SNIPPETS PAGE 7 ACCElERATION SENSE PAGE 27 Travels …Flyers Folders Digital colour/mono Traditional print large format Exhibitions Banners Signage Advertising Display stands Posters

Spring 2011Issue no. 38

iNTERCOM

>>>> SNIPPETS PAGE 7

Brave new worldPart 2 of the story...

Travels with a bus pass .... the next chapter

Surrey’s Best Biking Club - WVAM Ripley, near Guildford

Come and join us www.wvam.org.uk

ACCElERATION SENSE PAGE 27

INTERCOM spr ing 2011

03

this issue...

Readers should note that, except for articles labelled as being written by the Chief Observer or the Training Team, all riding advice and opinions expressed in this magazine about riding motorcycles are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent Club, IAM or WVAM Training Team policy or recommendation

P06TRAINING TIPS

P7SNIPPETS

P10AN ADVENTURE IN TURKEYFinal stretch

P23BRAVE NEW WORLDPart 2

P27ACCELERATION SENSE

P30GET A MENTOR

P31THE CRASH

P35ALASKA

>>>>>>>>>>>> REGULARS

P04 A WORD...FROM THE CHAIRMANP03 PASSEDP39 CHIEF OBSERVER’S REPORT

WVAM’s Members, Observers and Training Team welcome seventeen new members as green badge holders in passing date order.

Well done on passing your test over the past few months.

Sorry if you’ve passed but are not on the list: these are all of the names notified the club secre-tary by the IAM at 31 January 2011. Ed

passed

Alex CarltonIan ReesColin BrownCliff MichieSteve OwenNeal TraceyStuart GunnRichard TurnbullJason HuftonPaul Skinner

Richard WestAlan RichingsKen BrownEd FletcherStuart RobertsLucy ClaxtonRobert Syred

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We’ve had a Intercom hiatus. In October I had a bit of a slip resulting in a broken typing hand among other things. Hence I didn’t write much or ride for three months apart from gingerly test riding a few new bikes including the stupendously good Multistrada (see the conclusion of Richard Harris’s review in this issue), and my absence from the club meant that the usual flow of articles that people were press ganged into writing, rather dried up. It’s understandable. Bikes are not at the forefront of many of our minds during the winter.

Anyway, having edited Intercom for a almost couple of years I’ve decided to hand over the baton to someone else to take it forward, so no doubt the Committee will appoint a new editor soon – perhaps at the AGM which will shortly be upon us.

This departure is not due to lack of enthusiasm on my part. I will still be observing, still be riding with the ROGS (as an imposter at the moment as I am neither retired nor randy…) and still be leading summer runs every week.

So, this is your chance guys and girls to get into the heady world of journalism as well as satisfying your passion for bikes. The editorial role is not onerous as long as you are willing to be a bit pushy and solicit some articles from friends, colleagues and complete strangers. It’ll make a man of you. Even if you’re a woman.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed articles over the past couple of years and also wish my successor, whoever it may be, the superb support from members and associates that I have had.

And I wish everyone a brilliant riding year in 2011. For my part I’m immensely looking forward to the various club jaunts I’m booked on, including the “French” trip.

And if you fancy doing a bit of editing, please email Rosario on the Committee via the forum. She will be ever so pleased.

Adrian Barnwell. Ex-editor

from the Chairman - John Webstera word

Welcome to another edition of Intercom. Judging by some of the new kit around the club room some of you headed out to the sales to pick up the bargains ready for another action packed year.

The social team led by Jenniann are busy populating the calendar with all the weekend runs you’ve volunteered to lead, and both Adrian and Rex will be leading regular evening runs through out the summer, so there should be something for all of you to go on. If there isn’t, well you could always volunteer to lead your own ride. My thanks to all that are volunteering, it is great to see some new names on the list.

It seems a growing number of you are heading out on Dave Fearey’s ‘Back by 1’ runs on Observed Sundays. If you are a full member don’t think that there is nothing for you to do on the 1st Sunday, come along and have a blast with Dave.

The Haslemere Fire Stations ‘Ready to Ride’ day is approaching, so please make an effort to attend and if possible help. It’s a great day out.

The Annual French Weekend is pretty much full up so if you’ve not contacted Gary George already you better do so ASAP, but don’t be surprised if its too late though. You have all had plenty of time. For those that are going and haven’t been to Vianden before, you are in for a real treat

There are other things in the early stages of planning such as another exodus to a track day. If you are thinking of doing one be sure to check the forum, and ask if anyone else is going.

The IAM are also organising track days again this year, and a member has arranged a discount with Cali Superbike School (Well done Colin).

We also have some great guest speakers lined up for this year’s club nights. As you can see, it’s a bit of a bumper year! What a bargain our membership fees are, eh.

On the training front, it seems like Geoff and the guys are doing something right as we continue to maintain a very high pass rate, and a growing number of observers too. I’m writing this after February’s Observed Sunday which saw 70 associates being paired. I think you will agree that is a very good turn out for this early in the year. Well done to all the observers, and especially the training team.

It would be wrong of me to not mention Enhanced Advanced too as this is ticking over quite well, helping the full members looking for a little extra help on some of the finer points of their riding. Remember that if you want to make use of this, please contact Chris Gummer before observed Sunday so that he can try to accommodate you.

As always, any problems please contact me or any of the committee at any of the events or via email, and we will do our best to respond ASAP.

I look forward to seeing you all throughout the rest of the year.

John Webster


Over and out...

So, what’s been happening,

05

So, this is your chance guys

and girls to get into the heady world of jour-nalism as well

as satisfying your passion for

bikes. The editorial role

is not onerous as long as you

are willing to be a bit pushy

and solicit some articles from friends,

colleagues and complete strangers. It’ll

make a man of you.

Even if you’re a woman.


07

snippetssplashing oil on your shirt; but can

also be used, as the name implies,

to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool

for opening paint cans. Sometimes

used to convert common slotted

screws into non-removable screws

and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR : A tool used to crumple

the metal surrounding that clip or

bracket you needed to remove in

order to replace a 10p part.

HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to

make hoses too short.

HAMMER : Originally employed

as a weapon of war, the hammer

nowadays is used as a kind of

divining rod to locate the most ex-

pensive parts adjacent the object

we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE : Used to open and

slice through the contents of card-

board cartons delivered to your

front door; works particularly well

on contents such as seats, liquids

in plastic bottles, wrapped bike

magazines, refund checks, and

rubber or plastic parts. Especially

useful for slicing work clothes, but

only while in use.

SON-OF-A-BITCH TOOL : Any

handy tool that you grab and

throw across the garage while

yelling ‘Son of a BITCH! ‘at the top

of your lungs. It is also, most often,

the next tool that you will need.

Contents of a workshop DRILL PRESS : A tall upright

machine useful for suddenly

snatching flat metal bar stock out

of your hands so that it smacks

you in the chest and flings your

beer across the room, denting the

freshly-painted project which you

had carefully set in the corner

where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint

off bolts and then throws them

somewhere under the workbench

with the speed of light. Also

removes fingerprints and hard-

earned calluses from fingers in

about the time it takes you to

say, ‘Oh sh--!’

SKIL SAW : A portable cutting

tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS : Used to round off bolt

heads. Sometimes used in the

creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER : An electric sanding

tool commonly used to convert

minor touch-up jobs into major

refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW :One of a family of

cutting tools built on the Ouija

board principle... It transforms

human energy into a crooked,

unpredictable motion, and the more

you attempt to influence its course,

the more dismal your

future becomes.

VICE-GRIPS :Generally used after

pliers to completely round off bolt

heads. If nothing else is available,

they can also be used to transfer

intense welding heat to the palm

of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used

almost entirely for setting various

inflammable objects in your shop

on fire. Also handy for igniting the

grease inside the wheel hub out of

which you want to remove

a bearing.

TABLE SAW : A large stationary

power tool commonly used to

launch wood projectiles for testing

wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used

for lowering an automobile to the

ground after you have installed

your new brake shoes, trapping

the jack handle firmly under the

bumper.

BAND SAW : A large stationary

power saw primarily used by most

shops to cut good aluminum sheet

into smaller pieces that more easily

fit into the trash can after you cut

on the inside of the line instead of

the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool

for testing the maximum tensile

strength of everything you forgot

to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally

used to stab the vacuum seals un-

der lids or for opening oil cans and

training team tips

We all want to get out there and ride our bikes but as part of becoming an “Advanced” rider we do need to consider the theory side of the training and that’s where a fair amount of members feel it is not as important as the observed runs as they go through the training process.

As part of being an “Advanced rider” I often hear you say my Observer has already told me we become thinking rid-ers but it is surprising how many Associate members only give the books a quick glance over now and again before taking the IAM test.

It’s well known that most people do not pick up a copy of the Highway Code again after passing the DSA test.

So I cannot stress how important it is to be more aware of the must do’s and must not’s of the Highway Code …… because while we are developing to become more “Thinking” riders we need to be able to accurately have something to think about!! So knowing what you can do and what you can’t do in any situation is the difference between the Advanced-Safer-Thinking rider and the normal average rider out there on the roads today.

The feedback the Training Team often get from the Observer Team is that their As-sociate is not planning far enough ahead. The signs are out there!! Not just road signs informing you of hazards coming up but other signs and information warning you of potential hazards. Also something could be developing which may cause you to alter speed, position or direction.

