Become a real gendarmerie biker
11 weeks of training, relentless tests, validation repeated every 6 years
Our visit to the Fontainebleau National Highway Safety Training Center (77)
Spend most of your days on a motorcycle and get paid: a dream come true, right? There are several solutions for this: first, to become a MotoGP racer, but we must objectively admit that there are few elected officials. Second: the courier. That's nice, courier. Just find yourself a brave Honda NTV with barely 200 terminals on your watch and voila, you decide the joys of the ring road! Third: a motorcycle journalist, but you might disappoint your entourage behind the scenes of this friendly acrobat job. Whereas if you proudly walk through the parade in a sparkling car from the National Gendarmerie, there your prestige will regain momentum.
On the occasion of the day of the meeting at the Center for Road Safety Training (CNFSR) in Fontainebleau (77), Dene provided an update on the conditions to become a motorcycle constable. When, how, how much, why we explain everything to you ...
11 weeks of training, 480 hours, 3500 kilometers
Let's start with the good news: to become a motorcycle constable, you must already be a gendarme. Yes ... However, there is no need to have permission A. And therefore, to be a gendarme, you have to prepare a competition, pass it and spend a year in one of the 5 gendarmerie schools in France. And then we get on the bike directly? Hello very cute little pony! Being a motorcyclist gendarme deserves it. Therefore, at the end of the school year, if potential as a worthy gendar flows in your blood, you will be assigned to a mobile brigade or a departmental brigade. Keep in mind that constable human resources management is regionally for non-commissioned officers and national for officers. An important nuance, because if you retreat, therefore, your career management will be carried out at the regional level. And to become a motorcycle gendarme, she must have to renew or expand her workforce. It seems that the regions of Northern France are more demanding than the regions of Southern France ... Interesting, right?
Shortly speaking. When seats open, you must be a candidate. This is possible provided that by December 31 of the school year you are under 35 years old (some small well-reasoned deviations are possible) and a height of at least 170 cm, even for girls. All candidates for training go through a week of pre-training intensive in terms of motorcycle practice, and the CNFSR has already seen completely aspiring candidates get away with flying colors and better than candidates who have already made a bike. This is not surprising, because sometimes it is easier to learn from scratch than to correct bad habits.
At the end of this week of pre-internship and, if possible, you are eligible to study for two years. It lasts 11 weeks and is the severe type. “We have no problem sleeping among our trainees,” jokes Squadron Leader Brossard. “The training is physical, and when some leave us after 11 weeks, they are pretty tired. This is what allows us to guarantee a very strict level of training. " In 2016, two trainings will take place with the participation of about 80 candidates.
Thus, 11 weeks of 480 hours of training were divided in half into classes and motorcycle practice, on the road, as in all sections, from the plateau to the expressway (from La Ferté Gaucher) through the famous Polygone, which is the pride of CNFSR.
During these 11 weeks, an aspiring motorcycle gendarme will travel about 3500 kilometers. The helmets are equipped with a bluetooth® channel to enable communication between student and teacher.
To say that motorcycles appeared in the Forces in 1930, but it was in 1952 that training was offered to the gendarmes. At the time it lasted for a week and took place in Maisons-Alfort. It was in 1963 that the National Training Center for Motorcycle Personnel was formally established in the laughing city of Le Muro (78), before settling in Fontainebleau (77) four years later. The Fontainebleau School was renamed CNFSR in 2004, which makes sense if we remember that the Chirac government declared road safety a great national cause in 2002.
And once the patent is granted, jump in, will we get the FJR directly? Until now, no, because first you have to be transferred to the motorized brigade, and this transfer again depends on the goodwill of the regional HR department. This can last from a few days to several weeks.
Technicality comes first
Theoretical courses, sports, but also, above all, motorcycle practice: the motorcycle policeman is fully trained. Among all the skills required from him is the technical prowess of the motorcycle. CNFSR instructors also have a specific term: the attitude towards a motorcycle is "technique". “In all the missions he has to carry out, the motorcycle gendarme should view his motorcycle as a simple working tool,” says Lt. Col. Jean-Pierre Reynaud, commander of the CNFSR. “He should ignore his car. When he is on a mission to find people in difficult terrain, driving a motorcycle must be instinctive and all his resources must be mobilized for his exploration mission. Because the gendarme of motorcyclists remains above all the gendarme. "
This is why the training ground is so important in training. Of course, the practice of the road is also significant, and the gendarmes develop a rather special sense of trajectory, which gives them the best visibility and better security conditions; of course they spend a little time on the track, but not too much to discourage them from driving at excessive speeds.
In any case, most of the skills are acquired at the Polygon, its 6 kilometers of trails stretching over 80 hectares, its steep climbs, sandy expanses and, above all, a wide range of perversions! Dense turns, pits, "wall of death", turns, obstacles: anything that can make you a nightmare is present in this training ground with one goal: to get formality.
As with skiing, the various slopes are color-coded. CNFSR made us ride in green, brown and walked through the estate, passing through the sandy sea, riding a Yamaha WR 250 R. This is in order to better understand the conditions for training future motorcyclist gendarmes.
