THREE THINGS I LEARNED…
1 Safety bubble
I’ve heard the term ‘safety bubble’ used a few times on courses and it really makes sense as it is a quick and easy way to visualise how to position yourself safely on the road. Imagine a bubble around your bike and what you want to do is avoid any potential hazard — be it an oncoming car, parked car, dog, cyclist etc — entering your ‘safe space.’ This simple trick makes you think not only about potential hazards but also how you are interacting with other road users.
2 Triangulate your overtakes
The IAM like you to ‘triangulate’ your overtakes rather than use swooping lines to pull in and out as I was. Imagine you are approaching the car and when you want to overtake, you use the triangle’s longest edge to make a smooth line of the overtake. This technique keeps the bike nice and upright, which is best for grip and gives room for visibility and to pull out of the overtake if you wish. You should also use a similar line to get back into your lane once you have completed the overtake. The IAM also makes a point about treating filtering as a series of ‘stepping-stone’ overtakes so you always have a safe place in between cars.
3 Reading the road
The concept of a vanishing point, how to read the road and even positioning yourself to maximise your view around a bend is all a bit complicated and for a lot of riders, it doesn’t make sense. Stopping on a corner, chatting these things through with Mark and looking at the IAM handbook’s illustrations helped clarify all these points and I am sure many riders will benefit from this part of the tuition.