One word we need to take out of our vocabulary is “suddenly”. It suddenly happened” …… “The car suddenly pulled out”. These are the most common phases used on insurance claim forms. The SYSTEM if used correctly gives you that crucial thing which is time to react.A riding plan is a continual process. As motorcyclists we should be using a plan or making plans all the time we are out there riding. Something we need to do also is anticipate. As the main elements of the plan are:- inform of - What you can see……What you can’t see…….What you can reasonably expect to happen……Anticipating what is likely to happen.

As motorists we all gain a tremendous amount of experience from situations we have encountered in the past i.e. the car driver in front who slows down gradu-ally and is driving haphazardly then gains speed only to slow again without any signal. You know they are about to turn, something tells you before they even attempt to turn or even signal their intentions….you are thinking they are going to turn right or left. It’s simply pattern recognition we have seen this certain behaviour before and anticipated that something will happen and sometime it does. As motorcyclists we need to use these experiences in our everyday riding plans, developing these skills will make us safer riders. So lift your vision up, scan as far ahead as possible use planning and you will develop that quiet efficiency - the hallmark of the “Advanced rider”.

06

Geoff Berry Chief Observer


09

Annual generalmeetingThis will be held on the May Club

Night 19 May 2011 at Ripley

Village Hall as usual and starts

at 8pm. Proxy voting forms are

available from the downloads

section of the club web site, but it

would be really great to see as

many members as possible coming

along. This is your chance to meet

the whole Committee and have

your say. The Club Secretary, Jeffery

Bowers, will be standing down at

the AGM and the Committee is

therefore seeking a volunteer for

the post. If you would like to con-

tribute something to the running

of your club, please have a word

with any Committee member and

they will tell you what is involved.

Also keep an eye on the club web-

site as invitations for nominations

will probably pop up there.

08

Beware of the bike bays” by Lucy Claxton. Taken in Covent Garden.

from Chris Gummer and I guess shows that when you’ve had a few

tinny’s flip flops are ideal on a bike.

2011 Social CalendarThe summer social

calendar is packed with

choice this year.

We have summer evening

runs on Tuesdays (Rex

Hawkes) and Fridays

(Adrian Barnwell) starting

in May and continuing

throughout the summer,

and there will also be

some Saturday evening

runs starting in June.

On top of that there will

be the usual Saturday or

(more usually) Sunday all

day ride outs starting on

March 13 with a trip to

Eastbourne. These rides

will continue through to

October. There is an

additional Saturday ride

some weekends for those

of you wanting to bring

pillions, get out that

classic bike or the little

125. There will also

be the off road days,

weekends away and

track days.

This years Open day

featuring Wheel Women

is July 10 and will be

featuring various dealers

for test rides, stalls with

biking in mind, such as

tyres, clothing and acces-

sories. A chance to ride

with a sidecar, bring your

classic bike or trike. There

will be refreshments and

plenty of good company.

This is a day to bring

friends and prospective

members and tell others

what an excellent club

this is with not only excel-

lent riding skills coach-

ing but a packed social

calendar.

In August, immediately

after observed Sunday,

we have the annual bar-

becue to look forward to

which is always hugely

well attended.

Club nights will continue

throughout the year with

outside speakers and a

chance to get together

with other members.

If you would like to lead

a social ride, there is

always room so contact

me either through the

website or on 07970

238004. Likewise if you

have ideas for interesting

club nights please let me

know.

To find out exactly what’s

on and when, go to www.

wvam.org.uk and check

out the club calendar.

Jenniann Davies

Social Secretary


11

Tony Keegan backin Turkey...

an adventure

in TurkeyOr look out there is a Bus Pass

on the way! (Part 2)

I like Turkey and it’s people. I first went to Istanbul in 1972, arriving in a German registered VW Beatle from my home at the time in the town of Bamberg, Bavaria. (A lovely UNESCO-Heritage town and one that Ewan and Charlie by-passed on their second night in The Long Way Around, more fool them)

10

The Istanbul Moto-Gezgin clubJane was off home again...

I was expecting a cool reception in Turkey as nobody spoke English in those days and the Turks used to have a hard time working in Germany. I need not have worried; they were open, friendly and honest making you feel welcome, especially if you showed any interest in buying a carpet in the Grand Bazaar! And the food was always good. I suppose at the time I had that British inbuilt prejudice about the Turks, they are a sort of bridge between Christian Europe and places further east both geographically and metaphori-cally. I’ve always been pleasantly surprised about the efficiency of their institutions, the hospitals, pharmacists, Coast Guard and local police when-ever we’ve needed to use their services on the many holidays we’ve spent there. Just don’t get on the wrong side of the Generals or watch Midnight Express!

I had ridden the bike down to Turunc on the south-west coast of Turkey with only one minor mishap. (You remember? Swiss car park, train full of Swiss commuters, no side stand from episode 1) My wife Jane and I had enjoyed a week on the beach relaxing, swimming, enjoying the local restaurants and now it was time for her to fly home and me to climb onto the beast again. The route home was going to be very different as I was to ride up through the Western Balkans and Albania. I’d

been that way before, apart from Albania and I’m not sure if I felt excited at the prospect or just a little nervous. There is a fantastic mostly dirt road (well it was in 1972) through the mountains between Pristina (Kosovo) and Podgorica (Monte-negro) that I’d remembered travelling along when it was just plain old Yugoslavia. In those days Tito sat on all the different ethnic groups to stop them killing one another but we all know what has hap-pen after he died. I had to avoid Kosova as it had been placed on the ‘don’t go there’ list of countries by our Foreign Office, so my route would take me further south and west, up through Triane, capital of Albania and then onto Podgorica, Motenegro from

the south. During the planning of the trip I was looking for a route and I saw the UNESCO-Heri-tage town of Ohrid in Macedonia that looked interesting. (http://ohridmacedonia.com/) It was by a lake, a national park and the southern border crossing into Albania. It also had 365 churches, one for each day of the year should I have felt the need to have a quick prayer. (No not very likely!)

I left our hotel late in the afternoon and navigated my way over the mountain road from Turunc Bay. It’s quite a spectacular road with many hairpin bends and on one occasion we had a few fellow holidaymakers refuse to take the coach back to Dalaman airport that way. Yeah! it’s a brilliant road to ride a big off-road motorbike up and over! It even gave me my first taste of BMW’s traction control and although the ASC system was impressive, I’m not sure that a little wheel spin and the rear sliding out doesn’t make you feel a bit more alive! At least I had plenty of clean underpants. I headed north up the coast towards Izmir and then onto Bergama to find a place to stay for the night. There are plenty of reasonable tourist hotels in the area because it’s very close to the ancient town of Assos, a place where Aristotle lived. (Remember him from Bruce’s Philosophers Song? ”Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle” No? Oh well never mind).

A quiet night in a nondescript hotel with a very early start the following day. I was in Çanakkale Province heading for the ferry back to the European side of Turkey and by mid-morning looking for breakfast. In came in the shape of a B&Q tool shed with a smok-ing chimney sticking out of the roof by the side of the road along with tables, shade and parking for the local Dolmush (minibuses). Food and hospitality are important to the Turks and wherever we have been in Turkey, even in the remotest bays accessible only by sea, there’s always somewhere to eat. On a previous holiday we had sailed into a one of these bays by the name of Loroma. To the south in the distance we could see the Greek Island of Rhodes and there on the hill was the standard B&Q tool shed, a few tables and chairs in the shade, cool beer and fresh meat in the shape of a nervous goat with a ‘I hope they’re vegetarians’ look on its face. We spent a long afternoon feeding our faces on lashings of the very best Ottoman cuisine, mezes, BBQ lamb, freshly grown salads that appeared magically from within the tool shed all washed down with cool Efes Beer. The goat looked relieved too that we’d only eaten one of his distant cousins!

travels with a bus pass

12

I’d stopped at the roadside equivalent of that restaurant and the view was of another Greek Island, Lesbos. I took a seat amongst the many families eating there and a young lad asked if I’d like the full Turkish breakfast. When I answered ‘Yes please’ the food started arriving from within that tool shed. Warm fresh bread, olives, feta cheese, at least 4 eggs sizzling in a griddle pan and rashers of bacon, despite this being a Mos-lem country. And all for about four and sixpence! Feeling replete I headed for the bike, the ferry and the Turkish-Greek border all in that order. I rode the whole day trying to put as many miles on the clock as possible hoping to ride right across Greece to the Macedonian border. By early evening I’d reached a town called Florine, very

close to that border and I was beginning to feel very weary. I had to stop for the night and found a rather up-market looking hotel where I crashed for the night, not literally of course! As breakfast was included and the following day was Sunday, (a late break-fast?) my usual early start was delayed and I eventually got back on the road just after 10am.

