Seeing a potential hazard is only the first step. To ride safely, we must pre-plan our response and rehearse it until it becomes automatic. The brain works best when it recognises patterns and has a ready-made response, allowing split-second reactions without freezing or overthinking, and dramatically reducing the risk of panic-driven mistakes. It’s not enough to notice danger; we must know exactly what to do, and have practised doing it, particularly when under stress when decision-making speed slows and cognitive load spikes. This is supported by research into dual-task interference and real-time hazard response. Cognitive psychology research supports this principle: hazard perception without a prepared response has limited protective value. This threat-response model explains why experienced riders consistently outperform novices; it’s not because they “see more” but because they know what to do when they see it. However, while planning responses is essential, riders must retain flexibility. Hazards rarely present identically each time.

This is another article that developed from my original ‘Spidy Sense’ tip, as I investigated how we respond to hazards and was incorporated into my paperback MIND over MOTORCYCLE, which you can purchase at http://lulu.com/spotlight/SurvivalSkills.

Developing “What IF…?” “…then THIS!” routines

A fundamental part of the Survival Skills approach to riding is to develop an understanding of the risks of riding, and having a strategy to manage those risks. And an essential part of the approach is to have those strategies in mind when we detect a hazard. Here’s what I mean. Asking the “What if…?” question is a good start because we’re making some educated guesses about what will happen next.

But here’s the problem.

If we ask the “What if… the driver pulls out anyway?” question, we need to follow it up with an answer. Why? Because when things start to happen, it’s almost certainly too late to figure out the correct course of action. The situation changes very rapidly when we’re riding and we’ll almost certainly succumb to SURPRISE! and set off all the unwanted ‘Survival Reactions’ that Keith Code has talked about. We’ll freeze or we’ll panic. We need to know how we’re going to deal with the problem BEFORE we actually have to take emergency action.

I’ve talked about how we can apply sports psychology techniques to riding and this is another place they work. We need something akin to a ‘pre-shot routine’. A golf course, for example, is designed to set traps for the golfer. Bunkers are full of sand, greens slope, and the ball can vanish into water hazards and long grass. There are two ways to play hazards. We can try to get out of trouble after things go wrong. Or we can make pro-active compromises to the ideal shot that gives us the best chance of avoiding the obstacles.

That’s not too different from the road if we consider the road to be full of traps too. We too need a routine that applies a pro-active response to the next hazard once we’re aware of it. And here’s how. Asking the “What if…?” question is good, but we need to follow it with a statement about how we’ll then proceed; we extend the “What if…?” question to include a “Then this…!” answer.

Here’s a very simple example. We see a car waiting ahead of us, indicating and clearly ready to turn right into a side road on our nearside. “What if… the driver doesn’t see us and pulls across our path?”

It’s almost certainly too late to figure out the correct course of action if we wait until the car starts to move. Even if we have time (unlikely) we’ll almost certainly succumb to SURPRISE! and all the unwanted Survival Reactions that Keith Code has talked about. We need real answers in our heads, ready to apply to the problem BEFORE we actually have to take emergency action. Seeing a car about to turn across our path at a junction should trigger a veritable cascade of possible defensive responses – mirrors, reduction in speed, possibly a change of position, use of the lights and / or horn, preparing for a possible emergency stop, or getting ready for a swerve if we can see an escape route. Even, finally, if a collision is inevitable, Malcolm Palmer’s version of an ejector seat, the ‘jump’ routine.

Each and every one is a possible “Then this…!” response to the “What if… the car turns across me?” question. But none of them will be in the front of our minds unless we already understand that they are possible responses.

Here’s another example. Having seen a bend, “What if… it tightens up out of sight?” “Then this… we check mirrors because we may need to change speed or position, perhaps select a lower gear, ensure we don’t turn-in too early, and maybe even slow down mid-corner so we don’t run wide”. But if we’re to avoid a nasty SURPRISE! we have to be aware of our options and have them in our minds as we approach the corner.

In many cases the “What if…?” trigger event is a ‘visual cue’. We can use the colour and shape of road signs (which is why they are different shapes and colours), the presence or absence of vehicles in a junction or even the fact that we have a view or there’s a ‘vision blocker’ obscuring our line-of-sight. A hazard warning sign should trigger us to check mirrors and consider slowing down, whilst scanning harder for the specific hazard we’re being warned about. A vision blocker might prompt a change of speed and position, and readiness for an emergency stop.

Of course we can use other senses. “What if… we hear a siren?” “Then… start searching for the emergency vehicle!” What if… we smell diesel?” “Then… start scanning the surface for the tell-tale traces!” What if… we feel an unexpected vibration?” “Then… pull over and find out what’s wrong with the bike!”

