Holiday weekend ride-outs.
August 28 2009
Bikes at Talla reservoir.
A great day out!
This weekend is an English Bank Holiday weekend and as usual we'll be expecting a great number of you from south of the Border to travel up to the Scottish Borders to experience some of the UK's Top 10 best motorcycling roads. There's no excuse this weekend for keeping the bike in the garage, there are only light showers forecast for Saturday, mostly dry on Sunday and light rain on Monday. Pack your waterproofs and a spare set of gloves and get out there and enjoy yourselves, responsibly of course.
We'll be out as usual looking to meet up with as many of you as possible, we'll be trying to get rid of as many freebies as we can and pass on the benefit of our training and experience to you - all for free. Where better to get tips on advanced motorcycle riding than from advanced police riders. We'll help you improve your skills to help you get the most from your ride-out. Our leisure time away from work is important and we all need to make the most of it - so why not look to ride your bike better. If you take on a couple of the pointers from the officers and work on them over a period of time, you'll see just how much they go towards improving your own ability and how much less of an effort it is to ride the bike without making mistakes and giving yourself, or your pillion, a fright.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we'll be running the routes you'll find on our ROUTES page. If you've not had a look at this page I'd recommend that you do. Pick a route or two that fits in with where you want to cross the Border and run the route, just to see what you're missing. Trying joining up two or three routes during the day taking the opportunity to stop at one of our Biker Friendly refreshment stops highlighted on the maps. On Monday we'll be at the Glen Cafe at St. Mary's Loch on the A708. We'll be joined by colleagues from our Camera Safety Partnership and Road Safety Unit, again to give you the benefit of our knowledge. You'll also get a very rare chance to see the workings of one of the latest camera vans - one that has a system that can take pictures of errant drivers on a 360 degree plane. This might be the one and only time you want your photograph taken by one of these things - come along for a look and a cup of coffee, we might treat you!
If you are intending heading in our direction sometime over the weekend please remember that many of the fields do not have fences bordering them and sheep have no road sense. They have not, as yet, mastered the green cross code and often wander about in front of bikes - take care and slow down if you're near them, they can make one awful mess of the front of a bike - I've seen it. Watch out also for farm vehicles and mud and debris they leave after exiting a field - it's usually in the middle on the bend and it's right where we want to be on the road - always think what might be around the corner.
Have a great weekend, take care and watch out for each other.