Within 20 minutes of starting I‘d crossed the border and was riding through a wooded valley in cool shade. A further 50 miles up the road and I was sitting overlooking Lake Ohrid watching the locals fishing, tearing about on the lake in their speedboats or just promenading around a small harbour in the warm sunshine. It was about lunchtime and having eaten a late breakfast, I wasn’t par-

ticularly hungry so I just sat and enjoyed the scenery. Albania was a distant view across the lake and it was the only time during the trip that I’d felt a little appre-hensive, as that would be my next border to cross. Perhaps as I get older I seem to be more cautious (well I have joined WVAM) and it was one of the only places that I’d not travelled through before having been turned back at the border in 1973. It wasn’t long before I remembered that I needed a place to stay so leaving the bike I walked up into the Old Town of Ohrid. It’s built on the side of a very steep hill and I decided that a lakeside B & B would be ideal. I found it in the shape of Apartments Rosana having accosted poor Rosana as she walked back home with her shopping. I think she was rather taken aback at first at the site of me in all my biking gear but did agree to allow me to stay at her excellent house. Look at the website, it has splen-did views and is right on the waterfront. (http://sites.google.com/site/arohrid/home) I spent the next 3 days relaxing, swimming in the lake and walking around the Old Town visiting many of the churches and monuments. Rosana and her husband Gerorgi made me feel very much at home but it was soon time to depart as I still had along way to go before I’d be in striking distance of Calais.

The Albanian border is only 21km around the northern side of the lake and it wasn’t very long before I was presenting my travel documents to a very disinterested immigration official. A cursory glance at my passport and Green Card and I was head-ing west through the hills towards Tirane, a distance of only 133km (80 miles). Here I was in the land of King Zog! (Why haven’t we got a King Zog? Sounds much better than the present lot who had to change their name to Windsor to make them sound less Germanic) The country has only been open since the middle of the 1980’s when the dictator Ebvor Hoxiha died after four decades of iron fist rule. The roads close to the boarder are pockmarked with loads of concrete mushrooms, bizarrely all over

The border...‘Ello mate, bloody awful weather ain’t it?’ was the greeting I heard in my left ear.

This was no Austrian petrol pump attendant! It was a young lad from London working the summer before he returned to his main job as a snowboard instructor in the winter. I stayed for about an hour chatting to him whilst he filled up the local customer’s cars and I tried to get a little dryer and warmer. Eventually, I gave up waiting for a break in the rain and headed into Innsbruck looking for a place to stay. A long hot shower, my bike gear dripping into the shower tray and the hair dryer jammed on in the bathroom to dry things out and I was starting to feel normal again.

The plan had been to ride up through Bavaria, to-wards Nurnberg and Bamberg to visit my old hunting grounds and then on through Belgium to the channel ports and home. However, the following morning it was still pissing down and Bavaria was suffering from its worst summer floods in years. ‘Sod it’, I thought, I’ll just head for Calais by the shortest route and see how far I get. As you ride west from Innsbruck you have to cross the Alberg Mountain range. There is a toll free road across the berg or a warm dry 10 mile tunnel that goes on and on and on! You can guess which route I decided to ride. At the toll booth I asked the rather stern looking Frau if the end of the tunnel came out in Dover and actually managed to get her to laugh. Not usually easy in Austria as British humour doesn’t translate that well. Anyway, within about a mile the air temperature gauge on the bike had climbed several degrees and I was beginning to get warmer and dryer. I slowed down to enable the sensation of warm dry air to last as long as possible. As I approached the end of the tunnel the rain had eased off a bit and I decide to stop for fuel and hot coffee.

The impressive view fom

the B&B...

Ohrid old town

The bed and breakfast

on the lake

Ohrid old town

the hills and on the roadside but fortunately not in the middle of it! These are one-man bunkers built to de-fend against any invading army but reputed to be the place of conception of many a local baby. They were obviously influenced by the hippy mantra of the 60’s ‘Make Love not War’. After a short stop for breakfast I was approaching the outskirts of Triane when I had my first and only experience of the local fuzz apart from the cardboard variety in chapter one.

I did once hear a fellow biker ask his mate why he thought that GS riders often stood up on the pegs when riding along. Well it’s simple really. It seems that the GS seating is positioned in such a way that the longer you stay in the saddle the further your wedding tackle travels towards the handlebars. If your trousers stay in the same position, the results are an increase in the pitch of your voice. Also in warm weather things get a little sweaty with all that heat rising from those horizontally opposed cylinder heads. We stand up to ventilate and allow gravity to take effect. Not a problem apart from all the other bikers remarking on what a twat you look. Gravity has its effect, ventila-tion cools you down and you can return to the saddle cooler and more comfortable than before. Obviously, this has to be carried out at slower speeds. Well at every road junction, in every town in Albania is a traf-fic officer of the Albanian Constabulary. He is, and it

always was a ‘he’, armed with a whistle for blow-ing, a table tennis bat for waving about to direct traffic and pedestrians and a Smith and Western 45 for shooting offenders. Yes you’ve guessed, here coming towards him was a twat on a BMW, standing up waving his bum around in an attempt to speed up the effects of gravity. I was directed rather violently towards the roadside and was rather glad the only violence so far was towards his table tennis bat. He started to yell at me while still trying to direct traffic and a crowd of the local youths gathered on the pavement. (In every town in Albania there was a crowd every time you stopped) Signalling that I wanted to remove my helmet, it would have been rude not too especially if I was going to get shot! He continued to shout, direct traffic and wave the bat around. We both soon realised that our conversation, mine in English and German, his in Albanian was getting nowhere. I offered to show him my licence, he may have of-fered to show me how his gun worked, who knows but eventually I was waved on my way. The local lads seemed most amused and supportive of my plight but only when his back was turned. I always keep a small amount of cash in my trouser pocket with the rest of the cash hidden inside my jacket. This means that if the local police stop you, you can produce a ‘small fine’ from your pocket whilst

Ohrid old town

Signalling that I wanted to remove my helmet, it would have been rude not too especially if I was going to get shot! He continued to shout, direct traffic and wave the bat around. We both soon realised that our conversation, mine in English and German, his in Albanian was getting nowhere. I offered to show him my licence, he may have offered to show me how his gun worked, who knows but eventually I was waved on my way.

1918

hopefully hanging onto the larger amount in your jacket. Fortunately, I wasn’t fined.

Triane is a medium sized hellhole of run-down 60’s architecture, a mass of humankind in the streets and on every corner, asthmatic trucks and buses belching clouds of diesel fumes and suicidal pedestrians. The strange thing about Albania is the filling stations. Amongst all this post-communist decay are these beacons to oil wealth. Brand spanking new forecourts lit up like Blackpool illuminations with sparklingly clean shops and loos. The only problem with the Adventure is that I only needed one visit to fill up for a day’s travel as the size of my tanks gave me a range of over 300 miles. (I actually did 389 miles once with a spare can of petrol in the pannier trying to get the bike to run out. The electronic fuel gauge had disappeared from the display and fuel range indicator was at about minus 10 miles and I still didn’t run out!) As you can gather I didn’t much like Triane and I headed north to the border with Montenegro looking forward to the fantastic ride down from the town of Podgoorcia to the coast. The road I was on was fairly mountain-ous and followed the edge of several lakes so I decided to stop after a while to rest and eat a picnic of that I’d bought at one of the filling stations. Little did I know that 200 meters up the road and around the next bend was the boarder post!

Montenegro was the only country in which you’re not able to get a Green Card for travelling through. You have to buy boarder insurance and after explaining to a very help-ful boarder guard that I was on my way to Dubrovnik, he sold me a week’s insurance for about €30, stamped my passport and sent me on my way. Once you get to Podgorcia you can follow the main road down to the coast but a much more interesting ride is on a minor road across the Lovcen mountain ridge to Catinje and then down the edge of the Lovcen National Park to the coast and the magnificent 15th century island town of Sveti Stefan (Yeah, I’ve always called it Sweaty Stefen) The town is an island fortress connected by a sand isthmus to the mainland and was once a very up-market hotel. Unfortunately, the Singapore hotel

chain that leased it in 2006 for 30 years hadn’t finished the renovation when I passed. Montenegro only has a very small coastline and you’ll always see photos of Sveti Stefan in any tourist brochure. Legend has it, that a fort was built on the island in 1442 when it was first settled. The island was fortified by walls so families from the surrounding villages could find shelter from Turkish and pirate attacks. They’ve all buggered off now and it’s an empty hotel waiting for the first guests to arrive.

I was now in familiar territory and following the winding, coast hugging road towards the Croatian border and the fortress town of Dubrovnik. Croatia has a small narrow finger of land that extends along the coast to the border of Montenegro. It’s really an enclave as Bosnia and Herzegovina have claimed a small section of coastline on the Adriatic coast thus isolating the land around Dubrovnik. Not a problem when it was all called Yugosla-via but now every 10 miles or so you get a border post and fierce uniformed guards with Kalashnikovs where you have to smile, take your helmet off and wave a green card around hoping they’re not going to shoot or relieve you of any beer money you might still have tucked in your sock.

Anyway I soon reached the outskirts of Dubrovnik and found a small hotel by the sea to stay for a few days. When I first visited the town back in the early 70’s I felt that I was on the set of a Hollywood Roman Epic and Spartacus might just pop out from one of the many small alleyways that lead off the main street. It’s a really magical place and although usually crowded with tourist from the many visiting liners, you can still get away from the crowds and climb to the top of the city walls and walk around the whole perim-eter. During the war the town was shelled by the JNA (Serbs) in an attempt to annex the area for Montenegro causing considerable damage to the buildings. They didn’t succeed and were eventually driven off by Croatian forces. The only evidence today apart from the excellent war museum in the town is the sight of hundreds of newly tiled roofs. I spent

a couple of days wandering around the town, swimming in the Adriatic and eating in the excel-lent local hostelries.

