Meet Your Committee – New Social Secretary Team
Sarah and Dave Duggan
An ‘old’ new face returned to the SAMM Committee following the November AGM. Dave Duggan was voted on in conjunction with his wife, Sarah, as the new Social Secretary team.
Dave is a longstanding, all seasons and weather biker. He is Advanced rider, Observer, Master and Master’s Mentor. He was our very effective SAMM Secretary for around 5 years before standing down for personal reasons.
Luckily for us, life is allowing them a little free time to return to the group in a formal capacity. In returning as the new Social Secretary, Dave brings added clout and experience in the form of his wife, Sarah, who joins as a SAMM Friend (with no voting rights).
A real power couple, they will bring their enthusiasm and experience to the group, organising various events to take place over the coming year. With four children and 7 grandchildren, they are well used to organising family weddings, parties and events as well as keeping track of everyday life. Now Sarah is semi-retired from her roles as Company Director and Secretary in their family company, she is happy to turn her talents towards the fun side of SAMM. As well as enjoying the grandchildren, Sarah enjoys the cinema, family history, theatre, collecting DM’s, anything purple and home crafting! Phew!
Mandy the Landy
The couple certainly also love their vehicles, with Sarah using her beloved VW T5, called Bob, as her everyday vehicle to ferry the little ones around. Meanwhile, Dave commutes to Wolverhampton for work at Collins Aerospace on various vehicles, including Mandy the Landy or his Triumph Explorer 1200. He also has a garage containing a Kawasaki GPZ900R and an Aprilla RSV1000R or a Mini Clubman to use if he’s feeling conventional.
Sarah’s Bob
NOW – a REQUEST FOR YOUR INPUT:
Although the team have some ideas already, they want to know what you, our members, would like to see go on the Social Calendar. Send ideas to me in the first instance, as the new IAM/ SAMM email has not been instigated yet on sallywarrentr7@aol.com and I will pass them on.
PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR THOUGHTS, a new calendar of events will be out soon!
Destination - Nordkapp 2023
John Lugg and Holly Steel
With winter gloom outside the window, it’s around now that Holly and I lift our spirits by planning our summer motorbike tour. Reflecting on ‘23s exploits, I thought I’d write an article for SAMM on our adventure through Scandinavia; now covered in snow, but great riding in the summer. If you are planning a tour this year it might be for you.
Holly and I (both SAMM Advanced riders) have been together a dozen years or more, both ex forces with a passion for motorbikes; especially touring. We’ve covered most of mainland Europe in that time, spending a lot of time navigating alpine passes and, where possible, staying away from tourist hotspots. Holly is former RAF, so roughing it by camping is out (chuckle), as such we make good use of booking.com to guarantee secure accommodation with a cancellation policy should our day’s plan go awry.
I survived 33 years as a Royal Marine. In the ‘80s/’90s our role was protection of the northern flank so every year would spend January through March in Norway with a Bergan on my back, somewhere in the mountains. I promised myself that one day I would revisit that spectacular country once the snow had receded. In ’23, the planets aligned, and we found ourselves with sufficient leave to have a crack at it.
I say sufficient leave because, since the loss of the Newcastle to Bergen ferry, any foray into Scandinavia is now a long-winded affair, requiring first
tackling a route across N Europe to get to your starting point and, once there, the daily mileage was planned against an 80kph speed limit (punitive fines for transgressing). We ended up planning a 23-day tour, linking in some overnight ferries to reduce the ridden mileage, already edging 5000 miles, and to get some holiday time.
PREPARATION
As with any tour, preparation is the key. Look at any YouTube clips of bikes in Scandinavia and you will see summer riding consisting of heatwaves, or torrential rain, or snow, or any daily combination of as we were travelling from south to north and back down again, we needed to plan on all conditions. We elected to use full textile suits with layering underneath which adequately dealt with the rainy days, the sweltering 32c days experienced down south, and the chilly 4c days up north.
