Download - Birmingham Advanced Motorcyclists

4Marcus McCormickAn IAM Examiners potted historySlow Riding EventSunday 21st April 20135I started riding bikes aged five when my Dad bought me a‘monkey’ bike and myself and brother used to tear up anddown Morecombe Sands (It was legal back then!!). I’venever been without a bike since!My legal road riding started out when I was 16 on the roadsof Halesowen on a FSIE and then my first BIG bike, a HondaSuperdream. One of my regular sparring partners at the timewas Quentin Davies who had a superb Kawasaki Z250.Our ‘long’ Sunday ride outs in those days used to be toStourport!!! Mind you they were full of incident.I progressed through various machines and capacitiesincluding a CB400 Four, Honda 750KZ and a KawasakiZ1000J.In those days bikes didn’t handle particularly well so I decidedto build a Harris Magnum based on a Z1R Kawasaki engineso I bored it out to 1100cc and stuck a turbo on it to pep upthe mid range. It worked!!! Problem was it kept blowing headgaskets so I had it Cosworth tuned and then it really went!Craig Jones (of World Champion stoppie fame) later boughtthat bike and started his career on it.Moving swiftly on was a Yamaha 1000 Exup followed by asuccession of ZZR1100s C1 and D1 models. I then fell inlove with the T595 Triumph at the bike show and had one ofthe first. I loved it right up to the point that the fire engine killedit. Things went a bit barmy then as I moved into the YamahaR1 era before being literally wrenched away by the stunningBMWS1000RR WOW!!!!!Joining West Midlands Police in 1980 as a cadet I had butone thing in mind, to become a police rider. It took me fiveyears to get my first course, a three-week standard courseto ride the ‘Noddy’ bike at the local station! The course outof Stourbridge Police House gave me a new goal in life, tobecome not only a police rider but an instructor! (I’ll coverthis story in more detail in a future article). My first ‘Police’bike was a Kawasaki Z200 followed by a Z250 Scorpion(one of the first belt drive bikes). This one literally got thrownthrough a shop window during the riots and set alight. I hadlong before dismounted and beat a hasty retreat with mycolleagues in the face of an angry mob in Handsworth.Another three week course on bigger faster machinerysaw me attain an ‘Intermediate’ Grade which entitled meto join traffic for an attachment on a part time basis. Thebikes used this time on the course were Kawasaki Z400J,BMWR80RTs and Norton Interpol II. I managed to wanglea route into staying on traffic without being sent back tomy station to wait for a place to come up on traffic as wasusually the case.Yet another three week course ensued to become an‘Advanced’ police rider. Without an Advanced grade youcould not stay on traffic so no pressure to pass then?I was based at Park Lane on a permanent bike team andit was during this time (in about 1992) that myself, CharliePerry (Examiner), Bryan Davis and another biker called JohnBrookes, were approached by a local council road safetyofficer called Fred. He asked us if we would consider formingan IAM advanced bike group. The rest so they say is historyas BAM was formed with a handful of police riders with noclue at all as to what we were doing!!!!I quickly moved on to be an Examiner for the IAM and nowalso examine for RoSPA. Shortly afterwards I also qualifiedas an Instructor for West Midlands Police. They sent us to theDSA Cardington to be assessed for CBT and DAS and alsosent us to be qualified as off road instructors with GeraintJONES ( a multiple British Enduro champion) in Wales.Between myself and a few others (Pete GUSLOV (RIP) PaulClarke, Glynn Garrad, Paul Todd and John Sheldon) we ranthe first IAM track days from Darley Moor and MIRA. As aresult we then instructed on all manner of tracks both in theUK and abroad with The European Superbike School thenKawasaki rider skills with Roger Burnett (GP star) and BMWrider skills.In 2002 I started the West Midlands Bikesafe initiative andto this day still run the ever popular events. It’s a great wayto put back all the skills we got for free and meet some greatpeople.I raced in what is now the Thundersport 500 race series forjust over a season before a back injury (not race induced)forced me to quit. The end result was I was 7th in my firstyears racing and in the Superclub Championship ( out of 26) and 4th in the Novice Championship ( out of 14 novices )despite two DNFs.Back at my day job I was training the new generation of policebike instructors before the rules forced me back on the meanstreets and on to a proactive bike team. My final years beingspent with a great bunch of awesome riders doing the bestjob in the force similar to the police interceptors programmebut on bikes and scramblers!!!These days (being a police pensioner) I have the greatprivilege to be involved with Honda UK and the design, buildand transport of any Honda bikes to the emergency services,military and blood bikers etc. It also means that I get accessto some stunning Honda machinery to run in or demonstrate.And I thought being retired meant you were supposed toslow down? I honestly don’t know how I found time to go towork……well I say work!!!!!!!With an upturn in the weather, things were looking promisingfor the slow riding event held at Sutton Coldfield fire station.Having woken up to glorious sunshine I was looking forwardto the day. They say that things come in three’s, the first miniproblem was I broke the zip on my bike boot, oh well, it’s onlya minor blip so off I set for Sutton Coldfield.Arriving just after 9am my fellow helpers began to arrive,Colin, Martin, Andy G, Andy K, Suki and Kev. One by onethey turned up with Andy Gordon transporting the equipmentto the event in his motor. Soon the table was set up, tea urnboiling and Keasey drinking tea!Suki was in charge of the straight line slow riding race, withthe newest and youngest BAM member; 12 year old JoeGordon. Thankfully Joe helped Suki with the stopwatchotherwise anything could have happened.As Colin and I began to set out the cones for the course, thesecond thing went wrong, I was drawing a directional arrowon the rough surface when I slipped running my thumb overthe surface and ripping the top of my thumb open..oouch !!With blood pouring out I headed inside to get it clean andhopefully find something to stop the bleeding. After a bit of awobble, when the cold water hit the open wound, I recoveredand rejoined the gang.Just before 10am the members started to arrive, we soonhad around 25 bikes ready for the challenge. So after a quickguide and a few tips on slow riding they were let lose.Revving engines, swearing, shaking of heads and plentyof laughs began to ring out around the car park as the funbegan. Many who really struggled soon began to improveand eventually most cracked the course and their demonsregarding slow riding.Everyone was staying upright and mastering the technique;then there was John Hanson. The third thing to go wrong,he was travelling at a nice slow pace on the straight line race(yes, I did say straight line) when all of a sudden ‘crash’ hewas down. He rolled to the left and the bike crunched into theground. Everyone rushed to help and we soon had the bikeup and checking it over.At this point young Joe (the time keeper) looked at John andsaid “Pity, that was your best time, you’ve ruined it now”....with that wit Joe will go a long way in BAM!Thankfully John was OK and the bike had only a light scuff toits left crash bung, what a relief - John was soon up, jokingand trying again. Well done JH.So a good day was had by all, plenty of practice and learningthe art of slow riding... and to prove the theory that things docome in three’s, I have cuts and bruises to prove it. Thankyou to everyone who turned up to have a go and to all of thehelpers, especially young Joe Gordon who fell asleep in hisdad’s car after a few hours hard work...See you all at the next Slow Riding event.Mark Weaver