About time...

I've been biking for over 43 years now.... and never not had a taxed and insured bike, sometimes as many as three.  As I've ranged out due to having more time in later years and made more friends from the internet my flavour of bikes has changed to touring bikes and my mileage and distances have increased. With extra miles comes extra risk. At the same time my biker friends group has included blood bikers and after losing a good friend to a condition where blood bikes would have been used to bring in help I resolved to become a blood biker which at the saem time would mean I'd need a 'qualification'

To be a blood biker I needed to have completed and Institute of Advanced Motorcyclist course and passed  a road assessment by a national observer. I set to this in late 2019 by applying to the IAM for a course... we all know what happened in early 2020....

In my log book I only had 9 sessions where I went out with an observer following for anything from an hour to nearly three ( including tea ) The ninth session a couple of weeks ago was an assessment of my fitness to take the actual test or assessment which I took today. 

I met up with a national ROSPA IAM observer who also happened to have a police car and biking CV second to none. He was so many things in his introduction I can't remember them all. After a quick vision check we were off for and hour and a bit of him following me on a route across most road types  - resulting in a pass. 

So now I am IAM qualified to progress to my final ( biking) ambition of being a blood biker  - subject to another induction meeting another assessment ride and hopefully some buddy shifts .... watch this space.