David Saul from Rochester in Kent came in to our offices on Wednesday to pick up his brand new CCM R35 with the prize card he collected at Tail End last year

David is a contract manager for a steel fabrication company and despite being very busy he still manages to get out on his array of motorbikes, whether that is on the road, track or green laning.

David’s other bikes include a Kawasaki ZX10R, a ZX7R for track use and a KTM 250 EXC Enduro. He has just sold a CRM250 – just as well really as he now needs to make room for the CCM R35, unless anyone wants to build him a bigger garage.

It was my turn for another road trip in the Great White Whale over the weekend for the BMF Show in Peterborough.

Joining me on Saturday was Rebecca and on Sunday I was joined by Martyn. The weather was excellent despite the dodgy weather forecast for Sunday, though a bit cold at night (I must be getting old).

It was another good show, and allowed me the opportunity to meet up with clients, both old and current, and to meet lots of great new people. Numbers seemed a little down on last year however everyone seemed to be having a fun time.

The large screen TV proved a big hit again allowing everyone to keep up to speed with the WSB Championship, with two excellent races again. It is so good to see the Brits doing so well – keep it going guys.

I must make a quick mention to the lads from bikegear4you, the stall next door. Good bunch of guys – good luck with the tests D.

Another special mention to everyone from the TL Zone, who once again entertained royally when the gates closed. Martyn was baptised on the bungee run (not sure he has recovered yet – or ever will) and a special word for poor ‘Hasman’ – who fell foul of the bonfire – I have never seen anyone pouring lager into their boots before to ‘put their foot out’. Hopefully no long-term damage was done and I trust that everyone else has recovered from their war wounds – AJ and G et al.

All in all a good weekend – with lots of interest in the new CCM prize bike. Keep checking the numbers – you never know it could well be you who wins it.

Safe riding to everyone and fingers crossed for a good biking summer. See you all next time.

Paul Henry, Managing Partner here at White Dalton, joins Andrew Dalton as members of the elite Law Society Personal Injury Panel.

All Personal Injury panel members need to have successfully completed a range of stringent tests, examinations, interviews and assessments. Not to mention completing the immense application form.

This means that you are getting the very best legal advice and assistance from White Dalton on motorbike accidents as recognised by the countries regulating authority for solicitors.

If you’re injured and are unable to talk coherently because of concussion how does the ambulance crew find out who you are?

More importantly they may need to know what medication you currently take or your medical history. The Ambulance Motorcycle Club www.ambulancemotorcycleclub.150m.com has devised a simple card that details all this information, making it easier for the attending ambulance crew or the person making the 999 call to provide the necessary details.

The card is placed either underneath the crash helmet lining or in your pocket/wallet with a green dot sticker placed on the right hand corner of the helmet to help the emergency services to your CRASH card. We would suggest in your wallet as removing a crash helmet after an incident is something ambulance crews are fully trained on.

The scheme has been produced by the East of England Ambulance Service and are therefore only available in certain counties. To obtain a card please visit http://www.ambulancemotorcycleclub.150m.com/crash-card.htm and click on your county to find out where to collect one.

For further information read the full press release here

Dave Stanford from Kent collected the CCM Sledgehammer from our offices today. He says this is the first bike he has owned from new, all his other bikes have been second hand and needed some form of restoration to get them running again.

We feel that restoring bikes hasn’t been too technically demanding for Dave, as you can see from his Robin Reliant based show trike, nicknamed ‘Sneaky’. Visit his website to get a better idea of this crazy combination! He currently rides an Aprilia Pegaso 650 and is fully intending to keep the sledgehammer. Dave’s wife has a keen interest in monster trucks which started at the 2008 GEMS show which was combined with the Truckfest show at that time.

Dave has been riding motorbikes since about 1986 and collected his prize draw card at the Garden of England Motorcycle Show in 2008. Just goes to show that you need to keep checking the number each week to see if your prize draw card comes up! We still have the CCM R35 up for grabs. Remember cards that you have collected from way back in 2005 when we started giving away motorbikes are still valid – do not throw away your cards!

It was back in the great white whale on Sunday to attend the Bikers in Paradise show, this time with Clare Franklin who joined the team about 6 months ago. It was Clare’s first show and it was a nice one for her to start with.

The show is held at the Paradise Wildlife Park, Broxbourne, which is a lovely location, especially when the weather is kind as it was on Sunday. A beautiful sunny day and hopefully a hint of what we can look forward to for the rest of the summer – if only!!!!

There was quite a good turnout for an event this early in the year and, as usual, we met a great bunch of people, all with their own stories to share. The Police were very busy with their observed rides, which is always a popular draw at this show. I also met a paramedic who was telling me about their CRASH card system.

Basically you carry a card setting out your name, post code, date of birth, brief medical history to advise of any conditions or allergies you may have, and details of any medications you are taking at the time – just in case you cannot tell them yourself. You also wear a small green dot on your helmet to identify that you are carrying the card so the paramedics know to check. Check out their website – www.ambulancemotorcycleclub.150m.com. Hopefully you will never need the card but sometimes unexpected things happen and it could save your life.

The other useful titbit he provided was to include in your mobile phone a contact under ICE (in case of emergency) with a name and contact number for your loved ones. When you think about it we all have dozens of contacts in our phones and whilst we know who they are the paramedics won’t and will not know who to contact. More food for thought.

On a lighter note , Clare also had a test ride on a Segway, see the pictures below. Very strange to look at. Apparently it takes a bit of getting used to but once you have overcome your natural instincts and let the bike take you, all is well (not sure I will be replacing my Blade with one though)

The stunt shows were again very popular and smoky (just how much punishment will a back tyre take before it lets go??) and, for a change, we were treated to a display by some vary capable Shaolin Monks. Take my advice, and don’t ever upset one. You will be able to see them on TV soon on Britain’s Got Talent.

