Matt’s December column

Great bands, fab food, lovely people and not a motorbike in sight

I’ve just had a cracking weekend. Harvest Festival is held at Jimmy’s farm, Suffolk, and combines great food with great music and plenty for our girls to do, including a play of the Gruffalo (ask someone under the age of ten). Bands in the evening included The Feeling, Eliza Doolittle and Devine comedy and there was a really great atmosphere.

As far as festivals go it was tame; there were no hardcore music fans, no serial travellers, no piles of unconscious bodies and no strange mushrooms. Even the toilets still resembled toilets. It was friendly, slightly middleclass (this season one just has to have a pair of Hunter wellington boots, darling) and full of really great people having a top time.

Then I realized that among all these great bands, fab food and lovely people there wasn’t a motorbike in sight. No reason why there should be; but it led me to think. I’m in a crowd of thousands of folk who enjoy what life has to offer; they seek to enrich their time on this mortal coil. So how many of these would love to ride a bike?

If you’re reading this, chances are you love biking (or are in a doctor’s waiting room and have already read Peoples Friend and Country Living). You know what biking has to give. Yes it’s expensive, yes it can be selfish and yes there are compromises, especially if you have family. Oh, and it has an element of danger, too. But once your helmet is on and you’re out on your favourite road, off on a tour with friends, at a trackday, beating the commute; nothing comes close.

It’s about enjoying what life has to offer and biking has it by the pannier load. We know it, we just have to get the message out to others. So many people could be enjoying biking as we do, they just need a friend or colleague to give them a nudge in the right direction. And the more people we get on to bikes the better it is for us, too. The more bikes on the road, the more other road users will get used to looking out for us, the more power we have as a group.

Motorcycling has got its problems at the moment. The test gets ever-more complicated and expensive, the average age of bikers is getting older because there are less young ’uns coming through and the balls-up of an economy means less people can afford to buy bikes which is giving our bike shops a really hard time. There are more changes to the test looming and anti-tampering laws also threaten. But hey, don’t let that put you off your PR campaign; no one said it was going to be easy…

I, for one, wouldn’t know what to do with a life devoid of bikes. And I’m guessing it’s the same for you. It’s given me an amazing job, so many amazing moments and so many new friends. So if you meet like-minded people or friends give them a nudge so they can experience the same. Get them on the back for a pillion ride to experience what it feels like to be so much closer to your surroundings, or get them to do their local training school for a CBT so they can see what it’s like; we’ll all benefit.