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An associate’s First Observed Ride

My instructor had arranged with me to meet at my local supermarket car park at 9am. I’m glad he chose somewhere local, as finding directions is definitely not my forte. The night before I had set two or three alarm clocks to make sure I was up on time, 9am on a Saturday doesn’t normally exist for me and I didn’t want to be late.

I cruised into the car park a few minutes early, trying especially hard to do super slow and smooth feet-up riding in case my instructor was watching me already. I was excited to be doing something new, but a little nervous at the same time. I decided that the guy on a Blackbird waving at me must be the right person and parked up next to him. It was only when I leant the bike onto the side stand that I first thought to myself, “aw shit… what have I let myself in for here?”

Keith did a good job of putting my mind at rest, but nothing could really quell my nerves. The simple act of putting the radio and fluorescent vest on brought back all the memories of my Direct Access course and test. Placing the radio earpiece in my helmet was more of a challenge than I had expected. If it was comfortable, then I couldn’t hear it, and if I could hear it, it wasn’t comfortable. Eventually I found a compromise position that was neither comfortable nor audible, but decided that it would have to do!

Finally it was time to pull off and get on the road. My first manoeuvre of the day round a trolley wheeling granny nearly took me into the path of a reversing car and I kicked myself for not having observed the situation better in advance. I thought, “oh well, it can only get better from here!”

Keith had explained that the first part of the session would be an assessment to see where I was at. I had read Roadcraft over the previous few weeks, so I had some basic idea of what I was supposed to be doing. I had been practising trying to implement various aspects of the system into my riding, but wasn’t sure if I was doing them very well or not.

I think I rode pretty much to the best of my ability during the ride. I concentrated hard and enjoyed the trip. Part of the trip was on roads I was familiar with, so that gave me a bit extra confidence. The only thing I knew I had struggled with was my observation of the road surface. I had been concentrating on other things and must have ridden over every pothole and manhole cover from Rugby to Wellesbourne. I was bound to lose marks for that!

When we stopped for a coffee, I knew that it was time to face the music and find out how my ride had been assessed. Even though the sensible bit of my brain knew that I had an awful lot to learn, there was still the cocky confident bit of my brain (the bit that normally chats up the girls!) that thought that my instructor would tell me I was Gold standard already and that there was nothing he could teach me!

It was a little disappointing of course to discover that my riding was pretty mediocre. I scored entirely 4’s and 3’s out of 7. It was a grade C maybe, but certainly no better. The great thing was that my instructor had lots of advice about how it could easily get better. I didn’t feel that I’d been put down, just that I had been shown lots of areas that could be improved. Roadcraft talks about over confidence in your own abilities being a serious danger. I realised that techniques that I thought I was good at, such as positioning, I was actually getting wrong. It helped me to see the bigger picture.  My instructor was able to refer back to parts of the ride I could remember and explain where I had gone wrong, and how I could have done things better.

I proved how bad I was at directions on the way home after I’d handed back the radio. My instructor had told me to follow him to a certain roundabout and then take a different exit to the one he would take. I quickly got confused about which roundabout was which and followed him half way back to his house, like a lost puppy, until he finally gesticulated and shooed me off in the right direction about 10 miles further on.

The great thing is that my enthusiasm for riding has been re-invigorated. Even though the nights are drawing in and the weather isn’t great, I’m out riding more that I have been for years. I’m enjoying my rides more and already feel like I’m improving. I’ve discovered that my instructor’s advice about positioning and scanning ahead are already improving my riding, particularly on roads I’m unfamiliar with.

I just can’t wait now to have my next lesson!

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