That’s all for now and hopefully catch up with a few more of you at the BMF Show in Peterborough next month. Safe riding in the meantime.

I decided to treat my head to a nice new helmet last week. There is no other feeling than slipping a new lid on for the first time. I have always been a big Arai fan and was delighted to see that Arai had re-launched their Quantum range of helmets.I was happy as a school boy when I received word from Graham at GLF Accessories that my shiny new lid had arrived. On opening the box I was not disappointed and was, as usual, very impressed with the high quality finish. I was equally impressed with the excellent fit, much better than my previous Condor as I always found the actual ‘head hole’ a bit too small for comfort.

My childish delight was dented slightly when, having tried with Graham for about half an hour to fit a slightly darker visor (obligatory in my book), and having had to call Arai, we discovered that the normal range of Arai after-market visors do not actually fit the new Quantum or the RX-7 range of helmets. Thanks for the heads-up Arai. After much nodding of heads and beard stroking, and some more frantic telephone calls, a new style visor was on its way from Jersey. Great work by the way Graham as it turned up the next day as promised. Our efforts to fit a darker pinlock to the new visor also resulted in failure as, following yet another call to Arai, we discovered that the current pinlocks don’t actually fit the new visor and so further calls were made to order the necessary items.

I managed to give my new lid a test ride over the weekend. What can I say?? Absolutely brilliant. Perfect visibility, perfect fit, absolutely no (and I really do mean NO) wind noise and the usual excellent ventilation. Even without a pinlock, and on quite a cold day, there was no misting at all of either the visor or my glasses.

Despite the small teething problems vis a vis the visor/pinlock issues I can only say – great work Arai, you have made my head very happy again.

Just waiting for my new gloves to arrive now and will do a review on them as soon as I can.

Happy riding all – keep it the shiny-side up

Jo and I have just finished the Tail End show in Peterborough. We would both like to thank everyone who came by for a card, chat or cup of tea. We both met lots of lovely people and had a great weekend.  It was also really nice of clients past and present to come and say hello.

We have to give a special mention to a certain biker from the South Midlands area (who will remain anonymous) who entertained us immensely with tales of his recent breakdown.  What’s funny about that?, I hear you say…. Well he had borrowed his son’s bike, because he was too lazy to move it out of the way to get to his own. His son’s motorcycle happens to be 125cc Marauder… strangely enough, the biker brotherhood failed that day.  Noone stopped to assist… and so he pushed the bike home.   The crown on that story is that he was so ashamed to be caught riding a 125cc Marauder which had broken down that he pushed the bike 8 miles home wearing full leathers and helmet with the visor down so no-one would recognise him. Apparently it took over 2 days for his lid to dry out. Respect to Graham from Oxon! Oooops.

A further special mention to all from the TL/Thumper Zone who once again looked after us in a spectacular fashion once the gates had closed. I’m really not sure though that it was actual ‘magic’ that made those Chinese fire lanterns fly though AJ.  Jo had a rather hair raising ride on a rather cool trike-  which isn’t your standard trike at all!!  Thanks guys.

On a wander round the show-ground we also managed to source Andrew’s ideal next bike for when the standard GS gets too much for him to handle in his doteage.  Ideal as it adds stability and more room for gadgets!!! 

Our latest prize bike winner, Steven Branton, collecting his CCM from the White Dalton offices.  Steven, 50 from Andover, originally picked up the winning ticket 4 years ago at the NEC show and has religiously checked the web-site every week since and couldn’t quite believe it when his number came up.

Steven is a real petrol head and was delighted to win the CCM, opting for the red one signed by Carl Fogarty. He currently rides a Suzuki GSXR1000K4 and also owns a Porsche 993 and a BMW M3, which he uses at track days. He has recently been involved in setting up a new business, DAS, based in Andover specialising in performance car tuning for most marques but with a particular interest in BMW E36 Coupes.

Good luck Steven from all at White Dalton.

Last weekend it was my turn for a day out in the ‘Great White Whale’ so it was off down to Southend for the Ace Café Shakedown Run with David.

We were ready to go before 9 and things were initially quiet but numbers soon picked up. And what a turn out in the end! We were positioned about a mile or so out of the town centre, where the majority of bikers seemed to have congregated, but before long there were two lines of bikes parked all the way along the sea front as far as the Casino. Estimates say in the region of 60,000 bikers turned up. I am not sure on the numbers but I can say for certain that I saw just about every type of bike on the day; from scooters (wailing along the promenade sounding like wasps with their arses on fire), custom cruisers of all sorts (too much chrome to polish for my liking), touring bikes of every shape and size (including the ubiquitous Honda Goldwings complete with trailers in tow) to the latest litre sports bikes (more my thing).

In a nutshell, it was jammed.

We spoke to some great people on the day, with bikers seemingly coming from the length and breadth of the UK to be there, we even spoke to some bikers over from Europe. Although the weather wasn’t great, drizzly and overcast in the morning, the sun did finally make an appearance at about 4.00. Despite the slightly gloomy weather everyone seemed to have a good day. We were certainly very busy, and our earplugs and canisters seemed particularly popular for some reason. The day seemed to whistle by and before you know it, we were back in the Great White Whale for a return road trip.

It was the first time I had been to an event organised by the Ace Café and, on the whole, I have to say it was well planned and organised. We spoke with a huge number of bikers and everyone seemed to have a good day. Hopefully we will be able to do some more work with the Ace Café in the future and see you all at another show. Next stop is the Bikers in Paradise show at Broxbourne, hopefully I will see you there.

Ride safe

Paul

All photos courtesy of Chris Gothard – ESN