BIKE TEST:Get On campaign's one-hour sessions are an enticing way to market biking, writes
GEOFF HILL
I CROUCHED OVER the tank of the ancient Honda, my equally antiquated helmet and leathers fighting a losing battle against the temperature of 10 below and 90mph horizontal rain.
My neck had gone numb, my visor had frozen over, I had lost all feeling in my hands, and for all I knew my most treasured extremities had fallen off long ago.
Still, that's Nuneaton for you.
Or, to be more accurate, the wind tunnel at MIRA, the national test centre, where the Get On campaign team had set out to prove how much bike gear had improved over the years.
And prove it they did; stripping off my frozen 1980s kit, I suited up in modern base layer thermals, balaclava and top-of- the-range Nomad jacket and trousers from Weise, stuck a cosy BMW helmet with built-in Bluetooth on my head, and five minutes later was back in the same howling gale, as comfortable as a kitten filled with warm milk - and with my Goretex Weise gloves wrapped gratefully around the heated grips on a BMW K1300S.
"How was that?" asked Jonathon Bates from Get On as I wandered through the wind tunnel control room afterwards, being careful not to lean on all the red buttons which should really have been marked: 007 - Do Not Touch These.
"Toasty. North Pole and back no problem," I said.
He grinned happily, as well he might, since the Get On campaign is aimed at showing people how much more user-friendly biking has become.
Based on the problem that there are loads of people out there who are interested in taking up biking but couldn't be bothered with the time and expense of buying gear and doing their test, it's come up with the simplest of solutions: a free one-hour lesson, with bike and gear supplied, at 84 test centres or dealers around the UK.
With the slogan "Life's Better on Two Wheels", it's also aimed at enticing past riders back into the saddle.
It'll be available to Irish riders through outlets in the North, and if it takes off, the Republic could well follow suit.
The target is to get 100,000 people to give it a go in the next year, and if even 10 per cent of these take their test and buy a scooter or bike, it'll mean an additional £55 million (€61.7 million) in sales: a huge boost for an industry that is not suffering as much as the car trade, but is suffering nonetheless.
After the wind tunnel, we headed to the MIRA test tracks, where I was briefly disorientated by a Northern Ireland police Land Rover hurtling around - obviously a new secret turbocharged model designed to catch joyriders in West Belfast.
Whoops. I've already told you far too much, so I'm afraid you'll have to go and forget everything.
In the meantime, Get On instructor Ron Earle had managed the remarkable feat of getting the BBC's Mike Bushell, a biking virgin, up and riding around within 15 minutes.
From the grin on Mike's face when he got off the bike after a series of circuits, I think he'll be booking his test and heading to the nearest Triumph dealer to order a new Rocket III by the end of the week.
At the heart of this, the largest marketing campaign ever undertaken by the industry, is the website geton.co.uk which, as well as letting you book your free taster session, is a one-stop information hub and online community.
With 21 million searches each month in the UK relevant to motorcycling, the plan is for the site to attract users typing in key phrases such as "learning how to ride" and "where to take lessons and a test".
Famous faces linked to the campaign include singer Simon Webbe of Blue, who helped launch Get On, and English cricketer Darren Gough.
Lapsed bikers will also be targeted, with a number of initiatives showing how advances in technology make biking much more attractive than it was in years gone by.
Funds for the groundbreaking campaign have been raised through a levy from manufacturers, kit suppliers and service providers, with the majority of major names giving their backing to the campaign.
Henry Rivers Fletcher of Oxford Products said: "All industries are facing tough times, and the biking world is no different. So it's even more important than ever before that we pull together. I think the Get On campaign is taking a very sensible and realistic approach. By making the taster sessions the central strand of the campaign we are using our greatest asset - the fun of biking - as our direct marketing tool."
CALLING ALL BIKERSRush out and buy a 2010 diary, and then cross out February 12th to 14th.
Those are the dates for the Adelaide Motorcycle Festival at the King's Hall in Belfast, and anyone who's buying, selling, ogling over or simply dreaming of owning a bike some day will be there.
This is the 15th year of the festival and the sixth in succession sponsored by Adelaide Insurance, the Belfast firm that is also sponsoring next year's Irish Racer Awards and the Kells Road Races.
"We've such confidence in this event that for the first time we've agreed to invest in it for the next three years, rather than renewing the sponsorship annually," said Adelaide's Sam Geddis.
Exhibitors so far for 2010 include Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Triumph, KTM, Harley-Davidson and Ducati. See nutttravel.com.
You can book your free one-hour taster session and get full information at geton.co.uk
Visitors to the Carole Nash International Bike and Scooter Show from November 27th to December 6th can try the free taster session