..anyone a member or know someone who is? Been considering Blood biking for years and have to start with getting IAM done (plus there could be a bit of social). Thanks
Used to be a car IAM member & Observer when I lived in Gloucestershire over 20 years ago. Was a well run group with lots of activities. Currently a car & bike member in the Nottingham group. The bike group has lots of ride outs & social functions available. I find myself very limited in what I can attend because of the long hours I work. A good number of the other bikers seem to be semi-retired or retired. The 'free taster' route has been a popular way for a number of riders to look into developing their riding skills. I tried this when I decided to look more closely at the bike side of the IAM & really enjoyed the free assessed ride. Have a look at the IAM website, registering interest in the free taster should enable you to be put in touch with your local group. Hope this helps. :thumbsup:
Thanks, have looked and its a local meet, always nicer tho if you can arrange to meet up with someone, show you the ropes (As John did a couple of years ago for me. I was just too young then LOL)
I know an observer, might be senior now, with Severn IAM. Have passed him your mobile number. hope that's OK? He's called Jim.
Bristol is another option -possibly too far I presume Nothing against Severn but I know there is a group there in Bristol. The inspector who took my test was a Bristol member.
IAM member; enjoy the social monthly nights & guest talkers other than officers spouting there protracted nonsense about predjuices & marking people down if they turn up with a polite-hi-vis vest. Some coppers are complete numpties'
Yes but stating to a room of 60+ riders, if you turn up with a certain hi-vis jacket or not offer to buy a hot drink or other trival things means you don't & will certainly not attain a FIRST on test-day. Even before setting off really annoys the hell out of me. I respect officers for giving their time up & helping raise people who see the benefit in advanced riding techniques. But having been to a riot training center & found special adverts from large companies playing on the fact the general publics discourse & use of offensive slurs towards coppers within a closed off environment bemusing. This type of old-boys club humour & camaraderie harks back to the formation of sports like GOLF; gentlemen only ladies forbidden. A place where decisions on who can & cannot be successful due to scape goating vile.
Sounds more like tongue in cheek piss taking with a sense of seriousness to me. Why not buy a cuppa and, tbh, if someone turns up with a POLITE vest on a ride I'm organising they get told why they shouldn't be (plus my rides wouldn't suit them LOL) The Severn one is 4 miles from my house
I'm also IaM Occasionally go to the club nights however it's mostly full of jobsworths these days unfortunately The observers are a joke these days (the good ones are long gone) I've ridden with some of them, shocking how bad some of them are! I do enjoy listening to them talk a good ride though. I even had one of them attempt to belittle me on a track event because I only use two fingers to brake.. apparently it means I'm 'unsafe'.... interesting as I was in the 54's and the only rider in the group riding in the fast group and they were doing 1min10's lol! That reminds me I must phone mr marquez and tell him he can't ride either.. I avoid the club runs like the plague, they're about as fun as sticking a cactus up your rectum. Just because it's written in a book, does not mean that it's correct. We live in a organic world full of split second decisions and there is no book that can tell you how to deal with it.
TBH thats a bit of what pit me off before, I did a 'fun' run which varied from silly slow to dangerous (some of the riding was terrible). But have ridden with enough IAM to know its like anything else: varied
Haha, that's similar to my experience I turned up to a taster session on my Africa twin, which the beige trouser brigade were semi impressed initially with until they saw I had a small Rossi 46 sticker on it,and when they asked what I thought of track riding and racing, they pretty much turned against me and started lecturing me on how having an ACU license was everything they were against and that I would be a danger to the rest of them ! I did about 30miles into the ride, and just peeled off and went home I'm sure they were very safe, but the lead guy was doing 15mph around country lane corners and we were holding traffic up to the point where I thought the guys at the back were going to get rammed by pissed off motorists I'm sure there's good guy and good groups, but my experience was pretty poor
I recently joined a local IAM group for a similar reason to bradders, I need an IAM or RoSPA test pass to start further training and have had a very different more positive experience. The runs out have been graded and you know up front if it will be for the less experienced with no overtaking, a faster paced run with overtaking within the group or a "we all know where we are going and it's your licence" run. There have been opportunities to get advanced braking training, slow riding training, go on look, lean and roll courses, track days and IAM skills days. I have been on a couple of long weekend runs in Wales and on Exmoor which were very enjoyable, probably 5 or 6 social runs to places and on roads I would never have found myself and been invited on runs to Portugal, Germany, Poland and Spain. After I pass my test, I will most definitely stick with the membership because I'm having great fun. Andy
Done the iam and rospa route. I had some really good instructors and some that just wouldn't accept any criticism or at best allow you to question thier judgement or actions. Worth doing though.However the whole scene is just too cubs and scouts for me...I was also told my exhaust was too loud ...ha ha best sneak up on em I said....not amused.
bradders, I'm geographically your nearest SAM Observer so there's a good chance you'd end up with me if you signed up. Then you could slag me off here
