On a fairly damp Friday morning in May, Desert Rose hosted a day’s off road riding instruction that had been donated to the motorcycle/healthcare charity Two Wheels for Life at a charity auction at the Malle Mile. Money raised through the auction will support Two Wheels for Life fund raising efforts and help provide much needed healthcare to some of Africa’s remotest communities. The successful bidders came down to East Sussex and it is fair to say they threw themselves into the exercises with enthusiasm. Huge thanks to the lads for supporting such a worthwhile charity.

Desert Rose’s Patsy Quick was invited to visit ESAM, East Sussex Advanced Motorcyclists for one of their regular club nights. Patsy was asked to talk about her Dakar history, the world of rallye support/assistance and the courses run at Desert Rose Riding Academy. There was a really good turnout and Patsy gave a great insight into what it takes to even get to the start line of an event as big as The Dakar. Attendees heard all about the the attempts in 2003, 2004, 2005 and the ultimate dream finish in 2006, when Patsy became the first British woman to finish what many still believe to be the world’s toughest motor-sport event.

The Kent Fire Bike Team came down to East Sussex for a day of off road instruction a couple of weeks ago. Jim and Lol threw themselves at the exercises and had a great day out. Well this week it was 2 of the Desert Rose instructors who became the students, attending a BikerDown course at Rochester Fire Station. Harry and Paul made the trip to Rochester to take part in the training course which is geared towards accident scene management, first aid for motorcyclists and the issue of helmet removal. Whilst we hope never to have to put the skills into practice it is always good to understand the importance of responding appropriately when accidents do happen.

The Desert Rose Team were delighted to host the Metropolitan Police BikeSafe Team at our East Sussex training venue. More used to riding fully loaded and marked up Police Service BMW R1250RTs and F750GSs, the team were put through a range of exercises from our Stage 1 and Stage 2 off road rider training courses. Yes of course we put them through the stream! It’s fair to say they all threw themselves at the exercises with enthusiasm and judging by the smiles on their faces at the end of the day all enjoyed the course. Metropolitan Police Service motorcyclists are put through extensive on road training, including blue light response training, which makes them some of the best trained motorcyclists on our roads. It was great to hear their views on how mastering a number of off road riding skills would transfer well into helping to make all motorcyclists safer and more complete motorcyclists.