Fazer Owners Club Unofficial

The weekend started for me (Urbanswine-Derek) with a long ride up to North Wales from Sunny Kent. I met up with Fazerman (Meirion) and our instructor, Paul Cheshire (The Flying Pig) at the bottom of his drive in Conwy at 10:00 on the Saturday.

Paul is a serving Police Officer in the North Wales Police. He is a traffic cop and is a police class one rider. We were offered a cup of tea and Paul started with his talk on THE SYSTEM.

I say talk but it was a discussion, with Paul giving Meirion and myself plenty of opportunities to voice our opinion or ask questions. This was an eye opener as he gave us a whole host of statistics about fatal bike crashes.

The most notable, for me, was that 90%(ish) of fatal bike accidents are caused by biker error and not some daft cager pulling out on them! He gave us examples of accidents that he had attended and how this correlated with the statistics.

For example most fatal bike accidents are on left hand bends and on sunny Sundays with dry road conditions. This was after all the reason we were doing the training, so that we could minimise the risk to ourselves whilst riding our bikes.

At about 13:00 we headed off to the chippie for pie & chips and a mental rest! (and a fag for Fazey!)

He said, don’t think about me behind you (A traffic Cop!!) just ride the way you normally do. Ha! I was a tad cautious.

Then he went in front to demonstrate the theory. We were wired for sound and he gave a running commentary of his thoughts and WHY he was doing what he was. For example, moving his position in the road. We then had a short stint up front with the other student coming up the back. As the day wore on Paul would chip in with little ditties such as…..Well it’s about that time of day that statistically we are most likely to crash etc etc and remind us how tired we had become.

To start with THE SYSTEM is very demanding and the mental pressure is much more than I had bargained for! All that gathering information had taken its toll. We stopped back at Paul’s for about 16:45 and had a short debrief concluding with have a good time tonight but remember it’s a long day tomorrow. We had covered about 100 miles.

Merion then took me on a ride across some of the most stunning moorland with long twisty roads that you can see in to the distance. Very fast! Then it was Horseshoe Pass and on to Wrexham and a curry!! Bloody good day.

Day Two: We Rode from Meirion's to Conway on the A5 and just had to pass the 5 or 6 Power Rangers on Ninja’s and CBR600’s! We arrived at Paul’s again ready for the days riding. A short briefing from Paul, about the fact that “This is an enforcement day in North Wales” and that the police would be out in large numbers.

We also had a short discussion on the route, well Paul and Meirion did! I had no idea of the places they were mentioning.

Meirion led first and almost immediately upped the anti! Just a little more speed than the day before to say the least. Paul seemed happy with this as the riding was of a good standard and carried out safely. I was then up front and the pressure was on! This is not a nice feeling, being scrutinised by a Cop! However, Paul was quick to put me at ease and I got on with it. We stopped at a bridge that had been the scene of an accident and Paul explained what had happened. It was a left-hander and had happened on a sunny day. I also saw the biggest pile of slate ever at Blaenau Ffestiniog! We carried on and had lunch in Rhyader. A café of sorts that I do not recommend! From then on it was back up Wales to Welshpool and on up to Wrexham. We ended up at Meirions place for a debrief at about 17:00. I was shagged out and ready to stop at this point as we had done over 250 miles! We had had a lot less chat from Paul over the radio but this was he said because we were doing so well!!!!! Much better than Glynne when he had seen him. Paul had a little trouble with his Pan European and Meirion had to give him a little push so he could get home! Was it worth £80.00, you bet, I may even book up for a refresher this time next year.

Thank you Fazerman for putting up the challenge to this Soft Southern Nancy! Glynne for getting the discount and Paul for his expert tuition and advice.


Derek (Urbanswine), Paul, Meirion (Fazerman)	Really, Meirion shorts and T Shirt will be fine	Sunshine in Wales?	A fine example of what exposure to "safe" levels of radiation can do - shit Meirion must have been eating the stuff!

'outrageously thin' bloke pushes 'not so thin' bloke on 'not so light' bike