I took a call yesterday from Tony, my RoSPA examiner who was keen to arrange my retest. For those new to the idea of RoSPA, in this form its an advanced classification of road riding standards, above those of the normal riding test and is equal to that provided by the Institute of Advancing Motoring, or IAM. There are subtle differences between the two and with the RoSPA award, you have to have mandatory retests every three years.
We had originally tried to get something done in October of last year, but things slipped between the cracks and then winter came along, so it got a little delayed. I looked at the weather forecast earlier today and it was really positive, but when riding to the meet at the services just off J23 of the M25, it started to rain, not heavily, but persistently. I got there nice and early, but didn't realise I was in the wrong place. After about 10mins I rode around to the petrol station to find Tony, texting me to work out where I was. Not the best start I thought.
We had a nice little chat and remembered part of my previous test and then off we popped into early Friday afternoon traffic. The roads were greasy and my tyres have never liked these conditions, but the road conditions improved during the ride and after around 45mins we got back to the services. I thought I'd done terribly if I'm honest. Yes there were some very good moments for me, but I was really worried that I made one too many errors on the ride. A missed cancelled indicator right at the start being a prime example, but thankfully I spotted it in time. During the debrief we talked about the road conditions, the way I rode, how I overtook and my general attitude when riding the bike. I was really happy when Tony put out his hand and told me I had achieved the gold award again. Great way to end the working week.
We had originally tried to get something done in October of last year, but things slipped between the cracks and then winter came along, so it got a little delayed. I looked at the weather forecast earlier today and it was really positive, but when riding to the meet at the services just off J23 of the M25, it started to rain, not heavily, but persistently. I got there nice and early, but didn't realise I was in the wrong place. After about 10mins I rode around to the petrol station to find Tony, texting me to work out where I was. Not the best start I thought.
We had a nice little chat and remembered part of my previous test and then off we popped into early Friday afternoon traffic. The roads were greasy and my tyres have never liked these conditions, but the road conditions improved during the ride and after around 45mins we got back to the services. I thought I'd done terribly if I'm honest. Yes there were some very good moments for me, but I was really worried that I made one too many errors on the ride. A missed cancelled indicator right at the start being a prime example, but thankfully I spotted it in time. During the debrief we talked about the road conditions, the way I rode, how I overtook and my general attitude when riding the bike. I was really happy when Tony put out his hand and told me I had achieved the gold award again. Great way to end the working week.
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