When route planning, time/distance/ speed calculations will give you reach to a nightly destination, but that will only ever be best effort, you then need to add a further 2 hours to each day to account for traffic delays, changes in road surface (many are ripped up and re-laid in summer) and weather, leg stretches, photo opportunities, chats with other bikers, and enjoying the moment - you are on holiday, after all. Googling historic weather patterns and use of venue webcams enabled us to workout which routes would be snow free and viable, hence selection of late June as the earliest departure.
With such big mileage planned, both bikes were serviced and fresh rubber
fitted the week before we departed and a small spares/toolkit, puncture kit and powered inflator stashed on the GS. As recovery costs in Scandinavia are eyewatering we also took on breakdown insurance.
Spare gloves, visor cleaner, disc locks, camera, GoPro, chargers and leads, on top of biking and evening clothes meant a practice pack, repack and repack again; we finally got the weight/ volume down in the panniers on both bikes, with the top boxes kept spare for stowing helmets, water bottles and snacks.
THE TOUR
Departing 23 June our first leg was from Shropshire to Hull to catch the overnight ferry to Rotterdam, where we joined a load of other bikers in the car deck scramble; you get racked in fairly tightly. A quick change into civvies and then it was cold beer, dinner and a smooth crossing. On disembarking every single biker was breathalsed at passport control, a shock for a few. Our aim was to catch the Sunday noon ferry from Kiel so we pushed on to Delmenhorst, a satellite town of Bremen, leaving a relatively short hop to the docks on the Sunday. Easy riding on dual carriageways, but with heavy summer traffic in Holland and a delay due to an RTC, once into Germany and onto an unrestricted autobahn we were soon back on schedule. Schnitzel and glasses of dark beer rounded the day off.
Sunday saw us navigating the western ring road around Hamburg on route to Kiel, major road works, changes of direction, a confused GPS and speed
restrictions; glad we allowed loads of snag time for that leg. Boarding the ColorLine ferry at Kiel was painless as we once again joined a myriad of other bikers in car deck ‘Jenga’. Once at our cabin it was into shorts and t-shirts, cold beer and promenading as the ship made passage from Kiel. More like a mini cruise, the food onboard was excellent and loads of attractions to while away the time. Monday morning saw passage in a tight channel through the inner islands up to Oslo, very scenic and worth the cost of the ferry alone. By 10:00 tyres were on Norwegian soil, and we were off.
If you’ve not ridden/driven in Norway the route from Oslo docks is a bit of a shock, consisting of several tunnels that effectively bypass the city, spitting you out on the main E6 heading north. Heading north we jumped off route Ready to embark at Kiel JL
and stopped at the iconic ski jump in Lillehammer, the site of the winter Olympics. From there back onto the E6 to Frya Camp in Ringebu; an old Norwegian military base that I was stationed at for 3 winters, and now a campsite /bunkhouse. The new owner let us have a wander round and get some photos for mates back homethere’s now talk of a reunion there.
Late afternoon we left the E6 and headed 13km east up hairpins onto the Venabu plateau and our hotel for the night. The plateau was where we used to do survival and tactical training, above the tree line its pretty challenging in winter. The hotel was our safety rendezvous if things went wrong; I can vouch that it’s far nicer in summer drinking beer on the veranda!
The next day we continued heading east across the plateau and into Sweden and a 3-day ride heading north on a never ending ribbon of tarmac through forest and lakes. Single carriageway and just the two of us on largely traffic free roads (albeit, some unsurfaced); chilled, enjoyable riding punctuated by the daily noon cloudburst. We saw our first elk, big chap, thankfully it turned tail and lolloped off back into the woods, also our first reindeer in a small hamlet; indifferent to our presence, trotting down the road towards us. We were to see lots more roadside reindeer on the trip, especially early morning, where they appeared to be waiting in ambushes around bends - using limit of visibility and sight lines are crucial out here. We stopped overnight in Ostersund, a picturesque university town, and the next night Jokkmokk just above the Arctic Circle and the start of
midge territory. The final leg saw us nipping through a western extension of Finland before crossing back into Norway again. North Norway sees a stark change in scenery, the forests giving way to higher ground, exposed crags and weathered scrub.
