Most of us joined EAMG simply with the thought of improving our riding under the guidance of a group Observer but soon realise that EAMG is also very sociable. Thankfully, many riders continue membership of EAMG long after their initial training to get involved in the many social rides and even longer trips that are organised amongst members.
I don’t often manage to participate in Sunday rides as that is the only day none of my family is working and naturally, they get priority. I have however been enjoying the mid-week rides that continue to gain popularity with 28 riders starting the last ride. I say started because Mick turned around early as he was concerned about losing tyre pressure from a puncture he hadn’t located. Eddie kindly rode back with him and that is another of the great things that are typical of EAMG social rides, we look out for each other. Various rides are organised to suit all levels of experience so if you’ve not been on a social ride yet I’d recommend you pick the right one for you and give it a try.
Don’t forget, if you have something to share with the group, send it to me at the address below.
Graham Simpkins, Editor tug@eamg.org.uk
You can find all of our social media and the EAMG membership form when you need via our Linktree using the QR code below.
https://linktr.ee/eamg_bikers
COVER PHOTO
Slow Riding Day in August.
CHAIRMAN’S
Hello everyone.
I write this as Storm Amy waters my garden.
The first bit of extended rain we have seen for a very long time, making this one of the very best riding years in the UK in living memory. Just back from another 4 days biking in Wales, had a fantastic time with lovely EAMG members, and as we now know the roads really well we put together an incredible few days riding with hardly any traffic. When riding in many parts of the UK in decent weather it now makes me think do I need to go abroad anymore? It can be quite confusing riding in Europe, have I got the required reflective material on my clothing and helmet? Is my bike to loud? Have I purchased the correct passes for some French towns and cities? Remember to pay any motorway toll online after the journey now? At least I don’t struggle with the languages, I am beginning to sound like a grumpy old g-t.
As the riding season comes to a close for many, nothing stops at EAMG. So we need to consider what lies ahead, and the most important upcoming subjects will be who would like to volunteer as membership secretary, and surely it is time for a new chairperson too?! If anyone would like to know more about joining the committee please do speak to any of us or email me chair@eamg.org.uk it is very rewarding and interesting to see how much effort is required to keep the wheels on.
Time to go as I have to prepare going away again, this time with the wonderful observers weekend away for 2 days full on training among ourselves, getting the incredible results as we have done now consistently is no accident, takes a lot of planning, dedication, ability and skill to get to the levels we have in our observing team. If you have had a Rospa Gold for a year or more and are interested in becoming an observer the please don’t be shy and let us know. Time to do my powder checks now.
New Observer, Clive Taylor giving guidance at the Slow Riding Day
A Look Back at August Group Night
As has become an annual event, we enjoyed a quiz hosted by member Eddie Friggens, ably assisted by his son.
Have you seen the scene from “Gavin and Stacy” where Smithy is hosting a pub quiz and drunkenly reads a series of questions from a sheet of paper? Well, Eddies quiz is nothing like that!
We were presented with a good variety of questions that involved both audio and video clips, hence the necesity for all the technology involved.
Eddie presenting prizes to the winning team.
Supposedly it is taking part that counts but you can see from those smug faces that winning is pretty pleasing too.
Simon Thornton receiving his Full Member Certificate.
A Look Back at September Group Night
We welcomed Steve Crosdale, proprietor of Essex Bikers Centre Bradwell for an informative presentation on protective clothing. Steve explained the diferent techniques used to construct waterproof clothing which might entail a lamanated material or a separate waterproof layer. Most eye opening was what classes as waterproof. I turns out we need to consider the materials ability to withstand water the same way we might choose a tent as there are vast differences in standards.
We enjoyed a demonstartion of the effectiveness of D3o armour for which Dale bravely volunteered to have his hand hammered!
Michel had the pleasure of presenting three EAMG Full Member certificates to members following their recent RoSPA test passes.
Lloyd Moxon
Ian Orford
Dale Wilkins
EAMG Slow Riding Day
Slow Riding Day doesn’t quite describe our regular training event. It might more accurately be called Low Speed Machine Control Day but that would be a rubbish acronym so SRD it is.
The day was fully booked as always, with numbers restricted to ensure every attendee gets all the guidance they require.
Have you ever seen Observers ganging up to steal someone’s bike?
OK, maybe they were helping with a counterbalance exercise.
The first exercise of the day is always a “Snail Race”. It’s a bit of fun with a useful purpose.
Pete offered his KTM 1290 Adventure to Colin Foley for a “U turn” demonstration as he thought Coilin’s super light 790 was too easy. Evidently, it’s easy on the 1290 as well.
EAMG Slow Riding Day
Observer Danny will be pleased to see this good demonstration of looking where you want to end up.
