“Now I Can Call Myself a Biker”

By David Royle

David has always had a passion for classic cars, right from an early age, but had always wanted to ride a motorcycle. He left this until the age of 47,when his brother in law passed his test and bought himself a Triumph Thunderbird. That did it. As soon as David sat on Nigel's bike, he decided he would pass his test and buy his own Triumph. This is exactly what he did, but there was one small problem.
David picked up his new bike on his 50th birthday, but had missed out on all that valuable experience he should have picked up in his younger years. He'd left it too late. So David decided he needed to get some miles under his belt an took a Harley across America and has never looked back.
This is the story of of David's exploits and adventures to gain that experience he so desperately wanted and it has shown that even at his age, in his mid-life crisis, it wasn't too late to learn how to ride a motorbike.
This book will appeal to the many motorcycle enthusiasts out there, as well as the more mature person thinking about taking up biking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467001496

David Royle

David Royle was born and grew up in the Cotswolds, England. In his youth, David was always drawing and painting He wanted a career in sketching and painting wildlife, as he had an eye for detail. He started his working life drawing heating and ventilation systems until gradually the drawing aspect all but disappeared as he got more involved with the contracting side of the projects he was involved in. So, he hopes in his later years, he might some time get back to that drawing board and carry on where he left off with his wildlife painting. In the meantime, his 'eye for detail' has been put to greater use in writing his first book, which came about when he decided to learn to ride a motor cycle. Had he not left it so late to learn, he probably would never had written it.

Book preview

"Now

I Can Call

Myself

A Biker"

David Royle

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AuthorHouse™

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© 2011 by David Royle. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/16/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4670-0148-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-0149-6 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

To Barbara, my best friend and partner whose love, patience and understanding has allowed me to do this whole biking thing.

‘This is the story of a guy who left riding a bike and taking his bike test quite late on in his life but once he did, felt he needed the experience he’d missed out on, decided to ride ‘Route 66’ right across America of all things and hasn’t looked back.’

Introduction

I had always fancied doing route 66, from the east side of America’s Chicago, right across to Los Angeles in the west, all on a motor bike. Just to be out there riding across the deserts, along those endless highways, passing through all those famous places you remember seeing as a kid in the school atlas. What an adventure. I was going to do it what ever. But it was something that happened at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2009 that really inspired me.

It has been thirty years to the month from taking my driving test to taking my motorcycle test. Since then, I was always thinking about how I have missed out on all that time and experience over the years for what really is to me, bloody good fun! But saying that I could be dead now through some accident. You just don’t know. Anyway, I feel so inexperienced because of the short period of time I have been riding. So, to do the legendary ‘route 66’ would give me such a lot of confidence.

My brother Vincent and I had never been to Goodwood before and this year we decided to go. It would be the ‘Festival of Speed’ event, as opposed to the ‘Revival’ event. With the Festival of Speed the competitors go blasting up a one way track to see how fast they can go over a set distance. The Revival takes place in another part of the grounds and there is a complete racing circuit for the competitors. This event usually takes place a few months after the FOS. There’s always well known people attending, whether they’re taking part or just there for the sights. This particular year, Mr. ‘Easy Rider’ himself, Peter Fonda, was going to take the famous Captain America up the track. He made the film forty years ago. As you would expect, the crowds loved it. Cheering, clapping and waving as he rode pass his captive audience. He would wave back, smiling from ear to ear and taking it quite steady as he would ‘pop, pop’ along to the finish line in no particular hurry. It was what he said when he was interviewed later by Steve Ryder that would really strike a chord.

It’s when you travel long distances on a motor cycle that you really become a biker.

PETER FONDA. Goodwood 2009.

Chapter 1

It started with a Thunderbird.

Monday 26 December 2005

You’ll have to come over to us at Christmas you and Barbara, David. My sister would say.

Yes, that would be good. Was my reply. We’ll do that.

It was the Christmas of 2005 and Barbara and I went from our home in Tetbury over to a family get together at my younger sister Caroline and husband Nigel’s place at Wormington, near Broadway.

