice and firmly. Turning direction foot half off the peg, knee out.

They had us doing laps in that position so they could view and comment on our general position, before we picked up the speed a bit (4th gear, 30-35 mph) and had a go a tipping it in further until we made contact with our knee sliders.

I got it on the 2nd corner, then realised I wasn't keeping my head up and looking into the turn enough, and that was when it all clicked into place. Tremendous fun, doing a few laps dragging my knee all the way around, figure of 8s etc. We all had 3 sessions doing this and the video above was from my last one. There was 6 of us, only 1 didn't manage it at all.

The guys Tom (owner) and Colm, both Irish lads from Mayo with a tremendous craic between us and them, couldn't have been more funnier and welcoming, and extremely good at explaining things.

Bikers. Do it.