Wiltshire RoADAR Skill Share

[Willie_S]

SkillShare is a free event organized by the Wiltshire RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders group for motorcyclists. It offers the opportunity for riders to come along and get a free riding assessment from a RoSPA approved tutor and to have a chat about bikes, riding and find out more about RoSPA advanced riding training over a coffee in one of the best cafes in Wiltshire.



http://wiltshireroad...sts/skillshare/

 

[Rasher]

Tried Joining ROSPA twice, never managed to get to talk to anyone, even attended one of their meetings, they spent 2 hours discussing how to get more members while we were sat there willing to sign up, by the end of the night we left having still not being able to talk to one of the bike instructors.

after the ROSPA failings tried sorting out the local IAM for her and had another total fail, someone called and talked through everything and told her someone else would follow up, then nothing - well a year or more on we are still waiting.

I did the IAM thing a few years ago and also had problems, paid up for the Skills for life and then could not get any tuition as they were all busy, switched IAM groups and had the same problem, then had to switch back to the first one.

In the end I just paid for the Mrs to have a day with Rapid Training, not cheap but she got a full day 1:1 with a class1 Plod Motorcyclist and seemed to learn a lot, well worth the cost IMO.

 

[yoyo]

That's crap Rasher, I did my ROSPA test last year and had no issues, I'm guessing it varies by area, the Bike Safe and Dragon Rider courses are always well attended in South Wales

 

[Rasher]

That's crap Rasher

Yes and no, we are talking about people giving up their own free time to help others, but I think around me demand outstrips supply.

IAM are probably worse as the sell the courses centrally, I did enquire about availability for the Mrs as I intended to buy her a "Skills For Life" for Xmas but the IAM would not be drawn on if the tuition would be available and pointed me to the website and suggested I contacted the groups near me - as stated when I did they seemed too busy to help.

The ROSPA thing was similar, we had emailed them a few times and the bike people never called back (it is a joint car / bike club) but we were told if we went along we should be able to talk to someone about bikes - but this fell flat on the day, met some of the other members who were very nice, but none of the instructors were around to talk to.

The Mrs had already done a Bike Safe which she really liked (I have attended 3 of them over the years and also think they are good) and an IAM /ROSPA seems like the next step, luckily she is pretty decent on a bike and was able to get right down to business with Rapid.

I would certainly still encourage people to try for IAM / ROSPA as it is very cost effective, especially if they need a lot of help (i.e. fairly newly qualified or nervous riders)

 

[2112]

I tried the IAM thing and got completely shut out, they were very quick to take my dosh but I couldn't get any tuition. Littledave of this parish, who joined at the same time as me had umpteen lessons and ultimately passed his test first time (well done feller). I only managed to get an 'assessment' ride and no more, despite being passed from pillar to post with instructors. I get that people give up their own time, but if it's too busy don't take peoples money off them...

I've given up now as I've realized that if someone pulls out in front of me I don't have time to get the 'advanced rider' certificate out of my pocket in time.

 

[yoyo]

I'm a big fan of any advanced training and it does open your eyes to things you wouldn't think of looking for. The fact you only have to pay a ROSPA £10 yearly fee then mileage money to the tutor makes it good value compared to IAM, do you use Facebook? It might me worth paying the fee, they'll add you to the Facebook group and you can contact the tutor from there. Just an idea. I paid my fee and had an email with the name of my allocated tutor within a day or two and he called about a week later, once you've made contact you deal directly with the tutor.

 

[Willie_S]

And again this year.

http://www.wiltshireroadar.co.uk/other-information/skillshare/