Thinking back to an early post....

Nearly 11 years ago back in 2011, I wrote a blog post HERE which attracted comment from well known US motorcycle author David Hough which lead to further posts and even a chapter in one of his motorcycle books.  The topic?  The impact of increasing age on motorcycling.  We discussed things we could do to safely extend one's riding career and whether we could recognise that it was perhaps time to do something else.  There are links to the wider discussion in that 2011 post.

Just before the time of the original post, I was 63 and not really planning to do anything massively different, just to keep riding pretty much the way I'd always done and keep fingers crossed.  The only nod towards getting older was to sell my heavy Honda Blackbird and buy a Street Triple.  However, the conversations with David prompted me to join the NZ branch of the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists to learn Police Roadcraft. That lead to what was genuinely the most enjoyable 10 years of a 58 year riding career, passing the Advanced Roadcraft Test, Observer (mentor) Test and ultimately becoming an Examiner.  It was a genuine shock to discover how little I knew about safe riding whilst making good progress before joining IAM.  Made lots of lifelong friends too.

IAM Observer duties on the Street Triple, circa 2014

The other thing which David Hough and I discussed was the need for a fallback interest for when we actually stop riding. That need applies to anything which has been a lifelong passion and even to retirement with little idea of how to spend your free time.  Making properly considered decisions about that can have a massive impact on one's mental and physical health.  I'm pleased to say that talking with family, close friends and even strangers plus lots of reading has given Jennie and I solid fallback interests in terms of voluntary work, travel, sea fishing and more recently, the purchase of a classic car.  With Covid limiting international travel in any meaningful sense for an extended period, the classic car was a locally-based fallback.  For the time being at least, I think we've got that side of the ageing equation reasonably well covered and David Hough deserves enormous credit for provoking some serious thought.  David and I still correspond and recently, he's also followed the same process by building a beautiful wooden rowing boat (a traditional wherry).

The KTM in 2021 - me at 74 and loving it!

So that's the medium term future reasonably well mapped with a few contingencies but what about now?  This month, I retire from IAM.  A combination of age and the relatively remote area where we live means that I don't want to spend 500km days in all weathers putting advanced riders through formal testing.  Totally comfortable with that.  Having been honoured with life membership of IAM means that I can ride with the membership on social occasions and also with other treasured friends which will help to keep standards up.  Although there are no immediate plans to stop riding, going through the future planning process has made me comfortable about making that decision with no regrets.  Another year will probably do it. No single fallback will replace riding but a combination of things should do the trick.  Ceasing the blog sort of falls into the same category.  Great fun but it's just about served its purpose.

After 6 weeks or so of owning the MGB GT, Jennie and I have been having a lot of fun exploring the Coromandel Peninsula backroads on short(ish) runs.  At present, I've been spending a fair bit of time underneath the thing greasing a myriad of grease nipples, lubricating the steering rack and having smelly old diff oil run down my arm to set up a proper maintenance schedule for the future.  The previous owner did a wonderful job of restoring the MG but he mainly used a local garage to do routine maintenance.  I use both words advisedly as to be honest, it looks like a lot of things were overlooked;  hence the preventive work being done at present.  To give another more succinct viewpoint, Jennie calls my diligence "pissing about in the garage".

Waitete Bay, Coromandel Peninsula.  Miles of nothing but sand and water

To end on an irreverent note, yesterday saw us make a 320km round trip to join fellow MG owners for the regional MG Owners Club Christmas lunch.  We're not big on large gatherings of people but being new to the club, it would be great to meet fellow members.  Crikey, except for another couple of people, we were the youngest there by some margin!  It was a weird feeling as among my motorcycling mates, I'm totally used to being the Old Fart.  A motorcycling friend (and ex-MG Roadster owner) remarked that it was lucky we were in the open air for much of the time as the smell of cabbage water and pee may have been overpowering indoors.  Irreverent indeed!  Mind you, the local organiser drily commented that he had to organise club events with pee stops for both sexes in mind.  I think we'll pass on taking part in those for a few more years! 

Alongside a 1952 MG TD and a late 50's MG Magnette

All that remains is to wish everyone all that you would wish for yourselves over the festive season and may 2022 be better for all of us than the last couple of years!

Motorcycle accidents - half-truths and lies?

On April 16th, I posted a piece about motorcycle safety in New Zealand.  I won't repeat it in detail as the article is here: Road Skills - what keeps you from harm?.

What I will summarise however is that:

Firstly, vehicle licensing costs for motorcyclists are due to rise substantially and the reason is likely based on either flawed/incompetent assumptions by public policy makers or even worse, a deliberate political agenda. This is bad enough but it does nothing to address the root causes of accidents, leaving motorcyclists still open to harm as well as being a waste of taxpayer money from probable inappropriate use of increased revenue.

