In today’s road and traffic conditions your riding needs to be the best it can possibly be – you can never be too good a rider! Good riders never stop learning. Even the best of riders can be better.

Even if you have been riding for years without serious incident, the likelihood is that you have, without realising it, developed some bad habits – the sort of habit that in a crisis situation could make the difference between life and death.

Improving your riding skills means that, in return for a lot of hard work and serious application you will enjoy your riding much more and you’ll feel a whole lot more confident and you will be a lot, lot safer rider.

Anyone can improve their riding and then go on to put their riding skills to the test by taking the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Advanced Riding Test. This voluntary test is regarded as the most comprehensive and challenging test available. The test has three grades; the lowest is the Bronze; it means you are well on the way but still need to improve and re-test in a few months’ time. The next grade is Silver, a considerable achievement and beyond that the Gold which not every rider can expect to achieve.

Unlike other “advanced” riding qualifications the RoSPA awards are not for life. To maintain your status – to ensure your riding remains up to the highest standard you have to re-test every three years.

Research shows that advanced riders are 20% less likely to be involved in an accident. That apart you can usually gain by means of lower insurance premiums, reduced levels of stress, improved fuel consumption and less wear and tear on your bike. Above all there is that huge sense of achievement, which alone is worth all the effort.

It is now possible to take the RoSPA Advanced Test in Ireland. However simply applying for a test and hoping that on the day things will turn out all right is not a recipe for success. Even extremely experienced riders would stand very little chance of passing without having first spent time honing and perfecting their riding under the guidance of an advanced instructor.

After 46 years in the saddle, well over a million motorcycling miles and a one-time Army Despatch Rider Instructor, I decided to put my own riding to the test. I very quickly learned that my riding was not as food as I would like to have thought. I knew it was not perfect but had not reckoned it was far off. Then followed a period of working hard, part solo practice, part further instruction, to hone the cutting edge. Still apprehensive, since by then I knew that the RoSPA test was a very serious and demanding one, I took the test. I passed. Not at the highest possible grade, rarely does anyone do that first time. Even in the test I learned a lot, useful pointers for further improvement.

Since then I have continued to work away at my riding every time I get on the bike. Though not obliged to do so, my first test being valid for 3 years, I took the test again 10 months later, with a very much better result. I still didn’t regard my riding as being as good as it could get, but it is a whole lot better than it was. More recently I took another test, this time an Advanced Instructor’s test and passed that as well. And I am still learning, still aiming for perfection!

It is almost impossible to say just how much putting my riding to the test has meant to me. Now I am getting times more enjoyment out of each and every ride. I know I am a whole lot safer, and that does not mean I am “slower”, indeed in appropriate conditions I know I am not just safer, but faster!

I’ve gone on to helping other riders prepare for this test. They too have had to work hard, so far they have all passed. They agree with me, its something well worth doing.

Update October 1st. 2002.

I now have a new,  "Training Bike" which is comprehensively insured for students to use whilst learning. No longer do they have to have to buy their own bike before they can learn to ride! (Its only taken 5 years to persuade an Insurance company to provide this cover!). The bike, a Kawasaki Eliminator 125 is also available to students when they come to take the test.

Why not put your riding to the test? You can contact me, John Wheeler at wheelman@iol.ie if you’d like to know more.

Roadrunner Rider Training
IRTA Regd Instructor. RoSPA Advanced Rider
We provide accessible, affordable, high-quality rider training for all
levels from complete beginners right up to Advanced Level.
Post: PO Box 7279, Dublin 18
FAX: 01 294 0497
Mobile: 086 813 9033

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