Well, instead of being as near to the 8th March as possible, the Scottish Motorcycle show at Ingliston is a later weekend this year – Saturday 14th March and Sunday 15th March.

The most exciting thing I’ve done recently involved a short trip to Barnard Castle to the factory of Scott Leathers. Kindly the folks there offered to make me an appointment during my holidays when the factory was closed to measure me up and talk about what they could make for me.

I’ve known about Scott Leathers for as long as I’ve ridden motorcycles. The riding school that I learned with used David Grieve motorcycles in Buckhaven for servicing, and Dave Grieve stocked Scott Leathers kit. So the first textile jacket and salopettes that I bought in 1995 were made by Scott Leathers. Pouring over their website, mention of “custom fit” caught my eye – obviously made to measure would be too expensive, but the idea of making an existing product to my strange dimensions would be cheaper surely.

This all came about because I trashed my Hein Gericke kit earlier in the year, so I bought another jacket and trousers but these were thinner than my old jacket – and didn’t fit as well. Feeling doesn’t have much to do with safety, and they still had armour in them, but I wasn’t as happy.

I noticed that Scott Leathers were now selling jackets that they had designed for the police. As the Police employ riders in a professional capacity, they have to provide them with kit that meets proper CE standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The thing is, go into practically any shop that sells motorcycle clothing and you will find that the only thing that comes with a CE mark is the armour that is added to the suits. That’s right, the jackets, trousers, suits, boots and gloves are not classified as protective clothing – they are just fashion items in an official sense. The only thing that has to be tested is the thing that we have to wear by law – a crash helmet.

Reading up on PPE for Motorcyclists took me to the excellent work website of Paul Varnsverry where he not only trys to explain the long path to the standard for protective clothing for motorcyclists jackets, trousers or suits – EN 13595. The only manufacturer that I was aware of doing textile kit up to the standard was a Scandanavian company called Halvarsson. But reading into it more, I discovered that Paul Varnsverry had had some involvement with the kit at Scott Leathers. Scott Leathers produce a textile jacket that meets level 2 in all areas, seam burst etc.

As well as being a british company, Scotts were reasonably local (3 hours ride / drive from where i live) and their product was around a third to a half of the comparative safety kit. So having swapped a few emails with the nice people at Scotts, I arranged to pop down and see what they could make me and get measured. Mrs AlistairL and I went to the factory and were met by Jimmy Aird, the MD of Scotts. We looked at what they make for the Metropolitan Police and the options of the non-waterproof vented summer jacket or the waterproof unvented version. They can also be either black or hi viz yellow, with or without reflective bands and in short or three quarter length. They can also be either CE approved or not. Although all jackets have armour which is CE approved, these jackets can also be made with a special liner that prevents it wearing through in a mandated time (or at least that is what I understood from our chat). Then I got measured up for my suit – learning in the process that I have the longest arms that Jimmy has measured in anyone in his experience!

So I have ordered a black jacket and trousers, with reflective stripes and CE approved. That has got me thinking about CE approval for my gloves and boots now!! Though it turns out that newer versions of my Altberg boots are CE approved for the relevant standard.

Then we had a chat about development of the standards which Jimmy was involved in, and me showing my ignorance of the illustrious motorcycle racing career of Jimmy Aird – even though the chap comes from Auchtertool which is not that far from where I grew up in Glenrothes. Jimmy was/is a works rider for CCM and is still competing and winning titles at his age of over 50, racing on classic off-road bikes. I even found a video of Jimmy Aird competing this year on youtube – starts from the front, finishes from the front!!

I am really looking forward to getting the kit once it is made up and getting out in it.

Having a nice slow start this morning I hunted around the channels looking for some motorbike stuff to watch and stumbled across a programme called “Superbike School UK”. I actually thought this might be a programme that I had seen before, but I was chuffed to realise that it was a series of programmes about the California Superbike School in the UK. CSS is the track based course to go on, and came to the UK about ten years ago. It is based on the materials of Keith Code who wrote amongst others the Twist of the Wrist books which I have mentioned in previous posts.