My next stop was to be Mostar to visit the famous ‘Old Bridge’ rebuilt after the Balkans War and now once again connecting the east and west bank of the Neretva River. I don’t know how much of that vicious conflict you remember but having spent time in Yugoslavia in my youth, I felt a con-nection and sympathy with its people. The Serbs or course were portrayed as the bogymen in the British Press but in my opinion, all sides in that conflict were as guilty of atrocities as were the Serbs. The UN and Dutch Army didn’t fare too well either. Monotheism rears its ugly head once more! (The Atheist Bible, chapter 2, verse 3!)

Anyhow, the road from Dubrovnik follows a very picturesque coast through the border into Bosnia for about 12 miles, back into Croatia and then turns north-east back into Bosnia towards Sarajevo and Mostar. Are you still with me? Three boarder crossings in less than 50 miles! Let’s hope Surrey never declares it’s independence from Hampshire and Sussex otherwise the ROG runs will require a passport in your back pocket too. Once I’d crossed over into Bosnia and Herzegovina proper and was heading north-east, I felt a definite change in atmosphere. Croatia felt like a modern European country, its people prosperous and living in a modern state. Bosnia on the other hand was decay and post-war gloom. The closer I rode toward Mostar more evidence of the war was still visible a decade or more after the end of the conflict. It was the first time on the trip that I felt uneasy with my surroundings and I must admit that I rode into the town past lots of bombed out buildings and straight out the other side! Silly really but some-times you have to just trust your intuitions and it’s always a good excuse for another trip. I was now riding along a nice twisty mountain road towards the coast again and the town of Split. My sprits rose with every bend and twist in the road as I descended towards yet another boarder crossing back into Croatia. I was heading to Istria, that heart shaped peninsula just south of Trieste and the Italian border. I’d remember spending a few nights in a costal town called Pore (pronounced porridge) on the Istrian coast on an earlier trip and thought it was worth a second visit.

It wasn’t a disappointment but I was now defi-nitely homeward bound. It’s funny really but as I’d travelled that route a few time before, I felt a familiarity with my surroundings and I only had the Alps to cross into Austria and I’d almost be home. I had about 4 days left before my ferry booking in Calais and the rain started. You can always put up with a shower or two if you’re riding and the sun comes out again to warm and dry you. This was continuous wet cold rain that runs down the back of your neck every time you do a shoulder check. It gets into your boots and gloves until they’re sodden. It gets into your underpants because you’re riding in summer gear and the crotch of your trousers is manufactured for ventilation and not to keep the rain out. I stopped at supermarket and bought two packs of cheap black men’s socks. At least now I’d have dry socks every 3 hours or so and the wet articles could be discarded as my feet turned black with the dye running. No point in looking for nice twisty roads in this weather so I headed for the autoroute past Trieste, Udine and up towards the Austrian border. I was hop-ing that the sun would come out again because I wanted to ride part of the Karnische Dolomiten Strasse between Laas and Tessenburg. I might have ridden along it, I have no idea because the clouds were so low and I was so high up in the mountains that I was actually riding in the rain clouds! It was bloody miserable. I eventually found myself, after several sock stops, crossing the Brenner Pass and descending into Innsbruck. On the roadside I suddenly noticed a fuel stop with a covered forecourt. Excellent! Somewhere to shelter from this effing rain!

I came off the road into the garage entrance a little bit too fast and found myself braking hard to stop under the canopy just outside the shop.

travels with a bus pass

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‘Ello mate, bloody awful weather ain’t it?’ was the greeting I heard in my left ear.

This was no Austrian petrol pump attendant! It was a young lad from London working the summer before he returned to his main job as a snowboard instructor in the winter. I stayed for about an hour chatting to him whilst he filled up the local customer’s cars and I tried to get a little dryer and warmer. Eventually, I gave up waiting for a break in the rain and headed into Innsbruck looking for a place to stay. A long hot shower, my bike gear dripping into the shower tray and the hair dryer jammed on in the bathroom to dry things out and I was starting to feel normal again.

The plan had been to ride up through Bavaria, towards Nurnberg and Bamberg to visit my old hunting grounds and then on through Belgium to the channel ports and home. However, the following morning it was still pissing down and Bavaria was suffering from its worst summer floods in years. ‘Sod it’, I thought, I’ll just head for Calais by the shortest route and see how far I get. As you ride west from Innsbruck you have to cross the Alberg Mountain range. There is a toll free road across the berg or a warm dry 10 mile tunnel that goes on and on and on! You can guess which route I decided to ride. At the toll booth I asked the rather stern looking Frau if the end of the tunnel came out in Dover and actually managed to get her to laugh. Not usually easy in Austria as British humour doesn’t translate that well. Anyway, within about a mile the air temperature gauge on the bike had climbed several degrees and I was beginning to get warmer and dryer. I slowed down to enable the sensation of warm dry air to last as long as possible. As I approached the end of the tunnel the rain had eased off a bit and I decide to stop for fuel and hot coffee.

By mid afternoon I had crossed the Rhine into France and Calais was just at the end of a rather long Autoroute ride. I pressed on northwards. I did actually manage to ride all the way home arriving about 2am in Weybridge. I’d ridden 765 miles in one day since leaving Innsbruck at 7am in the morning and I was still able to step off the beast unaided! Try that on a Fireblade and you’ll need one of those invalid cranes.

I’d ridden 4980 miles through 13 countries in 29 days and my bus pass still hadn’t arrived in the post! Would I do it again? You bet I would.

Tony Keegan

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brave new world


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Buying a bike used to be so easy: thirty years ago, if you wanted to tour, you bought a BMW; if you wanted to go fast in a straight line then eat hedge, you bought a Honda; and, if you wanted to forget about the straight line bit and go directly to hedge, you bought a Kawasaki. If however you wanted to actually go round corners and, in the process, develop the mystical thousand-yard-stare of someone who doesn’t know whence the money for the next service is coming, you bought a Ducati. Simples. The story continues...

Comparisons may well be odious but I’m not about to let that stop me: as I’ve ridden recent examples of some of the bikes with whose market footprints the Multistrada overlaps. Here goes with a few highly personal obser-vations, starting with the much-loved R1200GS. And here there’s one thing to get absolutely clear: if you want real off-road ability, buy a GS (1200 or 800) or a KTM with their larger front wheels. The Multistrada with its 17” front wheel and more road-biased tyres is not a serious off-road machine. That said, it does fine in Enduro mode on forestry tracks, but then most things do, as those of us who followed a certain club member’s GPS down a French mountain bike track a few years ago discovered.

There’s also been a lot of speculation online about the cost of even a trivial off-road drop on the Ducati – whereas a GS will simply land on its cylinder heads (most of the time), the Ducati will go right down on its side unless the panniers are attached. So, In my unending quest to bring enlightenment and knowledge to the world, I have taken one more tiny step towards Zen mastery, Grasshopper, and can confirm that it is in fact possible to drop the Multistrada off- road and suffer precisely no damage.

Turning around on a local forest track, I ran out of steering lock (which is in fact very good) and decided to hop off to back ‘er up, only to

discover that, being in Enduro mode, the ground was further away than I thought. A lot further away – the bike went past its balance point, at which point whether or not it’s 20kg lighter than a GS became entirely moot – it’s a big, tall bike, and it was gone. Having convinced a couple of passing deer that very bad-tempered bears had been reintroduced to the Highlands, I hauled it back upright. Not a single, solitary scratch, scrape or ding.

THE MULTISTRADA 1200

I heard the first rumours of a new sports touring Ducati.

And, as I’d long since written a pathetic begging letter to

Signor Minoli (CEO of Ducati) to say that my perfect bike

would be a Multistrada

Richard Harris explores the world of the Multistrada 1200


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Relieved, impressed and relieved, in that order.When I ride a GS and have gotten past the mental recalibration to Telelever forks, I find it to be a very good machine and one which, as we’ve all seen, an experienced pilot can whack along at an improbable rate of knots (for a 1923 tractor that is…). But the Ducati is just in a different league as a road bike and, whilst after a 500 mile stint in the saddle I was fresh as a daisy, I wouldn’t tip the decision on comfort, it’s just that the Duke is so much more rewarding and fun to ride – it makes me laugh out loud, albeit in a Dr Evil-sort-of-way. And when a GS is pretty much at that slightly breathless limit of what it can deliver, the Multistrada is just getting going when, with an Italian shrug, it’ll simply lengthen its stride and disappear into the distance.

VFRs don’t really get a look-in, I’m afraid: personally and, despite all its manifest virtues, I’ve had no time for the VFR800 since they mangled the once magnificent engine with V-TEC in 2002. The VFR1200 – motorcycling’s Jabba the Hutt – is so compromised by its weight, poor tank range and small panniers that it really can’t count. Which is a great shame as, pre-reality, it was the only other machine I’d seriously considered as an alternative to the Ducati.

The closest in both concept and ability to the Multistrada is probably the current Triumph Tiger 1050 – another excellent and improbably quick road bike. I haven’t ridden one for a while, but memory suggests that the Ducati is more comfortable, especially for a pillion, is a deal quicker (the Tiger is about on a par with the ST4s, which is made to feel like a moped when coming back from the Multistrada) and has higher quality suspension. The Tiger however is a very useful couple of grand cheaper than even the entry-spec Multistrada.

