What is the Enhanced Rider Scheme (ERS)?

Introduction

The Enhanced Rider Scheme (ERS) is a course approved by the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). To be able to offer this session an instructor must have completed an extended Motorcycle Theory Test, a Riding Ability Test and an Instructional Ability Test. The actual duration of the ERS session is left to the discretion of the training school/instructor. We at Lightning Motorcycle Training have developed a session which will be both affordable in terms of time and money, but also achievable for a bulk of our customers.

Essentially ERS sits between a recent full licence pass and more “advanced” courses like a RoSPA Silver Award. It is ideal for people who have recently passed their test, are returning to motorcycling after a break or for those that use their motorcycle on a casual basis. We want you to enjoy riding your motorcycle and enhance your ability to continue doing so without any unforeseen interruptions.

Course Benefits

The principal benefits of the course are:Motorcycle hazard perception

When you’re successful you only need to do it once.

Many insurance companies recognise this as a qualification and give insurance discounts accordingly.

Your riding and chances of survival will improve.

It is cost effective with much of the learning done remotely.

It is not overly time consuming and relatively easy to achieve and sustain in terms of riding.

It is a course that is designed to build on a Police Bike Safe assessment ride.

Session Structure

We have broken the course down into several elements. On booking we will send you out a pack that has some research you need to do (with links to sites on the Internet) and a TheoryMotorcyclists hazards pictures Test. The Theory Test is not multiple choice and is designed to test your attitude as much as your motorcycling knowledge. This will need to be sent back to us before coming in for the riding part. The practical part of the session is 3.5 hours long. It starts with going through your Theory Test answers, filling in any gaps in knowledge and examining your attitude. Next we spend a brief amount of time in our training area ensuring that you are competent at slow speed handling and emergency stops. We then follow this with 3 hours on road training during which time we are looking to improve your use of brakes and gears, forward planning, positioning for the best view ahead, overtaking and use of speed.

Ideally we are looking to assess at the end of the riding period your ability to ride to a consistently enhanced standard. In other words your riding is smooth and well planned, and takes advantage of fairly straight forward defensive riding practises. It is strictly within speed limits.

If you have not met the standard by the end of the training we will give you a Student Record Card with clear goals that we want you to achieve before coming back to see us again. Having practised on your own we will then do a further hour of training/assessing to confirm you have now reached the ERS standard.

Please see the Enhanced Rider Scheme Learning Material page for details of the information we send out to you.

Interesting update (26/07/19) from the DVSA about the Enhanced Rider Scheme: https://despatch.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/26/dvsa-enhanced-rider-scheme-one-year-on/

Course Costs and Time scale

Motorcyclist approaching bendThe cost of the ERS course is £175.00 (for an extra £24.00 you can use one of our Honda CBF500’s or Suzuki SV650’s, this includes fuel and equipment). The actual session is 8 hours long with about 1 – 2 hours research and question answering done at home beforehand.

We run the sessions seven days a week at a ratio of two students to one instructor.

If you need extra training this is charged at £89.00/hour.