Black Forest Delights
From Deirdre Siddaway, after a Bends/Double Bends course!
“You are an all time legend!!! We had the most amazing time in the Black Forest, thanks to you!!! Bends with a decreasing radius … no fear!!! We rode on roads I could only have previously imagined – & all thanks to your instruction in the Cotswolds. Fish Hill … push …. push … push … I don’t know how we would have coped on the first day in Germany without your instruction … mountain passes with … tight bends … decreasing radius then … cobble stones – joy!
“If your ears were burning 13 – 22 June, we were singing your praises in Germany…
“On a final biking note – I had the front springs changed on my bike a couple of weeks ago … it’s like having a new bike!!! Apparently the ER6 is renown for having v hard shocks!!! There’s no stopping me now!!! Don’t worry, I’m not planning another off with 6 months off work.
“Thank you again Kevin for your training. It really made such a difference & I really do have more smiles for the miles now … bends … bring them on! Think we’ll have to go back to Germany for some more bends .. they are a bit tame in Suffolk!!!”
Deirdre and her husband did a “Survival Skills” course with me in Suffolk a few years back, and came back to do another “Double Bends” course earlier this year to really sort out highly technical bends like hairpins which she wasn’t confident on.
So we went to Fish Hill in the Cotswolds amongst others and did a couple of trips up and down that!
Slowing early, getting the bike set on the throttle and taking the time gained to look though the bend early to pick up the general line, looking round it to stay on line, and positive use of mid-corner countersteering to hold the bike on line mid-turn proved the key points to sorting her problems mid turn out.
Much of the worry turned out to be down to fear she wasn’t making enough ‘progress’ mid-turn as her IAM group had encouraged her to. I showed how braking positively on the approach rather than just rolling off the throttle, then getting the power on later but harder took away the stresses mid-turn and meant that she actually got round the bend no slower overall (if not quicker from end to end!).
Her husband Paul wasn’t convinced he’d pick much up from the course after taking an advanced bike test himself, but he admitted after the two days that he had a far better grasp of how to get a bike round an awkward bend than before as a result, particularly in the issues of how to use positive body shifts to influence the way the bike turns.
Excellent result, when someone goes away and enjoys their riding so much as a consequence of covering the right stuff on a course!