TMX SAYS: Daddy daycare & IDBS wish list
By TMX Archives on 4th Nov 15
Having attended more International Dirt Bike Shows than Ive got fingers or toes I decided to mix things up a wee bit this year and took the missus and kids for the first time ever. A risky business, I hear you say and youre definitely not wrong as it nearly cost me an arm and a leg which by my reckoning is around 50 per cent of my counting ability
‘Daddy! Can we go on the...' was a phrase I heard all too often along with ‘I'm hungry/thirsty', ‘why's there no ice cream?' and ‘Babe, I really like this'. After spending a mere £10 on getting the family in (the kids were free and I blagged a media pass – it's my job) my total spend for the day probably hit somewhere in the region of triple digits although I only got up to a score before tracking it became a lost cause.
Now, you're probably thinking ‘that's nowt' if you're a northerner or ‘you tight northern monkey' if you live south of Leamington Spa but when you consider I work for Johnston Press, in the Morecambe office, you have to understand that £20 is like a month's wages or so.
So instead of making big money purchases at Stoneleigh the majority of my time was spent window shopping.
Top of my fantasy wish list at the end of it all had to be a 2016 KTM 450 SX-F. Damn, that thing is slim, very well designed and perfectly engineered and if I had an impressively large pile of pennies – and an overwhelming desire to race motocross again – then one of those bad boys would be sat in my garage right now.
Right at the other end of the ‘I want this' scale was the Bultaco Brinco. I just can't get the fact that it looks like a downhill mountain bike with a jerry can strapped underneath out of my head although I'm sure it's still a lot of fun to ride. With a price tag of £3,429 I think I'll give it a miss though, thanks...
Something that's a lot better value for money – and also made an appearance at the IDBS – was the 2016 MCF race licence that now includes 24/7 Personal Accident Insurance as standard.
Yep, that's right, take out a 2016 MCF licence and you're totally covered for broken bones, loss of earnings and all the other normal disability benefits n'all – and for less than £50.
It is possible to increase the level of cover by making an additional weekly payment on top of course although I'm sure the majority will find the standard option more than adequate – I mean, it's not like you're planning on claiming now is it?
One aspect that I found particularly interesting though was the all encompassing coverage that the MCF accident insurance offers.
Basically, no matter where you ride – whether it be with the MCF or other affiliation's race meetings and at legit or non-legit practice sessions – then you're fully covered which in my mind makes it a bit of a no brainer.
In fact, screw it. Sign me up for an MCF licence and put me down for one those KTMs. And while we're spending let's get some advance tickets for next year's International Dirt Bike Show – the family loved it and so did I!
