National Association for Bikers with a Disability - N.A.B.D

One part of my life that I care passionately about is Motorcycles. Bikes have been part of my life ever since Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts were racing each other in the late 70's. The spectacle of those great champions at the height of their powers was a joy to behold, indeed their famous battle in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1979 cemented their place as Legends. Watching that race was when I knew I would be riding a bike when I was old enough. I bought a Yamaha YB100 on my 17th birthday and have never looked back. My biking life has had it's highs and lows over the years, but one constant has remained throughout the years I have been a part of the great biking community here in the UK. Camaraderie.

Bikers have a habit of sticking together and helping their friends, look at any Motorcycle Club and you will see that trait in abundance. It is also a trait I have learned and earned over the years as both a member of my local bike club, Wigan Pie Eaters and the National Association for Bikers with a Disability. The NABD began in 1991 when one chap was finding it hard to explain to the powers that be that the lack of a leg wasn't just cause for relieiving him of his bike licence. As with all good ideas in the 20th century, plans were drawn on the back of a cigarette packet, bit's of metal were cut, bent and welded together and the first adaption was built. One swift demonstration later, the chap proved it worked, was safe to use and kept his beoved bike licence.

Bikers cherish that all important bit of paper, (although now it's a credit card sized piece of plastic), It is a right of passage that we have proved we can indeed ride that beast and do it safely. One act of camaraderie between friends to help one biker contine to enjoy the freedom Biking brings to us started what has now become the most respected Bikers Charity on earth, the NABD. When word got around that a few good folk had proven that "Yes, We Can!", enquiries began filtering through and the NABD was formed to raise some money to help get adaptions made for more bikers and fitted to their machines.
 
Bikers love to have a party, enjoy a few beers with like minded folk and generally have a good time. The first NABD fundraising event was held at a pub in Edale, Derbyshire and was christened the You've Been Nabbed Rally. Enough money was raised to get more than a couple of people back on the road and plans were made to repeat the event the follwing year at the same venue.

"The Grapevine", that wonderful word of mouth passing of info ensured that the second rally one year later made it abundantly clear to everyone involved that a bigger venue was required. Lots of meetings, phonecalls, letters and the all important paperwork saw Capesthorne Hall become our home for the next few years and the event grew to a comfortable attendance of 3,000 people. Along the way many folk had volunteered their time to help the event run smoothy, including your's truly.

I had always had that sense of brotherhood that is inherent in Biking. A lot of bikers have served in the Military and a fair few like myself grew up in the Scout Association as kids. It was a no brainer for me that my hand be added to the many that reached out to help a fellow biker. I signed up as a member of the NABD in 1993 and have never looked back. I spent many years behind the scenes doing the myriad of things that need doing including being a DJ and managing the stage in the Family Marquee.  It is so ingrained into who I am that I was honoured with the Sarah Russell Award for my years of service to the NABD. A truly humbling moment and one I didn't see coming until I was called up to receive it on stage.

in 2017 I took my trusty Pentax camera's with me to capture some of the fun we had that year on film and to get some much needed practice. My skills as a photographer began to grow rather quickly during the summer of 2017 and I was fortunate enough to get a couple of my images published in 100% Biker Magazine, a custom bike magazine here in the UK that has recently ceased publication. Given the fact that every photojurnalist had made the move to digital some years previously, I am humbled that a few of my film photo's were deemed worthy. The NABD also used some of those images in their advertising for the You've Been Nabbed Rally in 2018. This inspired me to push on and begin to think about making the move to digital, but that is for a future blog post. Here are a few images from the Rally that were published in 100% Biker and the advert for the event the following year.

If you wish to find out more about the NABD or buy a ticket for the 29th You've Been Nabbed Rally being held at the Royal Cheshire Showground here in the UK in May 2020, please visit www.nabd.org.uk

Jonathan Mayor, stand up comedian extraordinaire and thoroughly decent bloke

The advertising for the 2018 event featuring some of my images from 2017.

Wirral Egg Run Tribute Ride 2017

After a successful learning experience indoors at the Manchester Bike Show, it was time to try my skills at an outdoor event. The annual Wirral Egg Run had for many years been a well attended ride for Bikers in the North of England. For 3 decades Bikers had journeyed from the New Brighton sea front at the mouth of the River Mersey to the Liverpool Childrens Hospital to deliver Easter Eggs to the kids who were spending Easter in the hospital. The event was a rip roaring success and many other organisations were included as the number of Easter Eggs donated each year filled several vans. Alas it was a victim of ever increasing red tape and with heavy hearts, the organisers decided to bring the Egg Run to an end. What nobody expected was a band of Intrepid Scousers decided they would do the run anyway as a tribute to the organisers for all their hard work over the years. The Wirrall Egg Run Tribute Ride was born.

Owen picked me up on his Bike and we were soon at the long established meeting point, "The Dips" at New Brighton. We were not alone as It seemed like several thousand other bikers had also decided to have a ride too. I soon got my camera's loaded and we wandered around taking photo's and chatting to friends old and new. The variety of bikes was matched by the variety of fancy dress some folks had chosen to wear; Rabbits the size of Bikers had sprung up and made for a great atmosphere at The Dips.
 
