Table of Contents
Editorial
We are back! After a 2,000+ mile jaunt around France and had a fabulous time. Having had marvellous weather we missed all storms. I did post a couple of articles about fog and the myth of self-learning to ride a bike, but they wouldn’t really help. It’s back to business now and we’ve a lot to catch up on.
It’s all about rain this week, but we should also include gale force winds. Riding in the rain is one of those skills that every biker needs. Weather forecasts are only predictions about what might happen. As a biker you are where the weather is happening and keeping the rubber on the road. Kevin Williams gives some great advice about braking in the wet. He also takes issue with some of the ‘Share Space’ road designs that have been implemented in recent years. Paint costs less than kerb stones, so saving money seems to come before keeping road users safe.
The October Club Night is next week and you can get your tickets for the Pie and Pea event on the 26th October (details below). The redesign of the SAM website is under way. If you have any ideas on what to include just send them to sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike. As sit in a warm apartment in Calais, watching the poor passengers on the ferries cope with stormy sea conditions, I’m glad I’m taking Eurotunnel. Happy reading.
SAM Club Night 7th October 2024
SAM's Autumn Celebration
Online Motorcycling News
General
Ben Tushaw has packed a lot into 15 years on the scootering scene.
As well as riding to rallies all over the country, he’s suffered multiple broken bones, set up an Essex-wide scooter collective, and helped raise thousands for a children’s cancer charity. Read more.
Riding a motorcycle in the rain can be fun if you plan accordingly and develop good habits
Every motorcyclist will face rainy weather at some point in their riding careers. Understandably, a lot of riders are weary of wet conditions, but many of those concerns stem from a lack of preparation of our skills and gear. Motorcycling in the rain can be pretty fun if you’re developing the right skills and wearing the right gear to keep you safe. So, when a curious reader asked, “Can you ride a motorcycle in the rain?” We knew it was an excellent time to discuss the dos and don’ts of rain riding. Read more.
Red Bull Dirt Biker Jumps Off a Cliff, Paraglides All the Way Down
OK, so I’m always open to going big or going home. Open to risking it all for that one momentary spark of adrenaline and joy. But even I, RideApart’s chief insane person, have my limits. And Red Bull athlete Tom Pages found that limit in his latest video dubbed “Ride and Fly.”
It’s a fairly non-descript title, especially for a video that its properly bonkers in its execution. But the concept is something many folks have been working on for a long time, i.e. flying, yes flying, a dirt bike.
The concept goes way back, but apart from some oddities here and there, no one has really been able to figure it out to the degree, or length, that Tom did. So instead of attaching some sort of fixed-wing glide structure, the dirt biker threw on a paraglide parachute, got ready, and gave the motorcycle some gas. Read more.
Rider Safety
Barely a day goes by when Jez Kidd doesn’t think about his friend Andreas ‘Fats’ Anastasi, killed in a scooter accident on October 9, 1988.
The pair were only 18 at the time, and Fats had borrowed Jez’s Vespa PX125 to go and get some food from McDonald’s.
Sadly, he never returned. Read more.
If you have a disability or are looking to get back on a motorcycle after an accident that has left you disabled, there are a number of adaptations that can be made to your bike in the 21st century.
Here the team at Bikesure will run through how you are able to ride a bike, and the steps you will need to take in line with your disability. Read more.
Correctly protecting and storing your motorcycle is key to ensuring your bike is in working order, whenever you next use it.
Failure to adequately look after a mechanical device can have terrible, and often financially crippling, implications. This can cause real heartache to any rider. How you store your bike depends on the time of year and the age and value of your bike. Read more.
Drowsy drivers are twice as likely to be reckless behind the wheel says new industry study
Motorists are twice as likely to drive recklessly and impede the safety of others if they are tired behind the wheel, according to new research from insurance provider Allianz. Read more.
Bosch’s new radar system will pull away, brake, avoid accidents and even stop for you
Global motorcycle technology company, Bosch are coming to market in 2025 with a range of new radar-guided assistance systems that have the power to bring a bike to a stop behind a vehicle, apply additional brake pressure to prevent accidents, warn other road users they are getting too close, and even pull away from a stop following the car in front. Read more.