Nigel had passed his bike test that year and had bought himself a bike off ‘Ebay.’ I was quite looking forward to seeing his new bike as I was told it was a Triumph. I’ve always liked the Triumph motor bikes I suppose because they’re British, but not having passed the bike test myself, I hadn’t really got an awful lot of knowledge about them.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Nigel who was already giving rides to family members on his new acquisition. It was a 1994 Thunderbird, 900 triple in that lovely bottle green colour. The handle bars were quite high up and the seat looked just typical to a classic Triumph motorbike and it didn’t look like anything ordinary like a Japanese bike. It was in great condition. It looked stunning!

Go on David, give it a go. Music to my ears. I hadn’t ridden a bike for what must have been nearly thirty years.

It felt good sitting astride this bike, sounded nice too. ‘Oh my God, what if I crash it? The utter embarrassment wrecking Nigel’s new bike! . . . . Ok, here we go then, clutch on the left, er, er, down for first gear, steady, steady, gently let that clutch out. Don’t stall it! . . . Whoa! We’re moving!’

I took the bike to the end of Nigel’s drive, then over the lane onto the short road up to the gas works. Some overall distance of approximately 200 yards or so. It felt fantastic! The noise was terrific, those three cylinders knocking out this melodic beat. I looked down at the gorgeous fuel tank and the lovely way the warning lights had been positioned in the polished aluminium housing, and then above that, right in the centre, that immortal name, ‘TRIUMPH.’

I turned the bike around at the top and headed back to the house, slightly faster this time, and all I could think about was, ‘I want one of these.’

Chapter 2

The theory test.

Tuesday 28 February 2006.

We were living in Wiltshire at the time and it was after that Christmas of 2005 that I decided to find out about taking my bike test. I will need some sort of training course. After looking through the Yellow Pages, I came across ‘MOTO-VATION’ motorcycle training, based at Lyneham. That was less than half an hour from me. I gave them a call and they said you need to pass your theory test first of all and then call us once you’ve passed. They also gave me a phone number to call so I could get the theory test booked.

When I phoned to book it up I spoke to a guy who was quite enthusiastic about it all and was extremely helpful and he recommended a really useful book. This was ‘The official DSA theory test for motorcyclists.’ It includes all the questions and explains all the answers. The second part of the test is the ‘Hazard Perception’. To help with this he recommended an ‘interactive DVD.’ So I ordered both the book and the DVD.

By the time my theory test had come around, I had read that book from cover to cover three times and Barbara had tested me a dozen times or more with the various questions. The DVD was quite good, but short lived. You see, the way this works, is that once you’ve got the DVD up and running, on your TV screen, you see an actual film as though you are driving down the road. Every so often a potential hazard would come about. For example a car about to pull out from a side road. When this occurs, you firstly click your TV remote to register you’ve seen the potential hazard, then you click it again as soon as you see it developing into a real hazard. There are various ‘road trips’ with different scenarios and it is quite good practice. But you can only use it once, because after that you know what’s going to happen!

It was the 28 Feb. 2006 and I had taken this particular afternoon off work to get myself to the Theory Test Centre in Bath. I felt quite old as I looked around the waiting room at the fidgeting, nervous looking teenagers there to pass their ‘driving’ theory tests. It’s funny, that was me, thirty years ago! But we didn’t have the theory test then. It was easy, just the practical. That’s why it took me four attempts to pass mine! Yes, four! I kept failing on the same things. Stupid boy. But hey, I like to think of it as having slightly more experience than most people so it’s made me a better driver. Yeah right!

It wasn’t long before an official looking guy came in and asked who was taking a bike test. There was only me. He took my details and led me to one of the booths that was set up with a computer, key board and mouse on a desk and a chair. The other young novices were also then led to their respective booths. Funny, but even after all those years, I was still a bit nervous of all this. When you were ready, you started the programme. I don’t know what I was worried about, because all the questions were straight out of that book I had been reading and the answers were multiple choice. There was one though, that I just drew a blank and I kept going back to it. It was a road sign. A rectangular sign, blue background, a white arrow pointing up and a red arrow pointing down. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember whether that meant that you had priority over oncoming traffic, or the other way round. Surely, if that arrow pointing down in red was a warning to give way to oncoming traffic? Anyway, I went for you having the priority.

