Well, the weather finally took a turn for the better, which meant there was lots more going on in March than there had been in January and February. More training, more testing, a long weekend in Wales for the annual Motorrad Tours training and a week in Portugal for the first round of this years MotoGP. Read on for more information.....
RoSPA Test pass - for me!!
Yes, in March it was my turn to be examined and assessed. In Feb 2000 I took and passed the RoSPA Diploma but as RoSPA have changed their qualification system, rather than taking a 'diploma' retest, I had to take the Advanced Tutor retest. In effect, the diploma retest and Advanced Tutor retest are the same and I still get to keep my Diploma certificate as it was awarded with an open ended 'end date'. I travelled up to Scotch Corner for my test, where I met fellow RoSPA Examiner Nick Walker. I usually take my retests closer to home but wanted to push myself a bit more by taking it on unfamiliar roads. After an initial chat with Nick, we set off for the riding element of the test, with me leading and Nick following, giving me directions via bluetooth comms. Having completed the riding element, I then took the role of 'Examiner' and Nick became the student and I had to brief, follow and debrief his ride. When all elements were completed, Nick gave me the great news that I had passed successfully! Not all RoSPA Examiners ever take an advanced test as RoSPA don't ask them to do so, but I like to test myself and put myself in the shoes of a customer, and even after all these years (I took my first RoSPA test in 1998!) I was still nervous and had the feeling of euphoria when Nick gave me my result and here's the certificate of proof!
Training.
Gareth on his 750GS Sport, kicked the month off nicely with a half day refresher. Gareth trained with me last year which resulted in him passing the BMF Blue Riband Rider Award. This years goal is further post test qualifications. It was a great session, with some of it spent trying to (unsuccessfully) dodge the rain!
Matt was up next on his MT09. Matt, who travelled down from Newton Aycliffe for his training is an experienced rider who passed his IAM Advanced test several years ago, so decided it was time for a refresher. Cracking session, covering a 100 miles in dry but quite cold conditions.
Paul came along on his F800GT. Paul already holds an advanced qualification and was due to take his RoSPA test at the end of 2022. Unfortunately, an injury put his test on hold and resulted in no riding for 3 months, so his session was a combination of a refresher and a pre-test assessment. We suffered a couple of snow flurries and temps struggled to get above 3c but we had lots of tea stops and still managed to cover around 140 miles.
Luke on his Yamaha 700 Tenere followed on from Paul. Luke only passed his test in December 2022 but already appreciates the benefits of further training and wants to complete the Enhanced Rider Scheme and then potentially go on to further advanced qualifications. Next session already in the diary.
Ben recently swapped his KTM Superduke GT for this great looking S1000XR. Training never quite goes to plan with Ben and that day was no exception with a couple of bike issues, fortunately nothing drastic and we were soon back on the road. Despite the slight hiccup, and chilly start, we still had a great day covering lots of miles and fine tuning Bens techniques.
Training routes.
I'm often asked where I go when I'm out training. To be honest there are many factors, the weather, the customers riding experience, road closures etc etc, so although I always know roughly where I'm going to go beforehand, it can be quite fluid. Anyway, here's a rough outline from a Google maps image of one of the routes I took during March.
We started at Strawberry Fields cafe at Crockey Hill, headed west to Gate Helmsley and then north through Malton and stopped in Hovingham at The Park Tea Rooms for a debrief over a brew. From there we headed across through Oswaldkirk, Amplethorpe, passed Bylands Abbey, crossed the A19 into Hessay and onto Boroughbridge, where we had a second debrief and break. From Boroughbridge we headed south, through Tadcaster and onto Squires for more tea and discussions. The final stint was Towton, Church Fenton, Cawood, Riccall, A19 into York and a final debrief whilst looking at new bikes at Barrie Robson BMW.
The route offered a really good mix of A and B roads, both open and flowing and tight and twisty, passing through several picturesque villages and started on the multi lane A64 with a finish through York. Google maps says 123 miles but it was actually 140.
RoSPA Examiner role.
I conducted 2 RoSPA tests in March, both of which were triennial Advanced Tutor retests. To pass the Advanced Tutor retests, the candidate must ride to a Gold standard. The Examiner then takes the role of an 'associate' and the test candidate has to give a pre ride briefing, then follow the Examiner and fully debrief his ride, highlighting any 'faults' the Examiner has added into his ride and also praising and reinforcing all the good points. There is then usually some discussion about a certain aspect of advanced riding or/and Roadcraft. If it's the candidates first attempt at the Advanced Tutor tests, there's also a question paper. All in all, it's not a test you can just rock up and expect to pass, it needs a candidate to put in the work and have the experience to complete it successfully.
First was Simon on his lovely 40th anniversary GSA. Simon has previously passed the RoSPA Diploma in advanced motorcycle instruction and his experience and knowledge was clearly evident and he passed successfully.
