As reported previously I’ve been out on the bike throughout the Winter on IAM Sessions with Patrick and out practising skills on my own. Last Saturday I was out into Shropshire and Herefordshire on my own and this Sunday an observed ride down to Elan Valley to practise three stage overtakes and fine-tune some other points e.g. earlier positioning to really hone hazard perception, awareness and planning. At last Spring seems on the way now, I really felt relaxed riding to the system while winding our way out West into Powys stopping only once on the way at the Visitors Centre for a debrief over a packed lunch.
I don’t think I’ve ever been out to the reservoirs this time of year and finally got to see the water cascading down the dam wall face for change. Usually we visit in the summer and the water is quite low, no need to open the sluice gates unlike today. Quite spectacular to see all that water cascading down. A few weeks ago I had my IAM pre-test with Mike a regional Master Observer and Patrick following behind Mike. The assessment was on par with Patricks opinion on my riding which was good to hear (good for Patrick too). The test route out to Bridgnorth, Shifnal, Telford with a few M54/M6 Motorway sections and city riding around Wolverhampton ring road proved to be quite intense but thankfully I handled the challenge quite well. With a debrief at a local McDonalds Mike agreed with Patrick I was now up to test standard but felt there was opportunity for even more improvement and I should be aiming for even earlier positioning and hazard awareness, along with Patrick’s suggestion that my overtakes could be refined with a bit more finesse too. A few more sessions now and I’ll be putting in for the IAM test very soon. Patrick is now organising routes to challenge me on these points, hence the Elan Valley run with plenty of opportunity to negotiate bends and three stage overtakes along the way. I do feel that riding to the Advanced system feels quite natural to me now and while following Patrick for a change to demonstrate with Intercom commentary of his thoughts I was thinking and riding almost in synchro’ with him positioning for bends and dealing with other hazards in much the same way.
Recently, BMW had a service check against the Drive Shaft on the GS (and other models) with a swing arm modification to fit a small drain hole allowing water and condensation to evaporate and avoid rusting up the driveshaft splines and CV joint. Rybrook Motorrad checked mine out free of charge for me and it was re-assuring to see the shaft was in good condition with zero corrosion as one would expect for 9K miles. With some touring planned for later in the year I’m happy the splines have been re-greased and all is good. Quite interesting to understand how the technicians test the drive shaft using a strobe disc fitted to outside final drive unit and spinning up the wheel in gear at speed to check there is no ‘chatter’ on the shaft coupling. As I understand a few are out of tolerance so as a precaution are replaced free of charge even if out of warranty. If you own a GS and haven’t had it checked I can recommend giving Dan or Andy a call at Rybrook who I’m sure will advise.
I’ve been studying up on Motorcyle Roadcraft too with some new books, after grabbing copies of the latest edition of the Police Rider’s Handbook along with the latest Highway Code. The later Roadcraft book has quite a bit more than my old 2007 edition with a good deal more on 3 stage overtakes and other scenarios with more diagram descriptions and so too the Highway Code featuring the new ‘hierarchy of road users’. It’s quite possible I’ll get tested on these points by IAM so best to be prepared. There are plenty of other resources available too but roll on spring and some ‘warmer’ rides. I can’t wait to get to those Mountains later in the year !