The great thing about the “What if…?” “Then this…!” routine is that it IS a routine – and that means it is:

• consistent
• efficient
• effective
• easily repeated

Still struggling to see how extending the “What if…?” question with the “Then this…!” answer will benefit us?

How about the humble traffic light? We all know that red means stop, green means we can proceed if clear, but what about amber? It means we “should stop unless it would be dangerous to do so”. So how do we know if it would be dangerous or not? What dies dangerous mean in this context?

Well, it could mean being too close and / or too fast to brake without risking a locked wheel. Or it could mean that we’d put ourselves at risk from a following vehicle if we braked. So our third “What if…?” question is:

“What if… the lights change when we are right on top of them?” “Then we have to decide whether it’s safe to stop or safer to carry on!”

Generally speaking we don’t ride through red lights or stop at green lights unless we are completely distracted by another task. But even the best of us WILL cock-up when it changes to amber IF we haven’t already made a conscious assessment of the situation. How long has the light been green? Is it likely to change? How fast are we approaching, and how much space would we need to stop? What’s behind us?

If we haven’t asked those questions and got some answers, then getting the stop / go decision right is going to be guesswork.

The second half of a two-parter on getting a qualification in rider coaching.

Working to gain a BTEC Part Two

Working towards a BTEC – part 2
A couple of weeks before the second practical assessment part of the BTEC, Malc dropped a couple of training scenarios over in an email, and asked for a draft lesson plan for each. My initial view of this was that it would only take a minute or two to knock up the required plan, as both scenarios were something I have dealt with dozens of times in real courses. For example, when I looked at the first scenario (“fairly new rider having problems with bends and following partner”), I thought “easy enough, I’ve run this one myself several times”. So of course, because of the pressure of work through August and September, I left everything to the last minute.

When I sat down to finish the assignment, my initial thoughts ran along the lines of:

“Don’t take anything for granted and go for a ride along a road with some nice bends. The rest of the lesson would be based on what I detect as a problem from that point on. I really wouldn’t work to much of a plan because it’s ‘problem solving’, not training to a syllabus or set plan”.

Having submitted that in an expanded format as a draft for the assignment, another email from Malc bounced back with some helpful hints:

“But would you arrive ‘cold’? No ideas of what to expect i.e. what clues are iin the information provided? Would you bring along anything besides yourself & your bike? You’ve already started to plan, like it or not, by choosing a road with ‘nice’ bends! And what does your experience tell you to expect? Look back at the clues in the scenario again.”

I began to see what Malcolm was driving at… several hours and several balled-up printouts later, I had fleshed out that bald statement and presented my idea of a lesson plan.

Back came the reply. I was close, but no cigar. It wasn’t in ‘lesson plan’ format.

Err. OK, what was it about my lesson plan that wasn’t a lesson plan? I spent a few evenings on the internet discovering how to structure my plan into the kind now used by teachers.

I sent off a second draft. Almost there. A couple of constructive criticisms, another evening of work and one final rehash and I had it in shape – Malc passed it.

As I just hinted, any teacher would be instantly familiar with the format. Every activity is clearly explained with the aims of the exercise, the time to be taken, the results to be achieved and a way to assess the results. Also listed are the resources required, right down to pen and paper.

Now you might well argue in ‘real life’ we run sessions in a much more flexible manner, because we have the knowledge, experience and skill to do adapt quickly to a ‘real person’ when they meet us for training. That may well be true, but by formatting the planning for a session we do gain benefits:

• we can identify and work on specific objectives to ensure that learning takes place
• our knowledge, experience and planning skills are clearly demonstrated not only to any external assessor, but also to the trainee, and heaven forbid, anyone looking at the course after the event with a view to preparing a liability claim
• having identified the key information using the format will make planning (and training) more accessible

Where there is a clear benefit is for a relatively inexperienced instructor. He or she will have a much better chance of doing a decent job following a carefully prepared plan. It took a long time but ultimately the DVSA moved in this direction with CBT and DAS training just a few years back.

Nevertheless, I do think there are limitations to the use of lesson plans.

One thing that we can be sure of is that when we encounter a trainee in person, we may have to revise our plan based on our assessment of their real-life abilities. Although my pre-training discussions with the trainee usually get the trainee onto the appropriate course, it’s not unknown for me to have to change the course. Usually the trainee has underestimated their ability and I’m able to move them from the Confidence: BUILDER one-day course to one of my more advanced sessions. Only occasionally do I have to go the other way and drop to a less-technical course but it has happened.

But of course, I do have multiple lesson plans to deal with trainees with different needs and different wishlists. But it’s not unusual for a lesson plan based approach to lead to a ‘one size fits all’ approach to training, forced onto trainers and trainees alike – CBT is a good example. For all the recent changes which encourage trainers to make the course ‘client-centred’, the course is so prescriptive, so heavily dominated by the DVSA’s lesson-planning approach that says what can be done and in what order, that it has little room for flexibility or originality. But that’s something else altogether and for another column.

