Ian,
I did the Bikesafe course at Peterborough and I would echo Ned's words. There were three classroom sessions over a three week period during which extremely down to earth police riders made presentations on positioning, overtaking, group riding and much more besides plus videos and q & a's. This was then followed by an assessed ride with a traffic officer through the twisties which by the way, demonstrated how quick and smooth these guys are. They stressed that they didn't care too much if you turned up for the ride with a loud can or small plate but they would do you if your bike was untaxed because that would be "Extracting the Michael". Their purpose is to reduce the number of times that they have to pick body parts off the road and having to inform someone that their beloved has been fatally injured. Seems pretty sound to me.
I would thoroughly recommend the course although I have to say that my insurance company did not recognise it as a discount maker. Enjoy nevertheless!
Mike
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