IAM Skills for Life corse

Ish

Ish

Ish

Associate
Joined
11 Jan 2006
Posts
1,813
Location
West Midlands
I passed my IAM advanced riding test on Saturday :cool:

I found the course to be very very good and it really helped me to improve my riding skills.

The way the course work is pay £139 to join the IAM for a year which also includes a years RAC membership and a couple of books. http://www.iam.org.uk/riders/riders-courses/advanced-riding/skill-for-life-motorcyclists

You are then allocated to your local group from this list http://www.iam.org.uk/iam-groups/iam-groups-directory/search

Your local group then allocate you an Observer. Your Observer will go out with you one to one and each 'lesson' can be between 2-6 hours depending on how much time you both have available. For my local group you pay the Observer £10 each time you go out. At the end of each lesson you get a sheet detailing how you did and what you need to work on etc.

As well as going out with your allocated Observer your local group may have group runs where you can go out for a ride or an observed ride. Your local group may also do full member runs but you can only go on these if you have passed your test!

Once your Observer thinks you are test ready you will have a check ride with a Senior Observer and if he agrees you can go for your test. The test consists of a couple of hours riding on various types of roads.

I think that about covers it!
 
iv seen this and i know a couple of people who have done it, no disrespect to you but i found that they think they are gods gift and every one else is **** on their boots.
and its all old man with pan euro-peons
 
Not for me either. From talking to people that have taken the course, it seem like the observers vary greatly in the standards they impose, and several people complained how much time was spent nit picking over trivial stuff (e.g. using indicators when not strictly required, rear observations deemed unnecessary etc.).
 
I can only go by the experience which I had with my local group which was all good.
 
A lot of the IAM stuff depends on the membership.
I've met many who were complete ******* and ALL had points on their licence. There was a time when they'd all go out for group rides and on every ride, at least one of them would come off.
I've met a few who were very cool people and very good riders, but they tended to hover around on the periphery of things. Their general consensus was to "take what is useful and discard the rest". It just requires a bit of knowledge to identify what is or is not useful. Generally, stay within what you feel are reasonable safety limits.

By contrast, I've not met as many ROSPA riders, but most have been awesome. Same for those who do regular Bikesafe rides with the Police.
 
The Birmingham group that I joined has quite a few Police riders involved in the group with the Chief Observer being a retired Police advanced riding/driving trainer who has a nice S1000RR.

Maybe the Birmingham group is a bit more organised due to the large amount of members.
 
Main question, did it bring your insurance down?

How many years riding experience do you have?

How many were in your group?

How experienced was your 'tutor'?

I'm in a sour mind with these courses, I think they only benefit those that are really uncomfortable on a bike and therefore a danger to others.
 
agnes said:
Main question, did it bring your insurance down? Yes

How many years riding experience do you have? 3 years riding pretty much every day

How many were in your group? It's one to one tuition

How experienced was your 'tutor'? Riding for about 20 years and been an observer for 4 years

I'm in a sour mind with these courses, I think they only benefit those that are really uncomfortable on a bike and therefore a danger to others. I'd class myself as a confident & progressive rider but still found it beneficial
Click to expand...

I heard about the IAM course at the BikeSafe course I did as they suggested it's the next step and I liked what I heard about it.
 
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I am also a member for the skills for life and the group I am in are a good mixture and there are people who like my self have little riding experience. Everyone at the group have been welcoming and very helpful.

It does teach you a lot, some new guys have 10+ years of riding and found after a bit they had learnt things to help them ride. Also what you do away from the group is your choice, you don't go to an IAM group thinking you can ride like you do when you want a buzz run or scratch etc. You go to learn to be a safe rider.

Do I think it is worth it? Yes I do and if you have had a bad experience with an IAM group, try another.

And congrats on passing Ish.:D
 
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