The awesome FMX Live is set to return to Motorcycle Live for 2016 and this year, the heart-in-your-mouth, edge-of-your-seat action is included in the ticket price, meaning visitors can experience the mind-blowing show for FREE.

Presented by the owners of the Monster Energy Arenacross Tour and including a whopping 24 shows across the nine-day event, FMX Live will feature some of the world’s most talented freestyle motocross riders. The super-skilled ensemble will be putting on an intensely choreographed spectacle 40 feet in the air, packed with whips, back-flips and tricks that will take your breath away.

The live show will be situated in the 2,000-seat FMX Live arena, creating an electrifying atmosphere complete with lights, lasers, LEDs and a heart-pumping soundtrack. Catch the freestyle frenzy twice daily from Monday to Friday and three times on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Motorcycle Live 2016 takes place at The NEC, Birmingham from 19-27 November. Advance tickets are on sale now, priced at just £19.50 per adult, £12 for Seniors, £1 for 11-16 year olds* and FREE for children aged ten and under (accompanied by a paying adult).

Those buying in advance online could be in with the chance of receiving one of hundreds of Golden Tickets and win a prize – including tickets to the 2017 Arenacross Tour. There is also a £25 advance ticket, which includes entry to the show and a Spada bag worth £29.99**.

To book, call 0844 581 2345 or visit www.motorcyclelive.co.uk

Classic TT, presented by Bennetts, with the Italian attending the festival for three days.

The ever-smiling Chili was extremely popular with the UK fans during his impressive career and will no doubt receive a great reception when he visits the island later this month. It promises to be a busy visit as he will be meeting the fans at the Paddock Carnival Chat Show on Friday 26th, attending the RST Legends Dinner on Sunday 28th and putting in an appearance at the Grandstand on Saturday’s opening Classic TT Race day. He will also be heading to the VMCC’s Festival of Jurby on Sunday 28th August where he will complete some demonstration laps on-board his former Suzuki World Superbike GSXR 750, now owned and maintained by Team Classic Suzuki.

Now 52, Chili had an illustrious racing career that spanned over 20 years. His first major success came in 1985 when he won the 125cc European Championship. He immediately moved into the 500cc World Championship, spending a year with Suzuki before joining Honda for five years. His best year came in 1989 when, riding the NSR500cc machine, he came sixth overall, also winning that year’s Italian Grand Prix.

Between 1991 and 1993, he contested the 250cc World Championship, riding factory Aprilias in 1991 and 1992 and then a works Yamaha in 1993, taking third overall in 1992, which included three race victories. In his eight-year GP career, he won a total of five Grand Prix races and took eleven podiums.

However, it is probably his World Superbike Championship career that established him as such a favourite with the UK fans and, after a brief retirement in 1994, he was an ever present in WSB between 1995 and 2006, riding works Ducati and Suzuki machinery as well as competing for privateer teams.

His best years came in 1998 and 2000 when he finished fourth overall for Ducati Corse and Alstare Suzuki respectively. He finished in the top eight of the Championship every year between 1995 and 2004.

He claimed a total of 17 wins and 61 podiums in a World Superbike Championship career that took in 278 races before retiring at the end of the 2006 season.

Commenting on his visit to the Isle of Man, Francesco Chili said:

“The Isle of Man has an incredible history and I’m really looking forward to finally getting the chance to see the iconic circuit and meet some of the great TT riders and legends of road racing who I have huge respect for and find out more about this famous place. It’s gping to be a lot of fun and a great chance to meet some road racing fans.”

Classic TT Grandstand tickets are available for Friday’s final qualifying session priced at £5. All prior qualifying sessions are free for the main Grandstand. There are also race day tickets available for both Classic TT race days on Saturday 27th and Monday 29th August as well as VIP and Platinum hospitality tickets. To purchase tickets go to iomtt.com or phone Duke Marketing on (00 44) 1624 640 011.

Friday 12th August 2016 is National Blood Bike Awareness Day.

Blood bikes are the silent emergency service, transporting blood for blood transfusions, injuries and emergency responses for emergency services, the NHS and other medical services. These unsung heroes are all volunteers.

Blood Bike Awareness Day is organised by the National Association of Blood Bikes (NABB) and aims to promote awareness of the lifesaving work the NABB does in conjunction with the NHS and emergency services.

Blood Bikers are the 1,500 men and women all over Britain who provide an out-of-hours rapid response courier service as well as transporting hospital deliveries across the country.  The Blood Bikers are all volunteers, and in 2014 they responded to around 39,000 urgent requests from hospitals, saving the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds.  

Severn Freewheelers are the regional Blood Bike group operating Gloucestershire, Hereford, Worcester and North Wiltshire. Over 70 volunteers help Severn Freewheelers carry out a much-needed service. Severn Freewheelers run six BMW R1200RTs; all are emergency response equipped and the members handle some 4,000 call outs per annum, covering 150,000 miles. The charity’s principle aim is to alleviate suffering by transporting medical essentials, free of charge, between NHS facilities. This would include Blood, Blood Products, Pathology Samples, Frozen Human milk and other medical essentials.

Your support is essential for this service to continue and flourish – perhaps you don’t have the time to volunteer for one of the many roles within the organisation; there are other ways to support Blood bikes!  A family day out is a great option either by attending Shelsley Walsh Bike Festival or if you do have a little spare time the organisation is actively seeking volunteer riders, drivers, fundraisers, digital and social media buffs. So you don’t even have to have a motorbike to support them!

