September 2016
Dates For Your Diary
 
 
Monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of every month at Liddington Village Hall, opposite the church
 
Monday 10th October 7:30
Annual General Meeting
Speaker Tony Lamsdale, Bike Tutor and Speed Awareness course presenter
 
November
Gary Franks
“Bangers and Cash”
Fundraising for Help for Heroes.
 

 
Monthly Ride-Outs
Remember that monthly Bike Ride-Outs take place on the 3rd Saturday of every month. 
Do you have a topic you would like discussed, or know of an interesting speaker?  Please contact Monica!
 
Welcome!

Welcome to the following who joined the Group recently:

Lynn Pettit (Car)
 
Congratulations!

Congratulations to the following members who qualified as Approved Tutors recently:

Bob Fram
Peter Genet
 
Merchandise
Don’t forget that we have a range of clothing available to purchase. We also offer a range of books, such as Roadcraft, Motorcycle Roadcraft and the Highway Code, and these are available at discounted prices.

For more information visit the Merchandise page of our web site at www.wiltshireroadar.co.uk.
We are always looking for more articles, ideas and news for the newsletter. Have you been somewhere interesting recently that would make a good story? If you attend any group events then take a camera and send us your pictures!

Please forward all contributions to newsletter@wiltshireroadar.co.uk
 
 
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@wiltshireroadar
Annual General Meeting 2016
Don't forget that the Annual General Meeting of Wiltshire RoADAR will take place on Monday 10th October at Liddington Village Hall at 7.15pm for 7.45 pm. The Chairman and Secretary will give their annual reports and the Treasurer will present the accounts. There will also be an election to elect the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and committee members for the next twelve months.

The majority of the officers and committee have indicated their willingness to stand for election in 2016. However, we are seeking an IT officer and would encourage anyone who feels this would be something they could assist the group with to seek nomination. We would also welcome anyone else who wishes to join. Joining the committee provides the opportunity to influence the running of the group. It is important that we maintain a strong committee and a regular intake of new faces helps to bring fresh ideas to the group. The committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month, at Liddington, at 7.30pm.
 
Membership Renewals
Please note that membership renewals will be due for all members, except those that joined the group after October 2015, at the AGM. We will soon be sending out renewal notifications by email so please look out for it and ensure that your annual subscription is paid before the AGM on the 10th October, or bring it with you on the night.
 
August meeting report
Geoff Gregor, Bike Examiner (Rebel with a cause)

He started with Gloucester Police in 1972 then transferred in 1974 to the newly formed Avon and Somerset force, starting on Traffic cars and then 20 years later starting  on the bikes after being challenged by his then Sergeant that he wouldn’t be able make it. (The rebel took great delight, when the same person became his Sergeant.). He retired in 2003, but has been examining since 2002, and has with RoSPA introduced Training schemes in Greece and Turkey.
 
Geoff is very busy with testing and living in Frome covers North Somerset and South Bristol, but is flexible and where reasonable will cover other areas. He isn’t paid by RoSPA but can claim expenses of £30.50, which is designed to cover the test, debriefing, official report writing and journey to and from the test route. It was clear that Geoff isn’t doing it for the money but for the love of motorcycling.
 
According to Geoff, the test is laughably simple, “it’s an opportunity to demonstrate your advanced riding skills”.
 
A typical test will begin with an introduction by Geoff of who he is and his background, and he will ask about your background and experience to get a flavour of who you are. He will check the legality of your motorcycle and your documentation
He will talk about Roadcraft and the vehicle checks, and will use Q&A to get the client talking, asking why we do checks. Key reasons are being safe and legal (the one most people forget).
 
He may ask about the road craft system (Processing Information and the four phases of Position,Speed,Gear and Acceleration). Geoff will give an intense briefing about the test route with opportunities for the client to ask questions, if obvious questions aren’t raised then Geoff may start to encourage some questions.
 
The test starts with an eye test, and checking for any existing medical conditions that should be declared for the purposes of Health and Safety.
 
The client then needs to perform a smooth progressive systematic ride, which demonstrates the rider’s knowledge of Roadcraft and the Highway Code. The ride must be legal. It will be approximately 30 miles on a variety of roads, rarely motorways and with a good mix of varying speed limits.
 
When the ride is completed you will have a de-brief (a good opportunity to buy Geoff a coffee), he will make notes on the RoSPA template. He will tell you straight away if it’s a pass (valid for 3 years) or fail, and will then tell you the grade after a de brief and Q&A on your ride ( both self-debrief and examiner debrief). It’s not a grilling and he will bend over backwards to help as much as possible.
 
