News

We hope you are already subscribed to our calendar so you can keep up to date with the events happening and sign up for any that you may be interested in.  

You can keep tabs on what we are up to on all our social media below! Don’t forget to join the WhatsApp group for general discussion and if you want to get out for a ride and take someone with you.

• Calendar
• Instagram
• Facebook page
• Facebook group
• Threads
• WhatsApp

Disclaimer: The WhatsApp group is an open discussion forum set up by members to enable exchange of info between same – not an official moderated SWAR forum

Achievemets

Big congratulations to:

Dave Cooke for a well deserved Gold!

Tours in 2024

The tours are coming! If you haven’t already looked into this, please look at them on the Calendar and sign up if you are interested.

For 2024, we have arranged three trips:

April – A Three-day tour around Mid Wales (NOW FULL)

July – A Four-day tour to Normandy and the D-Day Beaches (CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION 31ST MARCH)

September – A Five-day tour to the Vosges Mountains in the Alsace region of France (CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION 30TH JUNE)

The conditions of the trips will be:

• Members undertake at their own risk ‘eyes wide open’. ​
• SWAR is not acting as a Travel Agent​.
• Anyone attending will be required to sign a waiver form. ​
• For foreign tours, riders must book their ferries, trains, and any UK accommodation e.g. at Folkestone before le Shuttle​.
• Non-returnable deposits may be required to secure tour accommodation​.
• Riders are responsible for adequate insurance and breakdown cover​.

Prescott Bike Fest

SWAR will be hosting a stand at the Prescott Bike Fest alongside Gloucestershire. We are looking for 6-8 volunteers to support us on the stand. Please let us know if you’re interested by reaching out to us in the WhatsApp groups, via email or during a group meeting.

Observers

For all members who have passed their tests and would like to continue to become an observer, the Observer training weekend will be held on the 2^nd and 3^rd of March 2024.

We expect to have some additional observers soon!

Memberships

Starting with a little reminder… if you have joined before 2023 or have joined us and passed your test 2023, you will need to pay your membership fees for 2024!  

These can be paid very easily into the following account: 

Sort Code 30-91-91  

Account number 51124868  

Please use SUBS24 with your full name as the reference. 

Not all members are due to pay this time around.  Those who joined us under grant funding in 2023, and have NOT passed their test, are covered for 2024.  

Those of you who have passed your tests, joined on the 2022 grant, or joined as a self-funded member, will be due to pay for their 2024 membership for £25 for the year. 

Upcoming Meetings

Group meeting on 11^th March

Group ride out on 17^th March

Committee meeting

The next committee meeting will take place on the 4^th March so if you wish to share a topic you would like discussed or want to share your thoughts on how we can do better please get in touch before this date.

Skills days

There are skills days organized throughout the year details of which can be found on the following pages or via the calendar. Please click on the links and sign up if you are going to be attending. There are also other events on the calendar which you will be able to sign up for

Slow riding

Cornering

Overtaking

Round Abouts

As always thank you for your support and continued membership with SWAR

2023 has been an exciting year with lots of training and skills days! We, The Committee, hope you enjoyed everything the Club has to offer and hole you are ready for 2024! Keep reading because there are some exciting things happening.

We hope you all have a great end of 2023 and an incredible start to the new year!

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will take place on Monday 22nd January 2024 at the White Swan, Kineton.

The AGM is important, and there is real importance attached to making it a great success.  We really would like to have as many of you – the Group Members – come along and get involved. Please remember that this is your Group – come along and show your support!
 
There will be the activity reports from the outgoing Committee Members including our Financial Position, Membership numbers, Training successes, and perhaps most importantly, plans for the coming biking season and beyond!

Once the outgoing Committee Members step down and the new Committee members take their seats you will have the opportunity to put your questions to them and let them know what you would like to see taking place over the next few months.

Please find below a link to the committee nomination forms, for you to nominate your 2024 Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and the Training Officer.  We also need a couple of other members to join the Committee. These additional Members are needed to help spread the workload around as well as giving a voice to the wider membership – how about you! – You only have to say yes!

Click here to access the form

2024 Membership Fees 

Alongside it being the time of year for our AGM, it is also the time of year than the annual membership fees are due in.  These can be paid very easily into the following account:
Sort Code 30-91-91 
Account number 51124868 
Please use SUBS24 with your full name as the reference.

Not all members are due to pay this time around.  Those that joined us under grant funding in 2023, and have NOT passed their test, are covered for 2024. 

Those of you that have passed your tests, joined on the 2022 grant, or joined as a self-funded member, will be due to pay for their 2024 membership at a cost of £25 for the year.

Tours coming to SWAR!

As RoSPA South Warwickshire Advanced Riders grows, we are looking to schedule three multi day tours for qualified (and near qualified) riders to join.

These trips will enable the rider to move to the next stage in his/her riding career within the club and venture further afield with an experienced ride leader. This will help to overcome some of the common challenges involved in riding further afield and, in particular, in a foreign country.

