I used to like the idea of being spontaneous and also did not fancy using a sat nav however once you have tried to get a room somewhere to find you cannot get one as they are full due to a local festival, over priced (Italy circa 2001, 11 pm in a roadside motel style @ €175 comes to mind) , you cannot find one (sounds strange I know but there are miles and miles of nothing in parts of Germany - well apart from excellent scenery) and to book into somewhere and find it awful, we now do as above - i.e. find a final destination and plan route around it. 

We use a combination of Biker Friendly accommodation on www.thebikerguide.co.uk and if there is nothing in the area we want we also look on booking.com.

We did a trip a couple of years ago with the final destination being Colditz Castle, which you can stay in. Went in July for 3 ish weeks with everything booked, set into sat nav and you know what - thank goodness as it rained everyday but one. We would set off with the next place in the sat nav - take off route when we wanted and arrive at destination stress free.

We stayed at some great places, travelled fantastic roads and routes, ate well, found our way easy even with the many roadwork diversions and would pass by others at the side of the road battling with a big wet soggy map to find their way. We did also pack a map as back-up or to look at a vaster area on a larger scale, however we are happy to say it return dry and not soggy. 

I think once you have used a sat nav on a big trip which gets you to destinations easy, gets you out of a diversion and back on route, helps you navigate/find food and petrol, you wonder what you did before the United States military released the technology for GPS!

Motorcyclists are at a much greater risk of death or serious injury than other road users. Despite forming only 1% of road traffic in the UK, motorcyclists account for 18% of road deaths and serious injuries. It is a sad yet true fact that 1 in 4 Motorcyclists will be involved in an accident and of those only 1 in 5 will be at fault.*

It will be of no surprise that the most common reason for a motorcycle accident, is the failure of a motorist to see the motorcyclist, with 66% of all motorcycles involved in accidents being reported as 'at a junction' ** . When there was no other involvement the rate was at 23%. The main reasons being f ailing to look properly, loss of control, carelessness or in a hurry and even peer pressure when riding in a group.

Motorcycle riders and passengers have the right to complain for a large amount of these accidents.

Speed Accident Scenarios include:

Car driver was executing a 3 point turn. A speeding motorcyclist came around the bend and is faced with the car blocking his side of the carriageway.
A motorcyclist is involved in a collision with a car on a country road. The accident occurs on a 90 degree blind bend. The car was on the wrong side of the road, but the motorcyclist approached the bend at excessive speed denying him the opportunity to control his machine and take evasive action.

Other areas for following up a claim include:

Spillage of diesel
Debris and mud
Missing grid covers
Potholes

See the Legal section for specialist Solicitors who can deal with your claims for compensation arising from your unfortunate Motorcycle accident, rather than be dealt with by solicitors who are used to dealing with the buying and selling of property, and not dealing with serious road accidents, especially ones involving Motorcycles.

* Taken from the DfT Compendium of Motorcycling Statistics: 2008 Edition

** Taken from IHIE Guidelines for Motorcycling

SEVENTH ROW FOR BRADL AND BAUTISTA'S APRILIAS

The demanding ups and downs of Mugello led to some extremely close MotoGP practice sessions, with narrow gaps and very tight rankings. In FP4, the last free practice session before qualifying, no less than 12 riders were packed into a one second gap and as many as 17 were less than one and a half seconds from the leader.
Bautista and Bradl improved their times with respect to yesterday, Alvaro by almost a second and Stefan by more than ten tenths. This is an indicator that the work being done in the garage is moving in the right direction, despite the fact that the testing done on the two Aprilia RS-GP machines had them putting in a lot of laps on used tyres to gauge race pace.

In qualifying the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider set their sights on maximum speed on the flying lap and the tight rankings placed them in nineteenth (Bautista with 1’48,372) and twentieth place (Bradl with 1’48,646) on the starting grid. And so the battle for a finish in the points will have to wait for the 23 laps of tomorrow's race, where the two will start side by side from the seventh row.