Back to the BTEC story. I turned up for the practical assessment at the venue in Newbury, and was met by Malc, and introduced to Steve Dixey (formerly of the BMF – I’ve known him online for many years) and a gentleman who turned out to be an external moderator from Edexcel. I was on assessment with copper, writer and road tester, Ian Kerr.

Initially Steve and I spent some time going over my portfolio to fill in a few holes in my explanations and to answer a few penetrating questions. After a short Highway Code/Roadcraft multiple guess test, next up was an interesting exercise. Ian, as a class one police licence holder, was to assess my riding whilst I tried to ride to advanced standard. Malcolm would assess us both. And when we got back, I would also sit down and assess my ride.

I have every sympathy with trainees who ride badly when being watched because I do too. Entirely predictably, with all those eyes watching my every move, I rode like a plank. Ian concurred and said I would have barely scraped through with an advanced pass in his view.

But what WAS interesting, given our very different backgrounds and even though there were predictable areas of disagreement on progress and comfort braking, was that when Ian, Malcolm and I compared our marking sheets, they turned out to be eerily similar. The implication was that even though our backgrounds were very different (I was a self-taught courier and CBT/DAS trainer, Malc used to run the BMF ‘Blue Riband’ advanced scheme and Ian was a trained police rider), we all spotted the same mistakes and the same good points, and had very similar ideas of what constituted good technique.

After lunch, it was onto the mock lessons where I had to to brief, observe, assess, correct and finally debrief the ‘nervous’ rider accordingly. Each on-road training scenario was complex enough to be reasonably challenging whilst nothing I had not seen before. The main problem in teaching ‘select chunks’ from a broader lesson plan is determining exactly what can be taken as ‘prior knowledge’ and exactly where in the lesson we actually are. But Malcolm’s own briefing and play-acting made it reasonably straightforward for me to determine what was expected.

Rather amusingly, I picked up an issue that wasn’t part of the play-acting. I noted that Malc’s foot position on the pegs could have led to a dragging toe at greater lean angles – there a danger that if you hit a bit of a bump, the foot can then get dragged backwards under the peg, breaking an ankle. So when I mentioned it, thinking it was part of the scenario, Malc looked a bit surprised. He said it was his normal riding style and that he’d check it out.

Many hours later, we finished for the day. It was tough enough to be a challenge, but it was also a thoroughly enjoyable day. Steve and Malcolm were efficient but friendly, our BTEC moderator sat quietly in the background and only occasionally asked a clarifying question, and it was of particular interest to have been matched with a police rider to watch the contrast in styles.

So, now all I have to do is wait for the the result!

(I’m pleased to say my BTEC was granted shortly afterwards.)

Modern riders benefit from weather apps with real-time wind forecasts, even GPS alerts, and which make planning safer and more precise. But the physics involved in the interaction of motorcycle and windy weather hasn’t. And there’s nothing that modern electronic aids can do either, when the bike’s hit by a sudden gust from the side. Rider knowledge and skill is still the only way to go.

Six Tips for riding in strong winds

Most years, Britain is battered by winter storms, and even in the autumn we’re increasingly being affected by the decayed remains of Atlantic hurricanes that still produce strong gales. Even in mid-summer, a thunderstorms can generate surprisingly strong, if localised winds. And of course it’s always windier on the coast or high in the hills. So what are my Survival Skills tips and the best way to deal with strong winds? As always, the first stage is to plan ahead. Before anything else, watch the forecast. That might seem obvious but what looks like nice morning weather out of the window can change in a couple of hours to a gale-wracked afternoon and it might be a good idea to travel another day. Maybe we can take the car or the train. But what if we have to ride? Here are some handy Survival Skills tips for riding in strong winds.

REMOVE LUGGAGE IF POSSIBLE – don’t forget that luggage on the rear of the machine acts as a ruddy great sail – top boxes can really destabilise a bike in strong winds. A magnetic tank bag can be blow clean off the tank too – don’t ask me how I know (I always tether a tank bag to the keyring fob with a carabiner now). If it’s possibly to take any bags and boxes off, do so. Baggy clothing and rucksacks aren’t a great idea either. If there are cinch straps on sleeves or legs, tighten them up. And if we’re going to carry a passenger, get them to sit as close up as possible so there’s no big gap between rider and pillion.

PLAN THE ROUTE – defore setting off, do some route planning. Try to find roads that are not so exposed. A roads are generally more sheltered than motorways. Roads in the lee of hills will be less windy than roads along the top. It may be possible to plan the route so that on exposed roads the strongest winds are behind us, rather than from the side. And we may need to change route mid-ride. Many years ago on a despatching job to Northampton, a windy Chrismas eve morning turned into a full gale by mid-afternoon. The M1 was a real struggle – I recall a furniture lorry being blown up onto two wheels as I passed it. Rather than attempt the M25, I came back through central London. It turned out the newly-opened Dartford bridge was closed anyway. By the time I was back out on the M20 and heading home in Kent, the wind had dropped.

