My parents didn’t want me to have a bike, Dad’s brother had spent many years perfecting the art of falling off a Triumph Twin, and Mum’s job as a secretary in the Service Dept offices at Triumph involved a weekly pillion ride to the bank with a promising young chap called Percy Tait!

I bought a well used Raleigh Runabout when I was sixteen and had been using it to ride to work for about five months before I found out it was supposed to be taxed and insured, and that was the end of that! A fellow apprentice took me to a few motocross events in the early eighties, but I felt like a fool riding around on a borrowed Kawasaki and wearing my Derry boots, so I stopped going.

Fast forward to 1992 and whilst in a bike shop in Grantham with a work mate, I spotted a blue Suzuki DR125 and it was love at first sight! With test passed a few months later I progressed through a Honda XR250, a BMW R80G/S, and then a succession of BMW boxers. My current bike is a 1200GS but the off-road bug still bites and I also have a KTM that I use for enduros (not so many these days) and trail riding.

I joined CWAM in 2000 after a poorly judged overtake saw me gambolling down the A427 near Lutterworth and I realised I was not God’s answer to motorcycling. I have learned so much from the experienced bikers in the group that I feel it is right to repay my gratitude by giving up my spare time to help out in any way I can. My current roles as an Observer and Events Co-ordinator enable me to put back in a little of what I got out.