We arrived at the town of Lakselv, within striking distance of Nordkapp, and our campsite late on Thursday afternoon to sunshine and the sight of reindeer sleeping on the site’s shoreline. We’d been travelling 7 days so, although a campsite, we’d booked a basic ensuite room in the main block that benefitted from a laundry and, for a fee, would knock up a breakfast. Friday was a rest day. Blue sky, 18c, t-shirt and shorts weather; cracked some admin and had a walk around the small town. Having spent a couple of quite punishing winters there it was an experience to swim in the fjord and sunbathe on the shore. That night we sat on the site’s veranda drinking beers and sharing stories with other bikers until late, as of course the sun doesn’t set this far north.
Saturday dawned overcast and cold. We pushed north following the coastline, a complete change to the forested scenery of the previous week. We passed rustic, red fisherman’s huts and large fish drying racks, floating salmon pens and the occasional small hamlet. An hour in, the cold soak (after 32c days down south) was starting to get the better of us, so we sheltered in one of the many extensive road tunnels and dug out the remains of our layers, and pressed on. The weather got progressively worse. As well as a biting wind it started to rain, and as we neared Nordkapp the rain gave way to a thick mist. Holly, tucked in behind the RTs fairing, seat and grips on full, was mocking me on the intercom - ‘Still want to be a GS rider?’
The climb onto the Nordkapp headland was hovering between 3 to 4 degrees C and enveloped in mist, it wasn’t until 50 metres out that we saw road’s end and the site’s entry booth. No charge if you aren’t using the visitor centre. Once we’d parked up it was race to the heated toilet portacabins for a quick warm up. Still wrapped up in layers we walked to the globe monument for the duty photographs; we’d arrived on the most northerly point of the journey on my 62nd birthday.
We didn’t hang about and for the first time on the trip headed south, our bearing for the next 2 weeks. You have to ride the reverse route to start with, but the weather and temperature were thankfully improving as the day wore on. After about 90 minutes we arrived at Olderfjord where there is a cracking cafe/roadhouse and a chance to properly warm up and bin some layers. It’s here that you finally peel off
onto a new route heading southwest to Alta, after first climbing, traversing and descending a large, desolate plateau. Arriving in Alta the sun was back out; we secured the bikes in the hotel’s underground car park and headed off for birthday beers - job done.
The next few days we followed the coastline south, cool but mainly dry, riding hairpin climbs into the snow line, stopping for photos, then steep descents back to the fjords edge. Days of amazing views, copious tunnels, bridges and mountain passes. We overnighted at Nordkjosbotn, at the base of Balsfjord and dined on reindeer stew- sorry Rudolf. The sun was up next morning so we took a detour north up to Tromso and rode over the bridge by the white cathedral and back, then rejoined our planned route south past old ‘deployment’ locations like Bardufoss, Setermoen, Bjerkvik, Evenes and Harstad. At our hotel in Evenes we hooked up with 3 German bikers who had little itinerary and were ‘winging’ it; our paths were to cross repeatedly over the next 5 days, great guys, if we saw each other en route we’d pull over and have a chat.
The next big tick for us was the Lofoten Islands and a change of pace. From Harstad they extend westwards out to sea. A day of inter fjord ferries, towering mountains, tunnels, awesome bridges and non-stop scenery. We rode to the extreme west and a little hamlet called A where we‘d booked a room for the night in an old fishing village, suspended on wooden piles above the sea. The first thing we see on arrival, the 3 German bikes. Cracking views, great fish dinner and an early night as we had to catch the 06:00 ferry back to
Sheltering in a tunnel on the way to Nordkapp JL 4
the mainland at Bodo. Out on the pier the next morning we met 2 bleary eyed German bikers packing their bikes for the short hop to the ferry at Moskenes, they didn’t have tickets but were chancing bike space; the third bike just made the dock before we sailed.