Faults and FoiblesNothing’s perfect and any new product is going to have its share of things that either need fixing for existing customers or improving for future versions – the test for the manufacturer being how openly and clearly they respond to problems.

The Multistrada is no exception here, so herewith my nags and niggles for Ducati:

• The Pannier Lids: While the panniers are well designed for the most part (particularly the handles and locks), it’s mildly annoying that the cutout for the exhaust in the right pannier prevents it from taking a full-face lid (something fixed by the optional wider lids). What’s a lot more annoying is that the lids themselves are, frankly, pants: there’s a 3-4mm gap twixt lid and body at the front, into which the rain does pour. Not good, but Ducati have acknowledged the problem and claim to be working on a fix.

• The Centre Stand. Presumably in an attempt to provide the maximum leverage for getting a fully-laden ‘Strada onto the stand, Ducati have made the stand’s arm far too long: it fouls the rider’s left foot and pushes the stand down, causing it to ground out far too early. And, if you’re like me and ride with the balls of your feet on the pegs, as the pace rises and you put more weight on your feet, the stand gets pushed down further and grounds out more readily the faster you go. Not a good combination. Again, an acknowledged problem and we’re waiting for a fix.

• The Termignoni Carbon Slip-On Exhaust (official Ducati accessory): The heat shield for this bulges out so much that it’s impossible to place your right foot properly on the footrest. It also fouls the centrestand spring, pushing the stand down and causing it to bounce against the bike when riding. Ducati have already issued a redesigned replacement heat shield and I’m just waiting for mine to arrive.

• Low-rpm surging: I’ve mentioned this above and some bikes seem to suffer more than others. I’ve not been particularly plagued by this, but there is a new software map to install, so at least some attempt has been made to address this.

• Pillion Position: this gives me an occasional speed-related pain in the kidneys. Nothing to do with the comfort but with the fact that the step up to the passenger perch means that my beloved can easily see the speedo. Ignorance used to be

Nothing to do with the comfort but with the fact that the step up to the passenger

perch means that my beloved can easily

see the speedo. Ignorance used

to be bliss…

bliss…And that’s about it: the encouraging thing being that all real problems have been acknowledged by Ducati, so we’ll wait and see what they actually do about it. There are a couple of other warranty tweaks to be done, but nothing that’s affecting the use or ability of the machine.

The Value ThingThe Multistrada ‘S’, in either Touring (panniers, centre stand & heated grips as standard) or Sport (lots of carbon fibre) guises, comes in at a wince-inducing £14,295 – admittedly only a little more than a fully-loaded GS but still a goodly chunk of dosh. There is however a base model that’s a very good value at £10995 (£11700 with ABS) – it lacks the panniers, stand & heated grips (which total the best part of £1000 as options) and substitutes Showa and Sachs suspension for the S model’s Ohlins. But it still has the traction control and engine modes, so what you’re missing there is the electronic suspension adjustment and the basic quality of the Ohlins suspension. Both worth paying for in my book, but a K-Tech revalve of the Showa forks and a rebuild of the shock to suit your weight and riding style will also yield major benefits for a lot less than the difference in price between the two.

Myth and MystiqueThere are a few myths that really should have been be put to rest years ago: Lancias don’t rust (any more), buying a GS does NOT fill you with an irresistible urge to head for Poland, and Ducatis are not prone to breaking down if you insult their mother’s cooking. This is about the last of these.

I’ve done about 120,000 miles on my various Ducatis and have broken down exactly twice on the road, both times within a month, and both due to undiagnosed corrosion in the electrical harness of my ‘02 ST4s, which now has 50,000 miles on the clock. That’s it.

In the meantime I’ve lost track of the amount of time I’ve spent on tour waiting for tow trucks for GS’ with broken gearboxes or final drives, hunting for new rectifiers for VFRs (a problem they did share with late 90’s Ducatis) or scouring Northern France on a Sunday for oil for BMW boxers. So nothing’s perfect, but my longish experience of Ducatis tells me that, used properly (i.e. ridden hard and serviced on the nail) they’ve certainly not been more of a long distance risk

than anything else out there. Servicing is another matter: not only have servicing costs been cut (Ducati claim by 50%), but service intervals for the Multistrada are now up to 7,500 miles for an oil change and 15,000 miles for a full “Desmo” service. With the Multistrada, it’s clear that Ducati are making a bigger effort than ever before – recognising that they’re pulling in people used to BMW levels of service (actual or mythical), they’ve got a new head of QA who used to do the same job for Audi and the factory has even called me on a couple of occasions to check how things are going and to respond to my complaints about the panniers and centre stand.

And I don’t usually name my machines, but the Multistrada was crying out for one, so it’s now officially The Raven – ‘cos it’s black, beaky and has an evil glint in its eye. ‘Nuff said.

Philosophical PointFinally, here’s one for the IAM debating society: should road riders ever use traction control as a performance aid rather than a safety net? While I haven’t (yet) been able or inclined to reprogramme myself to do just that, I do find that I’m getting earlier and harder on the throttle, in the knowledge that the system is there, waiting to step in at need. I’ve so far only had the TC activate once however, and that was over a crest, but I can foresee a time when I’ve learnt enough about the machine to start actively using the system.

A Word From ‘Er on the Back...I was a teeny bit concerned when my partner, whilst counting the days (and hours, and minutes) until he could collect his new Multistrada, announced that he was about to invest in some new and more effective body armour for the both of us. I guessed that the new beast might just be a little faster than the current one.

It is, of course, and not just a little. But it doesn’t feel like it! It’s smooth, gliding, effortless. And big.

Being used to leaping, cat-like (ahem) on to the back of an ST4s, my first comparison was that getting on to the back of the Multistrada is like getting aboard a horse that’s seventeen hands high after riding a 14.2 for years. There’s considerably more effort involved.

But it’s solidly comfortable up there. It’s quite upright, but that’s fine, just something to get used to. Being able to see over my chauffeur’s shoulder to the display is a new and fascinating addition. I can guess the speed we’re doing, only to find I’m usually short of the mark; the Multistrada’s very deceptive.

I’m still adapting to the almost luxurious cushioning of the seat, for although it will doubtless be a joy on long haul rides, I’m find-ing that my contact is somewhat lessened as we negotiate the more technical aspects of the ‘climb and drop’ roads around here. Again, something to get used to, and at the time of writing, tweaks are being made to the suspension, so we’ll see. Quite a novelty - that feeling of not so much perching, as sitting comfortably.

I can’t see me ever being tempted to nod off though. It’s a yell - a thrill and a privilege to be on the back of - and at least 9.8 on the Grin Scale. I can’t wait to climb back on again!

The Author and his BikesI’ve been on motorcycles since about 1958 – my father only sold his bike when I got too big to strap to the petrol tank. On my own account, it started with me regularly commandeering my mum’s Puch Maxi in the early 70s, occasionally with her knowledge. After learning to ride on a BSA Bantam, my father (a former TT mechanic and club racer) and I then bought a box of bits that we painstakingly turned into a working Royal Enfield Crusader Sport, which took me through University, before I sold it to fund a expedition to Africa. After graduation I bought the now-classic Honda CB400F and, after a few years of that and a brief flirtation with Moto Guzzi, I started

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the whole Ducati thing with a two-year-old Pantah 500, bought in 1982. That finally went in an act of self-immolating stupidity when I decided to buy a car and a house at the same time – I then spent the next fourteen years wondering what was missing in my life (I’m a slow learner). When realisation finally dawned, I did the entirely sensible thing for a returning biker and bought a Ducati 748. I’d been an instructor with the old RAC/ACU training scheme, then with Cambridge’s CamRider scheme and a car-driving member of the IAM since 1987, so it was a natural step to wobble along to WVAM for some refresher training. I passed my IAM test in 1999 and be-came an Observer a little later. Having bailed out of the Home Counties a couple of years ago, my partner and I now live in the heart of the Scottish Highlands with our cats and Ducatis, where we’re ever-so-slowly renovating our Georgian farmhouse, intending (at some point) to offer guided tours and training for visiting motorcyclists. I’ve also just become a founding Observer of a new IAM bike group, Forth Valley Advanced Motorcyclists (FVAM) so look forward to corrupting a new generation of motorcyclists.

Richard HarrisThereafter, it was an interminable, kid-at-Christ-mas, wait for it to turn up – I finally got the call from the good folks at Snell’s at the end of April, at which point I was off to the airport just as fast as my partner could be bribed to drive me. At the other end of my trains, plane and automobile saga was my Multistrada 1200S Touring, in damply-glistening black, with a few added extras either fitted or en-route: Termi-gnoni exhaust (unnecessary but pretty), electronic filler cap (which makes the keyless ignition make complete sense and should therefore be standard) and extended pannier lids, for those “Imelda Marcos” moments. And if anyone’s idly wondering why I ordered a bike from a dealer 500 miles from where I now live, I’ve always had great service from Snell’s so had promised myself long ago that they’d get my next new bike order, come hell, high water or the Scottish climate (which is actually the first two happening simultaneously).

So what follows is a real-world view of the bike from the perspective of someone who’s shelled

out their own money for it, rides in all weathers and does it both solo and two-up. That’s the toys accounted for, but now for the big basic question: Stuff the gizmos and the numbers, how does this bike feel on the road? OK, here goes: it inspires. It exhilarates. It terrifies (but in a good way). It relaxes. It gets me 500 miles in a sitting without a twinge. And it may yet land me in front of The Beak, on charges where all I could plead would be insanity with a mitigating cry of, “The bike made me do it!”.

