Thanks to bifocals, one of us could see where we were going

I’ve never been on a Track Day of the sort you see advertised to UK motorcyclists, when you pay a fee to take your bike on to a race circuit and maybe get some tuition, the idea being to let you explore or develop racing-type skills.  That sort of thing might appeal to sports bike riders but a GoldWing on a race circuit?   I didn’t think so.

I had taken the opportunity to ride my Wing around the Nurnburgring during one of its public access sessions a few years ago when I was touring in the Mosel with some other riders who were keen to do it, but that was a one-off experience of just two laps; the first one in a state of high anxiety getting used to keeping out of the way of the really high speed lunatics among the high volumes of traffic on the circuit and the second one less terrified and experiencing the beginnings of enjoyment of what only a race circuit can provide – bends and sequences of bends which have been specifically designed to provide challenging riding.

The Nurnburgring during public sessions is something of a madhouse and I have no desire to do it again.  But the opportunity to ride on a race circuit for a whole day, free of charge and without having to cope with lots of other traffic on it, well that’s a different matter altogether.  I jumped at the chance.

There are however no free lunches in this world so there was of course a catch.  Access to the circuit for a whole day had been donated by the owners of the Three Sister Race Circuit near St Helens to Galloway’s Society for the Blind.  Along with other riders in my IAM Group, I would be providing visually handicapped people with the experience of being ridden, at speed, around a race circuit as a pillion passenger. They would also have a chance to ride in a sports car and to drive a dual control car and to be driven (off Circuit) in vans and lorries. It was to be quite a day out – and for about 80 of them altogether, so quite a logistic challenge for us too.

Visually handicapped people had opportunities to ride in and drive all sorts of vehicles

My South Lancashire IAM Group, SLAM, had supported Galloways with a riding day for some years but this had taken place on the runway of a private airfield.  It took place annually and there were always plenty of volunteers so one way and another I had never been involved.  Riding up and down a runway had never struck me as appealing and nor could I get my head around why blind people could enjoy it.  Wouldn’t it be a bit like sitting on a rocking chair in front of a large and noisy fan?

But a couple of years ago the runway had been closed and dug up for development and it was only when the owners of the Three Sisters had agreed to make their Circuit available that the annual event could continue.  And since the offer was restricted to a weekday, which seriously restricted who in SLAM would be available to volunteer to do the riding, I got my chance to take part.

I still didn’t really see what would be attractive to blind people about being ridden as pillion passengers but of course I was being very blinkered; blind people, or at least some of them, find the thrills (and the risks) of motorcycling attractive in the same way as we motorcyclists do.  Just because they cannot ride a bike themselves because of their visual handicap doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy being a passenger, in the same way some bikers have enjoyed being ridden around a circuit by Ron Haslam on a specially adapted racing bike.

A smiling passenger, kitted out ready to go.

I don’t think I would be brave enough to do that myself, but I can see how others might want to.  One of our blind passengers, a young man whomight have been dangerously without fear as well as completely without sight, asked me, quite seriously, if I would let him ride my GoldWing while I sat on the back seat telling him which way to go.  He wasn’t for being talked out of it either.  (Another option on this day was for the blind people to drive a dual control car themselves under an instructor’s supervision on a separate small circuit, he presumably got the idea after successfully doing that.)

A flexible, team approach was necessary for boarding some passengers

But would I enjoy (or even be able to cope with) a bunch of blind pillion passengers, over which I would not be able to pick and choose in any way, while also trying to cope with riding the challenging bends of a racing circuit?  That was the question.  As we rode in convoy to Three Sisters Race Circuit I wasn’t entirely clear what I was letting myself in for.

So we arrived, hung around for a while, then had a cup of coffee and a safety briefing by the Circuit Manager, then off we went to do a few practice laps.  We had the circuit completely to ourselves and it was bone dry.  It’s a fairly short (only 1 kilometre) and tight circuit which is used primarily for kart racing but it also hosts motorcycle events and it is used extensively for motorcycle testing.

Only selected passengers could perch on the Fireblade

The surface was fairly good with few undulations and although there was one section containing quite a challenging sequence of tightening bends, the circuit wasn’t difficult to get the hang of, not least because we weren’t trying to race (i.e to go as fast as possible) merely to get round safely at a reasonably brisk pace – enough to be exiting for the passengers but without getting in any way scary.

There were six bikes altogether: one Fireblade, two BMW GSs, one Pan European, a Yamaha and my GL1800.  We all thoroughly enjoyed our practise laps and after a while I found that I was getting the hang of the Circuit sufficiently to be scraping the footpegs on most of the bends, especially around the right hand hairpin near where most of the people were standing.  It was great fun and I could have very happily continued lapping for much longer were it not for the need to get on with the job in hand, which was providing passengers with the experience of doing it.

But there were plenty who could!

As it happens my noisy scraping around the hairpin had had something of an alarming effect on some of the spectators.  One of the car drivers sought me out to tell me that something on the bike was dragging on the ground on all the corners and did I know?

My bike is fitted with aluminium spray shields below the engine crash guards, to help keep my feet warm and dry in Lancashire weather and these touch the ground, making rather a lot of noise, at about the same time the foot pegs touch down when I lean into a bend at all enthusiastically.

