So what sort of training are you contemplating Grant? I only ask because I have a friend who's been riding bikes for decades - nothing adventurous, no overlanding or anything, but he does ride year round and does more miles on his bikes than in his car. He would freely admit that he's a cautious, slightly nervous rider and in recent years has sought out training to try and expand his 'riding envelope'. He started by joining his local IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists if anyone doesn't recognise the UK initials) bike group but very quickly found they were 'training' him to do stuff he found dangerous. He stuck with it for a while but his sense of self preservation eventually led to him leaving. I was talking to another rider - a very experienced long distance rider - a week or so ago who says he won't travel with any IAM members as he finds them dangerous as well.

My friend (and no, this isn't me in 'asking for a friend' guise ) moved on to the ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) bike section but found them almost indistinguishable from the IAM. Their 'advanced' techniques made him feel it would only be a matter of time before he'd come a cropper, and as he hasn't had an accident in decades - certainly since I've known him -, 'training' would seem to be counterproductive.

He's still up for some sort of training but as he seems to have found his own (safe) level I wonder if there's much point. I could understand the need if he was chucking it up the road every five minutes but as he's been coming to this from his own safe space what exactly was he being trained to do? Be less personally safe was his conclusion if he rode in the ways they expected in order to pass their membership tests. I think we all have our limits, the point at which we leave our comfort zones and head out into uncharted waters - and it's different for all of us. By all means have bad habits pointed out by some authority figure (hopefully not the cops) and try to correct those but self preservation makes me wary of many of the training schemes available for road riding - round here anyway.