Welcome to the latest edition of the Survival Skills Rider Training newsletter, which goes out on Thursdays and covers my Facebook posts up to Wednesday. Survival Skills is all about helping you improve your knowledge, your skills, and your understanding of ‘better biking’ and I won’t take up half your day with random ads or product placement! All you get are links to my ‘better biking’ posts of Facebook.
TRAINING – it hardly seems possible that autumn has arrived already, after yet another disrupted year of riding and training. The outlook for the weather next week is changeable so it’s worth checking out the WET WEATHER GUARANTEE that avoids having courses disrupted by poor weather. September and October can be some of the best riding of the year so it’s still a great time to book an on-road course from my Ride4Fun and Ride2Work range, and until mid-September the evenings are long enough to take a RIDING ASSESSMENT. I am taking bookings to the end of September. Visit www.survivalskills.co.uk for more info on training courses. You can also download the latest information PDF here. Or drop me a line at info@survivalskills.co.uk.
And of course, I’m also available for ONLINE COACHING sessions immediately.
READ ONE THING – if you’re pushed for time, have a look at two posts this week – both videos, but there’s a connection. One (“This riding tip could save your life”) is supposedly showing you ‘good cornering’ but if you watch carefully, you’ll see the same errors that the rider in the second video (In too fast, turn-in too early, run wide later) committed as he filmed himself nearly colliding with a car as he ran over the centre line on a left hand bend.
NEXT LIVE PRESENTATIONS – and directly related to those two videos, you’ve just missed my latest LIVE ONLINE talk – yesterday, we looked at CORNERING WITH CONFIDENCE and how to incorporate the Survival Skills ‘reference points’ approach into your own cornering to get a reliable road map for bends and avoid the same errors! But there’s plenty of time to book up for the next – it’s the SCIENCE OF BEING SEEN (SOBS) again! Tickets cost £5. The presentation has just been featured on the Devitt motorcycle features pages:
www.devittinsurance.com/guides/motorcycle-features/the-science-of-being-seen/
So here’s your chance to catch the presentation previously used as the third module at most Biker Down courses – BUT IN FULL and UPDATED. Here’s the booking link:
WEDNESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2021 AT 20:00
I’ll be running SOBS every two months so don’t panic if you can’t make it. And on Wednesday 3 November, there will be another talk – topic to be confirmed.
CLUB & GROUP TALKS – I’ve just delivered my latest rider group talk and have several for later in the diary. If you’d like me to arrange something for your own group or club, get in touch. As well as the ‘Science Of Being Seen’ and ‘Crash Course (as in “how not to…”) presentations, I have a selection of others on various riding issues. Drop me a line to sort something out.
NEXT FREE Ko-Fi WEBINAR – exclusive to my supporters on Ko-Fi, look out for a FREE and EXCLUSIVE 60 minute live ‘better biking’ webinar but with the usual Survival Skills twist! WANT TO WATCH? Just sign up as a SUPPORTER from as little as £3 and find it in the supporter area!
MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER – details NEXT WEEK!
THIS WEEK ON FACEBOOK
*** ELEVENSES *** Elevenses 168 Wed 1 Sep
In today’s webcast… bike crashes make for depressing bank holiday headlines… self-driving bus hits visually impaired Paralympics athlete… another Tesla impacts stationary police vehicle… PC ‘sold police bike boots on eBay… why I wouldn’t risk SHAD’s tank bag mounting system… Zanella – another bike brand I’d never heard of… today’s talking point – can we ‘recalibrate’ bike training?
Make a brew, grab a biscuit and pull … See more
*** TIPS ON TUESDAY *** Two sides to every story – revisited
Some articles back, I was talking about the need to consider a parked vehicle on the other side of the road. In the context of the photo I attached to that article – a still snipped from some on-bike footage I shot – the road was curving round to the right beyond the parked vehicle, which was clearly empty.
As the parked vehicle wasn’t going anywhere, the rider had full time to focus on what MIGHT be moving – and … See more
*** VIDEO NASTY *** In too fast, turn-in too early, run wide later
Yes, it’s the classic ‘clusterf*ck’ cornering error. I’ve been writing about the ‘clusterf*ck’ concept because it’s the cause of so many cornering crashes. Motorcyclists are at risk from three main gotcha’s – the classic SMIDSY crash, overtaking that goes wrong, and spills on bends. But there’s a subtle difference between them.
The first two are almost always the result of a single catastrophic mistake. If t… See more
*** ELEVENSES *** Elevenses 167 Sun 29 Aug
In today’s webcast… Humber Bridge closed for nine hours on Thursday evening after rider involved in collision… Driving instructors being balloted on strike action… France to raise rural speed limit back to 90 kph – but not everywhere… Macau bike GP in doubt for second year… finally – the Triumph they should have made a decade ago… you’re not hip if you’re not wearing a capsule collection… today’s discussion point – why… See more
*** TRAINING *** Back on the road in the Cotswolds
I had a terrific day out yesterday with Louise, who’d been pointed in my direction by the Ladybiker group (many thanks to you for the recommendation, by the way). It was the first course for quite some time that took me out into the Cotswolds.
Louise is a fairly new rider, having only completed her CBT last autumn, then moved up to a new Triumph Trident 660 after passing her test earlier this year with the BMW training scho… See more
*** SKILLS ON SATURDAY *** Gravity sucks
Here’s a statement you’ll hear quite a bit: “a motorcycle is most stable when it’s upright”. Actually it isn’t. It’s most stable lying on its side. Most of us know that an upright bike can always fall over. If you’re in any doubt, put the bike on the side stand, give it a shove, then see what happens.
If gravity can pull a bike over, it can also move a lot of other things downward. Years ago, the hand brake cable snapped on my Dad’s c… See more
**** COMMENT *** “This riding tip could save your life”
…Or not. As usual, I’m a sucker for the attention-grabbing tagline. As I’m sure you know, a business will use a tagline. It’s not supposed to tell you anything about the brand or business, it’s just a teaser to get your interest and draw you in to find out more. And it’s a common approach in the internet too – an attention-grabbing headline pulls you into watching a video or reading an article.
And predictably, it’s a … See more
THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK – so finally SHARE THE NEWS!
Please Please PLEASE pass on the newsletter to biking family and friends. Let’s get everyone we know ‘better biking’.
See you next week
Kevin Williams
Survival Skills Rider Training
