Getting safer

Harold and I started to have the occasional ride together and he drew me into being an instructor.  I was always in front when we were out though.  The radio would crackle and a voice would say “Now why did you do that?”.  A mild reproach.  Radios were bulky expensive affairs back then.  Usually one way (instructor to trainee) when I rode with Harold we had two way communication but a long answer wasn’t going to cut the mustard.  It needed to be clear and well reasoned as excess words could be lost in the noise.

Occasional praise came as well.  Most memorably out near Devizes where the police have their driver training school.  We ride past and a car with two occupants pulls out ahead of us.  Harold tells me its a police trainee.  Interest piqued I closed for an overtake.  Alas I don’t know the road and can’t get by.  We are going quite quickly at this point.  Car driver clearly wanting to keep ahead of the bikes and demonstrate he is making progress.  Progress at such a pace he mucks up the approach to a strangely shaped broad t-junction with a small grass island in the middle, drives right onto the grass in the centre.  We pass and zip off with a chuckle at the hapless trainee behind us.  On a bike you are higher than a car therefore can see further ahead and more importantly plan further ahead at the same speed.

I got more and more more experience.  I became an instructor for Harold’s little outfit and even managed to get some students to pass the motorcycle test.  Most memorably a lad who went too fast everywhere on his 80cc bike.  Harold gave up and handed him over to me in desperation.  If he didn’t listen to the softly spoken and calm mannered pensioner he might listen to the younger instructor.  The teenager passed first time.  Whether he survived for long afterwards is an open question.  There was no 47hp limit, no graduated licence, no minimum age or riding experience.  Pass on an 80cc motorbike and you could get a 130hp ZZR1300 the next day, if you could afford it and the insurance of course.

Harold and I attended some regional safe riding competitions as well.  A couple we did were with police observers on police bikes so one can be forgiven for being a little nervous.  At a competition in Bristol the route took us into the countryside.  A car in front was travelling at 55mph in a zone limited to 60mph.  I crawled by at 60mph on the overtake, terrified of breaking the speed limit.  There was a bloody great POLICE bike in my mirror after all.  I was also aware if I failed “to make progress” I would be marked down.  The debrief in Bristol covered the merits of breaking the speed limit on overtaking.  Not phrased like that but definitely a clear statement that its dangerous travelling on the wrong side of the road so why dwell so long. Get by, and get by fast. A lesson that’s still with me all these years later.  As I will prove later.