I got my licence on a five day intensive course one summer. The weather was beautiful, the leather jacket was hot, the roads were sticky and I ended up with a sparkling new licence, having never ridden in the wet. I tried to persuade them to hose down the road outside their shop so we could at least try braking on a wet road, but with no luck. Being England it wasn't long before I had plenty of experience of wet riding but it reminded me of something my Dad told me to calm my nerves before my car test. “You don't need to convince the examiner that you are the best driver on the road, only that you are good enough not to have to advertise that you are a bad driver.” You can remove the L plates!
So you're good enough for that, and you've learned all sorts of tricks to keep you safe (keep up the habit of looking over your shoulder before you do anything – saved me countless times!) but there are lots of new things to learn with everyday riding that simply isn't covered by the training, or at least it wasn't in my day.
I believe there are advanced training courses, some run by the police, that tackle filtering through traffic, but it certainly wasn't mentioned when I did my training, and I can see why. It's more dangerous than not doing it. Simple as that... In the real world however, of all my friends who have bikes, 100 percent of them do it. I do it as well, and have come a cropper once, but I'll come to that in a minute...
So what could we have been taught about filtering?
First of all, speed. Not your speed, but the speed at which something unexpected can happen. It's faster than you think, trust me! If you've decided to ride down the outside of a stationary line of traffic you'll hopefully be a good few feet away from the cars. If someone impulsively does a U-turn because they're fed up with being stuck, the front of their car can cover those few feet in less than a second. If you're whizzing along at 20 mph and that car is one of the four immediately in front of you, you will hit it. No question. If they are one of the three closest, you you'll probably hit it at 20 mph. The braking distances in the highway code seem a little generous... The reaction times aren't.
OK. Lecture over... Filtering has an degree of risk, but if you want to do it, how do you reduce that risk?
Break yourself in gently. I wouldn't start on the way home from passing your test! Get a few months bike experience and watch for things that might catch you out. Bike savvy is different to car savvy so give yourself a chance to let it sink in.
Obviously, don't filter at 20 mph. When I'm filtering I'm constantly overtaken by other bikers. That's fine. I'll look after my own legs and leave them to worry about theirs.
Be aware that most car drivers will have turned their steering wheel a little before they pull forward in a U-turn, so watch those front wheels.
Opposite traffic. I usually feel comfortable going a little faster when there is a steady stream of traffic on the other side of the road. If there is no opportunity for anyone to do a U-turn, no-one will. Watch out for gaps in the opposite traffic though as they may present the chance someone has been waiting for, and they may take it quick without looking.
Gaps. If someone has not pulled up close to the car in front it may simply be because it's not worth them pulling forward just 12 feet. It may however be because they are letting someone out from a side street. The driver pulling out thinks all the traffic going your way is stationary and they will be looking the other way. Besides, their bonnet will already be in your path before they get a clear view of you.
Pedestrians. Exactly the same as drivers pulling out across the road, pedestrians crossing between stationary cars will never, ever, ever look your way. As far as they are concerned, one half of the road is stationary so they are looking the other way, watching for a gap in the opposite traffic.
Filtering past slow moving traffic has it's own peculiar risks as well.
High vehicles. You may not be able to see the cyclist that is going to make white van man pull half way over the white line while you are overtaking him, forcing you further out than you want to be, or have room for.
Slow vehicles. Anyone driving suspiciously slowly may well be looking for their turning or a parking space. Their delight at finding it may lead them to forget to check their mirror before pulling across the road. Also you should be careful not to overtake anyone at any sort of junction. OK, that one's a bit more obvious!
So, how did I stuff up that time?
I was filtering down the outside of stationary traffic with nothing coming the other way. A driver (and experienced biker it turned out) checked his mirror, didn't see me and did a U-turn. I couldn't believe how fast it happened. Thankfully, I was going at my usual snail's pace and managed to bring the bike almost to a halt before we hit. The damage to the car was a small dent and a broken off wing mirror. My fairing had a large hole where the car's mirror was now and I simply got off the bike as it went over. No part of me touched the car and I ended up stood next to my sorry looking bike feeling very lucky. Had I been going just a couple of mph faster I imagine I would have spent at least the rest of the day at the hospital and would probably still be waiting for an insurance claim to replace the bike. As it was it cost me £15.98 for a Halford's fibreglass kit and a can of paint!