After a comfortable couple of hours and copious cups of coffee we arrived in Bodo in the rain, and the chill was back. The route south was now mainly inland with high plateaus and snow lines, we stopped at the Arctic Circle centre for photos and postcards, and another chance to warm up. Norway celebrates crossing the circle, but on our route north through Sweden we hadn’t realised we’d crossed it until we saw a local map that night in Jokkmokk.
That night we stopped at Mo i Rana, an old industrial town steeped in history. By now we had a good routine worked out. A beer or wine with dinner cost about £10 each, so we’d stop at a supermarket before arriving and get a 6 pack for a tenner for chilling after dinner. More climbs, descents, tunnels and vistas saw us arriving at Trondheim, in the rain of course. The next morning, we stopped off at the railway station at Hell. When I was last there, they used to have a passport stamp, unfortunately no more. A cool day’s riding saw us climbing more plateaus, dodging a few reindeer and dropping into Dombas to switch to a westerly route out to the coast and Andalsnes.
Up until now we had been blessed by a largely traffic free ride, but we were now entering the southern, more tourist centric parts of Norway and a greater concentration of doddering camper vans, and our first sightings for
nearly 2 weeks of UK number plates. We stopped for couple of days at an apartment complex in Bjorli, a winter ski resort that I’ve skied countless times. There were just 3 sets of guests in the whole complex, bliss.
Saturday dawned bright with blue sky and sunshine, so we set out on a 200 mile counterclockwise route to Andalsnes, Kristiansund, the bridges of the Atlantic Road, Molde, Andalsnes and the climb back up to Bjorli. A great day’s riding and yet more awesome scenery, albeit in tourist traffic much of the time. We struck up yet more conversations with locals queuing at ferry crossings, it became the norm for them to approach the bikes to share stories of their visits to the UK and to offer local advice or tips.
Sunday saw yet more sunshine and us again barreling down the descent towards Andalsnes before veering due south onto the back roads and climbing the Trollstigen or the Troll staircase. We aimed to stop at the bottom lay-by and take some photos of the hairpins, and there were our 3 German friends - “see you at the top”. European hairpins, while technical are fairly open, these are super sharp first gear switchbacks, steep and acutely cambered mid-bend. There’s no room for error on fully loaded bikes. A great ride up, passing the waterfall, and a few overtakes en route (labouring camper vans). We parked at the visitor centre at the top for photos, coffee and a catch up to find where the Germans had been since Thursday. As the tourist coaches had started to arrive, we headed off again.
From there we transited a number of mountain passes to Geiranger Fjord.
Top tip gained from a ferry queue, this area sells some of the best strawberries you’ll ever taste, the descent heading south from Trollstigen being littered with temporary stalls. The hairpin descent into Geiranger Fjord is great fun, but you are forever dodging tourist camper vans who just pull over without warning for photo opportunities, as massive cruise liners can be seen anchored at the base. The little town servicing the ships liberty boats was rammed, so we just pushed on. We were unprepared for the climb out to the south, it puts Trollstigen to shame, a raft of gnarly hairpins, it climbs from sea level onto the plateau in the snow line at 3500’- for me, the best ride of the tour. After a giddy descent and another couple of hours transit, we arrived at Stryn and our riverside hotel for the night.
The next day was a short blast south to Sognefjord (Norway’s largest) and yet another short ferry crossing. Along the route we came across Olden, an obscure place where cruise ships moor directly on the shoreline as the fjord is slab sided. If you have seen TV adverts for cruising Norway you’ve probably seen the place. Of course, we had to climb yet another mountainside to get over to the next fjord, cue yet more hairpins and a mothballed ski resort at the top. We hopped aboard the southbound ferry at Lavik, then traversed along the northern shoreline of Sognefjord on narrow lanes to a little campsite at Botnen (and the only language difficulty in the whole trip, but money talks), where we’d booked a small wooden cabin for a couple of nights. The weather wasn’t great but another chance to crack our admin,
enjoy the views and kick back and enjoy the tranquility.
