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As some of you will have already read in last months 'Look Back', I started August by finishing off my european tour with my mate Daren. We arrived home on the 3rd and from then on in it's been another great month.
I managed 2 mentions in the motorcycling press in August, firstly I was in MCN for their 'One Year On' feature, about the first 12 months of ownership. I didn't quite fall into this catagory as I've only had my bike since Feb 2019 but as I'd covered 11000 miles (at the time of doing the article), they were happy to include me.
I met Justin Hayzelden from MCN in June at Cadwell Park, it was a very interesting couple of hours and I'm happy with the resulting article.
Shorlty after the MCN article, I managed to get another mention in RiDE magazine, well actually I didn't but 2 photo's I submitted did. One was of me and the guys from my local RoSPA group on our way to Scotland for the annual Tutor training weekend and the other was of Kim. Both photos were taken outside the highest pub in the UK, The Tan Hill Inn, albeit on seperate occasions.
Training wise, I only managed sessions with Craig on his S1000RR, Steve on his Fazor 600 and James on his F800R.
James passed his DSA test with BMW Rider Training but wanted some post test training, so booked a B&B in York and travelled up from his home in Southend for a full days training with me. We covered about 140 miles arounbd some of Yorkshires finest biking roads.
Whilst we're on the subject of training, customer Stuart B recently took his RoSPA bike test on his BMW GSA and passed with a Silver grade, a fantastic result.
Between the 15th and the 25th I was away with Motorrad Tours in my capacity as a Tour Leader. Myself and 16 customers (11 bikes) took part in the Annecy and French Alps tour.
I was allocated a BMW R1250GS Adventure for the tour and what a fantastic bike. The tour started from Folkestone and headed across France before arriving in the beautiful town of Annecy where we spent 2 nights. From there it was over many 'Cols' and passes to the Italian ski resort of Courmayeur for a further 2 nights, before winding our way back across France to finish on Sunday 25th. Total mileage for me was around 2000 miles.
Here's a few photos from the trip, in no particular order.
www.motorrad-tours.com
After coming off tour I had a day to 'kill' before I had to return my tour bike, so I decided to head to the Ace Cafe in London. The 'Ace' is a well known bikers venue, situated on the North Circular Road. Back in the 1960s bikers used to meet there and then have their own races around the North Circular. The cafe closed in 1969 but in the late 90's it was bought and reopened and still thrives today. It was my first visit to this iconic venue in nearly 40 years of motorcycling but I hope to go back again in the future.
I finished the month off with some Tutor assessing with my local RoSPA group in my role as Training Officer. It was a really good turn out with lots of training rides completed. I assessed Tutor Paul, as he assessed 'associate' Geoff, who was riding his fairly rare Suzuki RF900. It was a good session, with all boxes ticked by Paul and an excellent ride by Geoff.
Here's a few photos of all the guys prior to setting off in their training pairs and a few of Paul and Geoffs session.
And that my friends, completes Augusts round up.
September sees me reach my 56th birthday, but more importantly sees me notch up 40 years of motorcycling. Watch out for a nostalgic look back at my biking years.
Thanks for reading,
Ian S