Do you have an interest in road safety and want to improve your riding standards, knowledge and skills?

RoSPA’s Advanced Drivers and Riders is a network of groups around the United Kingdom that provides driver and riding training to help you improve your skills and prepares you to take the RoSPA Advanced Test.

RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Coventry Riders are based in Coventry and cover Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire. All of our Tutors are made up from enthusiastic members who volunteer their time for the benefit of other members. Other things they do include, helping to organise the programme of social rides and training course. All of our Tutors will have been themselves tested to the very highest standard as part of their qualification process. They also undergo regular additional training and monitoring to ensure they are able to offer the very best training, matching these standards. Our friendly group is ready to help you take your riding to the next level.

Motorcycle roadcraft is the term used for the set of skills that allow:

• a good rider to observe and react to everything that is going on around them. 
• an empathy with your bike, the road and your surroundings that allows you to anticipate and plan for events before they have happened. 
• a system of controlling your bike while riding that maximises your safety while at the same time allowing you to ride more smoothly and quickly.

It is also the name of the book that police riders and advanced riders refer to as the “bible” – the full title being ‘Motorcycle Roadcraft – The Police Rider’s Handbook to Better Motorcycling’.  If you join the group as an Associate, the book will be included in your Welcome Pack (along with a copy of The Highway Code and Know Your Traffic Signs). Alternatively, the book can be purchased online or from any good bookshop.

The book sets out the “system of motorcycle control”.  The system as it is commonly known is a set of guidelines that set out a framework for observing your surroundings and manoeuvring your bike which is the foundation for advanced riding. It is an invaluable read as it provides detailed information about how to use the system to ride quickly, smoothly, and safely.

One of the key points that the book makes is that irrespective of who’s “fault” an accident was, there is nearly always something that an injured motorcyclist could have done to avoid it.  The ability to be self-critical, and to learn from your mistakes are the first two lessons that the book teaches. The attitude of many riders that “all accidents are caused by car drivers” is unhelpful, and not even true.

A rider is very unlikely to obtain a good pass in the RoSPA Advanced test without a thorough knowledge of the contents of the handbook.

As soon as possible after joining the group, your details will be passed to the Training Officer who will allocate you a Tutor. They will then work with you on a one-to-one basis to mentor and support you through the process. All you have to remember is that they genuinely want to help bring your riding on and while experienced and talented riders, their start point was once just the same as you!

We aim to match you with an Tutor whose spare time and availability match with you. We’ll also try to allocate someone who is reasonably local to you and have Tutors all round the West Midlands and Warwickshire area. We are currently able to provide tuition at both weekends and weekdays so please state your preference on the application form.

Lastly, we’re fully aware that not everyone will get on together. If for any reason you find that you clash with your Tutor (whether personality or available days), please get in touch with the Training Officer. They will then make every effort to allocate you to another Tutor.

Your tuition

Once you have been paired up with a Tutor, they will get in touch to introduce themselves and arrange your first session. From that point on, it’s your responsibility to contact them to either arrange future sessions or to confirm a date/time suggested by them.

As a guide, a typical tuition session will be 3-4 hours in duration and cover 70-100 miles. As your Tutor is giving their time for free, using their own bike, and riding to/from the designated meeting point, the Club Committee feel that a suitable donation to cover their fuel costs would be £30 per session.

Should you have a session booked and be unable to make it, please contact them and cancel. Like you, they are giving up their own free time so do not just fail to turn up.

In addition to your tuition, it’s also key that you make time to do your own practice. This will ensure you get the most out of each tutoring session as the principles learned in each session form the basis of the next and so need to become second nature.

Your motorcycle

When you arrive for any activity within the group, whether a tuition session or an organised ride-out, please make sure your motorcycle is maintained in good order, road legal and that (if requested) you have a full tank of fuel.

If for any reason it is found that this is not the case, you will be asked to leave and to remedy the situation before attending again. This is not the group making silly rules but if the worst happens and you’re stopped or have an accident, it reflects on the group and RoSPA as a whole.

Attendance at Open Ride-Outs

As an Associate, you’re welcome to join us on any of the Open Ride-outs. These cover both day rides and summer weekday evening rides and are organised on an informal basis from late spring to early autumn.

