Ian Speight Advanced Rider Training

23/09/2026

Cracking meeting this afternoon at The Motorist with Jim Plevey of Drive Life, (https://www.drive-life.com/) to discuss all things advanced riding (and driving) and we'll hopefully be getting together again in the future to discuss it all again in a podcast! Can't wait. 👍

Born in the heart of the car community, DriveLife brings everything automotive into one place - discover events, buy tickets, explore venues, build your garage, and connect with like-minded enthusiasts.

23/09/2026

An unexpectedly fab morning with Stuart and Matt at Bowcliff Hall. Thank you for the invite, what a place, I loved it!

22/09/2026

RoSPA Examiner duties today. This morning I met test candidate Geoff on his VFR1200F. Geoff has owned his VFR from new and covered over 60,000 miles. Geoff rode extremely well from the off, and that level remained throughout his test, which resulted in a pass at a Gold grade, the highest achievable. Great result 👏 👍.
This afternoons test was also going very well. A confident and smooth rider who was ticking lots of boxes. Unfortunately, there was an error, which meant that on this occasion he wasn't successful. However, he knows what went wrong, fully accepted it, and I'm sure he'll be back again shortly. Until then, here's Geoff and his very nice VFR1200F.

22/09/2026

Today is looking like a RoSPA Examiners kinda day. 1 candidate this morning, 1 this afternoon. I wish them both well 🤞👍

21/09/2026

Training today with Rich on his BMW R1200GS. It was his 3rd session as he works towards obtaining an advanced qualification. Today was about linking all the differents roads and environments he'll come across on his test, urban, rural and multi lane. Cracking session with lots of positives and very few negatives.

19/09/2026

RoSPA Tutoring kinda day today with Advanced Riders North Yorkshire, and it's fair to say it was a wet one. In fact, just before the riding started, the rain was so heavy, we all huddled under the canopy at Strawberry Fields cafe to dodge it! Fortunately, it didn't last long, the sun came out, a rainbow appeared, and we were soon conducting our pre ride briefings. I was paired up David on his VFR800, and away we went. Despite the very wet conditions, David adjusted his riding accordingly and still managed to display a 'flowing' and confident ride, concluding at Digbys cafe, at Sherburn areo club. All in all a cracking, if wet, day.

17/09/2026

Well, having got home yesterday after 2 weeks and just shy of 2500 miles, the first job was to get unpacked and all my clothes washing done.Then it was bike jacket and bike trousers cleaning done. So, today it was the inevitable bike cleaning day. To be fair, because we had very good weather, with only a few hours of rain on 1 of the days, the bike wasn't too bad, but I still didn't want to do it!
I never used to hate cleaning bikes, I used to be very conscientious, often stripping fairings and bodywork off for a thorough deep clean. Todays process was a power washer rinse, followed by a coatings of snowfoam, which I then repeated. Is it super clean and like new again? No. But it's now looking much better that it was.
Are you a quick n easy snowfoam kinda guy/gal, or are do you prefer to spend hours getting into every nook and cranny? What's your bike cleaning regime??

16/09/2026

Monaco 2026.
Days 12 & 13 - 229 & 44 miles.
Total for the trip - 2463 miles.
Yesterday we made our way from Bouillon in Belgium to the ferry at Rotterdam. The weather was fantastic as we enjoyed some lovely early morning roads from Bouillon, before stopping for coffee in Dinant. From there it was more flowing roads to our lunch stop. After lunch we joined the motorway for the final 100 miles to Europort and all was going well until we neared Brussells, when all 3 lanes of the motorway suddenly ground to a halt.
The filtering then started, and our group of 6 was soon fragmented into 3 pairs of 2. Me and Daren, filtered through standing traffic for about 4 miles, but with no sign of anything moving for as far as the eye could see, we decided to get off the motorway and took an alternative, but longer route to the port. Fortunately, all the guys had made it safely, and arrived at the ferry before us. Last night it final drinks and a meal.
This morning we docked on time at 7am, and by 730 we were off the ferry, though passport control and saying our final goodbyes.
14 days covering just short of 2500 miles.
The highlights? The day on the Swiss passes, the day in Monaco, riding around the Verdun Gorge and Route Napolean are all right up there.
Low point? Coming across the bike accident and doing our bit. Thankfully the rider was relatively OK, even if his bike certainly wasn't!
Every coffee stop, lunch stop and evening was filled with banter, leg pulling and tales of the days riding, which is exactly how a mates bike trip should be! All in all, it's been a fantastic trip.

14/09/2026

Monaco 2026.
Day 11 - 223 miles.
Total so far - 2190 miles.
Today we have ridden from Colmar to Bouillon in Belgium and after yesterday 3 way split to ride different routes, today we were all back together.
Strangest moment of today? The French chap who came over to talk to us in a cafe, to tell us all about his classic Triumph Spitfire. He told us all how long he'd had and about its restoration, and even showed us some photos, and then said "Ill go and get it'....and sure enough, 10 minutes later he was driving it back!
Lovely old car, and he was obviously very proud of it. (See photos).
Tonight we had a few beers in the hotel before popping across the road for something to eat.
Tomorrow we head for the ferry.

13/09/2026

Monaco 2026.
Day 10 - 288 miles.
Total so far - 1967 miles.
Today we have ridden from Chamonix to Colmar, but our group of 6 chose different routes and itineraries.
Dave T and Phil headed to near Annacy to visit a friend of Daves. Daren wanted to do a 'longer' route so went solo, and me, Dave A and Simon took a slightly modified route to the intended one to shave off a little time. Unfortunately, our day included helping a French rider who had come off his VFR750. He'd lost it on a right hander, and slid across the carriageway before colliding with a concrete 'safety' parapet wall. It had litterally just happened because as we came round the bend he was still laid in the road and his riding buddy was just getting off his bike to help. We obviously stopped, with Simon and I quickly bringing the traffic to a halt in both directions to 'protect the scene' and then attending to the rider, who was fortunately 'walking wounded'.
Once confirmed his injuries weren't serious, we helped get his bike up and to the side of the road, but it was in a very bad way, and definitely not rideable. We did what we could, and then left the guys to sort recovery and carried on our way. Tonight we've wandered into Colmar and had a meal together, which was Rostis all round!
Tomorrow we head to Belgium.