A Gold pass requires a display of confidence and ability throughout the test, skills in overtaking and continually looking for opportunities and demonstrating them to the Examiner. A level of riding that would lead to the rider doing well in a police advanced driving course.
 
A Silver pass demonstrates awareness of the system but may contain 1 or 2 consistent errors.
 
A Bronze pass shows a level that would pass a ministry test and an awareness of the system but not consistent application of the system.
 
A fail most commonly occurs for failing to stop at a STOP line, some people can concentrate too hard and miss the obvious. Since 2002 probably no more than 5 fails.
 
Geoff then invited questions from the floor which led to some spirited conversations (Don’t argue with the examiner!)
 
Q. What’s the difference between Attitude and Emotion in the “I AM SAFE” checklist?
A. Geoff gave the example of being in a right hand turn only lane and discovering a car starting to push into his lane from the left with the driver leaning on the horn.
Bike (Emotion) - what the **** is this person trying to do!
Car (Attitude) – Directing everything at the motorcyclist
Q. Should the test be longer to show the difference between Gold and Silver Passes?
A.  No it wouldn’t show, and if any mistakes were made it would prolong the agony of the candidate, also the instructor has to remember the details of the test and concentration can lapse.
Q. If someone doesn’t get in the zone in the test can they stop?
A. Test conditions are restrictive and the examiner will try to put the client at ease and ideally such that he forgets the examiner is there. Also what happens from the start of the test to the end of the test must be taken into account by the examiner.
Q. Recall of an examiner is good, how can you achieve that level of recall?
A. Don’t nit-pick and try to remember every little detail, get the chapter headings that most things are pointing to, e.g.: cornering (could be too fast in, too slow out or wrong position)
Q. Should riders stagger formation in Groups?
A. There is no RoSPA policy on this, when riding in groups the organiser should dictate what people do in order to minimise risk and ideally people should ride to the level of the lowest abilities to ensure no-one rides beyond their abilities. Groups could be staggered in Town to keep them together and prevent cars from coming in between bikes. No need for staggering outside of 30mph limits
Q. Bikesafe Advisors have differing opinions on the same scenarios, what should I do?
A. Do as your tutor dictates, remember police bikers aren’t teachers and police riding school is different to public road riding.
 
Phill Colbourne
 
Re-tests and membership subscriptions
Don't forget that all members are welcome to have further training drives/rides with a Tutor before taking their three-yearly re-test. Please contact Monica if you would like to arrange this.

Please can you also let Monica know when you take your re-test so that the Group's records can be kept up to date.

On a similar note, a reminder about membership subscriptions. Depending on your status, you will be liable for different fees:

Associate member
(not taken an advanced test) - you pay a subscription to the Wiltshire Group only. When ready for test, you pay a test fee to RoADAR HQ, usually via our Group Treasurer.  Please note; it appears that Associates who are applying for their tests are being asked by Head Office to join RoSPA.  You DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS until twelve months after your test.

Full member (passed an advanced test) - you pay a subscription to the RoADAR national organisation (currently £28 per annum).

Your first year's  membership is included in your test fee. At the end of that year you will receive a reminder asking you to set up a Direct Debit for future years, to ensure that your retests will occur every three years. 

If you elect to remain a member of Wiltshire Group, you also pay a subscription (currently £17 per annum) to us. This covers our monthly meetings, hire of premises, tutor training, this newsletter, etc.
 
Swindon 105.5 FM
Peter Genet now has a regular fortnightly slot on the station talking about road safety, advanced riding and driving. Join him every other Tuesday at 10:00 with repeats on Wednesday at 18:00.  Peter is always looking for assistance with content and recording so please get in touch with him if you can help.
 
Skillshare 2016
Thank you to all who supported Skillshare this year.  We will start again in April 2017.
 
Skillshare runs from 10 am on the first Saturday of each month from April to October at the Divine Cafe in Cherhill. This year we extended it to car drivers as well as bike riders. Drivers or riders can turn up and get a free assessment of their skills, with the opportunity to sign up for full membership if they want to take it further. If members get an opportunity to publicise Skillshare the website is a good starting point or please ask Mark Sealey  for more information (skillshare@wiltshireroadar.co.uk)
Membership Secretary: Mrs. Monica Graham, 114 Marines Drive, Faringdon, Oxon. SN7 7UG.Tel: 01367 242377
Hon Secretary: Mrs. Mary Southgate
secretary@wiltshireroadar.co.uk
To make sure that you receive our messages we recommend that you add newsletter@wiltshireroadar.co.uk, membership@wiltshireroadar.co.uk and secretary@wiltshireroadar.co.uk to your address list.