But don’t get the idea that this is an unrecon-structed hooligan of a machine: it certainly can be, but it’s biggest talent is being able to adapt to suit your mood and intent: want to bimble along a beautiful coastline? Do so. Want to mix it in the fast group at a track day? Fine, no problem (assuming you can actually ride a bit…). Com-mute, Tour, Play – all are within the machine’s ambit and always just a button push away. The toys work.

Climb aboard the 1200 and it’s a tall but narrow bike – seat height, at 850mm, is on a par with a GS in low-seat mode (there’s a 25mm lower seat available as an option). I’m 1.83m (Ed- 6ft in old money), longish in the leg and wouldn’t want to be much shorter and have a ‘Strada. It does carry its weight well though and, once on board, feels much lighter and more compact than a GS. Pulling away, the clutch is no more than moderate by Japanese standards and rather lighter than Ducatis of yore. And the traditional Ducati overture of a dry clutch that sounds like a bag of spanners on a spin cycle is relegated to history by the adoption of a wet slipper clutch. I rather miss that. And, having moved off, the whole plot is light and pliant – the overall feel being that of a well-balanced and responsive machine with the pilot nicely poised at the heart of things.


28

In this issue John Braddick explores if it’s just a roll of the wrist?

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Acceleration sense sits in the ‘middle’ between two ‘extremes’:

Roll on acceleration by opening the throttle (Engine Acceleration) - Acceleration Sense (Engine Response) -Deceleration by closing the throttle (Engine Braking)

Roll on acceleration comprises smooth and progres-sive throttle openings: for example - after negoti-ating and clearing a hazard – an increase in speed limit – an overtake - moving from a standstill.Deceleration is slowing by maximising engine braking in a particular gear. There is no separate commonly used term of ‘deceleration sense’.

Examples of the use of acceleration sense (i.e. without using brakes):• to maintain distance and appropriate speed when following vehicles and when filtering • adjusting speed by gradual rolling off the throttle so it is appropriate for the circumstances e.g. change in road surface condition - approach-ing a speed limit reduction, or traffic lights - approaching a potential hazard such as a round-about/junction• managing an appropriate speed between bends on ‘twisty’ sections of road• maintaining an appropriate bend speed based on the Limit Point of Vision technique. Typical examples of poor acceleration sense are:• moving up to an overtake position and having to brake for an appropriate speed• braking after an overtake - approaching the next vehicle too fast, or lower speed limit ahead.• accelerating from a standstill up to a vehicle and braking, because of inappropriate speed

accelaration• frequent dabs of a brake lever when following vehicles• exaggerated roll on/off throttle openings, par-ticularly at lower speeds, producing a jerky ride.• frequent braking when entering lower speed limits• poor cornering throttle control technique

Closing the throttle by any amount, slows the engine, which slows the rear wheel by the engine braking affect. A rapid closure of the throttle will maximise engine braking in any selected gear.More engine braking is available in the lowest gear that could sensibly be selected for any given speed. Slowing within the term acceleration sense, is intrinsically linked to engine braking.

Acceleration sense combines refined use of both acceleration and deceleration by way of ‘engine response’ to vary the speed to suit the circum-stances and conditions and is mostly associated with subtle smooth changes in throttle adjustment to vary the speed. For deceleration, it is not associated with sudden reduction in speed by maximising engine braking by just abruptly dumping the throttle. The term ‘engine braking’ is applicable to both the subtle and abrupt situations, but the extent is dif-ferent. The term ‘braking’ indicates that the same affect could be provided by using the brakes.

Engine braking is unfortunately associated with inappropriate riding as well as good.

How is acceleration sense associated with the often quoted maxim ‘Brakes to slow - Gears to go’? The maxim is not true for all situations. Engine braking in the selected gear is generally recommended to:• Control speed on hill descents by using engine

John Braddick's

sense

Roadcraft states: ‘Acceleration sense is the ability to vary machine speed in response to changing road and traffic conditions by accurate use of the throttle’. ‘Good acceleration sense helps avoid unnecessary braking, improves stability and reduces wear and tear on the machine’.

braking in a lower gear.• Controlling speed for bends on unlit rural roads at night – dependant on the extent of braking, the front forks can compress and lower the extent of forward illumination of the bend by the headlight.• Using gears to slow in slippery/wet conditions. This would involve changing down to an appropriate gear for the speed and circumstances using smooth engine braking to slow in preference to using brakes.

These situations could be considered as using the gearbox, or gears to slow i.e. not brakes to slow.

As speed reduces, the selection of the next lower gear with its associated engine braking potential may be appropriate. The engine braking should be comparable with smooth and progressive braking – i.e. as when using the brakes, if no engine braking was available. All of these situations use acceleration sense to some extent to control speed. Not only is acceleration sense intrinsically linked to engine braking, it is also linked to selection of an appropriate gear relative to speed, to provide smooth and flexible response to any throttle adjustment. It is not only just rolling off the throttle in whatever gear a rider happens to be in.

If the method is suitable for extreme situations such as downhill descents and slippery conditions, it should be suitable for any roads in dry conditions i.e. using acceleration sense to slow using smooth effective engine response in a flexible gear and that gear can change as speed reduces. Whether the gear changes are sequential, or block change depends on planning and the circumstances. Roadcraft states: 'The purpose of Planning is to put you in the right gear at the right time to negotiate hazards safely and efficiently'. In a hazard situation with changing circumstances the

31

right gear could be the next lower gear as speed reduces.

Why the need for the ‘Brakes to slow’ phrase, when acceleration sense is used to slow just as much as brakes? For deceleration, acceleration sense is basically terminated when the throttle is shut fully, particularly when closed abruptly to maximise slowing by engine braking. To maximise slowing/stopping using the brakes is always the main con-sideration based on the safety rule of being at a speed so that you can stop on your own side of the road within the distance you can see to be clear.

What is not appropriate is using the above method, but using abrupt and possibly violent deceleration in each gear, particularly where there is limited distance to achieve smooth slowing in a gear and also where a rider leaves slowing to the later stage of hazard approach and then bangs down gears quickly, possibly in sequence and possibly shutting the throttle abruptly each time, or block changes to slow the bike quickly and all this with possibly no throttle blips to match engine and road speeds for smooth down changes. This could cause the rear wheel to lift from the ground and the bike to shake and the bike to become unstable and the rider to possibly lose control dependant on the speed and number of down changes. This would fit in with a maxim ‘Gears are for Go - not for Slow’. Using the maxim ‘Brakes to slow’ is the preferred method compared to the abrupt gear change situation. The concept of a safe method of

slowing using gears, as described above should not be corrupted by riders, who may use engine brak-ing inappropriately towards its extremes, resulting in the ‘Brakes to slow – Gears to Go’ maxim being stated unnecessarily as if it applied to every situ-ation . It is important that Associates understand that the abrupt gear change situation, particularly without any consideration of throttle blips, is not applicable to advanced riding on the road.

A criticism of using acceleration sense to slow is that you need a longer stretch of road compared to braking. Changing down to an appropriate lower gear may help reduce that distance. In any situa-tion where it is not appropriate to slow sufficiently via acceleration sense, a rider must use their brakes. Acceleration sense is used in conjunction with good observation, awareness, perception and anticipation of hazard situations giving a rider time to react, meaning braking may not be necessary. Braking should be as a result of good planning obviating any need for their ‘sudden’ application. At ‘high’ speeds the use of brakes is a main consideration. A rider should not forget to always be aware from rear observation, if it is prudent to show a brake light to any close following vehicles when slowing using acceleration sense.

Acceleration sense is associated with good machine maintenance. Incorrect adjustment of throttle cable, drive and fuel systems can affect how smooth the bike responds to throttle adjustments.

Associates should develop their application of acceleration sense and be aware of the engine braking potential available from their machine in different gears and at different speeds. They should refrain from the use of excessive abrupt engine braking in inappropriate lower gears to slow, but should be able to select an appropriate gear relative to the speed and circumstances to use acceleration sense so that viewed from behind their ride is smooth, but not forgetting to use brakes on the approach to a hazard as necessary.

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Ed: This article is verbatim from John Braddick, Senior Observer, and represents his

views not necessarily Training Team policy.

Worried about your advanced test? Get a Mentor! I did and have just passed.

I commute by bike everyday into central London and early on noticed the mixed ability of fellow riders. They range from the death defying L-plated scooters to the gap defying couriers. I realised there was riding a bike, and there was riding a bike really well. This convinced me to join the IAM and work towards becoming an Advanced Rider.

From my first Ripley Observed Sunday I started learning new techniques. Noticeably my country riding was not a patch on my city riding. I soon learnt being comfortable in traffic was very different from being at ease on country roads with all their bends and no traffic!

After a few observed runs, I unfortunately had months off due to bike problems. When I returned to Ripley I found once a month was not regular enough and the excellent Observers were noticing the same faults. At the Summer BBQ Geoff men-tioned the mentor scheme and I decided to give it a go. I was soon contacted by Barry Salmon and on the road to success.

Summer light allowed plenty of evening rides and I quickly became more focused on improving my riding in between the Ripley 1st Sundays. Having the same Observer for each ride meant weaker areas of my riding were pinpointed and consistently practiced. The familiarity of the same Observer following also put me at ease.

