Wow, is it September already? Summer appeared short-lived, and it does seem that when going out for a ride I now reach for the mid-season gloves and Rukka gear, rather than the summer jacket and bike jeans. Yes, Autumn is now officially upon us.

I do hope that many of you were able to get away, relax and enjoy yourselves during this second strange summer we have experienced and perhaps found new parts of the country on your motorcycle. It seems that many have headed north to Scotland to do the North Coast 500 and of course across to Wales to play on arguably some of the best roads in the UK.

August saw a return to St. Crispin’s with a record number of you in attendance and how great it was to be a part of it, seeing so many happy faces, old friends and a whole host of new ones. Over 100 new members have joined in the 17 months since we were last able to meet together in our monthly Club meeting.

Officially there were 315 bikes at St Crispin’s, smashing the previous Club record of 290 in August 2017. What a great job all the teams did to ensure that so many new people were welcomed warmly. A huge thank you to the local teams who arranged rides into St. Crispin’s for new members and Associates, the Meet & Greet Team, Red Badge Zone and others who helped people move around the school to ensure they got to where they were meant to be throughout the morning. What a great job Amanda did of allocating Associates to Observers to enable everyone that wanted an observed ride to get one. I do not think I’ve ever seen the stage so packed. Thank you also to all of our helpers on the tea bar that kept us going throughout the morning. There were people out there that believed St Crispin’s was a myth, yes you Mr Boulter, however that was well and truly put to bed with such a great attendance.

So, as we say goodbye to summer, it doesn’t mean that we must hang up our helmets and gloves just yet. After three previous cancellations, the 40th edition of 7Ws is about to take place. In just a week’s time about 80 members of the Club will be heading to the Commodore Hotel in Llandrindod Wells for this long-awaited event. It’s been two years since the 39th running of the event and it is shaping up to be an amazing weekend for all that attend.

Over the last month we have seen three training runs, organised by CLAMS, RAMS & WOBMOB as well as the return of the Advanced Bike Control course at RAF Odiham. Thanks to everyone that worked to put those events on for the membership.

If any of you are planning a social ride, don’t forget to send it out on Groups.io and contact Salli, our editor, so she can get it into Slipstream to advertise it.

I’m off on my hols now, so won’t be seeing you this month (stop cheering). Have fun and stay safe and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in October.

Barrie Smith

Chairman

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had been looking forward to welcoming you all back to St Crispin’s this month. I even had a loose plan of the sort of message I would write to welcome in such a return after a year and a quarter. It went something along the lines of “what a fantastic month to return to regular meetings at St Crispin’s, with long, bright days and good temperatures, what better time for us all to return to the roads for fun and socialising”…

The reality was that Boris’ worst kept secret came as little surprise when he announced on the 21st of June that the final step out of lockdown would be delayed until 19th July. Clearly this was a setback for many people, and I certainly do not want to make light of the additional pain that this further delay will have caused many personally and in business, and July St Crispin’s plans became another victim of this cruel pandemic. Back to the 9am virtual St Crispin’s for this month again, excellently hosted by Andy Wedge and lead by Chris Brownlee, to announce the now increasing number of test passes for the month and others in the Club that have gone on to become Trainee and Full Observers. The virtual masses duly applauding each achievement as we would have should they have been stood on the stage, in the main hall, at St. Crispin’s. Fingers crossed that news is better for August and we can all meet in reality, even if that means respectful social distancing of some description.

Since being allowed to carry out peer review rides from the end of March, and Observed Rides from mid-April, our Full Members, Observer’s and Associates have been working extremely hard to get themselves back ‘rider fit’ and comfortable in the saddle. Well done to everyone for putting the effort in to getting themselves and others back to the standard they were at before lockdown and indeed pushing forward in their development.

In early May, I had the opportunity to have a peer review ride with Andy Slater, our previous Chair, and Shaun Cronin, our IAM Regional Service Delivery Manager. Andy and I were due our National Observer Revalidations and Andy was due his Masters Mentor revalidation. I am not going to say too much here, as you can read for yourselves Andy’s article detailing the day in the coming pages, other than to say that it was a fantastic day’s riding that saw me cover about 250 miles across six counties. Those of you that have ridden with me know that I am not generally shy when it comes to overtaking, however, Shaun showed me how I can further enhance my opportunities to develop overtakes sooner and it has certainly made a difference.

Before I let you go and get reading the real articles in this month’s Slipstream, I just want to give another shout out to various teams that have done such a great job with many of our courses both virtually and physically where the rules enable. I have mentioned previously the great work that Di Woodcock and her Bike Craft team have done in delivering three online courses so far this year. I also want to say a big thank you to Issy Griffiths, Alan Mossman and their team that have delivered a successful Run Leader Back Marker course and also had a session with the RLBM mentors to ensure we have a new raft of run leaders and back markers coming forward. Just before sitting down to write this, I was at St Crispin’s with Si Rawlins and his team to deliver the slow riding course to twelve members and associates, as well as three new Trainee Observers. This is the third course that has been delivered since lockdown and we will have probably had the fourth by the time you read this. Well done Si and the team. Finally, I also want to thank Andy Wedge and the Training Team for continuing to deliver the Core Skills Day’s, for three candidates at a time, to continue to grow the Observer Core.

More courses will be coming back on line as the last restrictions are lifted, so look out for the weekly calendar updates and items advertised in Slipstream for your chance to get on them to further develop your skills.

I really hope to see as many of you as possible at St. Crispin’s in August.

Have fun and stay safe everyone.