Unfortunately the programme I have just found is episode 6 which is the last of the series so I hope they re-run it. It actually shows the elements of the drills of the school and gives a great introduction. It is quite interesting as I just booked another course with i2imca, to do MC2 next year which is the off road element and as you will expect deals with slippery stuff but on motocross bikes. That done, there is only MC4 to do which is supermoto. I was also chatting with Ben, the EDAM associate I have been working with and he was talking about doing CSS level 1, which is an excellent compliment to the road stuff we have been looking at with the IAM.

Out again for a short ride yesterday, so I took part of the route we travelled on my Qualified Observers test the other week. A nice wee bimble, so I connected up the curly Autocom lead and plugged in the MP3 player to listen to some tunes on the way.

Setting out from home I got some petrol at Shell Lizzie Bryce, just near the house, only needed about half a tank or so but wanted to make sure I was well fueled up for the wee run to the borders. Then off along the A71 to join the Edinburgh bypass, then along to Fairmilehead to take the road South to the Borders.

I left the A720 and turned South to join the A702, this is a gently undulating road with a few villages and 3d stuff going on i.e. it goes left and right and goes up and down, with some bits where both happen. I travelled on this south until you come across the A721 turning left off the A702. On a map it doesn’t look much, but because it is a major intersection the junction is well painted, laid out and has good visibility leading up to it. On the way down the A702 there are a couple of 40 and 30 limits to take account of. On my run yesterday there were a couple of interesting vehicles – both with accelleration belying their size. One was a camper van which could shift once out of the lower gears, and another was a middle size coach. It made planning an overtake interesting as once they were up to 45 ish they would pull quite strongly to 60, making an overtake a bit difficult.

Once at the A702 I cut across the wee twisty road to the A72, which is a fairly well used route north to Edinburgh. On this route it gives a hint at what is to follow. The Scottish Borders are covered with a network of rivers cutting their way to either the East or West Coasts to join the major rivers of the Clyde and Forth, so most roads will find you either following a river valley or cutting up and across a river valley. This means lots of twisting with ascents and descents, which means you have to keep your wits about you. At this point I stayed on the A72, which rather than continuing North cuts West. Turning the corner faces you with a sobering sign – on this road they post temporary warning signs for bikers during the summer months, showing the number killed or seriously injured on the road. Taking this into account I took my time.

The A72 in this direction starts by following a river valley along the side of “Tarth Water” as it heads to join a larger river “Lyne Water” as you can guess the smaller river valley twists and turns as does the road that has been built along the side of it. These twists are also known as the Castle Craig Corners and have unfortunately seen a few accidents. I took it easy along there, having come the other direction to find gravel on my line in the past. As the valley joins the larger river it opens out to be less twisty, but with that comes more speed. This showed itself with a van and car having a race coming the other direction, no problem though as you can see them across the valley to the left under Hog Hill. Then we cross the river further on so the slope is now on our left instead of the right. Coming down to Peebles introduces more sweeping curves with the odd strange corner due to the landscape. Nearer the Western Approach to Peebles we also have more trees – these are conifer based forests so they are there all year round, rather than the hedgerows at the moment which are thicker during the summer months. Along there was a left hander with flowers attached to the fence – a memorial to someone who didn’t do so well on the road.

I had a wee stop at the carpark on the left as you go in to Peebles, and had a wee go at slow maneuvering – still a big weak point for me but practice will help. Then I got off and tucked my gloves into my sleeves while it wasn’t raining. Thankfully it didn’t rain at all that day, but it meant some more flies.

Then I headed North on the A703 Edinburgh road, with a couple of overtakes. I was taking it easy again and perhaps missed one or two safe opportunities because I was dawdling, no massive problem there. Then through Penecuik and joined the A720 at the same place. It was beginning to get into rush hour so I did some filtering up the middle of the two lanes, taking my time. Lots of drivers move out of the way (both trucks and cars) to assist even though there was plenty of room. Thanks to them for that. I take it really steadily and only filter really when the traffic is stationary, moving back in to lane when it gets moving again.

