Sunday July 3rd was the date that PECAM held its annual Advanced Skills Day (ASD) at the old Runway at Alconbury near Huntingdon. The ASD is an integral part of the training delivered by PECAM, which includes monthly Slow Speed and Gymkhana sessions, one-to-one advanced refresher training, and small group advanced development rides, as well as the full suite of IAM Roadsmart motorcycle programmes.
The ASD has been developed over many years, and this year saw the inclusion of a demonstration on tyre puncture repair. There are 15 separate exercises for all attendees to take part in. Each exercise starts with a thorough briefing, and every participant gets detailed personal feedback and advice.
We started the day with ‘How to pick up a dropped motorcycle’ which after a great demo, many attendees had a go at. Although, we hope never to need this skill it is important that we know how – just in case!
Slow Speed Exercises
We then moved through a series of slow speed exercises, from riding at walking pace, figure of eights, U-turns and counter steering.
Higher Speed Exercises
We then moved on to higher speed exercises, including braking at speed, lorry swerve and breaking on bends.
We ended the exercises for the day with the ‘Fear to Lean’, which along with all of the other exercises helps attendees to develop their skills up to and beyond their comfort levels and to understand how their motorcycles will perform in a variety of situations.
The final demonstration was the tyre puncture repair session where attendees were shown different options for puncture repair kits and shown how to repair a puncture on the roadside, to enable a safe repair to get you home.
A big thank you to The Motorcycle Works, for the loan of their van, which enabled us get all the required equipment and bikes on site, for the day.