I had both my Pentax camera's with me, my SP500 sporting the Helios 44m-4 and the SP1000 sporting the Tamron 80-210mm lens. To be fair to the SP1000, it behaved much better than it had on its first few rolls of film and, although it still had one or two light leaks, I managed to get some useable images with it. I shot four rolls of film that day, two in each camera, and had them developed on Monday morning by my local Max Spielmann Photo Store. I had captured some decent images and they outnumbered the terrible shots by a decent margin. I was still getting to grips with using the light meter on the SP500, but I had definitely improved a lot.

The Wirral Egg Run Tribute Ride was such a resounding success that folk still attend the ride, despite it not being the official Wirral Egg Run. The original organisers have supported it too as it is keeping the spirit of the original event alive and it does some good in the community. The most important thing about the event is putting smiles on kids faces. One young chap in particular has decided he will attend every year and in 2017 he rode his little electric bike saying hello and generally making sure people are happy at his event. Jaxx claimed the event as his own and we can't let the little chap down. When he is old enough he is determined he will take part in the ride on his own bike instead of riding his electric bike for a few yards at the head of the column before waving everyone off with the biggest grin ever seen. Here's a few images from that day. 

Manchester Bike Show 2017

My photography skills were improving with each roll of film in March 2017. With Owen's encouragement I was understanding more about the basics of photography and the capabilities of my Pentax camera's. I enjoy getting out and about and i managed to convince owen to take me to the Manchester Bike Show at Event City on Trafford Park. One of the things I am passionate about is motorcycles and a bike Show is a great way of seeing the new models from the various manufacturers. However, it's not all shiny new bikes, there is also a healthy number of classic and vintage motorcycle owners clubs who like to show their Velocette's and Vincent's, Triumphs and BSA's and plenty more marques in between. Photography heaven!

The Manchester Bike Show is in two halves with a distinct separation between the two. The new models from the manufacturers was in a dark area of the building. t was extremely challenging to get a decent image in that part of the show, but I gave it a try. Where i was able to get some decent images was in the Clubs and Traders half of the show. This was brightly lit and owen and I had fun looking for compositions and experimenting with various angles. There's only so much you can do with a row of shiny classic and vintage bikes, but thankfully most were suitably parked so folks could get decent enough images.

A lot of the big industry led shows are too big to get around in one day, but Manchester Bike Show is just the right size. We had fun and enjoyed chatting to friends old and new about bikes, camera's, life, the universe and everything.Event city is just the right size for this kind of event and most folks will hapily pose for a photo. The good folks on the Velocette Owners Club stand were happy to let is get some close up shots of their machinery, resplendent in black gloss paint and shiny chrome and stainles steel. It doesn't matter if you like Mopeds and Scooters or big V Twin cruisers, there is something for everyone. It was the first time I had attended the event and I was impressed enough to return in 2018 and 2019.

I had a lot of fun with my camera's that day, experimenting with shutter speeds and apertures and I really learned a lot. I was still very much a novice, but I was getting better with each roll of film. Looking back at them now in 2020, I know what mistakes I made and I would definitely take these images totally differently. That is the joy of learning anything new, we can look back and see what we did wrong, but they stand as a marker of where I was as a fledgling photographer. Onwards and Upwards!


 

One Big Learning Curve

Whilst getting acquainted with my Pentax camera’s and my Helios and Tamron lenses, I began to discover that this new hobby of mine was one big learning curve. I had to learn not just how to frame a composition, but also how to make that composition look its best by getting the exposure right. I have mentioned previously that my SP1000 wasn’t behaving properly, so I was using my SP500 more often than not. This didn’t stop me using it though. I went for a walk along the Canal near my home and took both camera’s with me. I wanted to do a comparison between them to give me some idea of how I could compensate for the deficiencies of the SP1000 against the SP500.

The SP1000 was sporting the Tamron 80-210 and I enjoyed using it on this occasion, I think the cold weather a few short weeks previously had a lot to do with my earlier failure. This time I had no problems with the film not winding on correctly or the shutter lagging. I didn’t even have much problem with my exposure settings either. I took a quick reading with a Gossen Trisix light meter Owen had given me, cross checked with my SP500 and then used those settings on the SP1000. Half the battle in film photography is getting that all important exposure done as well as you can. Owen had been teaching me a lot and I was starting to understand the Shutter Triangle. I also decided to keep it simple, this walk was all about the basics, the rest could wait for another day.

There was a few folk using the canal towpath for their exercise, or taking the dog for a walk, but one chap caught my eye as he was running barefoot! We exchanged pleasantries as he passed and I managed to grab a shot with the SP1000 and long lens that taught me a lot about shooting spontaneously. I had been looking for compositions and was taking my time, but that needed me to act fast and, despite my lack of experience, I am rather pleased with the image. I carried on and soon arrived at Wigan Pier where I was able to finish off one roll of Agfa Vista 200 and then finished the other roll as I wandered into Wigan town centre to get my films developed at the Max Spielmann Photo Store. I highly recommend Max Spielmann Photo Store, the staff are superb and both very knowledgeable and helpful. There are branches throughout the UK and concessions in Tesco and Asda supermarkets. You can find out more about them by visiting www.maxphoto.co.uk

Here are a few images from that walk, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

Taking their dog for a walk down the towpath

Joggers enjoying an afternoon run

The Barefoot Runner

Fishing

Wigan Pier complex, Trencherfield Mill beyond.

