3rd August 2007

HBAMs WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

CONTENTS & Quick Jump

1. EXTRA RIDE

2. CHANGE OF START!!

3. RIDE LEADERS & TEC WANTED

4. OBSERVER CORNER

5. TEST PASSES

6. 'INTERESTING' WEBSITES

7. HAVE YOU IMPROVED?

8. TRADE CORNER

RIDES

CALENDAR

WHERE WE MEET

CONTACTS/EMAIL ADDRESSES

1. EXTRA RIDE, SUNDAY 5th Aug

Don't forget that...

Bernie (TEC-ed by Kit) is leading an extra All Abilities Ride to Gaydon (between Banbury & Leamington Spa).

Leaving Baldock Sunday (5^th) @ 9.30am sharp, which means you need to be there at no later than 9.15 to hear the brief & the plan for the day.

As well as the Honda festival

http://www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/MungoBlobs/Honda%20Festival%20FlyerV3,0.pdf

at the Heritage Motor centre at Gaydon, there is also a BMW car festival (details below)

http://www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/events/bmwfest2007.html

BMW Festival - Sunday 5 August 2007

THE LARGEST GATHERING OF BMWs IN THE WORLD!

This Festival brings together BMW enthusiasts from across the UK to see all the BMWs on display and visit many trade stands.

Visitors will be able to have use of the Aston Martin Test Track, there will be a HUGE raffle and an open Show & Shine competition will be just some of the many attractions for enthusiasts and their families.

Tickets are £8 in advance from the BMW Car Club 01225 709009.

the £8 entrance fee give access to both events as well as the museum.....Bargain

Any questions please contact Bernie direct on berniemcfarlane@hotmail.com

2. SUFFOLK COAST RIDE, SUNDAY 26th Aug

This Green Badge Ride, led by Simon Rixon, on August Bank Holiday Sunday IS STARTING FROM BALDOCK.

This is a 100 miles run each way from Baldock to Snape Maltings near Aldeburgh for lunch on the Suffolk Coast . A mix of A roads and B roads, this is quite technical route so will good for those who enjoy technical, tight, twisty roads, and lots of them. The ride is being run by two people from the senior observer team and will be quite progressive so it will be quite a long and demanding day. There'll be a coffee stop on the way out in a classic English Suffolk village. Snape is very pretty, sitting on the River Alde as it snakes eventually out to the sea, and has a selection of pubs and cafes for the lunch stop.

3. RIDE LEADERS & TEC WANTED

You will see from the Rides List below that we need to fill in a few gaps, namely the positions with a next to them.

If you can help, please contact Roly directly on rolyfletcher@aol.com

4. OBSERVER CORNER

Welcome onboard to the 12 New Potential Observers that were at Knebworth lasy Saturday.

2006/7: 13 NEW HBAM Observers for the IAM Year (April 2006 to March 2007).

5. Recent HBAM IAM Test Passes, well done

2006/7: 41 HBAM passes for the IAM Year (April 2006 to March 2007).

12 Passes so far this IAM year.

6. WEBSITES OF INTEREST:

Check out HBAM ever growing list of links that my be of interest to you:

http://www.hbam.org.uk/statichtml/links.php

Road Pricing:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/MCNroadpricing/

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bikesinbuslanes/

This is a good one if you think you have a good knowledge of the highway code:

http://www.learnerstuff.co.uk/theory-test/mock-theory-tests.htm

Would you know what to do in an emergency? St John Ambulance will be running "Emergency Aid for Motorcyclists" courses on 22nd September in Bedford.
http://www.motorcyclingmatters.org/events/st-john-emergency-aid/

Have a say:

http://www.motorcyclingmatters.org/blog/

Local News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/6248142.stm

Via Mike Arkley, thanks Mike

I picked up this article from the www.motorcyclingmatters.org  website, in case anyone in the Bedford / Luton area is interested:

A6 Safety Ride, Saturday 11th August.
The A6 between Bedford and Luton has been identified as a particularly high-risk route for motorcyclists on the basis of police casualty records over the last three years.

Engineers at Bedfordshire Highways are going to undertake a project to improve safety by means of engineering works along the route but, before they start work, they are keen to understand the problems faced by riders, and hear their experiences first hand.

We are therefore organising a day for riders to offer their opinions on the basis of riding the route.

Starting from Elstow Park & Ride site, where our Head Quarters will be established courtesy of Bedfordshire County Council’s road safety team, riders will be given a briefing before individually riding the route.  Upon their return, riders will be asked to feedback details of particular problems along the route and discuss potential solutions.  This feedback will be used to help inform the engineering works planned to start next April.