SPOT THE PROBLEM AREAS – once on the move, do a bit of amateur weather forecasting. The strongest winds often blow around squall lines and thunderstorms, so spotting a tall, dark cloud with a tell tale-rain shadow beneath it should ring alarm bells. Look ahead and figure out where the wind will catch us:

exposed roads, particularly motorways

high bridges

open roads

coastal areas

roads across mountains and along mountain valleys

gaps between buildings and hedges

as trucks pass

below high rises in cities

etc etc – I’ll leave it to you to think of other examples.

WORK OUT WHICH WAY THE BIKE WILL BE BLOWN – usually it’s in the direction the wind is blowing, but there are three exceptions:

passing trucks – if the wind’s coming from the far side, we’re suddenly sheltered and we’re actually sucked in towards the truck, then as we get level with the cab, we’ll be suddenly blown away again

halfway down hills – there’s usually a back eddy where the wind suddenly reverses direction. The M20 halfway down Wrotham Hill is notorious for this

alongside high rise building – the building deflects the wind so it blows in the opposite direction at groundlevel is in the opposite direction, so we can be hit by winds which change direction through 180 degrees in a few metres in city centres

Other problems? Look out for fallen branches and general vegetable detritus blown from trees. Wheelie bins get blown into the road. Fences may come down. I’ve even seen a shed collapse into the road.

STRATEGIES TO SURVIVE – so if we know when and where we’re likely to be blown of course, we can at least prepare:

ride on the side of the lane which gives us the most room to be blown sideways

keep well away from high-sided vehicles, and give a good clearance to those coming the other way – they’ll be pushing the wind in front of them

don’t try to hang onto the bars – instead, keep the shoulders, elbows and wrists as loose as possible but locking the knees against the tank and brace our back. That way when we’re blown around on top of the bike, we won’t take the handlebars with us, and it’s much easier to steer a reasonably straight course

be ready to steer into the wind

remember counter-steering – if the bike is being blown TO the left, we need to steer INTO the wind by pushing on the RIGHT handlebar end.

Strong, sidewinds are knackering. I had to ride 200 miles due south across the Mohave Desert with a 50 mph wind coming from the west. Absolutely NO cover from the wind. My arms, shoulders, and back burned by the end of that ride. The only way I made it was by hanging my backside off the side of the bike facing the wind. Try it, and you’ll find it helps the bike to steer into the wind. And that means a little less effort in holding a constant degree of steering into the wind.

I can’t emphasise how important it is not to ride with stiff arms. If we’re hanging on for dear life, every time our upper body gets buffeted, we feed that straight into the steering and we make all the wobbles and weaves much worse. Keep elbows loose but the wider we hold the bars, the more leverage we have to steer into the wind and the less ‘push’ we have to make which means it’s less tiring.

DO WE SLOW DOWN – there’s often a suggestion that if we slow down, we feel less ‘blown about’. Well, that may be true into a headwind but if the wind comes from the side, we might feel less buffeting on our chest. But the sideways component of the wind remains exactly the same, plus we lose the benefit of how straightline stability increases with speed. There’s a trade-off where too fast becomes a problem because we get blown off the road quicker than we can deal with it but it’s certainly possible to ride too slowly in wind – the clue is we’re wobbling all over the place.

Some bikes are better at handling wind than others. Part of the problem is the design of the front wheel. Harleys with solid disc wheels have a bit of a reputation for being unstable in crosswinds, and so did the 80’s Hondas with the ‘Banana Comstars’ – I had an XBR500 and this was an absolute pig in high winds – I could feel the wind blowing the front wheel around and trying to yank the bars out of my hands.

I can’t claim riding in strong winds is fun. If we have to ride – as I had to on that journey back from Northampton – we can’t stop the bike being blown sideways, but like most things, there are strategies for dealing with the problem. It’s hard work, but with a bit of thought and forward planning it need not be quite so scary.

Pro-active riding remains central to modern motorcycle safety. While updates such as advanced rider aids and digital alerts can support our awareness, nothing replaces the skill of anticipating hazards before they develop. By assessing potential conflict points, adjusting lane position, controlling speed, and signalling or alerting other road users early, riders can actively manage risk rather than waiting to react. The earlier we plan and act, the less likely we are to be taken by surprise: No surprise? No accident!

