The Advanced Rider Skills day (ASD) has been developed over many years at PECAM; in order to offer a fantastic, comprehensive, day of advanced tuition in a very safe environment. Sunday 20th September was no exception.
We once again convened at the Alconbury Weald Commercial centre, where we hired the old Alconbury USAF runway. This provides the ideal grippy surface for practicing on with a motorcycle. In addition, the runway offers a wide and very long expanse of smooth, damage free, tarmac which enables us to run several exercises simultaneously.
The ASD covered a wide range of skills. We started with how to safely pick-up a dropped motorcycle, no it’s all right we don’t ask you to lay your precious metal on the ground. The donor bike was Kevin Hudson’s Suzuki Bandit 1200, not the lightest bike in the world. This year, thanks to the experience of Brian Wingrove, we demonstrated the way of two people lifting the bike, by counter balancing. We proceeded through all of the exercises right through to high speed runs on the runway to see what our bikes limits might be.
This progression from static to virtually flying passed through riding our bikes at walking pace, slow riding in groups, through cones and in complex patterns. We then move on to object avoidance, practicing counter-steering, braking on bends, and braking technique
development at all speeds up to and beyond the legal speed limit.
At the end of the day we carried out as many high-speed runs as people wanted to do, all carried out very safely with marshals at both ends of the runway, linked by radio. All of the exercises were carried in small groups of 6, with oversight and management by highly experienced PECAM members.
PECAM heavily subsidised this event however, there was a small contribution required from participants of just £20.
I am certainly looking forward to next year’s event!
Tim Helstrip