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“With the new engine we improved a bit even in acceleration and in general today I had a better feeling than yesterday. We also worked on the chassis and since this morning we have taken a step forward. Then we worked a lot with the used tyre with the race in mind and our pace is not bad. In qualifying we struggled a bit, partly because of the heat that penalises me a bit, but more than anything, on this track power is quite important and that doesn't yet help us. On the corners and in the braking sections we have made good progress, but we obviously need to improve and the race tomorrow will be an important chance to continue doing that, as we have been since the season start”.

STEFAN BRADL
“It's a shame because we were not able to improve as much as we had hoped. Unfortunately, we are struggling in the direction changes and if we try to improve in that area we lose stability. So it is a rather delicate compromise that, even with the many tests we did today, we were unable to get quite right. We will continue to analyse the data, testing a few other things in the warm up. We are obviously disappointed but we won't give up until the chequered flag comes out tomorrow”.

Padgetts Honda has announced that Conor Cummins will ride for the Batley based outfit on Valvoline by Padgetts liveried bikes at the 2016 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy. He will compete for the team in the two Monster Energy Supersport Races and the RL360 Quantum Superstock class. 

The Manxman will continue to campaign his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP in the RST Superbike and PokerStars Senior TT races with the Honda Racing factory team.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to have Conor on board,” said team manager Clive Padgett. “When it looked like it might come about I didn’t have to think twice. He’s the perfect addition to the team.  We’re currently building his bikes and look forward to getting to the TT.”

Conor Cummins said:

“I’ve known Clive Padgett for many years. He actually sold me my first ever race bike, a second hand RS125 and I’ve always been impressed with the way that the team prepares the bikes. They have a record that’s second to none around the Isle of Man. I’m really excited about representing the team and it will be a real honour to ride in the famous team colours.”

Of the last 39 TT races that the team has started around the Mountain Course they have finished in the top four on no less than 33 occasions and of those 27 were podium places with 11 wins. The team is probably most well known for Ian Hutchinson’s five wins in a week in 2010. The team has also secured numerous lap and race records including Bruce Anstey’s RST Superbike win in 2015 in a record winning time of 128.749mph (1:45.29.902).

Honda (Europe) team management made the decision to balance the rider line-up within their two partner teams with Jackson Honda Racing focused on John McGuinness and Steve Mercer and Padgetts Honda focusing on Bruce Anstey and Conor Cummins. 

Tickets are now on sale and selling fast for the 2016 TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy.  There is very limited availability for the Glencrutchery Road Grandstand race day tickets but there are still TT Fan Zone Grandstand tickets available at Ballacrye, Creg Ny Baa and Nobles Park during qualifying and race days. Grandstand tickets are also available by purchasing VIP or Platinum Hospitality tickets. All tickets are available from www.iomtt.com or by phoning 00 44 (0)1624 640000.

Three years after Warwickshire Police ended their very successful BikeSafe workshops, the British Motor Museum are pleased to announce that they have become BikeSafe partners. Throughout 2016 they will be running a number of motorcycle rider skills workshops designed to hopefully make motorcycle riding safer and more enjoyable.

The workshops are run by ex-police instructors and advanced police riders as well as senior instructors from both RoSPA and IAM, all of whom were previously involved in the Warwickshire Police BikeSafe initiative from 2001-2013. They explore the main riding hazards that bikers face helping improve riders skills, knowledge and hazard awareness.

The workshops include classroom and open road sessions, covering observations, hazard perception, anticipation and planning, cornering and overtaking. Riders will also have their riding assessed out on the open road.

Neil Colledge, Workshop Instructor from the British Motor Museum and former head of the Warwickshire BikeSafe initiative said “Hundreds of motorcyclists are killed or seriously injured each year on our roads. Our workshops are run by bikers, for bikers! They are about learning to assess your riding strengths and weakness, allowing you to improve your riding skills and enable you to get the most out of your machines in a safe and responsible way”.

The first workshop is on Saturday 28 May, it is a full day and costs £65 including tuition, refreshments, a light lunch as well as an opportunity to look around the fantastic newly refurbished Museum.

For more information about the motorcycle rider skills workshops please visit www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk or call 01926 645056. The British Motor Museum will also be exhibiting at the Rugby Bike Fest on Sunday 22 May.