After lots of helpful advice and encouragement through some great Kent, Surrey and Berkshire countryside I applied for my test. Barry’s wealth of knowledge extended to known test routes which were great practice and reassuring for the big day.

Thanks to all my Observers and special thanks to Barry for his time and commitment in helping me pass.

Lucy Claxton

get a mentor!

Lucy was too shy to send us a photo of herself, or maybe she

is wanted by Interpol. However, here is a picture of a field of flowers and a very

clean bike that is allegedly Lucy’s.

(The bike, not the field).

31 32


THEOne of them said, “you’re the only man I know who’s put his pride and joy in a dyke”Few people remember enough to analyse a big accident in detail. OK it’s a bit controversial: we like to pretend accidents happen to someone else and that our “advanced” skills keep us safe. Or maybe they just get us to the scene of the accident quicker - especially if we do stupid stuff. Here’s a first hand account of a big crash, written because people might wonder what really happens when a bike goes down at speed. Maybe there are lessons to be learned for you as well as me? In reality, we don’t usually just make one mistake - we make a rapid sequence of linked cock-ups. Here’s what happened to me.

Following a rider I know wellWe’ve ridden thousands of miles togetherFamiliar pace and pattern of ridingI’m going maybe 10 mph quicker at the moment (1st mistake – I am going a bit too fast)Not competitive (OK, maybe a bit) but pushing on (2nd mistake – feeling a bit invincible as in 60,000 bike miles I’ve never had an accident)Dry. Plenty of visionOff-side now, positioned for overtakeClosing smoothly and ready to pass (3rd mistake - overtake was potentially fun, but unnecessary)Bike ahead unexpectedly moves rightWhy? What’s he doing? There’s no hazard and he’s facing a chicane Maybe avoiding a pot hole I haven’t seen, or maybe to checking view?Closing speed too high now we are getting close to the bend – no problemDrop back – protect the rider in front, don’t do an unsafe pass, overtake abandonedGas off, brakes on and moving wider, controlled to give him more room (4th mistake – should’ve have just dropped back harder, upright, on the

brakes)Grass verge ahead is a bright, clean greenI can see, too clearly, gentle undulations and bumps in itNeed to avoid thatLook up, down the road, don’t fixate

Bike ahead is clear of me now and has gone back leftBend approaching fastI’m too far overJust inches, but too far is too farMind instantly reels off the sums for distance covered at this speed (it’s a long way)Tip it left quite hard (5th mistake – did it too late)Bike leans, oh so slowly (it’s not a snappy steerer)Front end is skipping on a smear of gravelly mud I’d seen a second beforeFront slides on something slippery, I can feel it Will it grip?Grass flashing by quicklyKick left foot down – try to shove the bike up (it worked once before!)

ThumpI’m downVery hardChest hits the road first - woooshBreath’s all goneCan’t see the bikeGlimpsed: it’s shot off ahead of me, on its side, flipping overNo cars thankfullyI’m rollingRelax. Try to relax. It’s all in very slow motion now Keep my head clear of road, try not to let it loll aboutCan’t stop rolling. Again tell myself to relaxScenery and sky flashes aroundOver and over, count three times, four, lose count, maybe it was five or sixKnee hurts, can’t breatheI’ve stopped

Mind is racing, time has speeded up againGet up, use the adrenalin to get clear of dangerNothing in the roadGet to the vergeStars flash briefly in my eyes Clears quickly. GoodCan I breathe? Yes. Result!

Where the f*ck is the bike?Walk along vergeNotice that I can walk! 40 yards?There it is – 20 feet below in a deep dykeLooking very smashed and deadKnee is hurtingHand is hurting worseBike is hurting tooMy fault, poor thing.

People talking to meCan hear them perfectly wellConcern in their voicesThey think I can’t hear them, but I canPlease be quiet for a moment so I can process what’s happenedSo I ignore them and let my mind and eyes syn-chronise The camera in my head continues to click, click, click“Do you want your helmet off?”I’ve been looking around, no back or neck pain“OK”. I know I shouldn’t have said that (6th mis-take I suppose)But I do want it off. Need help though Biker deftly undoes DD ring but struggles to lift it off my headI’m too tall

Stoop a bit and feel a bit stupidOff it comes, plugs outThe world rushes in.

‘Are you all right?’“What does it look like?” is one answer among many but I say ‘yes’‘Do you want an ambulance?’My instinct is “no” - I know what I’ve done to myself Mentally assess the bodily damage. Do a quick inventory I think it over for a moment Can I ride the bike home (still thought that one over, despite it being in a ditch!)Could I get a pillion ride?Common sense prevails and I say “yes please”. (Finally, a good call)

Sit down. Shock begins to seep in But not enough to stop me getting the bike stripped of valuable stuffParamedic “just passing, mate” arrives Closely followed by a more officious one He follows the wrong procedure to fit a neck brace I don’t care much as I know it won’t do any harm Make mental note to tell him later not to tilt the head backHe brandishes his big scissors, eager to slice the jacket offCompanions encourage me to let himI refuse to have the Rukka dissected“It’s a jacket, it unzips, just take it off”Mucho moaning – but not from meBut they do and it comes off easilyDon’t do this if it happens to you!

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Paras insist on me sitting still One holds my perfectly OK neck to stop me look-ing roundIt’s procedureI know thatChest is bloody tightI feel around under my top and decide which ribs are brokenSuck some Ventolin in Bizarrely the sea of green grass all around makes me feel wheezy Brilliant, survive crash then have asthma attack!Can’t get much of the drug inConcentrate on breathing out - clear the lungsGetting cold and shivery nowWondered how long it would take the adrenalin rush to switch to shockMedic finally gets a BP reading 186/127. He thinks its OK in the circumstancesI think it’s much too high. Focus on staying calm

Once it’s clear I‘m salvageableGood mate rings my wifeAs soon as she hears his voice on my phone…she knowsI speak to her briefly and hear the fear 100 miles offTell her I’m fine and just need a lift homeActually I’m not fine. Sometimes white lies are OK

Ambulance takes ages – has to come from Tim-buktuSuddenly its thereThey get to use the crash board - yippeeI’m strapped down like a lunatic in an asylumCrosses my mind maybe bikers are lunaticsGear collectedGoodbyes saidOff we go.

Ambulance is just a van in dragCargo - me - is bumped aroundPara Tim and I have a chatIt’s about pain Tim tries to jab a needle in my arm to “get a line in”This is like trying to play darts whilst trampoliningTim and Fiona conferShe stops the van. I mean ambulance

Jabbed up, they try to have a listen to my lungsMuch muttering later they conclude they can’t hear muchI explain I’m exhaling veeeery slooooowly ‘Cos that’s what you do when you have an asthma attackThey look worriedI’m fully hip and down with the kids now as the morphine’s kicking inMust try and buy some of that stuff

200 bumps later, every one memorable, we hit Hastings A&E They take me to resus (itation)I think, “this is OTT, I’m still breathing”They keep checking I can remember my phone number (head trauma test)As I can’t remember it even when I haven’t fallen off a bike, we agree a different test might be coolBloke in the next bed sounds really crap so that cheers me up no endWe have another “please let me cut some clothes off” chat Predictable answer from me “No”So we have some more zip practiceDoc is very cute and prettyAnd very tired, so I pay careful attention when she prescribes drugsMore morphine, “yes please – bring it on honey”

Wifey of 3 months turns up having hi-tailed it out of work. She is (to quote her later) “triple pissed off”. She softens a bit when she sees I am fully alive

{Reality check: Dead = heartbreak softened by insurance dosh. Paralysed = lifelong nuisance. Battered = I’ll let you off, but this is the last time!}

I know it sounds callous, but I make a mental note to check the insurance policies though as the difference between standing up and lying down forever, happens in a heartbeat and is more unpredictable than I had remembered (I have the T shirt for this kind of thing – just not on bikes).

Biker mates pitch up again at hospital. Made me quite emotional. For a bloke. They were all very

decent and concerned. And maybe some of them a bit surprised, as they know I’m not a complete nutter.

See – it can happen to anyone. Thanks guys. You bikers know who you are. Thanks also to Darren, Tim and Fiona the paramedics and ambulance driver, and especially to Doctor Ellie at the hospital who still managed to look smilingly pretty despite being quite obviously dog tired. You can poke my ribs anytime.

Lesson time!I learnt a lot from this. Main things: It’s a bit in my nature to push the envelope and see where it leads. I’m not reckless but nor am I very risk averse.

Did I need to overtake then? Nope. Plan better for worst-case outcome on the road - too much time elapsed before I chucked the bike at the near side In extremis brake much harder (I had ABS and traction control but I pussy footed around) Always use top quality protective gear – mine saved my limbs and possibly my life Make sure the Will and insurance policies are up to date. Wife and kids are more important.

Question TimeQ Whose fault was it? A MineQ How fast were you going? A I plead the 5th. It was quite fastQ Has it shaken your confidence? A NoQ Why? A I know what I did wrong & won’t repeat itQ Were you scared? A No

Anonymous

“the single biggest thing, apart from luck, that prevented this being a much more serious accident, was that the rider was wearing very high quality, highly protective kit. Don’t compromise in this area guys, as when sh*t happens and your skills have done what they can, the gear is what saves you.”