Observer Paul sharing words of wisdom. Quite seriously, we have some very experienced Observers with a huge amount of knowledge to share.
A few words of advice from
Not a prescribed exercise but a fun way to collect cones at the end of the day.
Observer Steve before tackling the next exercise.
EAMG Early Years: Recollections from Colin Snow
A health warning.
The views expressed in this article are my own so if anything in it causes offence to anyone in any shape or form, I apologise unreservedly. OK that’s got that out of the way.
I haven’t had that many bikes in my life. The early ones were the means to get me to college and my early jobs. I’m 6’5” tall, long in the legs & arms. If I had a normal body like everyone else then I could have a normal bike like everyone else. When I started riding bikes for fun I started with a s/h Kawasaki 750 Turbo simply because it was the most comfortable bike in the showroom. However, it wasn’t reliable and let me down several times resulting in roadside assistance. I got rid of that & got a ZX10 which I had for about 9 years then a ZZR1100.
I joined EAMG in December 1987. I went to the NEC bike show that year on the Turbo. It was a nice bright sunny Sunday & I went the pretty way. I met Dave Gunning who was the then Secretary of EAMG on the stand of the IAM who took my details. He later wrote to me inviting me to the December Group meeting. His letter said “It is winter and it can be neither safe or pleasant for riding so don’t feel obliged to come on 2 wheels”. I thought that sounds like a sensible club to join so I went to the meeting in my van, paid my subs and joined. I discovered they were having a Christmas dinner in The White Horse pub in Great Baddow where I live so I thought I’d have some of that because I could walk there. As an aside for those who remember Dave Gunning, I have to tell you that he passed away earlier this year.
I waited to the late spring before asking the then Observer Coordinator for an Observer. We used to get serious winters with loads of snow & ice. My efforts towards climate change hadn’t borne fruit by then (CFC’s & the Ozone layer in case you’re wondering!!) I was allocated to Paul John who was one of the cofounders of the club. I met him at the Army & Navy when there was a pub by that name on the roundabout and it was the A12 (no bypass like now). I did 3 observed rides with him over a time span of about a month plus an AGT with another Observer. After my 3rd observed ride Paul told me to put in for my advanced test. My response was “You’ve got to be joking – what about all this slow riding I’ve heard about which is the complete opposite of what we’ve been doing!!” He said – “Don’t worry Roger won’t get you doing figures of eight in a car park – he’ll do it in a real-life traffic situation”.
When I met Roger Anderson, his brief was “If you’re in a 30 & everyone else is doing 35 then I expect you to do 35 otherwise you’re just a bloody nuisance but if you’re on your own then I expect you to do 30”. After the test he said “Good enough for a pass, you’re not very smooth but I can see you’ve been out with Paul”. I hadn’t got a clue what he meant!!
I got to know Dave and Nicki Iszard and Dave said to me “We’re a bike club but we never go anywhere!!” All my working life I’ve been on call at weekends – not every weekend but on a rota basis. At that time Dave edited The Newsletter – it wasn’t called TUG in those days so I picked a Sunday when I was free and said put Social Ride in the next newsletter. At the club night Dave said to me they all want to know where we are going. Hand on my heart I hadn’t actually thought of that one, naively thinking I could just take them for a ride. You have to remember that it was a different era in those days, there was a lot less traffic on the roads at weekends and folk didn’t go shopping on a Sunday.
I knew Hampshire reasonably well and he wanted a destination so I said - We’ll go to the submarine museum at Gosport. He didn’t bat an eyelid! So I figured out a route, wrote it down and had it photocopied about 20 times. We used to meet at the layby opposite Moulsham School because that was the A12 in those days. About a dozen or more bikes turned up so I gave everyone a route sheet. Mick Wotherspoon, bless his heart, looked at it, folded it up & put it in his breast pocket and said that’s alright Colin, we’ll
follow you!! You have to realize nobody had ever heard of the marker system in those days and they simply followed me.
Actually, it was Pete Layley and his mates in the Pan Clan (riders of Pan European bikes) who introduced the marker system to the club on a ride to Steventon in Oxfordshire which is west of Didcot.
I’m aware that today the marker system is seen to be the holy grail of group rides but personally I don’t like it. Without wishing how to tell you how to suck eggs Advanced Riding is all about forward planning so knowing where you’re going really helps!!! With the marker system only the group leader knows the route. Also, the 2nd rider has got to be really switched on which in my subsequent experiences they are invariably not and I’ve had it go wrong on me more than once because the rider drifted on and sent folk the wrong way.
Back to our ride to the Submarine Museum. If you go that sort of distance you’ve got to get there in a reasonable time so I used the M25 to the Dartford Crossing & picked up the A3 which bypasses Guildford over the Hogsback & picked up the A32 which is or was a brilliant biking road – much used by bikers on a Sunday and we stopped at the Little Chef at West Meon which is now a transport café. They were very good and pushed tables together so we could sit together as a group. I simply followed the road signs to the Submarine Museum. I have never used satnav in my life. I felt it was too much of a distraction. Maybe write a route down and stick it to the tank if I wasn’t sure.
Everyone seemed to have a good time so Dave said that was brilliant so where are we going next month Colin? I realised I’d started something. We always went to a proper destination not just a café like today. I would take a change of clothes so I didn’t have walk round in bike gear. Although Dave would put the destination in the newsletter so it was open to everyone the reality was there seemed to be a hard-core supporters club who would support it no matter where we went and what the weather. I asked Dave for suggestions and he said let’s go to Bath for a Bath bun! Hmm I thought I better ride that first one on my own to suss out a route (through the Cotswolds) and find somewhere we could all park up in Bath and again it went well.
I got Dave to put in the newsletter a New Years Day run but I’d planned for the usual number of bikes but this time there must have been 30 or 40 bikes and I thought what the hell do I do with this lot – my original plan clearly wouldn’t work. Roger Anderson also turned up and he said don’t worry we’ll split them up into little groups and send them on their way. That night I phoned him up & thanked him for his help and apologised for what I thought was a bit of a cock up on my part. His said don’t apologise, everyone had a brilliant time then added why don’t you come on the committee?
Well, I thought if this guy who co started it all thinks I have something to offer I’ll give it a go and I have to say that was maybe the best decision of my life because it was like joining another club. We met in different people’s houses although they never came to me because my front room isn’t big enough. So, when I went to my first committee meeting, he said have you kept a note of your mileage? Pardon? You don’t do this for nothing he said, you put in a claim for travelling expenses!
It was a very Police orientated club. Paul Roberts and Malcolm Avery were also on the committee and in the Met and together they crewed a Met Pol traffic unit out of Bow traffic garage. Paul was an examiner for RoSPA and Malcolm the same for the IAM along with Roger who when he retired was a Chief Inspector and Head of Traffic for Essex Police.
The committee became concerned about our relationship with Channels with all these bikes parked up on a Tuesday evening so Dave Gunning came up with what we all thought was a stroke of sheer genius – Why don’t we sponsor a golf competition? That went down very well with the management of Channels so we had a trophy made up and it became known as The EAMG High Low Aggregate Cup. Originally, we sponsored it to the tune of £100 and much later we raised it to £250 but that rang alarm bells with Channels. I’m not into golf but it turned out that there is a limit on how much amateur golf players can win in financial terms and so the Captain of Channels came to a club meeting. I pointed out to him that actually it wasn’t that generous because as a pairs competition there are 2 winners, 2 runners up, 2 third and an individual who had the best score who partnered the one with the worst plus we didn’t give them money but vouchers they could spend in the Pro shop. So, he went away satisfied and made it very clear how the club appreciated the gesture. It also gave us a certain amount of leverage with them. The worst part was trying to get someone to actually present the prizes because everyone is scared of making a speech. In reality they didn’t have to. So, to entice folk to do it we agreed that the club would pay for the member and partner to have Sunday lunch at the club’s expense. However, I’ve had to do it more than just a few times. The golf club members always made it very clear how much they appreciated what we did. Moving forward to the present day our “falling out” with Channels is maybe because it’s no longer a golf club but part of a massive housing estate.
Colin (centre) making a ZZR1100 look small.
It became obvious that Dave had had enough of being Secretary so I sort of under studied him and went to IAM meetings with him. At the subsequent AGM Paul Roberts was elected Chairman and I became Secretary. As Roger used to say – “Get involved, the more you put in the more you will get out. It was the best move I made on a personal basis. Job wise I’ve always been involved in the dairy industry and was sort of married to the job in that when I took a fortnight’s holiday it took me literally a week to switch off. It seemed every other day the IAM would chop down a forest with the amount of paperwork that came through my letter box. With all this admin to do my life changed when I got home and when I closed my van door work stayed in the van which was excellent. The role of Secretary also involved becoming Group Contact and taking enquiries from the general public. Apparently I gained a reputation for speaking my mind and years later when I became Vice Chairman I was asked by the Suffolk IAM bike group to give a talk to them. They had had a bust up and it was an EGM and my brief was to give a talk at the end so that everyone went away with a big smile on their faces. That wasn’t difficult because the IAM is a big joke to start with.
REMEMBER, I did warn you at the beginning. If that comment ruffles a few feathers I actually found it was pointless writing letters to the IAM but going to the IAM AGM at Chiswick was different altogether. I think they’ve moved somewhere else now. So I went to an AGM and raised several issues. Afterwards the elderly Chairman and his wife of an IAM car group came up to me and his wife said that was the most boring meeting I’ve ever been to until you started and that really put the cat among the pigeons and it became really interesting then. Others came up to me and said YOU ARE COMING NEXT YEAR AREN’T YOU! No way I have had a gut full of that lot.
The IAM would produce a list of all groups and they abbreviated us to: - ESSEX ADV. M/CYCLISTS. The story I related to the Suffolk Group was when I took phone calls from the general public one question I always asked was what sort of bike they had. Actually, I didn’t give a monkey what bike they had and I didn’t even write the answer down – it was a filter question. So when the reply was GSX whatever I knew it was a genuine enquiry.
It was when the phone went quiet at the other end the alarm bells started to ring so I would rip the page out of the pad, screw it up and hurl it down the hall waiting for the entertainment to begin. “But I haven’t got a motorbike”. Or-“Well I’m interested in the motoring”. I knew exactly what they meant but I acted all dumb and stupid. “So please explain since you’re interested in advanced driving in a car why you’ve phoned the Secretary of a motorcycle club”. One answer I got was –Well I read it as “Essex Advanced Motorists and Cyclists”. You couldn’t make it up, could you? You do wonder how these folk cope with road signs!
In my opinion one of the most memorable social rides was one organised by Paul Roberts and Malcolm Avery. Using their police contacts they arranged a visit to TRL or The Road Research Laboratory as it used to be called. They were doing research into Leg Protectors for bikers and Anti-Lock brakes for motorcycles. We met up at Brook Street where the M25 crosses the A12. Everyone kept their bike gear on because it was a bitterly cold and frosty morning. We didn’t know that Paul and Malcolm had also brought a load of their mates along from Bow traffic garage. I don’t know if you’ve watched a video of the Met Police Special Escort group that escort royalty etc. Well, it was a bit like that. We avoided the motorway and went A12, North Circular then M3. They used a couple of bikes to block junctions so we went all the way there without stopping at any road junction at all. Obviously, you couldn’t do it today with all the traffic cameras etc.
We had a lecture in a room and then went out to their massive skid pan where they had set up a bike with outriggers and the ability to switch the anti-lock on and off. Everyone had a try at braking without the antilock and the bike would tip on to the outriggers. Then we all tied it with the anti-lock switched on.
We had a member Kevin Armstrong who was in the USAF when Wethersfield was an American base. He’s not a pilot but in a unit called The Red Horse which is the civil engineering section of the US Air Force. He invited the club to the base a couple of times for 10 pin bowling which was a right laugh. When Kevin left us, he went to the first Gulf War building runways in the desert. One of my jobs on the committee was to collect the newsletters that hadn’t been picked up and post them out. I phoned Wethersfield and got a service address for him and kept posting the newsletter to him. I got the odd letter back but in June 1993 I received an envelope with a Henderson Nevada postmark. It was an invite to his wedding in Las Vegas. It took me all of 20 seconds to decide to go. Dave & Nicki were also invited and took their daughter Caroline. I’m eternally grateful to Kevin because it made me realise what a brilliant country it is. I’m not a fan of their cities but the National Parks and wide open spaces are absolutely brilliant. I’ve been back several times and keep in regular touch with Kevin. He has now retired from the Air Force but works as a civilian contractor for them basically doing his old job. He requested a posting to Ramstein AFB in Germany and I met up with him here last year when he visited the UK.
I was involved in an RTC in 2013 in the Cotswolds on my way to Bikers Retreat when an oncoming car whose elderly occupants it later transpired were looking for a picnic spot, saw a gap in the hedge on my side of the road and simply pulled across the road as if I didn’t exist. That resulted in a compound open fracture of the lower bones of my right leg and a two week stay in Frenchay hospital, Bristol which has now been demolished. Whilst I was there, I was absolutely amazed and very thankful when Geoff Preston and Mick Hewitt turned up on the ward on a really hot day to come and visit me, which must have been a really uncomfortable ride for them. The injury has also resulted in much reduced mobility of my right ankle joint which makes it impossible to use the bike’s rear brake.
As a result of the rear brake issue, I designed my own modification to get around that by using the back of my left hand as a hand operated rear brake. I have to admit I no longer ride motorcycles, partly as a result of the RTC I have issues with my legs which makes it difficult to push bikes around like when refuelling at a garage. However, a lot of my ex EAMG friends, many a lot younger than me have also stopped riding. A bicycle now satisfies my local transport needs which means I can no longer get to the monthly meetings. I’ve booked my place for the Christmas dinner since it’s about a 5 minute cycle ride for me!