The second part, the hazard perception, was good. Just like my DVD, but you had to be careful you didn’t keep clicking the mouse in an effort to cheat the system. If you got the particular hazard correct, there would be a little red flag appear at the bottom of the screen. I think I was doing quite well.

It was over! I got up and walked out to the waiting area. That official looking gentleman was handing out the pass or fail certificates to the still nervous expectant looking kids. I didn’t notice how many had passed.

Mr. Royle? He said as he looked in my direction. You’re going to be very pleased with yourself. I had passed with flying colours! That deserves a couple of beers tonight, I thought.

Marvellous!

Chapter 3

Feather the clutch Davy boy.

Motorcycle crash course.

5 March-9 March 2007.

I now had two years to pass the practical side of the test, or I would have to do the theory again. So after booking a weeks holiday from work, I booked up with MOTO-VATION for their 4 day full licence DAS course. Ernie Bamford who runs the training school takes care of everything, i.e. bike hire, insurance, helmets, protective clothing, CBT and even books up your test at the end of the week.

I arrived that Monday morning at his house in Lyneham. It was at the end of a cul-de-sac with most of his front garden taken up by motor bikes of all descriptions. He greeted me at his front door and said that I was one of two people on the course. Steve arrived shortly after and we were both ushered inside to his front room where we sat down with a cup of coffee at his dining room table which was adorned with one of those play mats with roads and houses all over it. He’s got various scale model cars and bikes placed on it, all in anticipation for the days tuition. He really made you feel quite calm and relaxed about the whole thing, I didn’t feel nervous at all.

After we ran through the basics, it was time to actually get out on the bikes! We got kitted up with helmets and jackets equipped with armour and radio ear pieces so we could hear Ernie’s instructions and we were ready for our first lesson. First day was out on the 125’s. Our learner bikes were a Chinese make, can’t remember the name, but they were bright red. That narrows it down a bit I suppose. Sweet little things. I must have looked like some sort of ‘bandy gorilla’ riding this two wheeled stallion from the east, with my 6’2" frame, but they were great. They had all the basics, four speed, indicators, mirrors, etc.

Once we had familiarised ourselves with all the controls, we followed Ernie out into the big wide world. We must have looked like little ducklings following their mother out for the first time to swim on the river. Except one of them was an over grown primate.

This was great. I hadn’t got much experience riding motor bikes, so with me the clutch was either in or out, nothing in between. I couldn’t pull away or change gear very smoothly at all. We followed Ernie to what must have been a car park for the local church in Lyneham where he got us to ride up and down and doing a ‘u’ turn at each end. It was here that he could see more closely how we rode the bikes. Feather the clutch Davy boy. I heard him say through the ear piece. What’s he on about? I thought. Not realising I need to pull in and ‘slip’ the clutch when I want to slow down.

After a few circuits of the car park, we were off following Ernie again around the quieter roads of Lyneham and before we knew it, our first day was over. I went home that afternoon feeling quite pleased with myself that I had got through the first day without too much trouble and any swearing in my right ear.

The second day saw me and Steve doing more of the riding round the quiet roads, but now we were starting to do such manoeuvres as the ‘U turn’ in the road, (without putting your foot down) hill start and emergency stop. The ‘U turn’ was probably the most difficult, but the secret was to lightly use the foot brake while you’re turning and turn your head to look at say a lamp post for example that you would focus on further down the road. Before you started the turn, you would look behind over your right shoulder to select your focal object. Then, as if by magic you could do it. But it did take a lot of practice which Ernie made sure we had. Right Davy boy, that’s another beer you owe me for putting your foot down!

We would usually fill up with fuel every day and set the trip counter to zero each time and from this, you could see we were riding at least 70 miles a day. We were getting quite use to this now and Ernie started to take us into neighbouring Swindon, really because our actual test with the examiner was booked at the end of the week there. We were doing higher speeds now. We needed to. Part of the test would be