Wednesday, we set off again, arriving in Bergen mid-morning, cruise ships everywhere, the place full of vocal, boisterous Americans, that we were doing our best to dodge on wet cobbled streets. We stopped for an hour for photos, grabbing the most expensive coffee of the trip from a street vendor and then pushed on; too crowded. The rest of the day was a series of climbs and descents, long, long tunnels including one with a roundabout in it before arriving at the base of the Hardanger; a massive plateau that I skied across in a week one winter. We hand railed the western edge of it to a small hamlet, staying in a very comfortable hillside hostel with incredible fjord views.
Thursday, our last day touring Norway and characterised by yet more climbs and descents, passes and plateaus. We continued along the western edge of the Hardanger stopping in Odda for fuel. Odda is where they filmed the Netflix Norse drama ‘Ragnarok’, the cafe has retained the sign from filming. From there we started to climb up onto the southern edge of the Hardanger,
Our cabin on Songefjord JL
passing tumbling waterfalls and raging rivers - so that’s where all the rain goes. We summited once again in the snow line, in rain and yet more mothballed ski resorts, it was quite challenging riding, with visibility waxing and waning before finally picking up a welcome long shallow descent to farmland. Next stop was Rjukan, the heavy water plant from the film Telemark Heroes. For any arctic commando this is very much a place of homage, I spent a month on skis training in the hills here in the early 80s and met one of the Norwegian commandos from the raid.
We were heading to the ferry port of Larvik, so had to climb out of the Rjukan valley over the Gaustatoppen, in yet another flurry of first and second gear hairpins and stunning scenery in fast improving weather. By late afternoon we arrived in the busy port of Larvik in sunshine and checked in. The hotel owner, noting we were on the ferry offered to put on an early breakfast for us and gave us the best route to the terminal, top bloke. We walked into town that night amid some sort of local celebrations, a great final night out in Norway.
Friday morning, we were 2 of only 3 bikes boarding for the ferry south to Hirtshals in Denmark, super quick, taking just 4 hours and comfortable. Then the shock. For almost 3 weeks we had been riding around at no more than 80 km/h, within a mile of the ferry we were on a Danish autoroute doing 130 km/h, the brain takes a bit of resetting. We dealt with the spine of Denmark in an afternoon stopping at Rendsburg on the Kiel Canal in Germany. A great stopover, with eateries along the canal where you can watch the passing ships.
The final day dawned dry and sunny (read sweltering after Norway) and was a 400 mile blur of high speed mile munching through Germany and Holland arriving at the terminal gates 30 minutes before boarding opened, great time management. Yes, and no. Norway’s rain clouds caught up with us, and we, along with a brace of other bikers sat astride our bikes in teeming rain and building wind waiting for the barrier to lift. As we slipped out of Rotterdam the wind had built into a howling gale, with the crests of waves being ripped off by the wind - more beer required.
So, we arrived back in Hull on Sunday morning and made our way down to the vehicle deck, one bike hadn’t survived, a Goldwing, at 45 degrees, lodged in the side of an SUV. An angry car owner and lots of ship’s officers in attendance. After an age getting dozens of bikes through passport control, we encountered the final rub of the trip. The road west along the Humber back to the A1 was closed and a detour was in place, but, designed by someone with a sense of humour. It was like a
comedy with dozens of touring bikes going this way and that, repeatedly passing each other in differing directions across the city; I think it took us an hour to get out of Hull.
WHAT DID WE LEARN….
Norway and Sweden can be toured cash free, even the most rural outposts have tap and go on the petrol pumps and stores, and some hotels are now totally cashless. We had a number of transaction-fee free cards spread between us to cover the trip, along with a small emergency stash of euros and krone.
If you are taking your car, the more populated Norwegian roads are controlled by pay-by-mile toll cameras, and you will need a reader in your windscreen; thankfully bikes are exempt all tolls. Petrol is widely available 24/7 including plentiful unmanned service areas, but it’s predictably expensive. Check the internet for recent prices as part of your planning. Norway and Sweden are great places to be an EV driver. Petrol stations all have chargers, and their billboards not only display prices of petrol and diesel, but also kWh (and it’s cheap). Even the smallest of car parks and remotest of areas have braces of chargers - no range anxiety here.
