Young motorcyclists have been given free rider training at Thruxton Circuit, thanks to money raised by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart and their supporters.
Riders aged 17 to 26 attended a fully funded Skills for the Road day at the Hampshire circuit on August 6, where they were coached on machine control, confidence and safer riding. Event partner DocBike also gave attendees life-saving first aid skills, with Mental Health Motorbike present too.
The day was paid for by more than £25,000 raised through IAM RoadSmart’s Big Give Christmas Challenge 2025 – £24,971 plus Gift Aid, to be exact. That funded 40 rider places and 40 driver places, with 80 young people attending the driver and rider days at Thruxton on August 5 and 6.
The coaching let riders explore what their bikes could do in a controlled environment, learning techniques they could then apply on everyday roads. Attendee Tom Muirhead, from Greater London, said the track setting allowed riders to test things that aren’t easy to try on a public road: “I’ve been learning how to control the bike in an emergency, practicing hard braking and swerving out of the way.”
The initiative comes as young riders continue to face a disproportionately high risk on the road. Department for Transport figures show more than 1700 riders under the age of 25 were killed or seriously injured in 2025, and around one in 10 motorcycle collisions involve an inexperienced rider. It is part of a wider picture: when the DfT published its finalised casualty data on July 30, it revealed a 14% rise in motorcyclist fatalities since 2024 – now sitting at 386 – with riders making up 25% of all road deaths despite accounting for just 1% of traffic.
IAM RoadSmart Road Safety Manager, Shaun Cronin, said the day was central to the charity’s aim of making roads safer: “Young riders remain among the most vulnerable road users due to their lack of experience, which is why opportunities like this matter.
“Developing confidence, awareness and good decision-making skills early in a rider’s journey can have a lasting impact. We hope to expand this programme in the future so that even more young riders can benefit from this type of training.”
For some attendees, the cost of training would otherwise have been a barrier. Sally Williams, from Liverpool, has been riding for three or four years and said the funded days made the coaching accessible: “It’s brilliant that these days are funded and accessible to someone like me as I just wouldn’t have the spare money otherwise. I’ve seen the impact of what happens when people don’t have the skillset first hand. I don’t want to become a statistic.”
IAM RoadSmart say improving access to post-test training is a vital part of cutting casualties among young riders, and are calling for greater investment in schemes that help new riders build knowledge and experience safely.
They aren’t alone in offering free training to inexperienced riders. Police in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight recently launched SmartRide , a free course funded by the local Police and Crime Commissioner that pairs classroom learning with observed rides and teaches skills a CBT doesn’t cover, while in 2024 National Highways and the National Police Chiefs’ Council rolled out a similar scheme called Project Apex .
Plans are already under way for the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2026, with the charity aiming to raise enough to fund even more advanced rider and driver training places.
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