Getting our retaliation in first – pro-active versus reactive riding

Since I launched my Survival Skills advanced motorcycle training courses back in 1997, the thinking underpinning my approach to riding hasn’t changed at all. I’ve always thought – based on my experience as a motorcycle courier – that whilst we need to plan for things to go wrong, we don’t actually need to wait until people make mistakes around us. We can anticipate problems, then respond in such as way as to cancel out the problem before it develips. Nevertheless, there have been changes in other places, particularly around the motorcycle test itself. The theory test aims to ensure that riders already have a degree of ability to see into the future before they take the practical test, but the first time I saw the hazard perception videos I thought it was a lost opportunity. Despite the latest innovation – the clips are now based on CGI – I still think they are poorly-conceived. Read on and find out why.

One of concepts underpinning ‘advanced’ riding is the idea that we should apply observation, anticipation and concentration to the riding task. The idea is that by avoiding distraction and focusing on the task in hand – riding the bike – we’ll be more able to identify hazards and work out how they might affect us. But there’s another necessary stop – we have to have a plan to deal with those hazard IF things get tricky. It’s no good seeing a car at the side of the road, and knowing it COULD pull out if we don’t have a plan in mind to deal with the situation if it does emerge into our path. That’s the true essence of a riding plan – we know what’s coming next and we know what we’re going to do to deal with it.

But we can go a step further – we may be able to see how a situation could develop and take a course of action which actively minimises or even cancels out the risk.

Back in 1999, I got hold of a copy of the brand-new BikeSafe 2000 video produced by the Thames Valley police. Although it’s now two decades old, it covers some excellent ground. In particular, I noticed the use of the terms reactive and pro-active – two terms I’ve talked about in my training since 1997. At the time, these terms were not in regular use.

Even now, the distinction between them is not so well-known, perhaps because of the way that the DVSA set up their hazard perception videos. The DVSA recognise three levels of hazard, where a hazard is defined as something that poses a threat with a consequent risk of personal harm:

a potential hazard is something that may or may not become a threat

a developing hazard is something that will require an intervention by the rider in the immediate future

an actual hazard needs to be dealt with NOW!

When the DSA (as was) brought their roadshow around the country to show of the new hazard perception videos, one of the clips I was shown revealed a kiddie on a bicycle cycling down a footpath across a playing field to the nearside of the car. The footpath was angled to intersect with the road some distance ahead, and it appeared that the cyclist would arrive at the end of the footpath at about the same time as the camera vehicle.

As you’d probably expect – it’s a hazard perception video after all – I decided that the cyclist was a hazard almost as soon as he appeared, and clicked on him. He carried on down the path, and bunny-hopped off the pavement and into the road just in front of the camera car. Job done, I thought…

…except that I had scored zero for video.

Why? The presenter explained. “You clicked too early”.

Eh? How can you spot a hazard ‘too early’?

The answer is that at the point where I clicked, the situation was still fluid and the outcome could have changed – the cyclist could have veered off the path onto the grass, slowed down or even stopped. He was only a ‘potential’ hazard. So identifying the cyclist as a hazard at this point was too early.

Being slightly bemused by this, the presenter further explained that if I’d left my ‘click’ until he bunny-hopped off the pavement into the road, that would also have scored zero because I would then have identified the hazard too late – in the car, I would have needed to take sudden evasive action to avoid what was now an ‘actual’ hazard.

The ‘sweet spot’ which would score maximum points was a narrow zone where the cyclist had been in sight for several seconds but was still heading for the road and just a couple of seconds from bunny-hopping his bike out into the road. This was where the hazard was ‘developing’ and would leave me time to steer or brake smoothly to avoid the bike rider.

What should be pretty obvious is that if wait until the cyclist puts us into a position where we will have to change speed or direction, then we’re not being pro-active. We’re being reactive. We’re waiting until we don’t have a choice. It may not be an emergency reaction but it’s too late.

Personally, I’m still puzzled as to why the DVSA’s hazard perception clips require such a last-moment response. I’d argue that the earlier we see a hazard, the sooner we can plan our strategy and get into a position where we are able to ‘get our retaliation in first’. Maybe as soon as the cyclist appeared, I could take up a much wider position away from the kerb. Maybe I could accelerate a little to clear the potential zone of conflict before the cyclist gets there. Maybe I could even sound the horn to get him to look round. All these are pro-active responses.

Being pro-active in this way is the next step after anticipation. If working out that the cyclist is on a potential collision course is risk assessment, then being pro-active is risk MANAGEMENT. And the really big plus is that if we’re already taking steps, we’re not going to be taken by SURPRISE! No Surprise? No Accident.