How you Can Support Severn Freewheelers

Shelsley Walsh Bike Festival will take place once again at the iconic historic Hill Climb course in Worcestershire on Sunday 4 September and is hailed as a ‘Must Do’ day out for all motorcycling enthusiasts. This is a great day out for all the family and is an essential event to raise awareness and donations for Blood Bikes and the local branch of the association Severn Freewheelers.

The Festival prides itself on its diversity and celebrates engineering excellence; from rare, classic, modern, customised to hand built bikes and those of historic significance. This year the organisers have secured the most diverse motorcycles yet from the World’s Fastest Shopping Trolley powered by a Chinook helicopter engine (holds record speed of 70.4mph/ 113.298kmh), the 'Warhorse' the World’s Fastest Monowheel, a one-wheeled vehicle that the rider sits inside and travels up to 65mph!

Shelsley Walsh Bike festival is truly a big celebration of man and machine with large displays of historic, modern and race bikes, plus a Paddock Specials Show ‘n’ Tell area and the unique opportunity for members of the public to take part in the spectacle by ‘running the hill’ or participating in a thrilling passenger ride experience.  There’s also a whole raft of entertainment too from biker celebrity appearances, trade stands plus live music from UK hot rocking band, Josie and the Outlaws and guests. There’s stuff for the kids, great food and drink and lots more. All event proceeds of the event go to Severn Freewheelers, the regional Blood Bike group

Entries for Paddock Specials are both by invitation and by application - so if you own a special, rare or historic bike, we want to hear from you! Please contact us via the website and provide further details.

Helping Blood Bikes, Helping You

Event Address: Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb, Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire, WR6 6RP

Advance tickets:

• Advance general admission tickets cost just £12 in advance or £15 on the gate, or for £35 you can enter to ‘Run the Hill’ on your own bike and be part of the spectacle! To book visit: www.shelsleybikefestival.co.uk
• Children under 16years old, go free.
• Gates Opens at: 08:30am, Track starts at: 10:00am, Festival closes at: 17:00.
• Free parking, free motorcycle side stand puck and free helmet park for bikers

More about NABB and Blood Bike Awareness Day – Fact File

The National Association of Blood Bikers (NABB) comprises 33 regional charities, 1,500 volunteer Blood Bikers, work with 272 hospitals; they are on call 365 days a year, 7pm until 6am weekdays and 24hrs at the weekends.  In 2014 alone, NABB groups responded to 39,000 urgent requests saving multiple lives. The NABB groups comprises of skilled, dedicated people who make a significant personal sacrifice to help others, which has a positive impact on local communities, saving the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds in courier costs.

The Association is a motorcycle based, free delivery service to the NHS; moving vital medical supplies, blood and pathology samples from medical centres and hospitals throughout the UK. NABB member groups are closely involved in the transport of frozen human milk from the donor to the milk processing banks. Run entirely by volunteers, NABB member groups have over 1500 active members with a fleet of 120+ emergency response vehicles. All NABB riders are trained in the movement of medical essentials and operate from individual regional charities but with a common goal – to alleviate suffering and reduce the funding pressures on the NHS. 

Events for veteran motorcycles are very rare but the VMCC in Scotland is organising a long weekend of runs for these early motorcycles. The weekend starts with the “Early Motor Bicycle Run” at the Museum of Flight, East Fortune, East Lothian, on Saturday 8 October organised by Clyde Valley Section of the VMCC. The run is designed to suit the modest performance of pre-1914 machines hence the choice of the flat terrain of East Lothian. Later machines may be considered if their design post 1914 remained largely unchanged. Details from John Macmillan on 01555 662760 or [email protected] .

The weekend continues with the Glendaruel Veteran Run on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll which is the venue for runs specifically for pre-1915 motorcycles on Sunday 9 and Monday 10 October, 2016 being organised by Highland Section. The routes will be easy going in Cowal and there will be a ferry trip to the Isle of Bute and a run round the Island. Details from Paul Morley on 01369 820287 or [email protected] 

A number of entrants are attending from Holland riding 1902-08 motorcycles and an open invitation is extended to VMCC members and non-members to join in the fun. Expect to see rare early Marques such as Bradbury, Excelsior, Rex, Williamson and The Pebok. The two events are linked with the aim of providing a unique riding experience on the quiet back roads of rural Scotland with spectacular scenery.

Leading UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has said the government needs to make bigger efforts in the areas of drink-drive campaigning and rehabilitation, better enforcement of driving standards and increased education on road safety if we want to see any reduction on the stagnant road casualty statistics announced today (4 August) by the Department for Transport.

The charity said that after decades of good progress, the past five years have seen a disappointing plateau which is not acceptable.

Today’s figures show there has been no reduction in drink-drive deaths since 2010 – remaining at 240 deaths a year; there has been no reduction in total road deaths and a 2% increase in serious casualties in the past 12 months (to 31 March 2016).

Tim Shallcross, head of technical policy at IAM RoadSmart, said: “The Government must get to grips with five years of disappointing figures now. It needs to show stronger leadership to really drive down road deaths and serious injuries in the future.

“Road deaths are a serious issue; 35 people a week die in crashes throughout the country. In any other sphere, that would provoke national outrage, rule the headlines for months and provoke urgent government action. It happens week in week out on our roads and it merits barely a mention.

“More action on drink driving, more on-road enforcement of driving standards and more publicity and education are urgently needed if we are to return to the gains made before 2010.

“IAM Roadsmart urges the government to take back the initiative and put forward credible plans to address this vital issue.”