It’s also worth creating a ‘ferrypay.no’ account on your mobile phone for using the Norwegian inter-fjord ferries, these can cut miles and hours off journeys along the Norwegian coast. You simply ride aboard, as you pass the deckhand, he scans the number plates, and you get billed automatically to your account; you can load several VRNs to a single
account. Worth noting that on these internal ferries it is expected practice that motorcycles will move to the front of any queues to allow the deckhands to squeeze you into gaps.
Strapping Down. We are used to the Santander ferry, where bikes are stropped with pads and heavy-duty ratchet straps. This was available on the Hull/Rotterdam crossing, but not on the northern routes. The ships from Kiel (D) to Oslo (N), Lofoten to Bodo, and Larvik (N) to Hirtshals (DK) only had light 1 inch web straps with sprung thumb locks, and you are responsible for securing. You need to apply as much muscle and inventiveness as you can to secure your pride and joy. On the ride-on ride-off fjord ferries bikes aren’t stropped, ensure you are back at your bike to brace it before it gets to the other side, we had a couple of solid thumps on arriving!
Navigation. The journey was planned on Garmin Basecamp and transferred easily to the GS Navigator 6 and the BMW Connect App that Holly’s RT dash uses. The GS also has the Connect option on its TFT screen but only turn-by-turn, no mapping. A ‘whole of Scandinavia’ road map was stashed as back up.
Approaching the Arctic Circle heading north we encountered a rainstorm, coincidentally my Nav6 screen went dark, the route was still there but only about 10% brightness. I assumed water had gotten to the cradle. The screen was bright off the bike but dimmed on the cradle, no amount of tinkering would solve it - so used the Connect turn-by-turn as back up. Later in the trip we again crossed the Arctic
Rough roads JL
Circle southbound, and boom 100% brightness returned. Google it, it’s a Garmin trait - every day is a school day!
Reindeer on the beach JL
Circle K. There are lots of fuel retailers in Scandinavia, but one we came to trust was Circle K, at even the most rural outpost the filling station would have a small cafe and clean toilets, a haven for hot coffee on rainy or chilly days. In Sweden the snack of choice is cinnamon buns but move into Norway and its hot dogs of every flavour and description. Holly was hooked and we stopped at least once every day. Holly’s other note is that none of the ladies’ loos have jacket hooks on the toilet doors, a pain when you have trouser braces to deal with.
BACK HOME
So, there it is, 23 days and just under 5000 miles of great, incident free riding: IPSGA proving its worth. Awesome scenery, memories, and some challenging riding. All along the route we met friendly bikers of all nationalities, keen to share stories, routes and tips; us riders belong to a truly great fraternity. Scandinavia isn’t cheap, granted, but if you want an adventure amongst likeminded riders give it a go.
Driving, riding and living with a disability
Mike Jones
New Disability & Diversity Champion
Mike has been co-opted on to the SAMM Committee as the new Disability and Diversity Champion. This will formally be ratified at the next AGM. I was delighted to be able to include the article below:
Mike passed his driving test in 1982 at 17 years old and his motorcycle test in 2004.
Originally, Mike became an Advanced Rider with Les Slow. Brian Yates then became Mike’s Advanced car Observer and in 2022, Mike trained with Clive Tong to become an IAM RoadSmart car Observer himself, which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Here is more of Mike’s story:
In 2006, life changed for Mike. He suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage, which resulted in meningitis and hydrocephalus. Following surgery, despite problems with mobility and balance, he began to recover.
He says, “I had to have a shunt placed in my head. My balance and mobility were affected, but things were going well in recovery. I was never going to go back to work or resuming my hobbies of climbing and mountaineering, but I was still able to do a lot.”
recovered well enough, he had to apply for a DVLA re-assessment. This involved him trying out an adapted car to find out what modifications he would need on his own vehicles to enable the return of his licence.
Once his licence was reinstated, Mike initially swapped his motorcycle to ones with hand controls i.e. Dual brakes linked to front brakes and where the gears are modified to hand controls.