If you wish to take part - and we'd be grateful if you do - please turn up between 11am and 2pm for a briefing before riding the route. We plan to have completed all debriefings from riders by 4.30pm. Light refreshments will be available for all of you who take part.

If you plan to come along and take part, please email info@motorcyclingmatters.org to let us know - it will be helpful to know how many people we are likely to expect. If you have any questions, please contact Jon Shortland (jon.shortland@amey.co.uk) directly.

7. HAVE YOU IMPROVED? - TAKE A RETEST.

A major challenge is to re-take your IAM Test, called The Driving Assessment, you can not fail or have your Green Badge taken away, but the Assessment, that only costs £25, is better than a re-test, because it's exactly the same as your original test but with corrective feedback during the ride, from the Examiner, are you willing to see if you've improved - OR NOT!

Take a look at & download the application form from here: http://www.hbam.org.uk/newsletters/newsletters/IAM_driving_assessment.pdf

I'VE HEARD THAT THE FIRST OF THESE 'RE-TESTS' ARE FILTERING THROUGH NOW - WELL DONE!

WHY NOT APPLY NOW FOR A SPRING 'RE-TEST' AND GIVE YOURSELF SOMETHING TO WORK ON DURING 07?

2006/7: 5 'IAM Assessments' (retests) for HBAM for the IAM Year (April 2006 to March 2007).

8. TRADE CORNER

a. New Shop:

You may be aware that the old Colin Collins bike shop closed down in Letchworth, just around the corner from Sainsbury’s.

The shop has now been taken over, it has a real good feel to it, bar lounge area, club meeting point, good selection of bikes and clothing accessories.

They were interested in doing a number of initiatives, and some involved Advanced Rider Training.

Tim McDowell

BIKE PAVILION

Unit 1

The Pavilion

Campus 5

3^RD Avenue

Letchworth

Herts

SG6 2JF

01462 483 399

www.thebikepavilion.co.uk

b. NORTON WAY HONDA OFFER:

CLICK HERE FOR LATEST NORTON WAY OFFER

For Sale 2x Kenwood TK3101 Radios

These radios are two years old and have i have never had a problem with either of them.  The radios have been used with a AutoCom but as we are moving to a country where they shouldn't be used.  Hence the sale.

They are both in their original boxes but i can't find the manuals, not that they are required, switch them on and your done.  I was using these in groups of 30 plus bikes without any issues. 

They have a couple of marks on them but nothing that affects performance.

£50 per handset.

If you are interested please contact Keith Morgan on 07967 215679.

Here is the blurb:

The Kenwood TK3101 ProTalk is renowned for quality and build reliability. This superb, robust pmr446 radio is packed with relevant features and is built to military standards for vibrations, shock, humidity, dust and light rain making it the ideal radio for onsite construction and generally arduous environments. Proven by its predecessor the TK3101 has an aluminium die-cast chassis to ensure years of reliable use. The audio quality is what you would expect from Kenwood, excellent making sure working in noisy conditions is made as simple as possible. Battery life is improved by the time-out timer automatically cutting a continuous transmission after one minute and the battery save function, putting the unit into sleep mode after 10 seconds of standby. Large channel change and on off volume knobs make the ProTalk simple to operate even while wearing gloves. A summary of key features includes :

• Military standard
• Rugged construction
• Simple user friendly operation
• Metal belt clip
• Drop-in charger
• Long battery life
• Excellent audio quality
• Full compliment of accessories
• Maximum output power
• Proven reliability
• License free
• Suitable for most applications

RIDES:

					BALDOCK (Sun) / CLUB HOUSE (Tue)		BOURNE END
MONTH	DAY	DATE	DETAILS	DESTINATION	START 1 LEADER	START 1 TEC	START 2 LEADER	START 2 TEC
August	Sun	5	Extra Ride- Honda Event	9:30 START!! GAYDON	BERNIE	KIT
August	TUE	7	CLUB NIGHT RUN		HUTCHIE	SEAN C
August	SUN	12	MONTHLY GROUP RIDE		STEVEN COWELL	TEC
August	SUN	26	GBH RIDE	SUFFOLK COAST	SIMON RIXON	BERNIE	NOTE: THE START IS AT BALDOCK	NOTE: THE START IS AT BALDOCK
Sep	SUN	9	MONTHLY GROUP RIDE		JAMES NEWMAN	TEC
Sep	W/E	21-23	GBH RIDE - WJ07	WALES			PHIL R	RUSS. EDWARDS
Oct	SUN	7	MONTHLY GROUP RIDE		VACANT	TEC

CALENDAR:

WHERE PLACES ARE: