Club Night - 12th April Eastham Ferry Hotel Ferry Road Eastham CH62 0AU
Issue No 214
April 2016
W I R R A L A D VA N C E D M O TO R C Y C L I S T S Group Council 2015-2016 Web Site
IAM Group 5115 http://www.w-a-m.co.uk
Chairman
Tim Brown
chairman@w-a-m.co.uk
Vice Chairman
Ken Smith
vicechairman@w-a-m.co.uk
Honorary Treasurer
Tim Holme
treasurer@w-a-m.co.uk
Membership
Nina Jeffries
membership@w-a-m.co.uk
Associate Coordinator
Derek Jeffries
associatecoordinator@w-a-m.co.uk
Chief Observer
Mike Boston
chiefobserver@w-a-m.co.uk
Honorary Secretary
Rob Cooper 0151 648 4503
secretary@w-a-m.co.uk
Events Organiser
Dave Spotswood events@w-a-m.co.uk
Newsletter Editor & WebMeister
Peter Lovatt
newsletter@w-a-m.co.uk
Minute Secretary & Social Media
Steve Lord
socialmedia@w-a-m.co.uk
Group Shop
Martin Titley 0151 632 3570
groupshop@w-a-m.co.uk
Gift Aid Coordinator
Tim Holme
giftaid@w-a-m.co.uk
Ride Out Coordinator
Rob Tutchings
rideouts@w-a-m.co.uk
Other Council members Lindsay Boston Carl Mason Cliff Evans Graeme Thow
MAGAZINE TEAM:
CONTACT WAM
Editor: Peter Lovatt
Rob Cooper Coopers Upholstery The Old Bank Everton Valley Liverpool L5 0RH
Duplication: C3 Imaging, Liverpool Distribution: The Post Office! 2
Welcome to the April edition of the WAM magazine. It’s getting a bit busy now at this time of year as people dust down their leathers, oil their chains /top up their differentials (delete as appropriate) blow up their rubber (no not the kinky stuff!!) but tyres – those two funny round black things that go round and round. The Skills for Life Course is now getting underway (at the time of typing this up), and we have had the Observer Day on the 5th March. There are also ride outs planned, and some other activities too. March Club night has just gone, and a big thank you to Gail Biddulph for a very interesting presentation about her trials and tribulations of trying to ride around the coast of the UK. She gave her talk to a packed house of WAM members. Also there was Staffordshire Blood Bikes who gave a brief talk about what they do too.
So what about this month—April? All being well, we should have Mark Lewis IAM Director of Standards - along for a talk about all things IAM. So please turn up as it promises to be a informative evening. But before I go, here is a pic from the Observer day, and a special Thank You from WAM to David Dixon for helping out the Observers during their national observing. Ride Safe Pete
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Tim gives a run down about observing at the January Club night
Francis Lawlor receives his IAM Test Pass Certificate from Chairman Tim
And also Derek Horton receives his too, from Tim
Well done to both!!
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Gail Biddulph gives an entertaining and informative talk at the March Club night
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Some of the slides from Gail’s talk. Note the route directions below. A future club run perhaps?
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WIRRAL ADVANCED MOTORCYCLISTS
Diary of Events www.w-a-m.co.uk *************************
April
12th Club Night - Mark Lewis IAM Director of Operations *************************
This is the link for the WAM Official Forum, set up for Members of Wirral Advanced Motorcyclists ONLY. It is a forum for Associates, Observers, and members of WAM to discuss Official Group Rides out, riding techniques, FLC matters, and similar topics. To join you MUST give your name and Postcode when you Subscribe. Group name: WAMOfficialForum Group home page: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/WAMOfficialForum Subscribe: to subscribe to the group send a BLANK email to WAMOfficialForum-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk Unsubscribe: to UNsubscribe to the group send a BLANK email to WAMOfficialForum-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk Once your submission has been approved, you can then post emails.
