Finding your way through the training maze an article by Kevin Fitzpatrick.
(Ex Police Inspector, Kevin was the instigator and project leader of Thames Valley Police, BikeSafe 2000 project. His background includes his being a former head of the TVP motorcycle section and one time police law instructor. He has been involved with rider training at all levels for over 16 years and was the driving force behind the making of the highly acclaimed BikeSafe video starring British Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss.)
History
When I first started riding, back in the 60s, everything was simple. You could ride any bike at 16 and you could ride up to 250cc on L-plates for as long as you wanted. There was just one very basic driving test to pass to get your full licence.
Lots of people back then owned low powered bikes that they used mainly for cheap transport and many never bothered taking their test at all. Nobody much carried pillions, there were few motorways and the big bike world was seen as being all greasy blue jeans, leather jackets and very macho.
The majority of folk were content to ride their Raleigh Runabouts or BSA Bantams to and from work and for short trips and never aspired to the thrills of the Norton Commando or Triumph Bonneville. Car ownership was also, for many, an ambition beyond their dreams of reality.
How soon it was all to change!
The introduction into the country of super fast Japanese 250s in the early 70s forced the limit for learners down to 125cc and saw the age for riding other than mopeds pushed up to 17. However, when bikes like the Yamaha FS1E (the famous Fizzy) began flying along at almost 60 mph the very definition of moped had to be revised and a 30mph power limit was introduced.
Nonetheless, accident figures continued to rise and the emphasis was then taken from the bike and put onto the rider. A few, mostly charitable, training schemes were operating by the late 70s and the RAC-ACU scheme still holds fond memories for those riders fortunate enough to have been able to take riding courses. However, the problem remained that there was simply no mass demand for training and most of the schemes that did exist were severely under resourced.
When the two-part test was introduced at the start of the eighties huge efforts went into encouraging new riders to develop their skills before venturing out onto the road. A number of locally based training schemes (including the first of the commercial schemes) came into being and the two national players back then were Star Rider and RoSPA (RMTS). Neither of them now, sadly, exists.
These bodies were authorised to conduct Part 1 off-road tests for the Department of Transport (now the DETR) and became subject to scrutiny by a local supervising examiner who was a senior driving test examiner. (Incidentally, although it has been nearly ten years since the two-part test was discontinued you often still hear the main DSA riding test referred to as the Part 2 Test.)
In October 1989 the first of the new pursuit style Part 2 tests was introduced and the sight of the chap with the clipboard hiding behind hedges and leaping out from alleyways in an effort to assess a riders skills faded into biking folklore.
Successful though the Part 1 test was, it was still voluntary and the problem remained that a 17 year old could simply walk into a dealers shop and ride off on a bike capable of 80 mph - without any rider or driver training whatsoever! The number of accidents involving these riders was going through the roof. Something had to be done and the past ten years has seen one development on top of another in terms of legislation, but this time with some success, in the case of the young rider.
These developments take us to the start of the modern era.