Mike Packwood

I passed my test 14 years ago. I've ridden all sorts of things, but up until a year ago had never done a track day. I took the plunge at Pembray in Sept 2009 on a VFR, managed two sessions and have never been so terrified in my life. I rode it there from Cardiff, with a tank- bag full of spanners and a banana for energy, as if that would help! I stopped after two sessions because a bloke I had met fell off and broke his collar bone, so I ended up taking his Mrs to Carmathen hospital to pick him up. Come 2010 I decided to have another go and in the spirit of things, bought a Blade, a 2002 RR2, fitted a towbar to the car and rented a trailer. Have you got any idea how fast a Fireblade will really go or how far it will really lean? No, me neither! I got technically better, learnt a lot about my nerves and my bike, got faster, better, more confident......but never got rid of the terror. 5 more days in 2010 and I decided to call it a day while I was still in one bit. Statistically it...

The last  Saab - a 9-5 The end of a quirky era Looks like Saab is going under. What a shame. Back in the 70's and 80's they were cool and quirky and then came ownership by GM as part of their plan for world domination. Following that there were no new 'real' Saab's and the die was cast. The fact that they may go under isn't new owner Spykers fault - although goodness knows what they thought they were doing buying it. They were never going to turn it around in 6 months after decades of under-investment , but probably thought they could steady the ship and sell it on for profit. Not so. Saab only have two models, the 9-3 (ancient) and the new 9-5 (above). Rushed to market before it was refined enough to survive, it never stood a chance. Oh, and there is also some sort of crazy  'nicked from GM USA' SUV type thing they have recently launched  and which has just come here. Bottom line, you're never going to survive if your new model cycle is is 1...

Stop press: June 2013 Hes gone! At Aprils MoT it finally dawned on me that he'd barely moved a muscle for a year - only 250 mikes or so since the last test. So, I put it on Gumtree, not really expecting anything to happen, but it did. David  from London trained it down to Cardiff one Saturday with a bag of loot, took a test ride, and then, paperwork done, rode off into the sunset. Colin is now earning his keep commuting into London each day, which is a good thing and the search is now on for a new toy! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 2010 : We've just bought a new bike. We've had a few, of which more in other posts, but for the time being have settled on a Yamaha TDM 900 twin, known to everyone as a Tedium. Well I like it! Here he is on his first trip, to Devon. Went ok, bit windy and needs a taller screen, but managed to keep up with everyone apart from the bloke on ...