For 2024, we have arranged three trips:

• April – A Three-day tour around Mid Wales
• July – A Four-day tour to Normandy and the D-Day Beaches
• September – A Five-day tour to the Vosges Mountains in the Alsace region of France

Further details of these trips are available in the calendar.

There will be a maximum of 10 bikes per trip (pillions welcome) allocated on a first come first served basis.

To request your place on the tour, please confirm with our Tours Officer, Rob Wilkie, which tour(s) you would like to attend.  We will require a non-refundable deposit of £50 per tour (which may need to be changed if hotels demand a higher deposit to secure rooms). This will be used in part-payment of your accommodation costs.

If there are any questions, please let Rob know by email, rbwilkie@gmail.com

The Tech Corner

We have a new calendar available for the club. You will find it in the same place than the old one, but it is not more dynamic and interactive.

All the 2024 events are already there, go and check it out!

Congratulations

Congratulations to Paul Sheehan and Trevor Bradnam for passing their tests this august!

Well done both!

Club Night meeting

Is there anything you would like to share with the Club? Any tips or anything you think other members would find useful? Please get in touch with any committee member to help the club and run an evening session. Any suggestions or activities are welcome!

Last month Iñigo gave us a demo of MyRoute-app and this month Dave has a quiz for us to open an interesting discussion about Road Conditions.

Training

For September we have an observers weekend scheduled but check the calendar as we will be running a roundabout course in October! The dates are already in the diary.

RideOuts

As people are enjoying the evening rides so much, we continue with two this month! Remember, evening RideOuts are on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month. This month’s rides will be run by Andy and David. Keep an eye out for the details.

We need someone to run the Group Ride Out on the 17th September. If you can help, please contact any of the committee members. Any full member that has passed their exam can led RideOuts.

You can check the RideOut dates in the website calendar.

The Tech Corner

If you enjoyed the MyRoute-app demo, make sure you check their support page. They have articles, videos, guides… Anything you need to get you up and running.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Thomas Wray for passing his test obtaining a Gold!

Congratulations, hard work pays off!

And double congratulations this month! Carl Masters has also passed his test with Marcus, obtaining a Silver!

Well done both!

Club Night meeting

Is there anything you would like to share with the Club? Any tips or anything you think other members would find useful? Please get in touch with any committee member to help the club and run an evening session. Any suggestions or activities are welcome!

This month, Iñigo will be telling us about how he plans trips and routes using MyRoute-App.

Training

This month, we ran the Overtaking Skills day with great success. It was quite wet but still enjoyable and we had a great turnout despite the weather!

RideOuts

You all clearly like Evening Rides! Because of this, we have thought we would schedule 2 a month! Evening RideOuts are now on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.

We need someone to run the Group Ride Out on the 20th August. If you can help, please contact Steve on events@swar.org.uk. Any full member that has passed their exam can led RideOuts.

You can check the RideOut dates in the website calendar.

The Tech Corner

Cardo Systems breaks down barriers with new software update, giving Cardo users the freedom to connect seamlessly with all major Bluetooth communicators!

Cardo users can simply download the latest software version from their Cardo Connect app, Over-The-Air and with no need for a cable, to activate the functionality. There is no need to press any specific button combination to pair or connect.  As new versions and upgrades are made available, a pop-up in the Cardo Connect App will appear automatically.

Read the whole article here.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Andy Meechan and Nick Lucey for passing their test this month! Nick has obtained Silver and Andy has now upgraded to Gold!

Congratulations to both, hard work pays off!

Club Night meeting

This coming month, we will have a presentation about how to prepare and plan trips or routes using MyRoute-App.

Training

This month, we ran the Cornering Skills day with great success.

Next month, we have the Overtaking Skills day on Saturday, 22nd July. Keep an eye out for further details.

RideOuts

You all clearly like Evening Rides! Because of this, we have thought we would schedule 2 a month! Evening RideOuts are now on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.

This is great news but also hard work. Any full member that has passed their exam can led RideOuts. If you want to help, please contact Steve on events@swar.org.uk. You can check the RideOut dates in the website calendar.

The first Evening RideOut is on the 1st Thursday, 6th July. We will be leaving from Kineton at 7pm, the briefing will be at 6:50 (no briefing, no ride!). We will be heading to Chipping Campden where we can get a drink or even food. The ride will be about an hour and a half and will take us through some nice small roads in the Cotswolds.

Details for the Group RideOut and the other Evening RideOut will follow, keep an eye out!

The Tech Corner

Did you know you can subscribe to the Club’s calendar to avoid missing our events? By syncing the Club’s calendar with yours on your phone or laptop, you can have all the events automatically sent straight to you.

To do this, go to the calendar section in the website, scroll all the way down and click on “Subscribe to calendar” (see below) to see the different options to achieve this.

You now have no excuse to miss Club events!