WAM Dates
FLC 1 starting the following week on the 12th March to 23rd April FLC 2 is 4th June to 9th July FLC 3 is 4th September to 15th October Proposed official ride out dates - subject to confirmation Sunday 1st May, Sunday 24th July, Sunday 28th August and Sunday 23rd October. S unday 1st May is a joint WAM and Chester Motorrad ride out (provisional - to be confirmed) Bikesafe dates April 2nd/3rd, May 21st/22nd, June 18th/19th, July 16th/17th, August 20th/21st, September 10th/11th, October 8th/9th 11
Chairman's Report 2015
The Group is about to start its 37th year as an affiliate of the Institute of Advanced Motorists or, as we now call it, ‘the IAM’. This is the second report I have presented as Chairman of WAM and one thing for certain is that the last year passed very quickly for me. We can’t all attend every event or know everything that the Group does, so I’ll do my best to provide a summary of most, if not all events over the last twelve months, review the Skill for Life courses, give thanks to many, and provide a look forward to the next twelve months. Firstly, a big thank you to the members of the 2015 Group Council for their tireless efforts for the general good of the Group. I would like to name and thank individually… Tim Brown – Group Chair Rob Cooper – Group Secretary Lindsay Boston – Group Treasurer Ken Smith – Vice Chair (for sitting-in during my absence) Mike Boston – Chief Observer Rob D’Cruze – Associate Coordinator and Gift Aid Administrator Rob Tutchings – Official Rides Coordinator Pete Lovatt – Newsletter editor & production and WAM Website & Forums Martin Titley – Newsletter production and raffles Steve Lord – for taking the meeting minutes Dave Spotswood – for organising social events for the Group and Cliff Evans, Carl Mason, Nicole Mason and Graeme Thow for their input, ideas and general support. Through the Last Year Here is a selection of events. February – The AGM was held on club night. Earlier in the month WAM social event organiser Dave Spotswood persuaded a group of WAMmers to go on a Shiverpool tour in Liverpool. Great fun was had by all, but especially “Degsy” who enjoyed the extra attention. March – There was a good attendance at the Observer Training Day that started with a presentation at Cheshire Lines, followed by on-road practise and ending with a round-up here at Eastham Ferry. The first SfL course of 2015 got underway and the gazebo made its first appearance of the year at the unofficial Egg Run (thanks to Steve Lord, Derek & Non Jeffries and Pete Lovatt and others for supporting WAM on the day). Geraint Hughes of Dragon Tours (also an IAM examiner) gave a first-class presentation entitled Reading the Road. April – The SfL course continued along with on-going observer training sessions. May – WAM’s gazebo was in action again this time at the Irby bike show. Thanks to those who came along to wave the WAM-flag. Our very own Nina Jeffries made a guest appearance at CMC bike shop in Chesterfield – it was a ‘ladies day’ and their local IAM group needed some help. June – Club night – we were shown the Moto-air airbag jacket for motorcyclists. 12
Modelled by Steve Lord, this proved to be an interesting and entertaining evening. The IAM supported Manchester 500 Group at Manchester Bike Show with additional help from other regional groups including WAM – thanks to Ken Smith, Nina & Derek Jeffries. July – well of course it was the annual WAM BBQ or sausage-and-burger road safety event as its otherwise known. It was very well attended with guests from other groups and examiners too. Well done Dave Spotswood for organising the event and manning the BBQ. August – While resting from observed rides, there was time for the Trip to Scotland. Organised by Derek & Nina Jeffries, 14 intrepid riders ventured across the border and had a terrific time, amongst mixed weather – but it is Scotland, after all. September – we held a social evening. October – Mr Chris Givvons, the IAM examiner, came and gave his popular ‘turn’ at the club social night. November – Rob Cooper provided an entertaining evening with his quiz night. December – the annual WAM trip to Motorcycle Live saw a coach-load of Wirral riders make their wat to the NEC for day of fun and with everything motorcycling. Thank you to Derek & Nina for organising the trip so efficiently. The Christmas meal was well attended again with over 50 enjoying the Christmas Fayre [here] at the Eastham Ferry. Thanks go to Dave Spotswood & Nina Jeffries for managing the booking and ensuring we all ‘remembered’ what we’d ordered. Here I’d like to mention the management & staff at the Eastham Ferry for looking after us so well and throughout the year for providing the function room for our meetings at no cost. Now, you may have noticed that I have not mentioned our Official Rides through the year; well, this is where I would like to invite our Ride-out Coordinator, Rob Tutchings to give you a quick review of last year’s rides. Skill for Life Courses We’ve been delivering the Skill for Life through our six-week Fixed Length Course or FLC for short. However, the length of the course has varied from six to as many as nine weeks for a variety of reasons – consequently it’s been known as the variable, fixed length course. Well, we’ve have now renamed the course Skill for Life or SfL for short, to align with the IAM. We had 16 new associates enrol during the year, who joined a few existing associates across the Spring, Summer and Autumn courses. I am pleased to report that 17 passed the Skill for Life test, including one F1RST and I am sure you’ll join me in applauding their joint success. It is here that I’d like to thank Rob D’Cruze for being our Associate Coordinator for 2015. Observing This leads me on to the observers within our Group. We have 30 registered observers in the group. The IMI program of observer development to Local and National observer status is progressing well at a national level, with around 60% of all observers attaining the standard or undergoing training. Within WAM, we have 9 National Observers 13
