Further training
Once you have passed your full motorcycle test there are a host of further/advanced rider training opportunities available to you:
ENHANCED RIDER SCHEME
The enhanced rider scheme checks your motorcycle riding skills and provides training to help you improve. There is no test.
You’ll first have a rider assessment with an expert trainer. You’ll ride in different road and traffic conditions. The ride will be long enough for your trainer to make a good assessment of your skills. For most people this is 1 to 2 hours.
If this shows you don’t need more training you’ll get a ‘DVSA certificate of competence’ straight away.
Otherwise, you’ll get personalised training to improve your skills and get the certificate at the end of your training.
The DVSA certificate of competence gives you discounts with most motorcycle insurers.
The type of training depends on what you need to brush up on. You might be offered all-day courses or shorter sessions.
For further information visit https://www.gov.uk/enhanced-rider-scheme
BIKESAFE
Bikesafe is scheme run by the Police and set up to help reduce motorcycle casualties. Bikesafe offers each rider an insight to riding skills aimed at making their riding more enjoyable as well as safer. It is an opportunity to sample some advanced riding before moving on to advanced training.
Bikesafe workshops are designed to enhance the skills of all riders who have already passed their tests, and are particularly suitable for those that may be returning to biking after a period of absence.
The workshops are very much practical and hands on. In addition to a classroom based theory session there will be two observed rides, one rural, one non-rural, in company with experienced advanced riders.
Bikesafe courses in Essex cost £60 and can be booked at http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/Bikesafe/essex.html
Essex FireBike Better Biking Course
Essex Fire Service’s FireBike Better Biking Course is a free course providing advice, guidance and assessed ride feedback designed to improve your existing road riding skills and help you to enjoy safer biking even more.
After an initial classroom theory session, a FireBike team member will undertake an assessed ride with you and provide practical advice and guidance on your riding, highlighting strong points and suggesting areas where improvements can be made through practice. You’ll be given tailored feedback on topics about observation, positioning, gear selection and overtaking.
At the end of the course you’ll get immediate feedback from the FireBike team member. You will be presented with a certificate of attendance and a ‘goody bag’. A concise written feedback report will be sent to you shortly after the course.
You can book a place on a FireBike Better Biking Course by emailing firebike@essex-fire.gov.uk and providing your full name, address, bike make, model and registration number, contact phone number and email address.
Essex FireBike Advanced Machine Skills Course
The FireBike Advanced Machine Skills Course is a free, full day course held at Wethersfield Airfield. The focus of the course is all about machine control - slow speed handling, positive steering, merging exercises, swerving skills, emergency avoidance techniques and advanced braking skills.
Each of the skills elements is covered in depth with highly experienced instructors, with plenty of opportunity for participants to practice before moving on to the next element, building skill levels as the day progresses.
These courses are all about sharpening some fundamental machine control skills which are essential to us as riders but unfortunately are rarely practiced. These skills will help improve riding on the road and help reduce the chances of a collision.
The course is for everyone, no matter what you ride, however long you’ve been riding, whatever your experience.
You can book a place on a FireBike Better Biking Course by emailing firebike@essex-fire.gov.uk and providing your full name, address, bike make, model and registration number, contact phone number and email address.
Essex Hugger Advanced Instructor Training Days
These Advanced Instructor days subsidised by the Safer Essex Roads Partnership, and are offered to riders who have undertaken an Essex FireBike Better Biking Course and/or an Essex Police Bikesafe workshop.
This full day of training builds on the riding advice and guidance provided by the FireBike or Police Bikesafe teams, and is delivered on a 2:1 student to instructor ratio using radio communications.
These training days are specifically designed to provide more in-depth instruction and to improve general roadcraft skills.
Details of how you can undertake one of these advanced instructor training days will be provided when you attend a FireBike Better Biking Course or Police Bikesafe workshop. The days cost £50 to attend, and the Safer Essex Roads Partnership subsidises a further £70 towards the cost of the training.