Adventure & Touring
In the heart of Africa, you expect to see many things—spectacular scenery, ferocious wildlife, and the ancient culture of the Masai tribe. But, for a motorcycle rider passing through, the most famous of these areas are only accessible by hiring a Land Cruiser, ditching the motorcycle in order to enter any of the many national parks… or so I thought. A chance meeting with a local campsite owner informed me of a motorcycle route exploring the wilderness surrounding the legendary Ol Doinyo Lengai, fittingly named by the locals, “The Mountain of God.” The route to get there was described as an off-road route through otherworldly landscapes with the promise of wildlife, scenery, and adventure. The road surface I was told “depends on the weather.” Sounds like every motorcyclist’s dream. I was sold. Read more.
Bill Nichols is seated in the dining room of Alfonsina’s, in Gonzaga Bay, after a long day of making new single-track trails in Baja, California. Having dinner with him are Kacey Smith and her parents, Bill and Linda. The iconic Nichols is known amongst moto riders in Baja for his signature routes in central Baja, including the flagship piece which bears his name.
Smith (a.k.a. “The Lizard Lady”) has spent 25 years in Gonzaga, her second home, and is famous for her BAJA GPS Guidebook series. They’re all a very pleasant bunch, and nice enough to share their table with anyone willing to exchange their moto adventures of the day. You start to shrug when one of them wonders why you would ride off road from Tijuana to La Paz alone, “And, you’re going solo because?”
“Freedom,” is your one-word answer. Read more.
Riding a motorcycle in the rain can be fun if you plan accordingly and develop good habits
Every motorcyclist will face rainy weather at some point in their riding careers. Understandably, a lot of riders are weary of wet conditions, but many of those concerns stem from a lack of preparation of our skills and gear. Motorcycling in the rain can be pretty fun if you’re developing the right skills and wearing the right gear to keep you safe. So, when a curious reader asked, “Can you ride a motorcycle in the rain?” We knew it was an excellent time to discuss the dos and don’ts of rain riding. Read more.
History & Custom
New Found Hope: ICON’s nostalgic Honda VF1000F Interceptor restomod
As far as 80s sportbikes go, the Honda VF1000F Interceptor often gets overshadowed. Riding on the success of the VF750F, Honda introduced the VF1000F to expand their V-four lineup and offer a sport-touring option for riders craving more power and range. But the VF1000F never quite matched the popularity of the 750, and was outgunned…Read more
Whiteknights Blood Bikes
Thank you to John & Steve for participating in another national relay today as the consignment came through our part of the country.
Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood Bikes would like to thank the students and colleagues at Bradford Muslim College for donating nearly one thousand pounds to support the work of our charity in their local community.South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership
Here’s some of our awesome team who recently attended the Biker Down course, these guys work tirelessly to ensure they stay on top form to be able to provide you guys with not only the BEST motorcycle training out there but to ensure your always in the safest hands possible
01977 279191Every death and serious injury on the road is a preventable tragedy. Yet, on average, five people die every day on the road in the UK and 82 are seriously injured (10-year average from 2013-2022). This has to change. Help us by sticking to the rules of the road. Brake, the road safety charity
Kevin Williams
Cornering crashes are usually self-inflicted
Last time out I was looking at the crashes that impact riders in urban areas, and today I’m going to move onto cornering crashes. Some years ago, I was chatting to an experienced biker and he told me that it was obvious that the cause of many fatal crashes on bends resulted from drivers running wide and into the rider’s path “because they are head-on collisions”.
Well, it’s a theory, that’s for sure. Unfortunately it’s wrong. Read more.
Perhaps it won’t be a surprise to you that when I was commissioned by ACEM, the Association of European Motorcycle Manufacturers, to research and write the text for a series of cartoons on ‘infrastructure issue’, my first thought was “let’s cover junctions”.
Here’s the cartoon that the Belgian graphics studio put to my storyboard – Lucky 13 cartoon #1 in the series of thirteen. Read more.
Training or self-help?
I’ve been coaching riders in better biking skills since early in the 90s. Initially, I was helping out at a university bike club, getting the cash-strapped young riders at Canterbury through their bike test. I enjoyed it so much I trained up at a CBT instructor in 1995 and got a job as a full time trainer. I qualified for Direct Access in 1997, launched Survival Skills to teach advanced skills based on what I’d learned as a courier, and whilst I last worked as a basic training in 2007, I’m still active as a post-test rider coach. Read more.
