Felix wrote:Kempy, Kempy, Kempy...
QRide didn't make me much of a rider. But it did give me the basic competencies to actually be able to control a motorcycle. Common sense does the rest, or not. I'm still here, aren't I? Everyone must start from somewhere, and I think it is a pretty good start, provided you accept the fact that you'll be a crap rider for quite a while. Cripes, I was crap at driving when I first started, but thankfully nice country roads with sparsity (is that even a word??) of other cars let me focus more on the job at hand.
Apart from doing the B&C course, just resign yourself to the fact that most people on the road are idiots, and take the responsibility for staying alive on your own shoulders.
You're still here, so am I.
Touch inconsistant though don't you think? "Common sense does the rest... just resign yourself to the fact that most people on the roads are idiots".
So, lets give them bare minimal training, so they're competant at a basic level to ride a motorcycle, and leave the rest up to their common sense eh?.
I've done Q-Ride twice. Once when I was 17 for my RE licence, again when I was 18 for my R licence.
The first time round was alright. It was one on one training, with a guy in roundabout his fifties who'd been riding all his life. Taught me a fair bit of useful stuff.
That said, I'd been riding for 4 months before I got my licence and thus had the benefit of close riding friends to teach me. So when I turned up to this, there wasn't much more to learn.
Second time through, with "Ride Alive", it wasn't one on one training. 1 on 6 training if I recall correctly. Only me and one other guy (also 18) had RE licences. The rest had never even ridden any form of motorcycle.
Knowing this, I deliberately took the last posistion in the column (the instructor the first), so I could watch and help anyone who stuffed up. Its not good to watch I assure you. Two people consistantly stalled their bikes, and just as consistantly forgot to release the front brake when moving from a stop and thus started spinning up the rear wheel. Only to realise and panic, drop the front brake, have the bike lurch forward (sometimtes into traffic at T-junctions) and stall again.
All of the 4 had problems controlling the bikes and would occasionaly go wide onto the wrong side of the road, or create traffic problems as such due to their inability.
The instructor sees next to none of this, because he either rode 1st, or 2nd to follow someone for 10mins to watch their riding.
One, even dropped the bike, which the instructor saw, and still got his licence.
All in one day, they all now have unrestricted licences. It doesn't inspire confidence in the system.
It needs to be a one-on-one system. That would be the single greatest improvement. Among others.
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However I would also recommend handing around people who have ridden for ages and doing a advanced training course etc