Then off at the Calder junction with a reminder of the white van man syndrome you see there a lot. Two things happen a lot at this junction with the A71 – Sighthill has a lot of delivery company depots so at teatime they all rush home to base. This means a lot of vans making last minute swerves off the bypass onto the slip road – so if you see a red or yellow van in the outside lane at Baberton, watch out for them. The other vans take the right lane for a left turn onto the A71, to try and beat the queue. Such is, but most drivers of that ilk will also race you to the roundabout at the park and ride to get ahead of you. I had a white van undertake me last night, which then meant I had to follow him all the way to the turn off for Kirknewton. An object lesson in patience for me – whatever lane you take on approach to the roundabout at the Hermiston Park and Ride, such a driver will dive to the other lane and try to beat you to the A71. Note to self – spot them at the slip road and let them sit on the tail of someone else.

So a nice wee short ride followed by a quick chat on the phone with Nigel Bowers who is a really nice chap from Staffordshire who earns a few pennies for his retirement helping people to ride their motorcycles better. He has an interesting technical setup on his bike involving three cameras, sony recording kit, Autocom audio wiring and bike to bike comms. He has also posted a large number of videos on Youtube, which can now be viewed in high quality too!

I thought I would do the equivalent of obtaining Dumbo’s feather and now have a new set of Bridgestone BT-021s on my R1100RS, so there is nothing apart from my head to fix on the bike.

There was a minor mixup from the supplier to the garage and they gave me a call on Friday to apologise that they had been sent BT-020s and had ordered the proper tyres for a Saturday delivery, so they kept the bike overnight for me so they could fit the tyres when they arrived.

As it was I had planned a day out on Saturday so I was through in Glasgow and arranged to pick up the bike on Sunday at C&J Wilsons in Uphall. After lunch at the Burrell Collection, we popped over to Hein Gericke on Great Western Road. Strangely enough hardly anything fit apart from their discount range so I now have a new textile jacket and pants at about half the price of my original HG kit. I’ve also got new boots on order, Alpinestars GPS-3 WPs (shiny shiny).

Roll on to today to run the tyres in, I picked the bike up in Uphall – checking the pattern on the front tyre which is much cooler than the BT-020, then up the M9 past Stirling and up to the little chef for a late breakfast. All was good and working on turning corners without too much panic setting in, and learning how to travel in a straight line with a rear tyre with a proper profile on it!

Then headed further up the M9 towards Perth and the Broxden roundabout where I fueled up, still a bit slow on slow (and particularly slow left handers – see my previous posts) stuff but getting there. Then the rain started. Had a few circuits around the streets of Perth – down past the Tay, past Dunkeld Road, past the bus station. All to practice slow speed lefts and rights. I need to keep practising to get rid of the feeling I am going to drop the bike, and although at first I was running a bit wide I started getting it tighter.

Then out of town and the rain was picking up, came off the M90 and decided whether or not to go through Newburgh to Cupar, but decided to head Glenfarg way – haven’t been there for years. I thought it was twistier than that – or perhaps I’m getting better. Up through there and a right turn and through Milnathort. What a surprise it was to see all of the house building work in the area. Then on through Kinross and Cowdenbeath, old stomping grounds and I worked there in my summer holidays from Fife College. Rain was getting heavier and heavier, so I chose to head back to the M90 through Crossgates and joined at Halbeath. Then a pretty nondescript ride back via the M8 to Livingston.

A reminder for wet riding though – a small tip is to remember to tuck your gloves under your waterproof kit. All of my stuff has the membranes and keeps me dry, but today all of the water was running off my jacket into the cuffs of my gloves. I swear water ran out when I lifted my arms at the end of my journey. I should have tucked them in at the petrol stop at Broxden rather than leave them, and I would have had dry gloves. All my stuff is dripping round the house now

The bike is in getting a new pair of tyres, the front is getting a bit near the wear indicators for comfort and the rear is quite squared off. What happens over time is that the round profile of a rear motorcycle tyre gets worn off as you ride upright most of the time. After a while this makes it harder to steer as you go over the new square edge.

I’ve decided to go for the new Bridgestone Battlax sport touring tyres the BT-021s front and back. The bike got a pair of their predecessors over 2 years ago and they have been fine for me. The bike was booked in to get the wheels changed with the new tyres but apparently the garage supplier sent BT-020s, so they have a Saturday order in to try and get the bike back to me tomorrow.

There is blurb etc about what they’ve done to develop the tyres, but the main change I can see is that the tread pattern on the front looks more funky.