Editorial
The SAM Club Annual Photo Competition entry closing date is getting nearer. By the time this newsletter hits your inbox, you will have just 10 days left to get your entries in to sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike. It’s a great bit of fun for the SAM Club, so show you support and send a few of your best snaps.
We start this week’s newsletter with a look back at the last SAM Club night. If you weren’t there then you missed the latest FREE handouts! Steve Ellis (Area Services Delivery Manager, IAM RoadSmart) introduced himself and gave a talk. A local Yorkshire chap, Steve began working as an electrician in coal mining, before changing career to join the Police, eventually working as Traffic Officer. He is an ADI qualified instructor for both commercial and public drivers/riders. Whilst working with IAM RoadSmart, Steve has worked with over 100 groups. The focus get more people to take up advanced riding and driving, whilst developing a much more collegiate and supportive role with and between local groups. The move away from having Local Observers is being made because of the varying standards of instruction and the development, by some groups, of an unauthorised hierarchy. The harmonisation of standards through the National Observer programme is aimed at maintaining confidence in the advanced riding/driving standards set out in the training syllabus. This training will focus on moving away from direct instruction toward student-centred learning. There was protracted explanation and discussion on interpreting the three performance categories scoring on the Observer run sheet.
Onto other items in your newsletter. Are you ready to ride? If you’ve put the bike into hibernation for the winter, then now might be a good time to focus on getting bike fit. When you are ready to ride you could ponder Bennetts Insurance question of how fast can a 50cc or 125cc bike really go. After a riding layoff, before getting out on the bike, take a look at the Rapid Rider Train advice on the best ways to improve your riding. The bike might need some TLC too, but to provide the driving force, fitting a propeller seems at the far end of the daft ideas spectrum. The poor Honda that got modified could do with some advice about how to keep things fastened together. Honda might have come to the rescue with the torso-enveloping airbag that can detach from the bike in the event of a spill on the road.
Staying with safer road use, there is a new national HGV safety campaign. Can you name all the blind spots on a heavy goods vehicle? To pursue greater road safety, new roadside eyesight testing is being implemented in Norfolk. Finally, does anyone remember Marianne Faithful in ‘Girl on a Motorcycle’? Read about how the one piece leather suit was designed in the early 1950s. Who would have guessed that it was designed by a ballet costume designer? Happy reading.
(Tuesday 1400hrs 7th March 2023)
SAM ANNUAL PHOTO COMPETITION
Subject: Bikes, Biking & Bikers
Closing date: 12mn 20th March 2023
Email entries to: sam-editor@sam-new-paac
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