SAM Weekly Newsletter – 7th February 2025
The milder weather has ensured that SAM members, Associates and Observers, had some great excursions. Photos are slowly trickling in for the SAM Annual Photo Competition, so it time for members to look through their Apple, Google and Amazon archives to send in the best pictures. You can always find a space for the framed print somewhere in the shed!
Organisers of the second ‘Dave Day’ are asking bikers to register their intention to ride in the event. Fittingly, the event raises funds for food banks. Whilst bikers are taking advantage of the deep discounting from motorcycle dealers, electric motorcycle sales have dropped 40% since 2022. In insightful articles, both Kevin Williams and Bennets BikeSocial point out the many technical, performance and reliability hurdles that need to be overcome before they can replace current bikes. Even Ducati, despite their investment in electric racing, say they won’t be ready to produce a road bike for some time. Despite the dominance of Honda and BMW, Suzuki are fighting back with 0% finance deals through 2025. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.
There’s a lesson for bike thieves as one persistent offender has been sentenced to 14 years and four months. There is guidance on preventing your bike being stolen in this week’s newsletter. In the time it takes you to empty the shopping from the top box you bike can disappear. The answer: whenever you stop, use a cable lock and U-lock on the wheels. If possible, keep it covered with a bike cover that reaches to the ground. It’s a hassle, but better than walking home!
This week there is a great story of the couple who sold their house in Australia and rode back to the UK to have a cup of tea with Mum. One rider had only passed her bike test a week earlier and ridden in the rain once. It was a real adventure! There is a lot more for you to enjoy, so ride safe and happy reading.
Advanced riders are safer road users, ride longer, rider further, meet more people and enjoy a healthier, happier life!
Steve Eyres’ Funeral Service is at 10.30am on the 28th February 2025 at:
High Green Methodist Church
15 Wortley Road
High Green
Sheffield S35 4LQ
Burial at 11.30am
Burn Cross Cemetery
Burncross Road
Chapeltown
Sheffield S35 1SG
Celebration of Life at 12.30pm
The Commercial Inn
Chapeltown
Sheffield S35 2XF
SAM Members ONLY: Track days give you a safe space in which to practice advanced riding skills that will help to keep you safer out on the road. At Darley Moor, ‘Road Skills Days’ are designed to give qualified road riders new techniques and enhance existing skills in a controlled circuit environment. Aimed at road riders with knowledge and some experience of advanced road riding, Road Skills days will showcase techniques that will enhance both rider performance and safety when road riding.
It’s the SAM Annual Photo Competition 2025
Email ALL entries to sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike
Closing date 12mn Sunday 23rd March 2025
Next SAM Club Night
3rd March 2025
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
27th February 2025
Details to be arranged
General
Organisers of a second Dave Day in memory of TV chef Dave Myers have announced further details of the event.
Returning to Barrow, Cumbria, over the weekend of 21 and 22 June, it will see a concert headlined by an “international superstar” and charity football match.
Attendees are being asked to register and there is a request for everyone with a bike or trike to make a £10 donation, which will be split between two charities. A food bank collection is also being organised.
Last June, tens of thousands of bikers flocked to Myers’ hometown in a procession from London led by his fellow Hairy Biker Si King, with £127,000 raised for charity. Read more…
Are electric motorcycles the clean, green future of biking, or a soulless technological dead-end for gullible virtue-signallers? Well, the answer is…
…n’t clear yet. But while we can’t be sure what motorcycling will look, sound or smell like 20 years from now, we know exactly where electric motorcycles stand today. In the UK, sales are tiny. Just 3750 new electric motorcycles, mopeds and scooters were registered in 2024, or 3.2% of the total two-wheeled market. And it’s not only small, it’s shrinking. Sales have dropped 40% from their peak in 2022. It’s a similar story across Europe, with electric motorcycle sales in the five biggest markets down 25% in a year. Read more…
“Challenging.” It’s a word that crops up again and again as motorcycling organisations, manufacturers, dealers, riders’ groups and political organisations look back over 2024 and into 2025.
