Road Positioning and vanishing points - ROSPA riding tutorial.

This was a ROSPA ride I filmed today, I am a Gold holder, but also tutor training. It was very cold this morning 1 degree and raining out with the tutor tutor. This was the ride through to Wantage for road positioning and vanishing points. What do you think? BTW just for the record I hate the phrase "advanced biking" it reminds me of white helmets, polite vests and police wannabes grrrrrrrrrr :mad:, but it is definitely a safer riding style. :)

https://youtu.be/W6CdhsH1-9g?list=PL...IJgYmnt_oSqTD0

Interesting to watch. I'm normally guilty of terrible road positioning, truth be told I usually only become aware of it when someone with good positioning is riding ahead of me.

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Originally Posted by shiftyblake

This was a ROSPA ride I filmed today, I am a Gold holder, but also tutor training. It was very cold this morning 1 degree and raining out with the tutor tutor. This was the ride through to Wantage for road positioning and vanishing points. What do you think? BTW just for the record I hate the phrase "advanced biking" it reminds me of white helmets, polite vests and police wannabes grrrrrrrrrr :mad:, but it is definitely a safer riding style. :)

https://youtu.be/W6CdhsH1-9g?list=PL...IJgYmnt_oSqTD0

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Great video :)

You can tell you have RoSPA Gold ;) Lovely smooth, flowing, relaxed progress.

One thing which to advanced riders is obvious but is easily forgotten in my opinion is the need to always check behind before changing position. Not sure that's mentioned in your video and apologies if I missed it I watched it late last night. May have also been worth a mention of SSV.

I remember about 4 years ago when I started down the route of improving my riding I did a Bike Safe day at Devizes and was shown the merits of moving to gain a view but what the didnt tell me was the importance of always checking behind, and, that safety comes first, or actually why its beneficial to 'gain a view'.

When I did my first IAM session my observer (thankfully) explained the importance of always checking behind before moving to gain a view, especially for other bikes coming up quickly behind which sometimes you can easily not be aware of. It's saved my skin on more than one occasion.

I think it can be easy to forget something so fundamental when you do it instinctively.

Yes I agree QB1 about mirrors, when I did the actual commentary onboard I had to obviously do and say mirror check each time and point hazards out early etc. I thought I would just record a post commentary concentrating on road position. I also shoulder check a lot which some say is old Skool. But having spent the vast amount of my time in heavy commuter traffic near London there is so much lane swapping next to you you can't really rely on the mirror checks to the rear. I observed another tutor who swapped lanes on the approach to a congested three lane roundabout without a shoulder check, but if the car on the far lane had nipped into the middle lane as they did it could have been embarrassing. But I suppose we are not robots and can only do our best.

I have my moments too, it's hard riding behind other riders. Trying to stay off set. If you ride behind good riders it's a breeze but can be hard if you have a rider who is unpredictable in front. I ride with a motorcycle group called Lazer that contains 3 ex bike cops and one ex trainer so you have to make the effort to be predictable so they can stay off set behind you. I have had a rider behind me riding too close and he couldn't stop in time as I stopped for a truck blocking the road after a bend. He just missed me by luck. But he is fairly newish to biking and doesn't look far enough ahead. So now I insist he rides in front of me!

Nice Video. Very smooth riding.

Excellent video ....

Shame that the video ended before getting to the better section of the A338 (Great Shefford to Wantage). I'd be interested to know the OP's viewpoint on the recent changing of the speed limits along the latter stretch, when all the National limits were reduced to 50mph limits instead. I've regularly ridden that road for most of the last ten years and I'm not aware of it being particularly bad for accidents, and the newer limit is virtually unenforceable, except by pursuit vehicles (and I don't think I've ever seen a traffic car along there). My question is, what was the point of going to the trouble (proposing and getting the change accepted) and expense (changing all the National speed signs for 50s) along a stretch of road that didn't have a bad history and is difficult to enforce speed limits along anyway? If road users habitually broke the National limit, reducing it to 50 along the same stretch is unlikely to slow them down...
Discuss.

Scotty - I recently read that councils are lowering speed limits when road surfaces deteriorate because a national limit has certain quality standards, 50 is less, 40 lower standards still and so-on. Cheaper to reclassify a stretch than resurface in many cases.

Having said that, I read it online so I can't vouch for whether that's true or not. Seems to make sense though

Think you are right there mate, Higher speed limit roads require a higher degree of maintenance, so in cutting the limits, it reduces the level and schedule for repair.