If you don't manage your JPR, you are dead!
A constable loves acronyms in much the same way as a notebook of stumps. Suffice it to say that when he talks to us about JPR, we first think about a professional day of rest (a motorcycle journalist is essentially a piece of hardware, otherwise he would have chosen a real job!). Well, not at all. JPR is what allows you to not ADLD with PEFEHSTFPTGEDB (go on stage / s / losses and accidents and shame on your family for three generations, kind of baltringue).
The Proving Ground isn't about speed, it's about skill. Most runways move in a matter of seconds (out of 250, the first at 600), idling at speed, with no touchdown on the clutch and brakes. The gas stroke is simply used to move a few meters between two difficulties or to restore balance.
In this case, the laws of balance do not suffer from any exceptions: you must be one with the motorcycle. Let it be an extension of your will. The legs are well tucked in, the legs fit snugly against the tank, the flexible and mobile upper body is the key. Not to mention the appearance: without it, this is a guaranteed off-piste mode. Here everything is played out to the millimeter, and the craftsmanship of precision comes not from the Wilkinson razor, but from JPR. JPR: A throwable handle game. Basically it is about fighting the dead blow of the accelerator cable by placing your hand on the handle so that each micro-rotation is effective.
For those who accelerate like loggers and think JPR nanometer precision is a pipe: you will never be the gendarme of a motorcycle. Because all the events at this test site reflect real conditions: the sequences test your agility skills; slalom around tire piles, your ability to interlock turns in the event of a chase or interception; pits simulate passage between lines of cars, obstacles and other difficulties ensure that in the event of an unforeseen event, a motorcyclist gendarme Good possession of JPR will allow you to ride on a tortilla with turns on slopes, with the upper body turned back 60 ° to anticipate the following difficulties, with enough gas to maintain balance. And given the full menu at Polygon, no doubt about it: the motorcyclist gendarme has sacred possession of his car!
Motorcyclist gendarme, his life, his work
Once qualified, the life of a motorcyclist gendarme can span a wide range of realities. It all depends on the assignment team, and before that, the top 17 students will parade on the Champs Elysees during a ceremony on July 14, an honor that CNFSR bikers have enjoyed since 2012. 2012, when bikers moved from the Stone Age to modernity, or rather from shirt to airbag, outfitting themselves (finally!) An outfit according to the reality of their mission.
The gendarmes of the motorized brigades operate in pairs. Then out of luck if we stick you on "pedestrian" (non-motorcyclist in CNFSR language): it's up to you to decide the joys of patrolling in a Renault Mégane or a Ford Focus Diesel! You will ride more if you are in the motorcycle crew. How many? On average, a motorcyclist's gendarme covers 12 kilometers a year with an average displacement (less than 000), 1000 on a large one (BMW R 17 and Yamaha FJR 000).
A motorcyclist gendarme is a gendarme like any other: his salary is the same (he starts at around € 1800 net, including official housing) and the motorcyclist does not receive bonuses for risk or activity. According to instructors, about 70% of motorcycle gendarmes are also private bikers, and most of them have also been converted to an airbag in civilian life after realizing its merits in professional use.
Skills are challenged every 6 years: each biker constable then returns to Fontainebleau for 2,5 days of assessment, which includes a 450 km course assessed by three different instructors. Of the 700 last year, only 5 failed and were forced to abandon their bikes in order to devote themselves to other tasks. The motorcyclist gendarme usually retires at the age of 59.
Throughout his career, safety remains the first concern. It is with this in mind that JNMM (National Motorcycle and Biker Days) are organized annually at CNFSR to share the passion for motorcycles on this topic with the general public. The third edition will take place on June 25 and 26, 2016.
Learn more about CNFSR
- 109 field and road bikes: 48 Yamaha XJ6 N and 61 Yamaha FZ 600
- 127 road bikes: 22 BMW R 1100 RT, 10 Yamaha TDM 900, 48 Yamaha FJR 1300, 40 Yamaha MT-09 Tracer Euro 4 115 horsepower.
- 144 motorcycles for the range: 24 Yamaha 250 TTR, 43 Yamaha 600 TTRE, 77 Yamaha 250 WRR
- In 2015, all CNFSR motorcycles covered 1 kilometers.
- 100 internships organized per year with over 1300 interns, either from foreign law enforcement agencies (Qatar, Lebanon, Guinea, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco ...) or organizations that want to keep their employees safe (bikers France Télévision, ASO - Amaury Sport Organization - which follow the Tour de France).
- Of the 1300 trainees, about fifteen incidents are reported annually.
- Inter-agency Highway Safety Delegate Emmanuel Barb, a practicing biker, will undertake an internship at CNFSR.
- The landfill has 6 kilometers of track plus "sea of sand" on 80 hectares.
- Since its inception in 1967, the Fontainebleau Gendarmerie School will open its 150th Motorcycle Gendarme Training in Fall 2016.
- Of the 100 gendarmes in France, 000 are motorcyclists.
- In 2016, 162 new motorcycle gendarmes will be trained.