As we push forward into the new year – still in the depths of winter and with riding season still feeling a long way off – the same term looks set to remain firmly in the lexicon for a while yet.
When we last looked at the state of UK motorcycling in summer 2024, the General Election dominated the news cycle with the prospect of an change in leadership after several increasingly tumultuous years under Conservative rule. Now the new Labour government has had several months to settle in and it’s clear there are no quick fixes or easy solutions in the pipeline. Meanwhile, on a global scale, problems including the ongoing war in Ukraine, high fuel costs, increasing international trading tensions stoked by planned tariffs from the incoming Trump administration in the USA, wobbles in the Chinese economy, high inflation and interest rates are adding to the problems for both businesses and individuals. Read more…
SUZUKI: New four-year 0% offer
A prolific vehicle thief who posed for photos alongside a stolen motorcycle has been sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of burglary, six counts of theft, six counts of robbery, and two counts of handling stolen goods.
Kyle Camp was jailed on January 24 as part of a lengthy Greater Manchester Police (GMP) operation – becoming the ninth male to be sentenced as part of a group operating across both Greater Manchester, and Cheshire.
The majority of Camp’s crimes related to the theft of cars, including working with the group to threaten owners with violence until they handed over their keys. A search of his phone also showed him posing with a stolen motorcycle that had been taken earlier that night. Read more…
Honda’s global motorcycle business is predicting that sales for their current fiscal year will end at 20.2 million bikes – equating to around 40% of the world’s two-wheeled market share.
Their current financial year will end on March 31, 2025, with the vast majority of the sales expected to come from the Asian market, including Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Vietnam. Read more…
Here, 17.1 million bikes are set to be sold – with Japan, Europe, and the USA making up just 6% of the yearly sales at a combined 1.2 million units.
Rider Health & Safety
Do you ride a motorcycle or know someone who does? If so, you’ll know that riding a motorcycle has some risks. In fact, statistics show that motorcyclists are much more likely to be involved in a serious or fatal accident than car drivers. This is why it’s important to take steps to reduce the risks and the Biker I.C.E. Card is one of the most effective solutions available.
The Biker I.C.E. Card is a simple, yet vital tool. It contains your contact details and essential medical information. In the event of an accident, emergency services staff can quickly access this information to help them decide on the right treatment for you. By carrying a Biker I.C.E. Card, you can ensure that emergency services staff have the information they need to take account of any ongoing health problems you have and any current treatments that you are receiving. This can make their job easier and your emergency care safer. Read more...
Every motorcycle enthusiast knows the heart-pounding feeling of laying eyes on their prized possession, the gleaming chrome, the rumbling engine, and the exhilaration of hitting the open road. But with the joy of ownership comes the responsibility of safeguarding your ride against the threat of theft. Thousands of motorcycles are stolen every year, but luckily there are several proven strategies that can help you not become a part of that statistic. Having owned dozens of motorcycles myself with a lot of those being owned while living in an apartment with no garage, I can attest to these suggestions. Read more…
Motorcycle makeup fails can happen in seconds!
Here’s how you know it’s just happened to you…
You take off your helmet at the end of a ride and get one of these responses:
Your partner bursts out laughing, or
Small children see you, and shriek in terror.
Yep, I’ve experienced both reactions.
It’s not ideal.
But once you know the most common motorcycle makeup mistakes, you can make sure you never have to see them on your own face in the mirror. Read more…
Biker makeup is all about keeping things simple.
When you’re out in the wind, you don’t need to be worrying about annoying details.
Like whether you have mascara running down your cheeks.
Or your eyeliner has smudged and turned you into the rare Biker Panda.
Who needs that?
If you keep it simple, you can still look good – but focus on having fun. Read more…
Biker makeup should take no more than 5 minutes from go to whoa.
I talk you through the basics of motorcycle makeup over here.