Next up was Phill on his GTR1400. Phill is an experienced rider, RoSPA Advanced Tutor and CBT trainer. Like Simon, he performed very well and passed successfully.
Motorrad Tours, annual Tour Leader training in Wales.
Over a long weekend, Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th of March I was in Wales for the annual Tour Leader training. I have worked with Motorrad Tours since 2016 and this year I will be leading 3 tours, 2 to Scotland in May and 1 to Germany in July. The weekend consists of training 'scenarios', product updates for BMW bikes, 2023 tour updates and generally catching up with the rest of the Tour Leader team, as well as assessing new Tour Leader candidates who are there as part of the selection process.
I travelled to Wales on the Thursday, leaving home at 10am and arrived 7 hours and 290 miles later at 5pm. I travelled M62 to Chester and then dropped down through Wales to the 1st hotel in Bridgend. The weather was better than predicted but the rain did eventually come but only for about the last 70 or so miles.
Friday was spent in the 'classroom' to review 2022 tours and our processes, meet the new Tour Leader candidates and do the preparation for Saturdays scenario exercises.
Saturday dawned early with a 7.30am breakfast and then out on the road in 3 separate groups at 8.30am sharp. My group consisted of me (obviously) and fellow Tour Leaders Steve, Pierre and Bob along with Tour Leader candidates Kev and Nick. Kev and Nick took it in turns to lead along the route and were confronted with various 'incidents' they were to deal with as they would on a tour. Sunday morning was a round up of the weekend and after the group photo we were away around lunch time.
My ride home was great, it remained dry for the whole journey, I pretty much had the whole length of the A483 to myself, it didn't rain, the roads were dry and the temp just about stayed in double figures for the whole 280 miles. All in all a great few days. here's some photos from the weekend.
Here's Bob talking us through some of Basecamps little anomalies....look at the concentration on those faces!
Saturday morning and all the bikes are lined up and ready for the off.
Low cloud, but it was getting better!
Discussion and debrief from Bob to Nick, Steve and Kev.
First aid and scene management.....the guys hard at work whilst Chris checks the menu for his food order! Please note - nobody was injured in the making of this scenario!
Blue sky breaking through, the roads are drying and Pierre is happy.
It's Wales, so there was bound to be sheep!
Saturdays training route, complete with RTCs, road closures, sat nav problems, medical issues, punctures and flat batteries.....I would like to point out that all these incidents don't usually happen on tour.....thank god!! But preparation and training is key.
The Motorrad Tours Team.
Front row (in front of the fence) L to R - Eugenie, me, Chris, Katrina, Lizzy, Scott and Bob.
Back row (behind the fence) L to R - Alf, Nigel, Pierre, Paul, Mark, Steve and Danny. Photo by Richard.
For more information about the team and tours for 2023, check out this link.
MotoGP - Portugal
On the 23rd March, Kim and I headed off to Portugal for the 1st round of the 2023 MotoGP season. This season sees a change to the race weekend format, with the MotoGP riders having 2 races. there's a 10 lap 'sprint' race on the Saturday and the full length race on the Sunday. Kim managed to get us some great seats in the main grandstand along the start and finish straight and directly opposite the podium and pit garages.
We picked our hire car up at the airport and made our way to our hotel in Albufeira. On the Friday we went to the circuit to watch free practice for all classes and then returned Saturday for qualifying and the sprint race. The weather was great, 22c and the organisation for getting in and out was very good. The circuit toilets were clean, with hand soap, hand driers and toilet paper. The food was also reasonably priced and not too bad.
The atmosphere within the grandstand was great, with all the Portuguese cheering on the local hero Miguel Oliveira and when he moved into 3rd place on the last lap, the crowd were sensing a podium finish. Unfortunately, Oliveira overshot a corner and dropped down the order, finishing 7th with Mark Marquez finishing a surprising 3rd.
Sprint race Podium. Marquez 3rd, Martin 2nd, Bagnaia 1st.
Sunday race day came and we took our seats. There was much excitement at the thought of Marquez pulling off a surprise victory and Oliveira on the podium. Little did we know what was to come. Yes, lap 3, Marquez got out of control and took out Oliveira. The crowd went mad, with some even leaving once they knew Oliveira was out of the race. Marquez appeared in the pit lane and was jeered and booed.
The race finished with another victory for Bagnaia, with Vinales 2nd and Bezzecchi 3rd.
Jake Dixon rode well in the Moto 2 race to come from 12th on the grid to finish 6th with Sam Lowes finishing one place behind in 7th. Rory Skinner came home 22nd in his first ever Moto2 race. I'm sure his results will improve as the season progresses.
Moto3 was it's usual frantic affair, with lots of passing and swapping of places. No Brits in the top runners but here's hoping Josh Whatley and Scott Ogden get all the support they need to work their way up the rankings.
