warren t claim

I auctioned mine on here for charity.

I had a Y plate Mk2 LX diesel.

The 1.6 and 1.8 had an exhaust that exited on the different side to the 2.0.

I'm pretty sure most Y (and 51 plate) Mk2s were V6 models flogged off cheap to the police.

Another heatwave memory involved me having to do two 50cc scooter CBTs on a day that hot 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to the perfect storm of us having several DAS bikes in for their MOTs and me turning up for work in my car I was left with having to do four hours road work on the company Fireblade without any wind chill topped off with a massive amount of back and wrist ache.

A Mk1/2 Mondeo isn't the easiest car to steal for various reasons that I'm not going to elaborate on here.

I hate to sound like a moaning little bitch here but compound work in the blazing sun was worse. Running around after learners whilst wearing full bike gear and boots was not a pleasant experience I can assure you! I remember one hot summers day when I was a bottom of the rung instructor and was only allowed to do off road compound work meaning that we'd have two CBT sessions booked in four hours apart. I had to endure eight hours of running after learners. Despite being totally nude under my bike gear, an image that you really don't want to linger on, Ex_Mrs_Claim had to peel me out of my bike gear when I got home.

When it was pissing down and I had to take punters out for a bike lesson I'd make sure that part of the lesson involved at least two trips through the Mersey Tunnel. Compound CBT work in the rain isn't fun either. I'd stand there supervising under a golf umbrella and on several occasions I'd end up doing my best Mary Poppins impersonation to avoid having my feet cut off at the ankles by a CG125 sliding towards me on its side.

With every capable CBT punter I had I'd always give them a chance to have a spin around the yard after their road element on something more "fruity". Quite often that'd be one of our ER5s but if they were both skilled and lucky they'd be allowed a quick Brucie Bonus compound session on anything from a RF900 to a Fireblade. Needless to say they wouldn't be doing tight cone exercises on anything other that the ER5s. One bloke saw his arse when he returned to collect his girlfriend on his 1200 Bandit only to see her doing loops of our compound on a Yamaha R6. He said that the R6 isn't a girls bike and far too powerful for a lady!

Trust me, on more than one occasion one of our DAS bikes would mysteriously develop a fault and be unable to be used for a lesson and the punter would be taken out on the CBR600/Bandit 600 I was selling at the time.

Due to having to hop from bike to bike when I was instructing, I bought a pair of those Oxford grips that wrap around your existing grips.

I'm a Ford man through and through but even I'll admit that the 24v Carlton GSi3000 was a nicer car to drive.

I'm based in Merseyside but sadly I'm no longer teaching.

When standard 3 door Cossies and Sapphires start to hit a quarter of a million quid I'll start dredging my local docks.

£600K and within a week the heater fan only starts working on position 3.

£600K doesn't even reflect its value as a vehicle.

But those cars racing wont devalue through use/

Although I have driven a couple of 3 door Cossies I've never driven a RS500 and tbh, I can't imagine them being much different or better. Back in 1993 a back to back comparison between a 3 door Cossie and a 1990 Nissan 200SX a friend owned had me admitting that the fast Datsun was nicer to drive.

When I learnt to ride if I didn't pass my test within two years I'd have been banned from riding for a year. Did you know that when I was a boy all of this was fields? Would you like a Werther's Original?

Buy it and do your DAS lessons and test on it.

Which is why I always tried to CBT age appropriate punters on the ER5s.

A CBT plus an eight hour booking was usually enough to get most through their DAS course. The eight hours consisted of three two hour lessons followed by a pre test lesson and the last hour being the test.

Oh, the instructor policy is always TPO. You bend it. You mend it.

Coincidence or what?

Yes we will! We'd rather you drop your own bike practicing U Turns than our own!