If I were rewriting this article today, there’s little I’d change. I would emphasise the ever-widening gulf between hot-of-the-production line bikes and old-school machines. My observation that group riding introduces unique risks remains correct and is now widely accepted in safety research. The Lincolnshire statistic reference aligns with later findings elsewhere, that peer pressure, pace escalation and delayed fatigue recognition are all major contributors to group crashes. The framing of “organising a ride equals accepting responsibility” has received some legal attention, with group rider organisers being held responsible following fatal crashes on riders. That’s a fact that’s rarely emphasised when articles cover group riding . Fatigue as a hidden cause is also something that modern crash analysis has shown up, not just as an end-of-day problem, but as a mid-ride cognitive degradation; rider performance likely begins to degrade before the warning signs actually tell us we’re “feeling tired”. I’d probably reframe the decision to leave a ride early, to emphasise that it’s not a personal failure, but a success in identifying that the ride doesn’t suit us.

Organising and joining group riding – some rules and tips

This particular article was originally penned after a friend of mine (at the time member of an advanced group), told me a sorry tale of things going wrong on their group rides. Three rides, three crashes bringing the rides to an unplanned halt. Now, having organised trouble-free group rides for years I’d like to say that on a well-organised ride, with proper rules and sensible riders this shouldn’t happen. But having written the article, the next three rides I organised were also brought to a halt by silly crashes. Two riders fell off at walking pace on sharp corners, and required medical attention. The third ran out of road on another tight bend and whilst unhurt, needed a van to take his bike home. Bad luck? Perhaps. But maybe we were actually. Shortly afterwards, a survey of rural riding fatalities in Lincolnshire found that ALMOST HALF occurred on group rides. So if we take on the organisation of a group ride, we take on a lot of responsibility and we need to understand just how group riding brings some very unique problems. But we also have some responsibilities if we join a group ride.

Most discussion on how to organise a group ride tends to focus on how the ride’s organised once it’s underway. But if we’re setting it up, we really need to back up a stage and focus on some risk assessment and management.

Virtually all the serious problems I’ve seen on group rides result from just a few issues. Three really crop up in the planning stage:

poorly-planned routes

fatigue

lack of organisation to deal with a mix of abilities

worst case scenarios

And one is down to the ride attendees:

individual poor attitude to riding and a lack of self-control

Planning and Organisation

The route: start by deciding what the ride is for. Is it just a couple of hours out with some buddies? A club outing to a different part of the country? Or do you want to put on a day’s riding for riders you don’t know?

That’s important because it’ll influence the route. For example, if we’re leading a small club group off for a few days riding in a totally different area, then planning a ride up a motorway is likely to be the quickest way of getting there – it’s easy enough to organise a rendezvous at a particular service area or junction. But on a day-long ride with a big group of unknown riders, then short stretches of motorways can cause real problems with keeping the group together. And believe it or not, I was on one group ride where the organisers had forgotten there were a few riders on L plates.

Town centres also cause problems, even with a good system of marking. As well as having drivers get annoyed by being ‘blocked in’ by a stream of bikes crossing a junction, and deliberately pulling out, a big group can be chopped into numerous chunks by traffic lights or roundabouts. This happened on a ride down the French coast through Bolougne with thirty-odd riders. One rider didn’t follow the group riding rules and failed to mark an exit from a roundabout. The next rider just ahead of me couldn’t see where he’d gone so followed the ‘all directions’ sign. He guessed wrong so the back end of the group went the wrong way. After ten minutes we stopped when we realised we’d lost the front. But the group leader was still blissfully unaware because he still had bikes behind him, thanks to that rider who didn’t stop. With no contingency plan and no route map to the lunch stop, we had to contact him by phone – not so easy when someone’s riding with the phone in a pocket. We made it to lunch, an hour late, and that meant we had to abandon our pleasant ride back to Eurotunnel. One mistake totally disrupted the day. One group kept stopping and reassembling after each junction, but this causes inconvenience to other road users, and eventually becomes unworkable if the group’s a big one. You could have a reassembly point marked on a map. That’ll work IF people can read a map.

For the same sort of reason, right turns on fast, busy roads are best avoided. It’ll take ages for a big group to make the turn. Meanwhile, there’s a long queue of bikes backing up and potentially blocking the road.

And think about whether the group will cope with really awkward corners or turns. I planned one route for some new riders, but overlooked one very tight, right-back-on-itself, downhill junction. As I approached I suddenly realised it would be a major problem for some of the less-experienced in the group. I had to pull the group up and warn them at the last moment. That one would have been best avoided.

It may be that the UK’s not blessed with vast areas of open roads, so we’re bound to encounter villages. But with a bit of careful planning, it’s usually possible to avoid the bigger towns and motorways, and to avoid the most awkward manoeuvres.

Don’t forget fuel. It’s amazing how often it’s a last-minute consideration but plan your stops and make sure everyone can reach them. It’s no good planning around your own 250 mile tank. My Hornet has a notoriously short reliable fuel range of 120 to 130 miles. With reserve, I can be reasonably certain of hitting 150 miles… unless we’re riding at speed. On one group ride in France, our destination was only 90 miles away, so starting with a full tank should have got me there with plenty to spare… except the leader didn’t take the obvious route, but a much longer ride that was marginally quicker thanks to some autoroute with no service area and didn’t check if anyone would need a top-up. I had just hit 135 miles when we turned off the motorway and a moment later I ran out of fuel. Fortunately, I was able to coast downhill into the town and straight into a filling station half-way down.