Barrie Smith

Chairman

The last 12 months have been incredibly difficult for all of us, with most of us unable to meet with family and friends and do the things that we label as ‘normal’ in our lives. Like many of you, motorcycling to me is not just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle that when removed, leaves a huge void.

The TVAM year started in November and so we are now halfway through our current year. Realising that got me thinking about what we have been able to achieve in the first six months, given that much of that time has been spent in lockdown.

So I thought that I would share a few stats with you that will hopefully give you all a picture of how the Club is doing. At the time of writing this, we have a total membership of 1045, of which 237 are Associates. At the same point 12 months ago we had 1054 members so are slightly down, by 9 members. Between the beginning of November and the end of April, we have attracted 43 new members. 10 of these joined in March and another 15 in April.

Taster rides appear to be a very successful way of recruiting new members. There have been 35 taster ride requests since the beginning of November, 11 of those being in March and another 11 so far in April. Most of these have been allocated, and many completed, so a huge thanks to all the Observers that have found the time to take out members of the public and tell them more about the Club. Seven people that have completed taster rides since November have gone on to join the Club and this is a figure that we expect to increase from the latest group to go out. I have been lucky enough to meet a couple of our new members through the social group Zoom meetings that have been happening regularly whilst we have been unable to actually meet up.

Test passes so far this year sit at 7. Of these, 4 were in November and 3 in December. IAM RoadSmart suspended all tests between January and early April which is why figures are currently lower than usual.

The Events Team has been putting on regular seminars over Zoom. By the time you read this, we will have hosted three excellent seminars: One from Steph Jeavons, talking about her trip around the world on a motorcycle; Motolegends, talking about the different equipment that’s out there; and Kevin Williams, talking about the science of being seen on a motorcycle. These events have been extremely well attended by members and many more are planned throughout the remainder of the year.

Communications within the Club are extremely important. We have 1004 members registered on Groups.io and 541 messages were posted from 126 individual posters in March alone. Our new website, which is far more customer facing than the previous one, received 5,049 page views from 1,757 unique visitors. Our Social Media Team is also working hard on promoting the Club via Facebook and Instagram.

So, considering that for four out of the first six months of the TVAM year we have been in lockdown, the figures above would suggest that we’re still doing very well as a Club. In the next few weeks, we’re going to see far more of the ‘normal’ Club activities being allowed, like Observed Rides, Social Rides, X-Checks, Observer Assessments and it’s even rumoured that we may be able to meet in the not too distance future at St Crispin’s.

I really hope to be seeing many of you out on the road soon..

Barrie Smith

Chairman

Welcome to my first ‘From The Chair’ piece. As I take over the reins from Andy Slater, I’d like to say a huge thank you to him for all of the years of service that he has given to the Committee. Andy’s achievements have been an inspiration to me and I hope that I can continue to steer the Club in a forward thinking manner for the benefit of all.

One of the Committee’s aims for 2021 is that we become more visible to you. We are Club members too, the only difference is that we have offered our services to a role in the Club that will benefit everyone. Whilst we can’t meet you face to face at St Crispin’s just yet we can see you within your social groups at your virtual meetings and allow you and us to put the faces to the names. I thought therefore that I would take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and my journey in motorcycling.

Like a lot of teenagers, I started my riding career messing around off road as a kid on old bikes that my mates had cobbled together. Safety was of no real importance as we messed about in the fields around my home. In March 1986 I progressed to riding as a learner in London, (where I worked) and Kent, where I returned at weekends on my Honda Superdream. Training was limited in those days and the words, “Here are the keys, good luck”, were all that you needed to be allowed onto the road as a learner rider. I passed my full motorcycle competency test in October 1986 and I have had a bike ever since, riding as often as possible.

My introduction to the IAM, and subsequently TVAM, was whilst working my day job as a designer in the late 1990’s. I was involved in the design of the IAM’s Headquarters in Chiswick, under the watchful eye of Christopher Bullock who was the CEO at the time. I used to ride into Chiswick once a week for design meetings with Christopher and his team. At the official opening of the building, in 2001, Christopher awarded me with a Skills for Life Package and his words, “You have the best IAM bike club on your doorstep and you should join them and take your advance test.”

It was four years later, in 2005, with the voucher expired, that I finally walked through the doors of St Crispin’s. I went to an open day in May of that year, where I met Andy Hunter. We had a short chat and then went out for an observed ride. I was immediately hooked by the professionalism and friendliness of the club and signed up that day. Simon Whatley was my Observer and guided me through to my X-Check with Steve Huckins. I went on to pass my IAM test in February 2006.

I started on the programme of becoming a Trainee

Observer (TOb) immediately, only having to set that aside as I started my own business and didn’t have the time             to commit. I went back to that in 2012, gaining my gold badge in 2013. As a sideline, I became a down-trained CBT Instructor in 2010 for a friend’s motorcycle school in Surrey. In 2018 I set myself three targets to develop myself. First, I took and passed my National Observer assessment. Second, I joined the Training Team. Third, I became a fully qualified DVSA CBT and DAS instructor after assessment at Cardington.

Last year, in all of the negativity of the pandemic, a new opportunity arose of becoming Chair of TVAM for which I thank you all for your votes at the AGM in January this year.

So that’s a little bit about me. My journey has been progressive, developed over many years, and it’s one that I have genuinely enjoyed. There’s nothing like riding and socialising with other motorcyclists and I look forward to, later this year, riding with and meeting as many of you as possible.

Have fun and stay safe everyone.

Barrie Smith

Chairman