Bikesafe observation.

So I had my Bike safe observation yesterday.

For those of you who don't know what this is, basically you send a couple of hours with a police motorcyclist, being led around (from behind), before being debriefed at the end of the ride.
My ride had good and bad points. Key good were mainly comments made by the police rider (Bedfordshire 388, Gary), namely that after my first couple of bends, he thought I was going to be hard to keep up with, and he also stated that it is obvious I am "at one with my machine". Grins all round! :-D

As mentioned, unfortunately there were bad points. My third corner wasn't as tidy as the first two, which showed I need to work on consistency (this will be improved as I get better at "reading the road"), I ran a red light because the cars in front moved off (DOH!), I entered a couple of corners about 5mph too fast, causing me to stray across the centre line or struggle to set up in a good position for the following bend, again down to reading the road, and I need to keep an eye out for speed limit signs, as I was both too fast and too slow for the prescribed limit at various times during the ride.

Despite being exceptionally hot, it was still a great ride, once I got used to looking in my mirror and seeing a police bike! The debrief was extremely helpful and constructive, and I can't wait to get out and practice so I can have another go, hopefully with better results :-D

Many thanks to the Beds Bikesafe team, especially Alison and Gary, and also to Martin, from the fire service.

You can find the main website for the UK Bikesafe initiative here