They’re a great way both to get some practice and to get to know your fellow riders. Dates are published on the events page.

We would also recommend you attend the various training courses that are provided as part of your membership. These courses provide the opportunity to learn with other club members and contribute to enhancing your riding skills and complement the 1:1 training provided by your tutor..

(Please note, the published end-of-month Ride-outs are open to Full Members only)

The RoSPA Advanced Motorcycle Test is regarded as the most comprehensive and challenging available to the public. A RoSPA Gold is the highest civilian riding standard available, and the holder will be a master of his or her art.

Becoming a better rider involves reviewing and adapting your riding skills to keep pace with ever-changing road and traffic conditions. Because RoSPA wants to maintain the highest standards, they require that you retake the test every three years. However, the retest is free with your RoSPA membership.

It is a firm principle that RoSPA look for candidates to follow the guidance in the current issues of Motorcycle Roadcraft and The Highway Code. You will be encouraged to display advanced riding skills at all legal speeds, provided it is safe to do so, and you should demonstrate the ability to make appropriate progress. Before taking the test, you should study the current editions of The Highway Code and Motorcycle Roadcraft. Without a good knowledge of both, you are unlikely to obtain a high grade.

During the test you will be assessed on: –

• The smoothness of your riding
• Your use of the ‘System of Motorcycle Control – IPSGA’ (see Roadcraft page)
• Positioning, for safety, stability, and view on the approach to hazards.
• Cornering in both urban and rural areas
• Signals including use of arm signals where appropriate
• Speed – The use of speed must at all times be safe and legal, yet the examiner will want to see a brisk ride with good progress being made where possible.
• Overtaking – conducted safely and within the speed limit
• Deportment – how harmoniously you and the bike work together
• Vehicle sympathy
• Observations – the examiner will seek evidence that you apply your observations of the near, middle, and far distance into your riding plan
• Judgement of distance and speed
• Motorways and Dual Carriageways
• Knowledge – you’ll be asked a few questions about the Highway Code, Motorcycle Roadcraft and basic motorcycle mechanics.

After the test the examiner will debrief you and discuss aspects of the test. They’ll tell you if you’ve passed and at what level – Bronze, Silver, or Gold. If you’ve passed (it is also possible to fail), you’ll receive a written report and certificate in the post a few weeks later.

For more information visit the Advanced Motorcycle Test section of the RoADAR website. (The RoSPA Test itself is arranged directly with RoSPA – we are simply one of a number of local groups throughout the UK who aim to provide tuition to test standard. The RoSPA Advanced Motorcycle Test costs £85 (price as April 2024)

To apply for the RoSPA Advanced Motorcycle Test, visit the Test Application page of the RoADAR website.

Coventry Riders is proud to offer both a supportive and extremely high standard of tuition for our Associates. Over the last three years, we’ve seen a year-on-year increase in the number of Associates going forward for their test, with a very high first-time achievement of either Silver or Gold Standard.

Across the calendar year, in addition to the regular 1:1 session that your tutor offers you, the Training Team puts on 10-12 training courses open to both Associates and Members to help continue to improve their riding skills. These usually cover cornering, overtaking, slow riding techniques, Roadcraft, riding in groups and a series of full-day assessments where you ride with three or four different tutors who give you support on ‘just one thing’ to work on. Due to their popularity, we are putting more of these on, but maybe it is less about the riding and more about the cake and café stops dotted along the routes.

The current training team, who are all volunteers (and where they typically ride from), are as follows:

• Michael Davis – Training Officer and Advanced Tutor – South Leicestershire
• Andy Parr – Advanced Tutor – Coventry
• Adam Croft – Group Tutor – East Worcestershire
• Asgoo Pirbhai – Group Tutor – Birmingham
• Greg Mitchell – Group Tutor – Birmingham
• Jim Herbert – Group Tutor – North Warwickshire
• John Addy – Group Tutor – Coventry
• Mark Fogarty – Group Tutor – Birmingham
• Martin Ward – Group Tutor – South Warwickshire
• Phil Evans – Group Tutor – South Warwickshire
• Sarah Booker – Group Tutor – Rugby
• Simon Broom – Group Tutor – South Warwickshire
• Steven Walley – Group Tutor – Rugby