35

John Bennett’s epic trip to The Rockies and Alaska

Dalton Highway – return legThe next day was a particularly early start, 0730, in view of the slow tiring conditions experienced on the infamous Dalton Highway previously. We took a group photo outside the Caribou Inn then set off as a group, passing some sev-eral real Caribou grazing on the tundra between huge pipelines. Most incongruous. Although we had fitted a spare visor to Greg’s Arai helmet, including a Fog City insert, it was barely above freezing point and the North Slope was covered in fog so we had to stop several times to clear the visor. In the end, ironically, we had no op-tion in the fog to rip out the Fog City insert as more trouble than it was worth. The fog continued for over 60 miles so progress was slow.

We also faced several empty gravel trucks travel-ling at high speed back to the depot to refill their loads and found that the best option was to at least stop on the side or, if there was opportunity, pull right off the road due to the number of stones their 32 tyres threw up. To this day I have a num-ber of stone chips on the front of the bike from

Alaska

these encounters. On this occasion however, there was only one section of the road under repair so we made much better progress than before and once out of the coastal fog the view up towards the Atigun Pass was stunning and quite unlike the treacherously wet conditions on our way north. We stopped for photos at the col but a combina-tion of low temperature and strong wind gave a severe wind chill, not helped by the fact that the ridiculously delicate connector on my heated vest had sheared off, so it was a chilly ride even with every item of warm clothing I possessed. Once over the pass the warmer weather encouraged us to stop for photos as the spot where the two construction teams had met in 1974 and also at an aptly named bridge over the Roche Moutonee Creek.

When we arrived back at Coldfoot I checked the GPS trip data for the first time. Whilst we felt that w e had been riding all day with only short stops for food, water and photos, the GPS indicated the actual trip of 384km had been ridden in only 4hrs 30mins. An astonishing difference between perception and reality. The extra fuel bottle came in handy to top up Greg’s bike although as we anticipated riding together throughout the journey, I carried both a 2L spare fuel bottle and a hose for decanting from the big 32L tank on my bike which gave me a proven range of at least 350mls of top gear riding. It perhaps goes without saying that between Deadhorse and Coldfoot camp, and between there and the Yukon river, there is absolutely no habitation other than the occasional pipeline pumping station so we were certainly pleased about the detailed preparations we had made. By this point I think everything we brought we had used except for the puncture repair kit, thankfully. But the better progress made this day gave us the chance to look round the excellent exhibition centre in the evening, including a pre-sentation on Alaska’s wildlife, all of which made a pleasant change from the monotony of the day’s travel.

South from ColdfootThe following day began in a rush as the previous evening I had set the alarm for p.m. not a.m. So, we awoke to the sound of bike engines as many of the others were about to leave at 0645! Duh. Added to which Greg has borrowed a tent and had slept outside so he had to get all that packed away and our progress was further delayed by a big queue for breakfast by a big coach party that had arrived the evening before. I pondered why it was that when things go wrong there al-ways seem to be a sequence of threes. Consequently we were the last to leave.

Our first stop for the day was not a good omen. One of the earlier riders had managed to crash into Evan’s stationary bike parked at the side of the road and ripped of his left hand pannier and left a long line of broken plastic in the road.. It was one of those ‘how the hell did that happen’ moments with considerable embarrassment all round but fortunately no one had been injured.

37


38

There was no rush to leave the next day as we only had 172 mls to ride along the Richardson Highway to Delta Junction and the Alaska 7 motel, so we detoured into a Fairbanks filling station and spent about an hour feeding coins into the pressure washer machine to clean the bikes, particularly Greg’s radiator. Almost all the lower engine area had a 10mm thick layer of baked on Dalton ‘concrete’. As the motel was pretty basic and on an isolated stretch of road, we left early the next day as a group in order to stop for breakfast at Rita’s Historic Park by the Yukon (?) river. The menu had some interesting items which you don’t generally encounter in hotels at home; I had the equivalent to a ‘continental’ breakfast called a ‘Bear’s Claw’, which was a large pastry with juice and coffee and as usual in America, fruit never made an appearance. The service, unfortunately, was dreadfully slow even though we were the only customers there at that time of the morning, but at least it gave us an opportunity to look round the riverside site with well restored, clapperboard buildings.

Chicken and the gold rushFor those of us intending to do an 160 mile round trip detour to the old gold mining community of Chicken, it was going to be a long day so we left at 1030. Chicken was notable in having a 1938 floating dredge which had initially been disman-tled and trucked into Chicken where it operated until 1967. In one 10 year period it generated 60,000 ounces of gold but it had been moved re-cently from the river into its present position a mile away, in a heavy lifting operation lasting a month and which cost $1million.On the ride back I set off to take some photos after which our support rider, kiwi Jeff Condon, came alongside and so I followed him back where the detour started.

The road was tarmac frequently interspersed with sections under repair. Jeff was on the lighter, faster 1200 and was a superb rider and so we had an exhilarating high speed ride on the single track road back to Tetlin junction. This experience more than any other convinced me that there was simply no problem with mixing the knobbly Conti TKC80 on the front with a Tourance on the rear.

As the day drew to a close near Beaver Creek, we met up with ‘wallet’ Dave and as we stopped at the American-Canadian border I asked him what he had done with one of his panniers. He looked round and once again I saw a look of pure terror on his face as it became clear that he had not put it in the van as I had supposed, it had simply dropped off! With that realisation he did a U turn and headed back up the road to see if he could spot it. As it turned out he found it only about 5km away, a bit battered and bruised but intact. It could only happen to Dave S.

To be continued....

There was nothing we could do so we headed off and the dry weather meant that we could make good progress. In the gently undulating landscape much of the road was hard well graded and com-pacted gravel with perhaps mile long straights crossing valleys when the bike sailed along hap-pily at over 90mph. Exhilarating stuff and given that the £ was then worth close to $2 and that fuel was relatively cheap anyway, we were not exactly concerned about fuel economy.

We stopped near Gobblers Knob once again but this time Jeff showed us the skid marks where Dick had slid off. Whilst the top end of his bike was fairly well damaged, he had been incred-ibly lucky because the road at that point was on a raised embankment with a 2-3m drop down to the tundra beyond. Hauling the bike up from that level would have been impossible without a tow rope from the van.

On the final section of dirt road there were road-works for 12 miles but at the end we stopped together as a group for a ‘veterans of the Dalton’ group photo and to pump the tyres back up to normal pressures. Several of us had brought small compressors for this purpose which plug straight into the standard GS accessory sockets so it was a quick and easy process.

Chena Hot SpringsOur night’s accommodation had been booked at Chena Hot Springs about 60 miles away, while the day’s log read 325 mls with the majority of

that on dirt roads. The road to Chena was along a lush valley with dense forest and also grassy water meadows where we spotted a shy moose and her calf. We also saw one that crossed the road not far in front of us. When I looked in detail at a map of Alaska it was clear that there were several hot springs dotted around which seems totally incongruous in what for most of the year is frozen arctic tundra. Until that is, I remembered that Alaska is a very active geological area subject to occasional powerful earthquakes and the Kamchatka peninsula is literally a string of volcanic islands. But still, the steaming hot springs must have been a wonderful benefit to the early indigenous people during the winter especially. The springs themselves were actually incredibly hot; they emerged from the ground at a scalding 75C, so the water is mixed with surface river wa-ter before being fed into the bathing pool where it was still baking hot at over 40C. Welcome as the experience was, after 30 mins we emerged like well done lobsters.

CHIEF OBSERVER’S

REPORT

Last year was another successful year for the Group with both the training of

Associate members and the Observer training program. A very good number of IAM

test passes were achieved. Also we had eight Senior Observer tests and I’m very pleased

to say we achieved 100% pass rate which is an excellent result. The standards are being

raised year on year and this is due to a considerable amount of dedication on both the

part of the candidates and the training team.

Observer training plays a big part in the Club’s activities throughout the year and last

year was no exception. There were three Goodwood Assessments carried out which

added quite a few potential members to the Observer training program. There were a

number of Observer training days held last year and as a result we were very pleased

that George Holdt, Chris Hopper, Matt Wiacek , Stephen Beckett and Colin Storer all

passed their Group Observer tests with excellent results.

The Training Team are very pleased that there are also a number of very keen and

enthusiastic trainee observers coming through the ranks and very shortly we will have some

more Group Observers. The standards of our Observers have been improving each year

in an attempt to keep up with and go beyond the IAM standard requirements.

For sometime the Training Team members have been shadowing Observers of all levels

whilst they carry out their observed runs during our normal Observed Sundays. This is just

an ongoing method of helping and assisting them in their communication and coaching skills

in order to maintain and improve our standard of training which is always ongoing. I want

our Observer team to be aware of this. We are not putting them through any additional

tests on these days it is basically just a continuous development process of our training.

In the last few years as an IAM Group we have been changing our Observer training pro-

cesses with adding additional elements which have had excellent results and in turn

will benefit our current and future Associate members.

Last year also saw some changes in our Training Team and I was delighted that amongst

our new team members we now have Barry Salmon and Chris Armstrong. I would like to

take this opportunity of thanking all our Observers and the Training Team for all their time,

efforts and support over the last year. Your dedication makes Wey Valley a great Club.

In this quarters report Geoff Berry, our Chief Observer reviews last year and looks forward

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