Editorial
Club Night Door levy! It’s only a £1. The money helps to cover our costs and support our social events, SAM members should pay, on entry, the £1 door levy for both themselves and their guest(s). We provide an ‘honesty box’ to collect the Club Night fee and would urge every SAM member to support your Club. Thank you.
Next SAM Club Night (details below): At the SAM Club Night last Monday, Aidan Latham (SAM Secretary) announced that the next SAM Club Night is an ‘Open Invitation’. This means that everyone, members and non-members, are invited to enjoy a great night’s entertainment with Aidan and his band, Stereotonin. All funds will go to the SAM charity to help promote the work of promoting sustainable motorcycling, public education and providing training in advanced riding. Spread the word, invite all your friends and let’s have a great night supporting your Club.
SAM website. All advanced riding information and general biker education documents have been moved to a new section. Originally, having all policy, guidelines and information documents in one place seemed a reasonable approach. Now we want a dedicated educational documents section that all website visitors can read. This development is part of our charitable function in providing public education about bikers and biking. The section is a work in progress, so expect a change to design, layout and content. Send any suggestions to sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike.
Photo Competition. I had a new camera for my birthday and was at Meadowhall Retail Park taking photos. It’s amazing how some bikers are very shy! Some great snaps were taken and might be entered into the SAM Club Annual Photo Competition. When you are out riding, whip out your phone, take a few snaps and send them to sam-editor@iam-sheffield.bike. Let’s make this year’s competition the best ever!
Snow warning. Just when riding was getting interesting, the weather gods decided to spoil the fun. There is a weather warning for snow this week. So, it’s spike tires and let’s have fun on the powder! Always remember, check the conditions, check the bike and check that you are able to cope with whatever you encounter on the road.
Saturday Meeting. It was really great to see lots of different bikes at Meadowhall Retail Park. Smaller bikes were popular. There was a pristine Honda 175cc, a Honda Monkey bike and a Piaggio 530 to name just three. It’s worth visiting just to see what power-two-wheels have been rolled out of the shed.
News. In other biking news this week, MPs, industry and bikers overwhelmingly support a reform of motorcycle licensing. The joining of politicians from all parties, manufacturers and biker representatives should help to resolve the problem of bikers getting stuck with ‘L’ plates due the complexity of licencing and costs of getting a full licence.
Royal Enfield is going to show off the flex-fuel version of the Classic 350. It can run on a blend of petrol and 25% ethanol. Current fuel has 10% ethanol. Kymco’s electric sports bike proposes a gear shift and clutch levers. Apparently, they control the drive and performance algorithms. Recently demonstrated at Motorcycle Live (London), you can now use a realistic simulator to develop your track riding skills. It seems you don’t need a helmet, leathers, boots and gloves either. Cake Motorcycles have filed for bankruptcy. The development of electric motorcycles was made more difficult by an expensive battery recall. This was due to the danger of catching fire. Rever, the mobile route tracker, has upgraded the app to read georeferenced pdf maps.
There are some very interesting stories on the motorcycling web. Liz Hardy (pillioness.com), seeing that Valentine’s Day is very near, suggests ways to get a biker to fall in love with you. It doesn’t involve potions and I think my pillion might have something to say about it. Freddie Dobbs (Dobbie’s on Tuesday) brings is a 4-part series riding the Yorkshire Dales. At the third attempt, Saffey Sprocket gets to Wales for some very nervous green laning. Itchy Boots continues her ride through the Central African Republic and Cameroon. Noraly shows an immigration officer that she is not a lady to be conned, or distracted from her route. Even the main highway is a dirt road that makes for exciting viewing. Kevin Williams writes about the dangers of relying ‘common sense’ and ‘intuition’. Common sense isn’t very common and intuition can often be wrong. For safer riding it’s better to critically appraise each piece of riding advice and any change in progress when riding. He has also started providing an 8-week online course for better riding. SYSRP (South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership) have started a weekly quiz.
The Whiteknights still need volunteers for fundraising and public education. Lastly, in the history slot you can read about a 1950s 3-wheel MV-Augusta go-kart. Oh, those were the days. 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.