Braking in the Rain revisited – part two
Two weeks back I was saying that after a decent spell of mostly-dry summer weather, we usually have to recalibrate for autumn and wet roads. I mentioned an old FB item written almost thirteen years ago that said that searching for grip was the first issue – that’s what I covered last week. But here’s the second issue for most riders – not knowing hard hard we can brake. And as a result, we’re often excessively cautious. So here are some tips for gaining confidence with wet-weather braking. Read more.
Knowing I’ve highlighted strange road markings in the past, which are designed to sow confusion in our minds – the theory is that when we don’t know what to expect we slow down – Mark Young sent me the link to the BBC story – which you can find here –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93yg9y9r2d
The story concerns a junction known as California Cross in Finchhampstead in Berkshire. Read more.
It’s time for the deer rut again
I was out on Thursday afternoon, taking a wander through some woodlands – it’s got one of the only two Sequoia plantations in the UK – and whilst walking along the quiet paths we spotted two deer. One was a Muntjac, the other could have been a small female Roe. An hour or so later, we were having a cuppa at a nearby park that has an enclosure with some Red deer in it – and the stag was bellowing. As the sign on the wall informed, the rut has started. Read more.
Braking in the rain revisited – part three
“ABS doesn’t reduce your stopping distance…
…it just lessens the chances of you falling off during the process.”
That was a statement made by Steve Rose, long-term road tester and journalist. Steve writes a lot of good stuff, but sometimes I don’t always agree with his tendency to talk in soundbites. This statement is an example. It grabs attention for sure, but is it right?
For the vast majority of riders, the simple answer is he’s wrong. Read more.
Hans Monderman, Drachten & ‘shared space’
[Based on the in-depth item in yesterday’s ‘Elevenses’ live webcast]
Last week, I featured some road markings at California cross in Finchampstead. Finchampstead is a village near Wokingham in Berkshire where a new traffic scheme replaced roundabout markings with brightly coloured leaves. Most comments on the scheme were negative, both in the press and on my Elevenses webcast, but the council said that the scheme was created to help pedestrians cross the road more safely. But since the scheme removes conventional traffic controls I asked: “does confusing road users make roads safer?” Read more.
Motorcycling Organsiations
IAM RoadSmart
Aliz, who grew up in Romania, prefers two wheels to four: “I love the freedom to explore the county of Hertfordshire or take a weekend-long tour in the Alps. I love the adrenaline and excitement I get every time I get to ride my bike.” Aliz passed her Advanced Rider Test just over two years ago after being introduced to IAM Roadsmart by her partner. Read more.
Are you aware of the OAP framework when out riding? 
National Motorcyclists Council
The NMC is delighted to be involved with this new conference. Driving motorcycle safety forward!
FEMA
French white paper, published by CSIAM (the International Chamber of Automobile and Motorcycle Trade Unions) offers a summary of the significant progress that the use of motorcycles and other powered two-wheelers makes, both in terms of relieving road traffic congestion and reducing polluting emissions and on savings that can be made by the community and road users themselves. It also offers an industrial perspective on the problems of noise and road safety as it is understood in the motorcycle sector. Below we offer a compilation of the most important issues (click here to read the full white paper). Read more.
British Motorcyclists Federation
Drink-driving fatalities are on the increase in the UK, according to latest figures from the Department for Transport. It seems surprising, given the long-term change in attitudes to drink-driving, but fatalities in 2022 were at their highest levels since 2009, with alcohol involved in 17% – nearly 1 in 5 – of all road deaths. Overall, the DfT estimates that in 2022 6800 people were killed or injured when at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit, up 1% from 6740 the previous year. Read more.
The British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) and the National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) have responded to the Transport for London (TFL) consultation on plans to charge motorcyclists to use the Silvertown and Blackwell tunnels from 2025. TfL are urged to “think again” on flawed plans that fail to take into account the positive impact of motorcycles on London’s pollution and congestion levels. Read more.
New Rider Hub
What is Ridefree?
Ridefree is an award-winning enhancement to compulsory basic training (CBT), consisting of pre-course eLearning modules. Its aim is to help you prepare for your CBT and riding on the road.
How can it help me?
CBT should be an enjoyable experience. But there’s a lot to learn, and it’s normal to feel anxious about your first bike ride. The good news is that Ridefree will help you become a better and more confident rider…Read more.
Next SAM Club Night
7th October 2024
7.30pm start for meeting at 8pm. Gives you time to catch up on what you’ve missed!
Treeton Miners Welfare Club
Arundel Street
Treeton
Rotherham S60 5PW
Next SAM Committee Meeting
30th October 2024
Details to be arranged