and 3 Local Observers – well above the regional average. Our National Observers are: Mike Boston, Derek Jeffries, Ken Smith, Tim Brown, Steve Lord, Ian Roberts, Colin Jones, Cliff Evans, John Tuer. LO: George Pearson, Nina Jeffries, Dave Rees. Delivery of the Skill for Life courses is made possible by all of our dedicated observers, who give their time at weekends and some weekdays too. WAM is offering all group and senior observers training sessions to help adapt to the new methods needed to satisfy the IMI standards. I am confident that all of our observers will satisfy either the Local or National IMI standard over the next two years. Radios We will be introducing the use of radios to assist when observing associates on the road. The IAM has a Radio Skills Competency Framework to help us with training users. I would like to thank observer Carl Mason for taking a day off work to attend a training session with the IAM’s Regional Quality Manager, Peter Serhatlic where Carl was approved as the Group’s radio trainer. We’ll be investing in portable radio kits and introducing them over the next few months, ready for use on SfL 2. Social Media WAM needs to increase its contact with the general public and, in particular, a younger audience. Thanks to Nicole Mason for establishing the Group’s Facebook page and Pete Lovatt for getting things started with Twitter. Steve Lord has kindly offered to manage our Social Media. Look out for more information in your newsletter. Facebook is the shop-window for WAM and is used to publicise the Group. Twitter is a media that used for ‘live’ information and discussion and is aimed and getting people involved. We're currently using the WAM Official Group Forum as a closed forum for members only. There you can see posts about most matters to do with WAM and it's a simple and single-place to disseminate information. If you've not registered, I would encourage you to do so; it's free service hosted by yahoo, and you control where and when you receive notifications. Membership Thanks to Nina Jeffries our membership secretary for looking after things. Membership now stands at 116 with 8 associates, so we have a small increase from the previous year. BikeSafe The Group continues to support this initiative by the Merseyside Police and Road Safety Unit. There were seven courses between April and September with 78 attendees out of a capacity of 90. Thanks goes to the WAM observers who help over six weekends through the year and to Rob Tutchings for coordinating everything. This relationship brings riders directly to the Group, doing what is intended by 14
bridging-the-gap to post-test training. 2016 dates have been posted on the WAM website, so please contact Rob if you can help with observing. The IAM Let us not forget, WAM is one of over 200 local groups affiliated to the Institute of Advanced Motorists – or as we refer to it, the IAM – which is a charity that supports the raising of driving and riding standards, and campaigns for increased on-road skills. Back in February 2015, the IAM appointed a new chief executive, Sarah Sillars and a new chairman of the trustees, Ken Kier. Both come from leading positions in the motor industry. In addition, Mark Lewis is the new Director of Standards. Mark Lewis will be our guest speaker at the April club night. The IAM National Conference was held in October, where all of them participated in the workshops with representatives from the local groups. I attended along with Derek Jeffries (who I’d like to thank for being my chauffeur for that day). It was clear at the conference that they bring strong leadership to the organisation as it modernises throughout. If you don’t already know, the IAM celebrates its 60th anniversary this year – and there will be a party for members to mark the occasion. The date for your diary is the 2nd of July for the Bike Celebration, taking place at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. More details will be revealed in the coming months. Looking Forward - 2016 We continue with our offering of Skill for Life but we need to promote the Group to a wider audience. This could be achieved by attending events where motorcyclists may visit; remember that isn’t necessarily an event specifically for motorcycles. If you have suggestions, please speak to one of the members of the Council. We have invested in a new gazebo, banners, promotional material and leaflets. We need help from you, our members, when we attend an event as WAM. Come along and support your group, just for a few hours. Our promotional offer for Younger Riders has been extended into 2016. This offers riders who are “30 and under” to complete the SfL Course for half-price at just £75. I’d like to thank Dave Rees in his capacity as Road Safety Manager for Wirral for providing half of the funding for the offer. We have a selection of WAM leaflets available – these need to be distributed to be effective. I’d like to ask you all to ensure you have a leaflet or WAM business card with you when you’re out and about, so we don’t miss an opportunity to attract a new member. I do hope I’ve not missed thanking anyone but if I have, thank you for your contribution to the Group, and thank you to all of our members for supporting WAM in its endeavours. Safe riding everyone. Tim Brown – Group Chair Wirral Advanced Motorcyclists February 9th, 2016 15
DISCLAIMER:-
The articles published herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute of Advanced Motorists Ltd, or the Wirral Group of Advanced Motorcyclists. They are the opinions of individual contributors and are published with the view that free expression promotes discussion and interests. So you have been warned. Interested in doing the Advanced Car Test? Wirral Advanced Motorists are the people to see. Go to www.wirraliam.co.uk