Poole Bike Training started trading on 1st June, 2002. It was formed by Bob Jeffreys who remains the sole proprietor of the business and is also the sole instructor. Whilst the company may be a ‘one-man band’, this is countered by the advantages of individual attention and considerable flexibility in meeting the needs of pupils.
Bob was brought up in Bedford but has lived in Dorset since the end of February, 1977. He passed his car test in November 1965; his advanced driving test with the Institute of Advanced Motorists in December, 1966. Bob didn’t begin riding motorcycles until June 1981, passing his test at the first attempt in October of that year. Having started with a Honda CB100N motorcycle "just for commuting", he got bitten by the bug and moved on up with various bikes - all Yamahas - and is currently riding a Fazer thou. Bob enjoys riding in all weathers, all the year round and reckons that, in those twenty-eight years of biking, he has travelled something in excess of six hundred thousand miles on bikes. A similar mileage on four wheels has taken over forty-three years to achieve.
Having been a lawyer for over thirty years, Bob left the profession in December, 1999 on the grounds of ill-health. For a while, he was a driving instructor in cars but got fed up with being in a little tin box. Early in 2001, he started retraining to become a motorcycle instructor with Wessex Motorcycle Training, becoming fully qualified in October of that year.
WAMS: At the end of 2008, the majority of ATBs throughout Dorset plus a couple in Wiltshire, formed themselves into the "Wessex Association of Motorcycle Schools" or WAMS for short. Poole Bike Training is proud to be a founder member of WAMS together with: A1 Roadcraft; A2B School of Motorcycling; Ace Motorcycle Training; Academy of Safe Motorcycling (ASM); Dorset & Wessex Motorcycle Training; Karen’s Motorcycle Training School; KG Rider Training; Let’s Ride; Nick’s Motorcycle Training; On the Road; Pass School of Motorcycling; Phoenix Motorcycle Training Chippenham; SJR Motorcycle Training; Tilley’s Wessex Riders; Tizwaz Rider Training; and Wimborne Motorcycle Training.
The purpose of the Association is to give a more positive presence of motorcycle trainers in this area to the Driving Standards Agency. The DSA is looking to revise the CBT and training for tests. The CBT has been around for a long time and needs to be looked at again to see if it is performing as well as it could. Test training, both for the standard test and with the DAS courses, has not been considered in depth for quite a while and a check-up on its state of health will not go amiss. There is also the Third European Directive which is beginning to be considered and which will affect how people gain their motorcycle licence. Whilst it won’t affect those who have passed their test already it will alter life for those who come to biking from 2012/2013. However, WAMS feels that it is important that, in considering any changes, the DSA do consider the views of those who are at the sharp end of training by direct representation rather than through organisations who do not necessarily have any immediate knowledge of matters, only gaining it from representations of their members. We believe we can deliver that higher degree of representation.
Having formed ourselves into an association, the various members have got to know each other better and there is a greater willingness to co-operate with each other and see each other as friends rather than ‘the competition’. Consequently, if Poole Bike Training cannot provide you with a course on the date and at the time you require, then we are quite happy to recommend another WAMS member.
|
|