While you can reduce the noise (and sparks) from dragging your footpegs simply by lifting your foot up slightly as the footpeg touches, there is no way of stopping the noise which those splash guards make – and it fact it’s quite useful to have them sounding off.   It therefore became necessary to explain to passengers that my bike wouldn’t be about to fall over as I went round the bends if a scraping noise developed.  Not one of them batted an eyelid.

Slowing for exit into the Pit Lane

We set up shop with our array of spare jackets, gloves and helmets in the Pits and the visually handicapped passengers (only some of whom were completely blind) were brought to us in small groups by the Carers which Galloways had laid on as escorts.  They were accompanied by their guide dogs, who were lovely and friendly but sadly there was no plan to give them a pillion ride so they had to stay and pine (which they did, loudly in some cases) while their owners were on the Circuit.

We worked out a system for introducing ourselves to our passengers and them to the bikes, kitting them out and helping them to mount the bikes – which in some cases required a team effort.  We then gave each of them two or three laps of the Circuit before returning to the Pits to change passengers.

There was no way to shake off the Healey on the Circuit

Some of the passengers were less well physically suited to being a pillion passenger than others and I eventually realised that I had been invited along with my GoldWing as the heavyweight, to cope with the ones who could not be perched on the rear of a Fireblade or even the Pan.  It was clearly safer and more comfortable for the larger or less physically able passengers to ride on the GoldWing so we tactfully steered them in that direction.  The visually handicapped people who had chosen to come along ranged in age from 12 to over 70 and they came in all shapes and sizes, including two really quite large ones.  In some cases it was quite a challenge to get them onto the bike and occasionally I had to position the bike close to a low wall, from the top of which the passenger could step sideways on to the bike.  One lady was worried that she would damage her artificial hip if she lifted her leg high enough to get on the bike so I explained that I had one of those too and there was nothing to worry about; she survived the experience.

I am of course on the large size myself and I had taken along my largest spare jacket, an XXXXL from days when i was even bigger.  This was a blessing because the other riders were all relatively slim.  Even so it took two of us pulling hard to get the zip fastened for one passenger – and I found myself riding those laps, of necessity, leaning well forward in my seat.

Three Sisters Race Circuit at St Helens

I suppose the passengers wouldn’t have come anywhere near the bikes at all unless they were up for riding on them but I have to say they surprised me, given their advanced years and in some cases conspicuous frailty, by their pluck and determination to get on the bikes.  They were also invariably insistent on going as fast as possible and being very appreciative afterwards.     I didn’t attempt to go as fast as possible of course, just fast enough to allow them to experience the bike’s acceleration and to lean far enough over to feel that we were leaning over and occasionally make a bit of noise with the foot shields.  The very last thing I or any of the other riders wanted to do was to risk an accident.

And therein lay a problem because as our lunch break finished it started to rain – only lightly at first but eventually it was coming down really quite heavily.  Our passengers were not in the least deterred by the prospect of a soaking but the circuit became very slippery, especially on the section with the combination of tightening bends and we had to slow down almost to a stop.  The race line was worn smooth and was covered in a film of water which in places seemed to have oil on it too.  On two or three  occasions I felt the back wheel slipping, once very alarmingly, despite the much slower pace and the extra care I was taking.

Believe it or not this guy preferred to perch on the Fireblade

There was therefore no option, short of calling a complete halt, to taking a slow outside line around the bends, to find better grip and using the parts of the circuit where there still was some grip to open up a little.  Our speeds unavoidably dropped by more than half and at one stage I thought we would have to call a halt.  Happily however the heavy rain didn’t last long and there were parts of the circuit where we could still accelerate briskly and lean over into a bend so the passengers still got their thrills.  And later in the afternoon the rain stopped and the Circuit started to dry out.

Noisy Spray Shields

We were sharing the Circuit with five sports cars: a Morgan Plus Four, a TVR, an E Type Jaguar,  a Mitsubishi Evolution and 1961 Austin Healey 3000, the last being driven with real gusto.  During the heavy rain they could keep up a better pace than we could but even they had difficulties; on the section of the Circuit with the3 combination of tightening bends the Austin Healey spun twice round as he lost grip, fortunately without hitting anything or coming off.  Happily that was the only such incident of the day and the Circuit Manager didn’t see it – otherwise the Healey driver might have been given a black flag and I wouldn’t have been able to persuade him to drive me round the circuit in his lovely (and lively) car at the end of the day.   The track was drying out nicely by then and it was an exhilarating ride.

Footpeg wear wasn't all done on this track day

So there we are.  I had the good fortune to be invited to give pillion rides to a dozen or so visually handicapped people of varying ages and varying shapes and sizes.  They were keen, interested and appreciative and it was a real privilege.  And I got to ride 40 or 50 laps of a race circuit in the process, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I will certainly be volunteering again next year.

My thanks are due to Keith Wilde and Pino of SLAM who took these photographs and has kindly allowed me to use them.  Likewise to my fellow riders of SLAM who showed me the ropes and didn’t pull my leg about riding a behemoth any more than usual.