Getting tired: the problem of fatigue shouldn’t be underestimated. I know that because it’s something I’ve been guilty of. I tend to forget that I’m used to spending long hours in the saddle. Just recently, I left at 9am to ride 90 miles to meet a trainee at 11am, covered another 90 miles in five hours training (which actually took six and a half hours because we talked so much), then rode just under 100 miles for another two and a half hours to my final destination, not arriving until 8:30pm.

But not everyone is capable of doing that. We have to remember that for some riders, one hour in the saddle is likely to be a long ride. Others will make problems for themselves. Having organised a ride in North Yorkshire a while back, I was rather flattered that someone had ridden almost 150 miles to make our 10 am start, but in retrospect it meant he’d set off at 7am and by the time he crashed, at about 4pm, he’d covered another 120 miles of fairly technical riding with only a couple of twenty minute refueling stops and an hour’s lunch break. Even though it was in clear sight, he failed to spot a sharp kink at the end of a gentle left-hander. The bike left the road at walking pace, but fell a metre on the far side. The bike was unrideable, and was ultimately a write-off. He said some months later that he was absolutely knackered when he crashed.

Make sure you plan stops. Dehydration is an issue on a bike so we all need to personally refuel and rest up on a long ride, but be aware of the issue that the slowest riders will be last in and have least time to recover. Up front, you may feel refreshed. The rider at the back may barely have got the helmet off. And factor in loo stops, and bum and ciggie breaks. Be particularly cautious after lunch when the combination of food and biorhythms cause a low point in our riding.

Who’s on the ride: we also need to think about who is on the invite list. If we know the riders, then we should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Similarly if it’s closed-to-club, we should have a reasonable idea of who will turn up. But once it’s an open ride, we have no idea who’ll turn up. We can pitch a ride for ‘experienced only’ or ‘suitable for newly qualified’ but we’re relying on attendees to self-assess. I’ve seen plenty of ‘experienced’ riders with poor skills. Ultimately, we won’t have any idea of their capabilities – or level of self-control – until we see them ride. Or we can suggest a ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ ride. One of the problems of ‘fast’ riders turning up for ‘slow’ rides is that they get bored and start messing about.

We also need to think about the size of the group. It may stroke our ego to be leading a big group of thirty-plus riders, but it causes any amount of problems. We have to find ways of keeping the group together, and to keep it under control. Having said that, I have ridden in groups of thirty where everyone’s behaved impeccably but I’ve also seen chaos. My own preference these days is for small groups – single figures. And with just four or five riders, the leader can usually see everyone else in the group. Plus it’s more intimate, everybody gets to know everyone else – and it’s easier to find somewhere to stop for lunch.

And it almost guarantees a mix of abilities. So what do we do about inexperienced or new riders mixing with an experienced group? The usual solution is to put the slowest or least experienced rider behind the leader. That way, in theory at least, the pace is set for the entire group and no-one will be left behind. But think about this. However much they are told to “ride at your own pace”, the rider behind the leader will not want to hold the group up. So there’s a serious risk they’ll override, and the leader will progressively up the pace to the point where they can no longer sustain it.

If the group’s a large one, does everyone ride together? Or should it be split up into mini-groups which ride at their own pace? This is one way to deal with a mix of experienced / inexperienced or fast / slow riders. Or does everyone do their own ride but following a common route?

If the ride is split into mini-groups do they cover the route at their own pace? That’s an approach I have used successfully in France. Or do the mini-groups plan to meet at intervals along the route? Do they set off together again? If they do, this inevitably means the slower riders have less time to recover. Or if everyone is riding alone, do they do their own thing once they’ve set off?

How are you going to organise the ‘marking system’ so riders know where to turn? Is overtaking allowed? These are all decisions that need to be made before the ride.

With small groups of half-a-dozen or so, the leader can keep everyone in sight, but bigger groups need a marking system. There are two alternatives – the ‘caterpillar’ (as used by the National Motorcycle Escort Group which escorts cycle races and similar and of which I was a member for some years) or the ‘leapfrog’.

In the caterpillar system, the rider immediately behind the leader stops when the leader turns off, and waits for the next rider who slides into his place as the first rider moves off again. This works well with groups which are riding on open roads where riders are riding at their own pace and can lose sight of the rider ahead. Why? Because everyone stays in the SAME ORDER. Each rider knows exactly who is ahead and behind. You’ll see why that’s important in a moment.