These bikes kept Mike riding until 2017 when he got a Can Am Spyder. The trike then gave him the stability he needed, whilst still keeping him on the road. Hence a whole new journey opened up for him.
“Adventure bikes had been my thing i.e., a Honda Africa Twin, but when things progressed medically, I needed more stability, so I moved to a trike.
Initially, Mike had to hand back his driving licence and, when he was
The Can-Am Spyder has 2 wheels at the front and a 1300cc Rotax triple engine
and, with modified hand controls fitted, the Spyder fitted the bill exactly”.
Although Mike thoroughly enjoyed riding the Spyder under his own auspices, he felt the need to become the best rider he could, and so he sourced an Advanced Rider course from SAMM and IAM RS.
Following a conversation with Paul Collyer, SAMM’s Chief Bike Observer, Mike was given Les Slow
as his Observer. The three of them collaborated in a very ‘can-do way’ and led to Mike being the first Associate to take an Advanced Rider course on a Trike.
Mike is very complimentary about the standard of his training he received over the winter of 2017/18 with Les – ‘A top bloke’, as Mike says!
rideouts with Mike, I can confirm that he certainly always got the best out of his trike!
A decade after the original problem, things unfortunately took a downward turn for Mike.
“Things went ‘pear-shaped’ in 2016. Complications from the original haemorrhage resulted in a rare progressive condition, which means I’m seizing up. My balance and mobility are decreasing, and I now spend my time in a wheelchair’.
Unfortunately, Mike had his last ride earlier in 2023 as, ‘The getting on and off, getting ready etc., had become too much, but I had a great last ride to Devil’s Bridge and the Elan Valley!”
Mike now drives an adapted car with hand controls, which also has a hoist fitted at the rear for his electric wheelchair. He hopes to adapt his car further.
So, how did joining IAM RoadSmart help? ‘In many ways’, says Mike:
“The Advanced Course, whether for motorcycle or car, is great because it taught me new skills and techniques which I feel made me safer. The people who helped and taught me were excellent, giving good advice at a pace to suit me.
have been actively involved in our local group. I used to go on the monthly ride out which was always enjoyable, being well planned and meant I found new places and roads.”
Mike highly recommends both the Advanced Rider & Driver IAM
RoadSmart courses that SAMM provide.
As Mike says, “If you drive or ride with any form of disability, then doing the Advanced course will improve your skills and techniques and make both much more enjoyable as a result. You will come across excellent people at SAMM and IAMRS who WANT you to succeed.
he can no longer get safely in or out of other people’s cars, he had an excellent success in helping Matt Camm pass his Advanced Driving test. Matt is severely dyslexic, but he is another excellent example of not allowing life’s challenges to hold him back. They were both delighted with the result and show how SAMM can work around physical and hidden disabilities.
So, what of the future? Well, Mike is now working with IAM RoadSmart’s Chief Examiner Richard Gladman, to help develop policies and protocols around disability and the Advanced course at a local and national level.
Even better – from SAMM’s point of view, Mike has recently joined the Committee in the role of Disability and Diversity Champion. This is a brandnew role with no precedent for Mike or the committee to follow, so it will be a case of developing it as we go.
Our first aim is to be able to promote SAMM’s ability and willingness to provide an Advanced course to those who may feel that their ‘disability’ –seen or unseen - would preclude them becoming an advanced Rider/Driver. Having an adapted bike or car or other issues, will not be a reason to stop people taking up our courses.
Passing with a F1RST from examiner Tony Smalley on a chilly February day in 2018, Mike was, ‘Overjoyed, to say the least!’ and having been on SAMM social
I progressed to become an Observer because I wanted to give something back and in doing so, helping others. I
Being disabled does not mean you need to miss out on such a great course. You have the opportunity to become an Advanced Driver or Rider - just like everyone else!”
Just before Mike stepped down from being an IAM RoadSmart Observer, as
This will start to happen at the April Bike4Life Festival, where Mike is planning to join the other SAMM ambassadors on the MDU to promote this new and exciting new development for the group.
Mike Jones/Sally Warren
Mike Jones & Matt Camm