After the race weekend, the weather picked up even more and the temperatures rose to the mid 20's and saw me and Kim enjoying some time by the hotel pool and drives out to Vilamoura and Portimoa and the extra hour we gained with BST (Portugal keep exactly the same time as the UK) we enjoyed the sunshine in the mid evenings. Some more photos of our trip. Race day!
Fans parade in the open top trailer.
View from out hotel window.
Vilamoura Marina
Bars too numerous to mention.
Beach walks in the evening sunshine.
And it's all over and we're on the plane home, boo......
The racing and the circuit was very good, with the exception of getting out on race day. The 45 minute journey back to the hotel took 3.5 hours!
It was our first visit to Portugal but we loved Albufeira. It's a beautiful town with lots of character, not to mention numerous bars, cafes, restaurants and shops to relive you of your hard earned cash, but we loved every minute of it and would go back in an instant.
My Bike - BMW R1250GS Adventure.
As I type this, I've owned the GSA for 7 weeks (I collected it on 10th Feb) and in that time it has been used for training, testing, social rides and the weekend to Wales. When I collected the bike, it had 15,500 miles on the clock, and it now has 18000, so that's 1500 miles in those 7 weeks and so far it has performed faultlessly and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. I still need to buy a 'proper' BMW top box, but for now my old Kappa box is serving me well. The box has been in my ownership since around the year 2000 when I bought it to fit on to the back of my first Honda Blackbird, so I think I've had my moneys worth from it!
Also had a new rear tyre fitted in March. To be fair, there was probably 1000 miles left on it, but I knew I would be covering around 800 miles on the Motorrad Tours weekend, including a few hundred on the motorway and didn't want to leave anything to chance.
I called in on the excellent team at Steve Sirrell Tyres, who had a tyre in stock and were able to fit it without issue.
Previous Bikes - Honda CBR900 Fireblade - the bike that started my advanced riding journey.
Last month I told you about the purchase of my first ever Fireblade, well that was traded in within a year for a brand new 'Blade'. And here it is....R503LKH, bought new on 16/1/1998 for the sum of £8555.55.
As with nearly all my bikes, it was bought from Miles Kingsport in Hull.
I went to Switzerland on that Blade, with Neil on his VFR750. The Blade was awesome, but the weather was appalling! I don't think we had 1 day without rain or low cloud. Proven by the fact that despite being away for 10 days, I only took 2 photos, and here they are! If I remember right, the first one is by Lake Geneva. Back then I had throw over panniers and it was obviously long before sat navs, so note the route notes taped to the tank! These were swapped daily for the next set, and weren't always accurate, but we rarely got lost, or care if we did!
This second photo was at the top of one of the Swiss passes. It started to snow whilst at the top and continued all the way down, laying on the road and paths, which made for a very 'interesting' ride. Our visors covered in seconds and trying to ride with them up was like having pins and needles pushed into your face! Fortunately we made it down, but at one point I was convinced the snow would beat us and we'd get 'snowed in' and make the national news for being stupid English tourists getting stuck up a mountain!!
So, how is this bike responsible for getting me started with advanced riding?
Well, back in the late 90's, Honda started a scheme called the Honda Motorcycle Appreciation Course, or Honda MAC for short. If you bought a new Honda over 500cc you got a free 2 day course. All MAC instructors were serving police riders and the scheme covered more or less the whole of England. I was contacted by my instructor, Guy and we arranged a meeting place. I turned up on my all singing, all dancing, cutting edge sports bike, and Guy turned up on a fully liveried Honda MAC 1100 Pan European. I remember thinking, "I'll be spending the next 2 days waiting for him to catch up"....oh how wrong I was !!! Guy started off by following me for around 30 minutes and then debriefed my ride. He said I wasn't looking far enough ahead, my positioning could be better and I was quite 'steady'......steady?...me?! I thought right, I'll show you. I set off and this time I was gonna show Guy just how fast I was, but I just couldn't shake him off, and just when I thought I was getting the better of him, he simply overtook me and said follow him for a while. After that short ride behind Guy, I was sold. I NEEDED to ride like him. Wow.
For the next 2 days Guy put me through all the elements of IPSGA and taught me so much I didn't know. At the end of my 2 days Guy, told me I had passed the course. I still have my certificate, and here it is.
Guy also told me all about RoSPA and that I should put in for their advanced test, which I did, and a few weeks later on 22nd April 1998 I passed it successfully with a Gold pass.
Those 2 days with Guy and then the RoSPA test pass also put me in a great position for the selection process when I applied for the Police motorcycle section the following year.
And here I am, 25 years later, still learning and now passing on those skills to other riders.
I kept that Fireblade until May 1999, when I traded it in for an 1100 Pan European!
Thanks for reading, until next month, ride safe.
Ian S