Editorial
Just a quick reminder that there won’t be SAM Club nights or Committee meetings in August 2023 or January 2024. We are out riding and recovering from Christmas! There is now a separate index of your SAM Club weekly newsletters on the SAM website. Now you can easily find any articles that you may have missed, or want to read again. Other changes to the SAM website include a complete rewrite of the front page code to make it faster loading and bring the code up to new standards. A slight redesign of the front page to include information about completing a CBT course. We (meaning me!) get regular calls from prospective riders who want to know if we run CBT courses. Up to now they have been referred to local providers, but as a motorcycle safety charity we need to ensure that potential riders are steered in the right direction for a safer riding life.
The world of motorcycling rides on with continuing increases in bike sales. Ducati, in particular, is doing very well this year. Great news for both motorcycling and the SAM Club.
In your newsletter this week you can read about the comparison between motorcycles and cars. It is useful when talking about the value of motorcycles as an essential part of an integrated transport system in the UK. Such things as lower purchasing, maintenance and running costs. The smaller ecological footprint of motorcycles. The fact that consistently more riders than drivers pass their highway code, hazard perception and national tests. It is inexperienced bikers, riding outside of their competence, that tend to have a greater number and more serious accidents.
It is fine having meetings with Government ministers to put the case for the role of motorcycling. Real change can only be achieved by a campaign that includes daily, weekly and monthly efforts to keep the motorcycling cause in the forefront of people’s minds. We can’t let ill-informed, non-biking local or national politicians throw the biking campaign off course. Have you written to your MP yet?
The menace of e-scooters raised its ugly head this week. IAM RoadSmart have begun a campaign highlighting the threat to everyone’s road safety of the menace of e-scooters. You can have your say here. Also, the need to stop the exploitation of, mainly young and desperate, motorcyclists in the gig economy. We definitely need a campaign targeting business owners who use and abuse these bikers.
Mindfulness in motorcycling was brought to the attention of the motorcycling community this week. Paroding Richard Pirsig’s ‘Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance’ is a great article on safer riding. Pirsig, however, never claimed his book had anything to do with Zen philosophy. The article stressed the need to remain focussed on the riding throughout the ride. Something we may know, but we can all do with a reminder from time to time. It also helps to explain riding to those who don’t ride. If you’d like to know if your riding remains at an advanced rider standard, talk to Andy Frith (Chief National Observer) about the SAM Club’s Green Badge+ course. It is a valuable resource, developed by Andy, to help SAM Club members keep up their advanced riding standards. It’s a treasured source of guidance that can be used throughout your riding life.
When the call goes out for motorcyclists to help make someone happy, 9,000 can turn up! You can read about the fantastic response from the motorcycling community. They made an old biker’s wish come true and had a brilliant afternoon chatting to the staff and residents of the care home. The history slot is about Velocette bikes. Some of these are being restored by younger bikers. Happy reading
Ways to stay in touch with your Club!
It’s really easy to stay in touch with your Club! We provide emails, a website and use social media accounts for you to contact us. All of which is free of any cost to the Club. If you are not getting the Club information circulated, or simply want to tell us something, just let us know at sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike. We’ll be happy to ensure that we stay in touch with you. You can also now sign up for Club emails on the SAM website.