In the past 10 years or so, the tech stuffed into our bikes has taken massive leaps forward. Gizmos like throttle-by-wire, once found only on high-end bikes, are now standard even on entry-level models. And advanced rider aids like cornering ABS and lean-sensitive traction control have also filtered down to more accessible models. But in the world of cars, there’s one tech making waves that could change the game entirely: brake-by-wire.
Of course, this advancement comes from none other than Bosch, a company that has been developing a bunch of advanced automotive and motorcycle tech for years. It announced that it recently completed a major test involving over 3,300 kilometers across multiple climates for its supposedly revolutionary brake-by-wire technology on four-wheeled vehicles. Read more…
Adventure & Touring
To us, living in Australia was a bit like having your favorite meal every day. It was great, but after 12 years we just wanted a change. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic place for enjoying the great outdoors, and wins hands down for camping, beaches and weather. But for us, after being there for so many years, our desires began to run a bit deeper.
Despite having a multicultural society, to really experience anything different than “Australia,” to get away from the place, means travelling a long way, a distance that chews time and money. It sounds crazy, so many people would give their eye teeth to live “Down Under” (or so they say), but we wanted to be back in England. Cheap flights from London would mean that within a couple of hours we’d be able to get to many countries offering a kaleidoscope of culture. Read more…
One of the aspects of the four-year journey that makes Pat’s story a little different than most is that he, and his lovely wife Ness, are doctors—even more specifically, general practitioners. What makes this an unusual scenario is that this profession doesn’t normally lend itself to the vagabond nature of motorcycling RTWers.
What else separates this book from the pack? It’s a 500+ page read, a project that was clearly more than just a whim. Bearback is a multilevel experience, with a lot to offer across many different interests. Read more…
History & Custom
Project RR50: A Barnstorming BMW from Obsessive Compulsive Design
Anyone who’s ever built something will tell you that inspiration can come from the strangest places. In the motorcycle world, it could be a headlight bucket, paint chip or a set of old bias ply tires. For builder Bret Crandell it was something as simple as a 1977 Florida State Inspection sticker that set the…
Will you get this HC question right? Reflective Studs
A few weeks back, I looked at the issue in the Highway Code that the greatest number of drivers get wrong when quizzed on it. That was, as you may remember: ‘having stopped in an emergency refuge on a smart motorway, what must you do before you re-join the carriageway?’ The answer is, by the way, to use the emergency phone to alert the control room. I have to say that though I keep a close eye on new rules, that one had passed me by. Read more…
Standing up does NOT ‘lower’ the CoG
Motorcycles are counter-intuitive beasts at the best of times but some ideas that riders hold close to them are just plain wrong. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that if we ‘weight the pegs’ by standing up off-road style, it moves the ‘centre of gravity’ lower.
Ashley Neal ‘fed up with pedestrian priority rules’
I talked about the new pedestrian priority rules at length when they were first announced, and they have been something I’ve returned to regularly. And so has Ashley Neal. You probably know his YouTube channel. He’s a car instructor with a lot of subscribers and regularly comments on issues that crop up either when he’s driving or when he’s with his students in the car.
Probably somewhat less well known is that he also rides a motorcycle, and on back in October 2023, he posted a clip which involved a rider at a roundabout doing the right thing from the point of view of the Highway Code rules…Read more…
How we use three different visual search strategies
Last week I was talking about an article by Steve Rose on the Bennetts Bike Social site called: ‘Open your mind. How to see more and find confidence on a motorcycle’, to which I was pointed by Nathan. I felt the article was a bit of a muddle, but it was the section attributed to Mark McVeigh, who’s recently taken on the role of BikeSocial’s Motorbike Coach, that caught my attention.
Mark said: “using peripheral vision allows faster reaction times” and explained “this is because peripheral vision doesn’t go through your brain’s main vision centre, but instead goes directly to the brain.” Read more…
Here’s what I was writing about fully two decades ago in my ‘blog before they were called blogs’. It’s surprisingly relevant today, given the pending transition to e-bikes.
