Got my copy of the Long Way Down DVD through the post today. I’ll need to go away and watch it! (Another for my queue of motorcycle DVDs).

I’ve been surfing around the internet looking at motorbikes and found this picture of a big fat guy on a wee blue bike (yes it is me).

It’s been a while since I spent money on bike skills, I guess the last amount was payment for my Motorbike Skill for Life package with the IAM and associate Observer’s fees last year. I’ve always lacked a bit of confidence with my slow speed manoeuvring though it comes and goes which I think points the cause to be in my head rather than a lack of skills. When it comes to buying training for slow speed the choice in the UK is rather limited, most concentrate on the important higher speed stuff that is not only the main problem area for casualties but is also a bit more fun and therefore more commercially viable.

I read a good write up in Scotland on Sunday on a course run by a consultancy down in Yorkshire and I’ve been thinking of going on that for a while, I even spoke to my local trainer about doing similar and he was actually all up for me doing the training down South. He travelled to do his Rospa training down in the Birmingham area and enjoyed the experience and different perspective it gave him.

Spring this year was a bit busy with my 10th Anniversary, and getting on with my IAM bike test so when the advance dates came through for 2008 I had a good look at the schedule. This year they’ve recognised that many folks like to do the road courses together, so I’ve booked up to do MC1 and MC3 over the one weekend in April 2008. I’m really looking forward to it, whatever happens I’ll learn something and they get a really good write up on Machine Control.

The recent trip by Euan McGregor and Charlie Boorman will start airing on BBC2 on Sunday 28th October at 9pm. Superb!

Remember that the clocks go back that morning too.

BMW recently announced their new HP2 Sport motorcycle, very nice, but at a price.

I’ll have one thanks.

The new clutch is excellent, feels completely different, and the slip in 4th and 5th gear is gone. Now I’m having to get used to the full engine range in 3rd to 5th gears!

And like the cars I have driven with new clutches, the quicker biting point is taking a wee getting used to. I think I’m doing well – I haven’t stalled it yet!

Mrs AlistairL got the call earlier from the chap who fixes my motorbike to say that he had fitted its new clutch. The clutch has been slipping in high gears since I got the motorbike so it will be really interesting to see what the motorbike is like to ride.

The clutch on the R1100RS is dry, like a car, instead of the type you get in most motorbikes which sits in the engine oil. Slipping the clutch on a motorcycle is essential to its low speed stability, hence most being set up to endure extra slipping.

I’m off to pick the motorbike up tomorrow evening.

I got a letter a wee while ago from Motorrad Central in Dalkeith (my local BMW Motorcycle dealer) saying they were going to close. I waited and waited for their website to mention this, only to see a post saying they have changed their mind.

So Motorrad Central East in Dalkeith are staying open, which I think is a good thing, even though the propect of me buying new is never likely to happen.

Its over three years since Steve Hislop, the motorcycle racer, died in a helicopter crash in the Scottish Borders. The BBC website has a news item saying an FAI is to be held.

He was an interesting chap, quite focussed like motorcycle racers are, and had a mixed career. When he was good, he was very very good, the rest of the time his demons held him back from the kind of success he had potential for. Last time I saw him was giving a television interview at Knockhill during qualifying for the British Superbike round – he was resting up after an accident, it was later that week that they discovered he had a broken neck.

There’s a good biography of him that has been out for a few years now, and the family and I visited the room dedicated to him in Hawick a few years ago.