Chair’s Chatter

Hello fellow LAMkins,

It’s been a funny few weeks, only in as much as the weather cannot make up its mind what it is doing. It’s cold one day so the following day you dress for the cold and go out on your bike and slowly boil in the sunshine. I swear in this country we can have 3 seasons in one day. It was unfortunate that the weather was not smiling upon us and a second Banstead had to be cancelled this year. It turned out be quite a nice day even though it did start very cold. Fingers crossed for the April Banstead.

In the current climate where the cost of everything is just going up and up, wherever we can save pennies must be a good thing. I recently “broke” my Motorrad pillion seat bag. The zip gave up and would no longer hold the 2 sides together. This zip is (a) waterproof and (b) an integral part of the bag, as it takes the whole weight of the contents of the bag. After much googling and internet searching I discovered I have a Motorrad Soft Bag 2, which is now no longer available. The 3 is also no longer available. Okay, so I’ve had it about 7 years and I really like it. That just leaves the version 4 available to buy. The cost of this bag is just over £200. Before I was ready to part with such a sum of money for a bag, I thought I’d explore other options first. I phoned Timpsons, yes the one that can usually be found outside Tesco, and asked them if they might be able to replace a waterproof zip in a bag and they said they’d have a look at it. I was going to Tesco anyway so took it along with me. I got there and handed it over. The man looked like he was about to attack it with a giant pair of nail clippers! I thought it was broken already so he couldn’t exactly break it any more. Not sure what he did, but with a bit of magic and trickery he fixed the zip! Apparently, over time a zip can become loose and therefore no longer be able to put pressure on the two sides to pull them together. He just squeezed the zipper mechanism closed again. My bag was fixed! The £200 remained in my pocket and the nice man wouldn’t take any money for it. This is not the first motorcycle item I have taken to Timpsons and had a successful repair or alteration. So before you give up on an item that is broken or no longer functioning, give your local Timpsons a go, you may be surprised ... and no, I'm not sponsored by them!

Don’t forget the Norfolk training weekend coming up at the end of April, I believe there are 3 Associate spaces left at the time of writing, so if you want to reach test standard sooner rather than later and get some miles in with excellent scenery and great company, this is the weekend for you. This is the perfect opportunity to have 2 all day OR’s on the Friday and Saturday and get closer to your goal and test standard. Hopefully by then we’ll also have some spring weather.

In the meantime stay safe, stay warm and stay upright.

See you soon.

Jane x