If you happened to pick up a copy of the Sunday Times this weekend and waded your way through the various supplements destined for the landfill, eventually to arrive at the motoring bit, you might have come across the Vetrix VXe electric scooter.
Alex Bamburg, the managing director of Zero Emissions Vehicles, the Hampshire based company that will distribute the US-built scooter when it goes on sale in 2006 says: “it will be the first mass-purchased, volume made, zero-emissions vehicle in the world.” Read more…
Whiteknights are on duty across Yorkshire as normal as our service has resumed deploying bikes again now that the snowy period has abated.
Using a handheld mobile phone when driving or riding is both dangerous and illegal.Every 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
IAM RoadSmart
Has it been a while since you passed your Advanced test? 
IAM RoadSmart aims to make safer driving and riding accessible for all by adding Knockhill and Bicester to the events calendar, as well as providing places for young people funded by the ‘Big Give’ campaign. Read more
Circuit training by the UK’s leading road safety charity will be coming to two new venues this year – Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife and Bicester Heritage Centre in Oxfordshire.
Are you aware of the OAP framework when out riding? 
National Motorcyclists Council
The National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) has welcomed news that the Department for Transport (DfT) is considering options for reviewing the current training, testing and licensing regime. The NMC, along several motorcycling organisations and other road safety stakeholders were told the news by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Lilian Greenwood MP who attended a round table meeting of the Government’s Motorcycle Strategic Focus Group on January 20th to discuss licensing and other aspects of motorcycle safety and policy. Read more…
SOME LIGHT AT THE END OF THE POTHOLE
POTHOLE PARTNERSHIP REVEALS IMPROVING PICTURE ON NATIONAL POTHOLE DAY
- The AA attended 643,318 pothole related incidents in 2024, down compared to previous year
- Partnership urges councils to make permanent repairs a priority over temporary fixes
- Drop in pothole incidents coincides with rise in repair costs
- Pothole damage costs drivers whopping £579m
The Pothole Partnership is calling for more permanent repairs and greater use of innovation and technology on National Pothole Day (15 January) to reduce vehicle damage and injuries to cyclists and motorcycle riders. Read more…
FEMA
The European Council wants to make it mandatory to hand in motorcycles when the have come to ‘the end of their life’.
A majority of EU member states wants to include motorcycles in the new Regulation on circularity requirements for vehicle design and on management of end-of-life vehicles (end-of-life vehicle means a vehicle which is waste or vehicles that are irreparable). Some members did ask for more data and for feasibility studies when it comes to inclusion of motorcycles and other powered two- and three-wheelers. This is the outcome of an environment meeting of the European Council on Tuesday 17 December 2024. The Hungarian presidency of the European Union was not able to complete the end-of-life dossier and reach a Council position, so it will now be handled by the Polish presidency, which will start from January 2025. Read more…
Filtering through a traffic jam on a motorcycle has finally become legal in France. After 26 years of fierce fighting this already well-established practice is recognized.
French motorcyclists’ organisation FFMC – a member of FEMA – calls it ‘A major step forward that marks a decisive step in road sharing and user safety’.
A step forward for road sharing and mobility
Filtering, although generally practiced by many bikers, was in a legal grey area until now, often tolerated, rarely sanctioned. And since 2016 the authorities experimented with it. After almost ten long years of experimentation, this legalization brings official recognition to a practice that helps to smooth traffic flow and reduce traffic jams. Read more…
British Motorcyclists Federation
Paul Varnsverry, the highly respected motorcycling clothing expert, is launching a campaign aimed at eliminating uncertified and potentially unsafe bike kit, currently being imported into the UK and offered for sale online. Varnsverry, Technical Director of clothing consultant at PVA-PPE, is started a petition aimed at alerting Government to the dangers of untested kit. In conversation with MCN, he praised the efforts of Trading Standards in the last three years, in checking bike shows and high street shops for sub-standard kit. But he added that clothing offered online is attempting to circumvent these checks. 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.
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 by: Read more…