If anyone has any more tips to offer please click the “comment” button and share!
Ride safe.
Bikurius
Blog posts by Bikurius 
So you've had a go and decide to follow up and get your licence... You're probably already scanning the local papers for bikes for sale, but I would say “Hold fast!”, at least for the moment. When I started my training I wanted a big old custom style bike. By the end of the week I had changed my mind and had decided that something a bit more “street” would suit me better.
There are plenty of people out there who have already bought their first bike before they start learning. Now, this may well be fine. They are probably less fickle than I am, but there may be a few other pitfalls to think about before you part with your hard earned cash.
In years gone by, before the direct access option, you were limited to a 125cc bike until you had passed your test. Then you could buy and ride anything you liked. I have known people who learned on a 125cc bike whilst having a brand new 1000cc sports bike in the garage waiting for the off. I went for 500cc for my first bike - and wow! I couldn't believe how much power it had, or how heavy it was. I couldn't believe that I would ever need that much acceleration.
Of course I got used to it and have moved on to bigger and heavier machines. The direct access course means that you can no longer get on something with an engine ten times the size of the one you trained on, and long may it live. But there are other things to think about.
Do you want to spend thousands on something that is almost certainly going to fall over? I'm not talking about crashing here, I mean that first time you are trying to walk it backwards on a gravel drive and your foot slips, or the first time your pillion decides to try to put their foot down when you stop at the lights. I'm a fairly chunky bloke but most of the big bikes I've owned, if they leaned over more than about 15 degrees while I was sitting on it, I wouldn't have the strength to stop it going over all the way.
Now, if you've spent £1000 on the machine now lying on it's side with a broken £20 brake lever and one more scratch on the paintwork you'll feel slightly better than if you are facing a bill of £1000 just to replace part of a brand new fairing.
All the bikes I've owned have been over at one time or another. Sometimes it was my own stupid fault, like when I got a boot strap caught on a buckle hanging from my shoulder bag. I simply couldn't put my foot down and slowly toppled over at the lights, much to the amusement of the taxi driver pulling up behind me! On the other hand some things are out of your control. I've had two heavy bikes blown over in storms.
People have reversed into them while trying to squeeze into a tight parking spot. The local teenagers have sat on them and not realised the side stand flips up when the weight is taken off it, which brings me to another point worth considering.
Where will the bike live at night? Mine lives on the road on a London estate full of young tear-aways and oiks. A few years back one such angel took to a bit of vandalising and I would go out in the morning and find my air filters missing, or the fuel line cut and tank drained. He once even took the spark plugs out and smashed them on the road.
Now there is not much you can do about this, apart from a drop of epoxy resin on the filter's screw heads, and hiding the bike away under a cover. When I reported this to the local police though I was told I had made a good choice of bike.
Small lightweight bikes can be attractive to teenagers with the joyriding bug. New bikes with expensive fairings can be targeted by thieves who know there is a good market for “second hand” parts (particularly replacing fairings damaged from falling over). A decent sized bike that is a few years old and showing it's age is probably too heavy for the joyriders and not worth enough to the thief.
So where am I going with this? The issues of thieves or storms are thankfully rare but until you've got your “biking legs” you will probably end up dropping your machine at least once. When choosing your first bike bear this in mind and consider something that isn't going to break your heart if it ends up with a dent in the tank.
Many bikes have engine bars to protect the engine and you can get “crash bungs” - small plastic pads that stick out far enough to take the first impact of a fall - a good way to protect a fairing. Make your mistakes with a cheaper bike while you save for that dream machine – and remember to do up the buckles on your shoulder bag!
I'm Bikurius... Stop laughing!
