Zoom and enhance#

Thu Apr 23 23:00:21 2026

A first for 2026: on Saturday I visited a pond with ducks in it. Ride out to Dunmow, in which we find a large pond, an island with a duckhouse, some ducks, a small child (not pictured) feeding them, and some willow trees. It's set in a dip in the land, so the grassy banks slope downwards towards the water. Top marks for duckpond.

Two points deducted for the journey there, though. Joining the dual carriageway, I identified a gap in lane 1, matched my speed to the traffic speed, did a shoulder check as I crossed the line from the slip road into lane 1, and when I looked ahead again there was a car alongside me in the same lane I was in. So, wearing my surprised face, I dropped back behind him. Reviewing the camera footage later it seems that he had moved from lane 2 to lane 1 as I was moving from the slip road into lane 1.

Accepting that these things happen and considering what we can do to avoid it, the obvious strategy is to not be doing a shoulder check at that time.

... which brings me neatly onto the second topic of this post: I did an ERS day on Wednesday and I have the certificate to prove it. It was billed as an introduction to advanced riding, so we touched on topics like limit points and IPSGA which I knew about in theory but don't always practise in practice. Most of the day was spent riding - a mixture of some very fun contry lanes, a bit of dual carriageway and some villages. I did a couple of overtakes (no, not through the villages) that I don't think I'd have gone for if I were on my own.

Most of my takeaways are riffs on the general theme of "information gathering" (as the IAM would no doubt describe it):

• Avid readers (both of them) will remember that last year I did a TfL 1:1 training session in which I was told I wasn't doing enough shoulder checks. Well, I started doing more shoulder checks after that and ... now I'm doing them too much. As in the dual carriageway not-actually-an-incident above: no point in looking backwards for danger when I already know the lane is clear and the most likely source of danger is ahead. (To tie this into the theme: don't look round if there's no information to be had by doing so)

• seeing the shape of the road ahead by looking at where trees/hedges are, or the lines between telegraph poles. Even just, sometimes, looking sideways across the fields to see the road past the next bend and the the oncoming traffic. I've watched videos where riders say they're doing this but it didn't "click" until I saw it in real life. Thinking back, I had the same experience with limit points.

• commentary riding: a few times I missed opportunities basically because I came out of one hazard (e.g. a roundabout) looking at the back of the car in front instead of already planning for the next hazard (a slow lorry on the exit, or a queue of traffic). I've tried commentary riding before and I found that my brain can't form words fast enough to explain everything, and what comes out of my mouth is "that thing is coming out of the thing over there, oh look, no not you, ok, let's take that, no". But the instructor took the lead along one leg of the ride and commentaried(sic) it and it was noticeable that I was faster and smoother listening to his commentary than I would have been without it, so definitely worth persisting.

  (I have an idea that this is related to the cognitive psychology concept of chunking: by articulating what's happening and what we'll do about it, it encourages the brain to form associations, and so allows operating on more information because individual units are combined. Caution: I have entirely no evidence to support this hypothesis but it does sound beguilingly plausible, which is very often the case for things that aren't true)

• positive feedback on machine control and "making progress", which was good to hear

According to my trip counter it was a 150 mile day (including about 50 miles to get to the start point and home from the finish) and I was feeling pretty bushed afterwards, as my usual ride is 2-3 hours and about a third of that distance.

Returning to the original topic: I don't think there's much else worth saying about the ride to Dunmow, except to admit that the flying duck photo was a fluke. Lots of traffic meant not many opportunities to get up to speed, but it was warm and sunny which kind of made up for that. First (and only, so far) ride this year in mesh jacket, summer gloves and Bowtex leggings. On Wednesday I had a 7:30am start and was was back in full leathers.