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GETTING A GRIP!
Paddy Tyson provides a campaign update
The GET A GRIP! campaign is all about consistent grip levels under-tyre, so to speak. In the last edition of The ROAD I highlighted the solutions that exist for the age-old problem of slippery iron manhole covers, or access covers as I really should call them. We’ve probably all had a moment we’d rather forget that involved a dark wet night, a piece of iron situated on the apex of a bend and a change of underwear. The GET A GRIP! campaign is demonstrating that new products can now vastly improve the grip levels and wear rates of access covers and in so doing improve the safety of every rider in the country. Composite Access Covers are destined to cast the old 19th century technology of cast iron, into the history books and in so doing make everyone’s two wheeled journey a much more pleasant experience. If you’d like to know more about the non-slip composite access covers and the trials that are currently underway across the country, please have a look at
www.getagripuk.org or ask your local MAG Rep for
Bedford’s Senior Highways inspector Mark Hathaway, with MAG’s Paddy Tyson
normal tarmac, which varies from the mid 50s to mid 60s and is a perfect example of the consistency that matters to bikes. High grip levels are always good, but what we really need is consistent grip levels and that is what GET A GRIP! is striving to achieve.
The composite access covers made by Structural Sciences in Cumbria have a PSV of 60 even in the wet, so you can see what we are capable of achieving with the modern materials available and forward thinking councils who are serious about road safety. We continue to be approached by companies and
organisations who want to be associated with the campaign and I’ll keep you posted as things develop, but so much of what we can achieve is due to riders themselves. No one else really understands how special we, as riders are, and how a bike uses the road differently to other vehicles. It is perhaps no coincidence that the greatest advances are being achieved where council officers and Highway Inspectors are bikers themselves. Bedford is an example of this, where even the Mayor has a
If we donʼt make ourselves known to them, they may never know about us or our campaigns and they may never realise that there is tax-paying support on the ground for the ideas that they could help to implement.
information sheets.
But there is a whole lot more to consistent grip levels than just access covers. What about gravel, diesel, potholes and everyone’s favourite – over-banding? Well what I want to draw your attention to now, is another exciting product that is on the market and also being trialled by a far-sighted, proactive Local Authority. Bedford Borough Council, has recently opened its bus- lanes to bikes, (as reported in The ROAD), is starting trials on composite access covers, secure parking and has now also started to use a brand new product called “SAFETRACK Crack Infill,” or non-slip over-banding to you and me. They have embraced the whole GET A GRIP! idea and are really keen to help riders, which is very refreshing. The Council recognises that budget squeeze or not, some things are important and really worth investing in: like bikers. The over-banding that Bedford is using, is made by a company called Stirling Lloyd who are based in Cheshire and it has a PSV in the high 50s. PSV stands for Polished Stone Value and is a recognised way of measuring the skid resistance of road surfaces. That compares favourably to
54 The ROAD
full bike licence, but it is really just an example of the fact that if we want to achieve something, we have to do it for ourselves, whether that is asking for parking facilities or getting non slip access covers fitted. With over a million riders in the country, there is a very good chance that someone in your Local Authority regularly uses a bike. Or maybe your MP or local councillor does. If we don’t make ourselves known to them, they may never know about us or our campaigns and they may never realise that there is tax-paying support on the ground for the ideas that they could help to implement. Let them know we appreciate their work and let them know about MAG because then we can all GET A GRIP! of the situation and ultimately a consistent grip of the road surface too. Ask your rep for a GET A GRIP! information pack and take it with you next time you go to visit your council. Call MAG Central if there isn’t a rep in your area. Maybe yours will be the next Local Authority to start using non- slip over-banding. It’s not a pipe dream, the product exists, it is fully approved and it stops you getting skid marks on your grundies.
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