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From Steve Kelly, June 2000
Just a short message to say thank you for the enjoyment I've had over the last couple of days on your course.
I'd like to simply say the roads you took us to were outstanding, and leave it at that, but there are so many other good things that happened that make me
think this course will be remembered by me forever.
I'd just done thirteen nightshifts in a row and needed a break. Wow, did I get that! I'm ready for another thirteen now. We had just had a quite poor spell
of weather and whilst I would have simply got on with it and treated it more as an adventure than pure fun, but the dry days came at the right moment and if
it wasn't for all the gear I was wearing, I'd have got sunburnt.
 I'd never been to the west coast or mid Wales before. Isn't it
spectacular?? Not just the quiet twisty motorcycle heaven roads, but the scenery. I felt I was on one of my travels around the planet, not just 150 miles away from Newbury. I can't wait
until I'm there again, and I don't mind if I have to use the car to tour in, it's that good.
And what luck it was to drink in the CAMRA pub of the year 99, in Aberystwyth. How can you top that? Oh yes, curry on the pier. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.
But what of the riding? And more importantly, your course. Well I thought I might get a little bored since I did the same course only 7 months ago. In the
meantime I managed to pass the IAM test. But for some reason after the event, I cannot find fault with doing it again. Strange thing is, I actually feel
I've learnt things. I even had a few nice surprises with idea's I've been struggling to interpret from many books, various TVAM observers and other
sources, all clicked into place with one sentence or even single word you said. Keith Code, eat your heart out! But I didn't understand it first time around with you either, so....
 This leads me to believe you cannot simply pass your test and 'know it all'.
You need to do some work, consider further training and then do it and continue doing it. Even after doing the original course with you, reading all three Keith Code books, IAM books, Roadcraft,
tips in the Compuserve RIDE forum, tips in motorcycle magazines, lots of practice rides, not to mention perhaps ten different Thames Vale Advanced Motorcyclist's (TVAM) taking me out for
observed runs, and getting through the IAM test with a policeman on my tail for 90 minutes, I still learnt some more with you this last couple of days.
It's not as though my riding got quicker. I decided to attempt something else. That was keep up a good average speed as smoothly as possible, with the odd
screw up, and mess around thrown in for free. I did this because anybody can lose their licence and perhaps I should have a few times already, but I
wanted to prove to myself that you can get from A-B at quite an impressive average mph, but actually have a bit of time to enjoy the scenery, look at the
wildlife and relax. This is much more fun than the bend, redline acceleration, backwheel skipping for the next bend, take corner in a mild-panic state,
redline acceleration, lose your licence top speed, heavy braking etc.
Tim knows I did one of those moves as I passed the pair of you just outside of Dolfor. Now who put that bloody hairpin there? I think I finally took it at
10mph once both wheels were back on the ground. If only I had time to think about panicking then things might have got a lot worse, but you've kept
saying, "relax, loosen up, let the suspension and bike do its own thing", so I did and it works. Not that I'm going to try it again in a hurry.
 I've still to sort out the
roads we visited. The GPS has it all stored in its memory, but if you look on a map for the Devils' Staircase, would you really take a CBR600 along that? It looks like it deserves
not even a first glance, let alone a second, but ascending hairpins greater than 1 in 4 (25%), perhaps greater than 1 in 2 on the inner radius, all I can say is remove STALL from your repertoire of feats
on a motorcycle. All this and the odd car and campervan coming the other way on a road only 6 feet wide (2m) and more lambs than you could shake a
stick at. Who needs speed in excess of 150mph for excitement when you can have even more fun at 5mph. The most amazing thing is the bike happily copes with both.
I could type all afternoon about Kevin's patience and willingness to explain concepts, but I won't (I've got to go to work and I'm only scratching the
surface with this message). Trust me, he's excellent.
 And to show I can still find something a bit negative
to say (in case people think you are paying me to say this) about the best 48 hours on a bike I've ever had, your radio 'ear-pieces'. After a couple of hours, I almost did a Van Gogh in a bid to take
away what had become pain. Painting of Sunflowers anybody?.....
And I don't think it is fair to mention your clutch, I'll leave that up to you :-)
Thanks for the good company or yourself and Tim Buxton who did the course with me. I'm still enjoying the memories. Here's to the next course I book with you.
Thanks Steve... I'm glad you and Tim both enjoyed the course... I'm sorry about the ear pieces (yes, they are uncomfortable, but I've yet to find
anything that isn't without helmet mods) and next time I promise:
a) to check the clutch cable
b) to pack a spare
c) not to forget the ruddy toolkit
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