With the leapfrog system, the rider immediately behind the leader stops to mark the point where the leader has turned off, but this time that rider stays there and lets the entire group pass by, only moving on again when the tail end rider, sometimes called ‘the sweeper’, comes into view. Now, if no overtaking is allowed within the group, then the group order stays the same aside from this ‘front to back’ rotation. But many groups do allow overtaking. And then two problems arise. Unless it’s a small group and we know exactly who’s on the ride, we’ll probably not know everyone. And that means it’s possible a random rider can get into the group. It’s always possible that the next group rider won’t realise the interloper is not part of the ride, and will follow that random bike when it turns off. Riding with a buddy, that’s exactly what happened when I pulled out into what turned out to be the middle of a group ride. I turned off, stopped to wait for my buddy to appear, and whilst the front half of the group carried on on the main road, the back half thought I was marking a turn for them and turned off where I’d stopped. The second issue is that in my experience getting back to the front can become a competition for some riders, who end up constantly passing the slower riders. I’m not a great fan of this method as it results in dodgy overtakes and scary moments for slower riders as they are passed by the quicker guys.

Worst case scenarios: what can go wrong? The obvious issues are the group splitting, crashes and breakdowns. What are your fallback plans to deal with each? Are you going to provide a route map? Does everyone have a contact number? Can you hear the phone and answer it? Have you got anyone with first aid training? Does anyone have a first aid kit? What about tools? Can you deal with a puncture?

Here’s another to think about. How do you deal with a disruptive rider? It’s worth thinking about because sooner or later, you will get someone who thinks a group ride is an excuse to pull wheelies down the village high street.

On the day

Don’t just set off. Hold a briefing at the beginning of the ride. Make it clear that rules will be operating. You may find that some people will leave at that point. Too bad. If they’re not happy to follow rules, then we don’t really want them along.

Whether you provide route maps and contingency meet points is up to you, but make sure everyone knows the lead and the last rider (the ‘sweeper’) in the group. Ideally, make it easy for everyone to see you. Don’t just wear a fluoro yellow hi-vis, as half the group will – try a different colour like blue or green. Maybe use a coloured headlight cover. There’s little to be gained from an introduction such as I saw on one group ride where we were all sitting in the cafe, drinking tea. “Bob will be sweeper, there’s Bob for those of you who don’t know him”. Bob duly stands up, in his pullover, waves and smiles all round. Yeah right, that’s going to make him very easy to spot when he has his gear on and is riding his unidentified bike.

Joining a ride?

You may be joining a ride, and possibly a bit nervous, so here are my tips for group participants. The main thing to remember is that it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of not looking any further ahead than the tail light of the rider in front and never checking your own mirrors.

1) Ride your OWN RIDE

Don’t ride in the wheeltracks of the bike in front! In the event of a sudden stop, you might not! On twistier roads where there’s only one line, sit well back. On wider and straighter roads, it’s possible to stagger alternately, one bike to one side and the next to the other, but it does require everyone to understand how it works. It’s particularly useful in town, as it makes the group shorter and more compact, thus taking up less room on the road, which helps prevent drivers turning into the middle of it.

Don’t follow the rider ahead either. Stay back and look past the bike in front. Get too close and it’s hard to look at anything other than the brake light. The bike you’re following speeds up, you speed up. That bike slows down, you slow down. The rider cocks up and you follow them straight off the road… it happens. If you find yourself struggling to do this, drop back until the rider ahead is out of sight and trust the marking system – if it works properly, there’s no need to worry about getting lost. That way, it’s possible to focus on your own lines, pick your own speeds, choose your own braking points and cornering lines. Most importantly you deal with hazards for yourself.

2) Ride at your OWN PACE

A major cause of group crashes is someone over-riding to try to keep up with the rider in front. Once you begin to stress over speed, you tense up, stop scanning ahead but fixate on the bike in front, and your riding will go ragged. Let them go. Similarly, if a rider behind catches you up, don’t try to speed up. You can move over on straights, but don’t make silly efforts to let them past, so hold your own line where necessary – it is up to the rider behind to overtake safely, not for you to make things easy. The moment things start to surprise you and scare you, slow down!

3) Don’t hassle other riders

So you’re quicker than the rider ahead and you’d like to pass. Hang back and wait for a safe overtaking opportunity. Don’t hassle slower or less experienced riders, because if they feel they’re being pressured, they’ll often either speed up and over-ride to avoid holding you up, or slow down and pull over in the daftest places. And if the rider ahead is trying to pass another bike or a car, wait your turn, however long it takes.

Whilst it’s important not to get sucked into a copy-cat mentality when riding in a group,

If you’re not happy with the group’s behaviour or simply not enjoying the route – that’s happened when I’ve joined an unknown group and the route consisted entirely of busy A roads – go home. Don’t just turn off but ride to the next group stop, and let the leader know you’re leaving.

And don’t show off. Easy enough.