Wednesday 1 December @ 8 PM

A few years back, Howard Askew attended one of our ‘Biker Down’ courses in Kent – where Biker Down originated as you probably know – and where I was delivering the original ‘SOBS’ presentation.

WEDNESDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2021 AT 20:00
Tickets cost £5.
BOOK AT: http://thq.fyi/se/012097de78a5

Some time later later he sent me this comment on the course and SOBS in particular:

“For sure the course was very good about what to do in the event of an accident, but you were the only person who was giving strategic advice on avoiding becoming a casualty and made a Despatch Rider from 1978 to 1985 think outside of the box. It’s all about avoiding those nasty accidents.”

And that absolutely nails the function of SOBS as part of Biker Down.

When Jim Sanderson and I first got involved in discussions about the pilot course of what would become the national Biker Down campaign, we both agreed that there was a need for a pro-active, crash prevention module.

Managing the accident scene and treating casualties are both vital skills.

But it would be better if the rider attending BD didn’t end up needing someone else delivering those skills to the rider.

And so SOBS was born. And as Biker Down was picked up by fire services across the UK, so the majority of those courses delivered a version of SOBS as the third, proactive module.

SOBS was created over the winter of 2011 – 12. I delivered my final presentation for KFRS at Rochester in February 2020, just before we went into lockdown.

For many years individual fire services were pretty much left to run Biker Down in their own time, but it’s finally been acknowledged as a ‘national initiative. And so the fire services have now decided to bring all the modules ‘in-house’.

And that means they have decided to move on from SOBS.

On the one hand, a fresh look can be a good thing.

On the other I’m disappointed because SOBS is a unique safety intervention in that it seeks to give genuinely science-based information to riders and help them make better-informed choices and I think it’s a shame it will no longer be delivered to UK riders.

But with all the work I’ve put into the SOBS project I certainly don’t want to leave it sitting on the shelf, and that’s why I’m running an online webcast every two months, as well as making myself available to clubs and groups for presentations either in person or online.

Make a date here online, or book me for a talk for your group – it’s your choice. But you’ll be giving yourself or your riding buddies a chance to see the presentation which has gone international, being showcased by RoadSafetyGB here in the UK, on the REVVtalks series in the USA and not least as part of the Shiny Side Up rider road shows in New Zealand.

JANUARY’S LIVE EVENT – ‘FILTERING – what’s legal,
what’s illegal and what’s plain common sense’
Get tips that work from a sixteen year courier veteran.

WEDNESDAY, 5 JANUARY 2022 AT 20:00
BOOK AT: http://thq.fyi/se/Z3fblAQ