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John Goodwin Talking!

February 2007

Suffolk Ridenet is now in it's second year and I am delighted to have been asked to be the chairman, I am one of Suffolk County Council's elected members, but more to the point I am a motorcyclist. My motorcycling credentials are as follows, bought a bike on my 16th birthday, passed the test and bought a bigger one, both bikes were of course my only form of transport. Marriage and a family appeared in that order and motorcycling had to take a back seat, a set of four wheels was needed and so ended the first phase of my motorcycling life.

Fast forward several years and whilst interviewing a prospective lorry driver the conversation turned to motorcycles, the bug that had laid dormant suddenly awakened and I got the desire to have another bike. The bike I bought was an old 650cc BMW and despite a break of too many years I rode off, no training, no refresher course, just got on and went.

I now firmly believe that this course of action was wrong but off I went anyway, after some less than safe rides I got the hang of it and the love of bikes was all there again. Next bike was a Pan European, 1100cc and again no need for any course on how to ride it just get on and go and so I did. This bike allowed my wife and I to tour all over the UK, for many years we completed the Round Britain Rally which involves visiting all the counties in the UK and photographing landmarks.

Some counties only had one landmark and some as many as four, surely now I was a proper motorcyclist. Well actually no, our son in law passed his DA test and I found out he could leave me on the bends with his Diversion, oops not so good after all.

This was the trigger to get involved in advanced motorcycling, I joined Suffolk Advanced Motorcyclists and passed my test, I eventually made the giddy heights of senior observer and now firmly believe in continuous training. To drive a car is to hope to get there, to ride a bike is enjoy the journey and to hope to get all the bends right, all the correct lines of travel, in fact to sum it up, "a piece of good road well ridden"

Some local authorities and some police forces see motorcyclists as the enemy who should be hounded off the road at all costs, the idea of Suffolk Ridenet is to all work together, the idea is to reduce the "killed and seriously injured"   (KSIs) on Suffolk's roads. SCC have been given a pot of money to try and achieve this and SRN is the result.

SRN is keen to work with the police all clubs, groups of riders, dealers, training organisations, professional and voluntary to make our counties roads safer for all. The idea is not to stop riders riding but to make the experience safer and more enjoyable.

The fact that you have   read this far means you may well be interested in bikes? contact SRN or any of the other organisations contained on our web page, see what you can give and see what you can gain.

John Goodwin (Chairman of Suffolk Ridenet)

John Goodwin
Suffolk County Councillor
Felixstowe North & The Trimleys Division
Tel: 01394 283195
Mobile: 07734 806040