September proved to be a much busier month than expected, with lots of training and testing. I also had my 61st birthday.....61!!!!! Where do the years go?! Anyway, here's what I got up to in September.
Training.
Alex started the month off with 3 full days of training on his 350 Royal Enfield. Over the 3 days we worked on the 7 core modules of the Enhanced Rider Scheme, with Alex completing some pre course reading of Motorcycle Roadcraft to speed things along. (Pardon the pun). We covered around 350 miles across the 3 days, and had a very mixed bag weather, but Alex and the RE took it all in their stride. Having trained with numerous riders of high capacity/high BHP bikes, the REs 20 BHP put a completely different spin on 'planning your ride', which has been a good learning curve for me as a trainer. Every day's a school day. I very pleased to say that at the end of his 3 days, Alex successfully passed the core models and gained his ERS certificate. Congratulations Alex, well deserved.
Kate was up next on her Triumph 900 Scrambler. Kate chose to spread her training across 3 separate sessions, but the end result was that she successfully completed the Enhanced Rider Scheme. Kate then had 2 more sessions and took the BMF Blue Riband Advanced Rider Award. Check out below to see how she got on.
Gregg came along on his Suzuki 1250. Great has trained with me previously and decided it was time for a refresher.
Ben came along on his lovely supercharged Kawasaki z1000H2. Ben has trained with me previously, which resulted in him passing both the RoSPA and BMF Blue Riband Advanced Rider Award advanced tests. Both of those qualifications are due to be renewed, so Ben decided it was time for a refresher.
Alan came along on his Triumph for his second session. He already holds an IAM pass, and now wants to work towards taking his IAM Masters.
BMF Blue Riband Advanced Rider Award.
Ian was riding his BMW 1250GSA to complete his BMF Blue Riband Triennial retest, having last tested in 2021. Ian put in a great ride, with only a couple of 'minors', resulting in him successfully passing with a Gold grade.
As mentioned above, Kate on her 900 Triumph completed the ERS and then followed it up by taking her BMF Assessment. We had a short warm up session, before meeting Examiner Alf G, who conducted her assessment. An hour after leaving me at the cafe, they returned, and after patiently watching Alf conduct the debrief, they came over to break the good news, Kate had passed successfully. A great result, and even the more impressive when you consider that Kate only obtained her full bike licence in July 2022.
Examiner Alf G conducting Kates debrief.
The handover of the BMF badge and sticker, confirming a successful pass!
IAM Roadsmart.
I conducted 2 IAM advanced bike tests in September. First up was Neal on his Tiger 800.
Neal put in a good ride and passed successfully.
Unfortunately, the second candidate was unsuccessful due to exceeding a 40mph speed limit. However, the rest of his ride was good and I'm sure he will return and pass next time round.
RoSPA.
Only 1 RoSPA test to conduct in September, and that was with Steve on his R1250GS.
Steve put in a great ride, which was safe, progressive, fluid and smooth, and as a result, he passed successfully achieving a Gold grade.
RoSPA Group training.
On 7th I helped out with Tutoring with my local RoSPA group - Advanced Riders North Yorkshire (www.arny.org.uk) I was paired up with Geoff on his Triumph as he prepares for his RoSPA retest. We started in the dry, but the rain eventually came.
NYFRS FireBike.
I had a couple of run outs on the FireBike. The first was with Stuart. We rode some of the 'biker routes' and visited the biker cafes along those routes. We mainly stuck to the east of the country. We spoke to various riders, and as usual, the FireBike project was given the thumbs up.
Later in the month, I was out again, this time with Jade. We had a run to Helmsley, Pickering and on to Seaways café. The weather was kind, so there were quite a lot of bikers out to chat to and talk about the project and post test training in general.
Ready for the off.
Jade chatting to bikers in Helmsley.
Getting ready to move on.
Final stop at Seaways Cafe, Fridaythorpe,
The new BMW R1300GS Adventure.
On Saturday 14th, I headed to Barrie Robson BMW motorcycles in York to support their launch of the new BMW R1300GS Adventure. I have to say, I hadn't been a fan of the new look, and like many others, thought BMW had made an error with the styling. Even after seeing numerous photos of it on line, I still wasn't convinced. However, seeing it in the metal, changed my view almost instantly! I spoke to quite a few people, and they all said the same. It really is a great looking bike and looks so much better than in photos.
Looks great in the 'Rallye' colours.
The new headlight, mimics the 1300GS.
Still has the 30 litre fuel tank.
Showroom in full swing.
Sales exec Chris taking customers through the new bike.
Everyone agreed it looked better in the metal than photos.
The 1300GS next to it is the new 'auto gearbox version. Gear lever, but no clutch lever?! I've been invited to have a ride on the bike, so hopefully that will be in next months update.
Motorcycle News.
MCN does a weekly feature called 'First Bike', and in their 5th Sept edition, published a photo of me on my Honda 250 Superdream. It will have been 1980/81 and I will have been 17 years old. I posted this on my Facebook page and it was great to see some page followers posting their own photos.
Bottom right corner, it's me!!
I was soooo good looking.....what happened!!
My GSA
As you've read, another busy month on the bike, so not surprisingly, I racked up another chunk of miles, and passed the 21,000 mile marker, not bad in 16 months! Fortunately, in September, I finally got my 18K service done, all taken care of by the excellent team at Barrie Robson BMW in York. As well as the normal service items, I also had new rear brake pads fitted and the brake fluid changed. A week after the service, I had new tyres fitted at Leeds Bike Tyres, at Scholes, near Leeds. I went for another set of Michelin PR6s. I've fitted them to all my GSAs and they have always impressed with handling, grip and wear rate, in fact, the set I've just taken off, have lasted 9000 miles, and still had a couple of mill' on them. So, that's the bike serviced and new tyres fitted, and it now feels as good as new and ready for the next 6000 miles.
Bike into the bay and ready for the tyre swap.
45 minutes later, the new tyres are on and I'm ready for the off.
A pretty the rest of the bike is not as clean as those tyres!
Leeds Bike Tyres, Scholes, near Leeds. Apologies for the blurry shot, I was probably shaking as I knew I going to have to part with some money!
As I said at the beginning, it's been another very busy month. Here's my GSA mileage figures for September.
01/09/24 - 19381
30/09/24 - 21047
GSA mileage in September - 1666
FireBike mileage for September - 174
Total mileages for the year to date;
GSA - 10303.
FireBike 3072.
Motorrad Tours 2490.
Total for the year as of 3o/09/24 - 15865.
So there you have it. September 2024. I hope you've enjoyed reading about what I got up to as much as I did doing it all. Until next month, ride safe everyone.
Ian S
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