Secondly, the protests and suggestions for safety improvements by NZ motorcyclists have apparently fallen on the deaf ears of public servants.

However, motorcyclists have found support from a prominent NZ academic, Professor Charley Lamb, Head of Business Management, Law and Marketing at Lincoln University.  Charley is also Director of the Australasian Institute of Motorcycle Studies (AIMS) Project. Using the same base data available to the public servants (including the police), he has dispelled the "myths" that public policy towards motorcyclists is being based on.  This research has only reached public domain the last few days so it's too early to tell whether the sh*t will hit the fan, or whether the research will be conveniently ignored.  He's off to the U.S at the end of the week to present his research there so keep your eyes peeled! I have a full copy of  Professor Lamb's research, plus his slide presentation and am happy to make it available on request (My contact email is under the blog profile).  However, I thought I'd attach a few of his summary slides to give some background and an indicator of the myths he has dispelled. (Click to enlarge) This is important for motorcyclists everywhere, particularly for public policy setting.  Incidentally, Professor Lamb's material is not inconsistent with UK research: Car Drivers’ Skills and Attitudes to Motorcycle Safety: A Review  and IAM Motorcycling Facts.

The following slides hopefully show NZ public policy is being based on flawed interpretations (or deliberate political connivance!) and that's a warning for us all.  The only major thing I'd like to add to Charley Lamb's recommendations is raising the level of compulsory training for car drivers and motorcyclists alike.  The standard of car driving in NZ is lamentably poor and most drivers seem to think that once they have a license, no further driver education is required.  Incidentally, the reference to "red mist" concerning the police in his recommendations is some recent pursuits which have gone badly wrong.  I'm a supporter of the police as they have an unenviable task but having said that, some recent pursuits have exposed some flaws in the system.

ADDENDUM
I might also add that whilst motorcyclists in NZ and elsewhere may be unfairly penalised by flawed policy, there's still a lot we can do to help ourselves.  The motorcycle community in general tend to be scornful of the lack of skill or situational awareness displayed by the average car driver.  That may be true but experience shows that there's an awful lot of riders out there who also display a lack of skill and improved situational awareness would also substantially improve the accident rate.   From a survey which American motorcycle author David Hough and I conducted, resistance to re-skill or upskill is widespread.  I put my money where my mouth was and enrolled with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and whilst I've been riding for 40+ years, the learnings since joining have been humbling and somewhat ego-denting too.  There are some later posts on my experiences - just type IAM or Institute of Advanced Motorists into the blog search engine.  Yes, we can moan about the "I didn't see you mentality" of many motorists, but it's entirely up to us to get off our backsides and improve our own roadcraft skill sets!

I hope that the slides  below provided by Prof. Lamb are of interest.

A slight lapse in behaviour....

The responsibilities which go with owning one of the fastest bikes in the world began to dawn with the realisation that serious harm, either to my person or to my wallet was likely to happen if I wasn't careful. I decided to enrol on an advanced course run by the ex-chief instructor for the Ministry of Transport. It was pretty stressful (not to mention ego-damaging) in places but it was also one of the best things I'd ever done as he picked up a few less than desirable habits and proceeded to work on them with me. The most outstanding part of the course and also the scariest, was learning high speed emergency braking skills. I had visions of going over the bars or following the 'bird down the road on my arse but he improved my technique to the extent I was braking so hard that my elbows and wrists were creaking and wedding tackle was being painfully squashed into the rear of the tank. As the instructor correctly pointed out, knowing how to brake properly from high speed may well make the difference between serious harm and walking away scot-free from a hazardous situation. The course undoubtedly changed the way I ride and observe the surrounding environment, very much for the better.

 Blissfully oblivious of what was about to happen......

Ahhh... with one exception, that is! There was one subsequent occasion when some monumental stupidity nearly lead to tragedy. A number of us were out for a ride and a friend had borrowed his daughter's little RGV150. At fuel stops, we'd play "tortoise and hare", sending him off a few minutes ahead and then chase him down. Along a straight in the countryside, we spotted him in the distance and decided to go past at warp speed, which we duly did. What we had neglected to remember was some very bad ripples in the road and at an awful lot above the legal speed limit, our mate was treated to the sight of a Hayabusa, a Blackbird and a GSX-R 1000 showing a lot of daylight under the tyres. Time slowed down into a series of freeze frames and there was no fear at that moment, just a feeling of regret that I'd buggered things up completely and that tomorrow was never going to come. However, the Hayabusa and Blackbird came back down arrow-straight with the slightest of shimmies but the GSX-R was all over the road trying to buck the rider off. After stopping shortly to scrape out our leathers, we let another mate on a Harley Davidson lead us home. A lucky let-off and a serious error of judgement on our part.

 The caption says it all!