What is advanced and refresher training?
Everything after the licence. It covers two quite different things: refresher sessions for riders coming back after a break, and advanced coaching for riders who want to be genuinely better than the test required.
Neither is compulsory and neither expires. Some of it leads to a qualification — the IAM and RoSPA advanced tests — and some of it is simply a day with an instructor who will tell you what you have stopped noticing.
Who is it for?
Three groups, wanting three different things:
- Returning riders who held a licence for years and have not ridden for several more
- Newly licensed riders who passed the test and know it taught them the minimum
- Experienced riders working towards an IAM or RoSPA qualification
The first group is the one that most often puts it off. A licence does not expire, but the habits behind it do.
What to expect
Almost always one-to-one, and shaped around you rather than a syllabus. A typical session:
What you ride, how long you have been off the bike, and what you actually want out of the day.
You ride, the instructor follows and says nothing. This is the part that finds the habits.
Observation, positioning, cornering and overtaking, usually with radio commentary and stops to talk it through.
Two or three specific things to work on, not a score.
Requirements and prerequisites
| Full licence | A full motorcycle licence in any category. Riders on a CBT and L-plates want a CBT renewal or lessons instead. |
|---|---|
| Your own bike | Usually, and usually the point — the coaching is about the machine you actually ride. Taxed, insured and MOT'd. |
| Kit | Your own, and suitable for a full day out in whatever the weather does. |
| Nothing else | No theory test, no certificate, no minimum hours. You can book a session tomorrow. |
What it costs
Usually priced by the session rather than as a course, and almost always one-to-one — which is why an hour of it costs more than an hour of anything else on this site, and why it is worth it.
Observed rides towards an IAM or RoSPA qualification are a different thing again, often run by volunteer observers for a membership fee rather than an hourly rate.