1984 - George Orwell and all that

Rennie Ritchie and I meet when I have my triennial RoSPA resit. Always a moment of apprehension!

Police motorcyclist, RoSPA Examiner, and exceptionally good motorcyclist, we begin a journey of great friendship; many a mile covered, many a ‘sharp intake of breath’ moments as I learn from the best, with European tours, many more miles and a few beers included.

Rennie had recently become involved with IAM in the summer of 1983 after qualifying as class 1 driver at Tulliallan Police Training College. Following this up with motorcycle, HGV 3 and HGV 1.

When it appeared there were no IAM or RoSPA examiners in the Fife area Rennie offered to fill the gap. The then IAM Chief examiner Ted Clements took Rennie on board to help out with the odd bike test! This in turn opened a can of worms. Thinking he would have the odd bike test in Fife to conduct Rennie was soon handed all the car tests and many bike tests for candidates from groups as far as Lothians, Tayside and Glasgow. Not bad considering Rennie being the official examiner for Fife!

IAM quickly realise that Rennie is happy to travel a wee bit outside of his county to help out. Rennie moves on to become IAM Staff Examiner Motorcycles for Scotland and North of England. Being responsible for all Senior Observer Tests, Special Assessments and the Quality Assurance of all bike examiners. As things progress becoming involved in the development of the Local and National qualification training and testing, along with the Masters. Until 2014 Rennie is kept very busy.

But not too busy that he can’t afford the additional time to attend many of the Group events, give many a talk on various subjects, or attend observer meetings with loads of advice and guidance to the group and group observers. In fact it is sometimes difficult to get him to stop talking! EDAM is extremely thankful to have Rennie as Vice President of the Group.

At the same time, you were watching This is Spinal Tap and listening to Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas for the first time. And the fastest production bike on the planet at the time was the Honda VF1000R