Wigan Pier today.

 

Tamron Adaptall 2 Lens and Adapter System

My first encounter with the Tamron Adaptall 2 system of lenses and adapters was with the 80-210mm zoom lens Owen let me have for a very reasonable price. In the 1970’s there was a healthy after-market for non proprietary lenses of vastly differing quality and price. Many folk stayed with the lenses designed for their camera by the manufacturer, (I will talk about Nikon lenses in a future blog), but these were expensive to buy. Many of these lenses were outsourced to smaller manufacturers to make on behalf of the Camera company and this had the effect of allowing those manufacturers to design and build lenses of their own at a lower price.

Tamron are one of those companies that started out making third party lenses and they saw a gap in the market. Many folks want to use different camera’s for different things and would often have several camera’s from competing companies. This meant they had to buy new lenses. The other lens manufacturers were happy to keep to this and made lenses in all the popular lens mounts like the Nikon F Mount, the Canon FD mount and the Pentax M42 and K mounts. That’s a lot of glass that takes time and a lot of money to research and develop.

In the early 1970’s Tamron decided to offer one system of lenses, but use a lens mount adapter to fit the lens to your camera. They introduced the Adaptall System in 1973 and it was a stroke of genius. You could use all your Adaptall lenses on all your camera’s with the separate camera specific mount that was cheaper to make. That saving was it’s selling point; Why buy two 50mm lenses for your Pentax and Nikon camera’s when one lens will fit both?. I have Nikon and Pentax camera’s and a couple of Nikon and M42 Adaptall mounts, they have served me well. Bear in mind that this was in the days of manual focus and, as you can imagine, they sold by the ship load.

My collection of Tamron lenses includes the aforesaid 80-210mm, a 28-70 midrange zoom and a 28mm wide angle. The quality is excellent and I am very happy with them. My skills at manual focusing was forced to improve as I tended to just go with my Pentax SP500 and Helios lens, but now I could get in closer with my wide angle or sit back and go for the long lens and learn about the joys of compression. If I buy a camera with a different mount, Tamron Adaptall mounts are dirt cheap and you can often buy one with a lens on ebay as it saves private sellers from paying for two listings and two lots of postage.

Tamron improved their Adaptall System to include the SP range aimed at the serious enthusiast or the professional photographer. SP was Superior Performance and, having a 35-210mm SP lens in my collection, I have to agree with them. It's a big step up in quality from the standard Adaptall range, all metal construction with 16 elements and weighs almost 2 pounds.

 Tamron finally pulled the plug on the last Adaptall lenses in 2006 after 33 years of production. The big companies, Nikon, Canon, etc. had moved on to Auto Focus and Tamron had to build a range of Auto Focus lenses that, alas, had to use the camera’s specific mount on the lens, not the adapter we had come to love. The one exception is the Pentax K mount. You can still use Pentax’s original K mount manual focus lenses on the latest K-1 Digital Camera and it’s siblings. The Adaptall 2 range can still be used on it too. That’s not bad going for a 47 year old system of after-market lenses.

28-70mm f3.5

28mm f2.5

28mm f3.5

28-70mm f3.5 The colour rendition with this lens is superb

28mm f2.5 A fantastic wide angle prime

80-210mm f3.8

Clockwise from top right SP 35-210mm f3.5-4.2, 28-70mm f3.5,
28mm f2.5 2x teleconverter, 80-210mm f3.8

My Little Fuji

 My journey into photography had a big boost with my little Fuji Finepix A700. In my first blog I mentioned how I had bought it in 2007 to document my travels and my family. Every time my grandchildren came to visit I would grab my camera and get a couple of images. I enjoy documenting their childhood, from meeting them for the first time when they were born to sharing birthdays and seeing them at Christmas, it's a wonderful time and I cherish it.

 Documenting my travels has also preserved memories of the places I have visited and the people my wife and I met along the way. I have fond memories of an epic motorcycling adventure to the Shetland Islands with dear friends and journey's with my wife to Scotland and the Lake District in the north of England. We loved getting out and about on my bike, it was something my wife and I shared that was just for us. Having a large family means our days were centred around our children, being able to get out on the bike and have some quality time together will always be treasured.

 My little Fuji also brought out my creative side. I freely admit that most of the time I was snapping away like a tourist, but occasionally I would get a wall hanger chosen by my wife. Here are a few of them and one of my happy snaps.

Esha Ness, Shetland

Orchid on Shetland

The oddest Tourist Attraction on earth?
Bobby's Bus Shelter on the Isle of Unst, Shetland Islands
My Bke is the purple one. ;)

Our Son looking out over Ullswater
from the jetty at The Inn On The Lake, Glenridding

Sailing on Ullswater

The Sea Horse at Formby Point Nature Reserve and Beach.

Somehow clinging to life despite being hammered by storms