I was ready for rain this morning, but the wind dried things out and it was a dry run. Today was labelled Motorway, so I had checked my chapter in RoadCraft on Motorway driving, and answered my set of questions on Motorways and speed.

We headed through town from our starting point just off the bypass, and headed in towards Dreghorn. I wasn’t confident of the area, which doesn’t help the quality of my riding, but I am managing to calm the nerves more these days and just get on with it. From there we headed towards Westerhailes, Longstone, Corstorphine and over the Drumbrae roundabout, stopping up for a debrief.

Then down the big steep hill and left at Queensferry Road, heading out towards Barton, the A92 and the Forth Road Bridge. We turned off at the last exit (after the roadworks) and took the road along through Newton, where Bob the observer demonstrated an excellent overtake while keeping to the 50 limit. It was good to see that done.

Then up onto the M9 and along to Grangemouth for a Coffee, Bacon Roll and another debrief. Then back along through the refinery, along through Bo’ness and back to the BP Garage just off the Forth Bridge.

A bit of everything from urban city roads to Motorway, with all other limits and sizes of roads inbetween. I’m continuing to improve, and now it is keeping up the concentration and planning, and remembering safety first in all occaisions. I missed a few signs, when warning signs are spotted the first thing to do is check behind in the mirrors (make it obvious!) so that you can see whether slowing down will create problems with following traffic. Hence when i don’t register a sign it is obvious to the observer. The other thing is looking as far as possible and scanning around – there is always more information out there in what can be seen. Hence the first phase of the system of motorcycle control – the information phase – is when you Take information in (by looking, listening, smelling etc) then use that to decide what to do, then consider what information you can give to other road users by way of indicators, brake lights, position in the road etc.

A good run today, and I understand I get a mock test next week. I had been nervous at the prospect, but Bob has been quite good at allaying nerves and building me up to the idea. So I’m looking forward to this next stage.