Instructors
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 Interview with Alex Romano – Bike InstructorName – Alex Romano
Age – Too old!
Occupation – Motorcycle instructor / bike mechanic when students break them!
Years Riding – 27 years. I started young OK!
Current bike – Moto Guzi Stelvio NTX, Yamaha XTZ660 Changes every month!!
So Alex, what made you want to be a bike instructor? Do I have to tell the truth? Umm.. An unhealthy obsession for motorcycles I suppose, also I can’t stand to be indoors behind a desk with a computer, don’t like bosses – seemed like a perfect choice really! So let’s get to the bit about bikes – what was your first bike? A Derby 50cc moped. Well at 15 I thought it was pretty cool, and used to ride around Spain So other than the crazy scooter, tell us about some of your other bikes? Okay.. The most memorable bike was a Suzuki TL1000s ’97 model. It was one of those bikes that everyone fell off of all the time – didn’t quite handle properly due to a slight design fault – which made it very entertaining to ride! Fortunately, after sharing lots of long evenings, and lots of closeness and lots of shiny new bits, she became very tame and very fast, and the envy of all of my friends! This was also the only bike that I have owned for longer than a year. The fastest bike I have ever owned has to be my slightly tuned Kawasaki ZX12, actually I had two of these, original unmolested and non bureaucratic versions. The last one of these had to be sold in order for me to keep my licence and fulfil my dream of becoming a motorcycle instructor – due to a slight lack of control in my right hand… (Think it’s maybe a nerve problem or something..) The slowest bike was a Moto Morini 501 – which was the slowest coz I could never get the f****r fixed – after rebuilding the engine four times I finally sold it. Ok we’re gonna interrupt you there coz we think you could talk about this all day! So what was your first bike related job? Umm, that would be working in moped rentals in Spain. After that I was a motorcycle courier in London – one of those idiots that flies round on bright orange bikes. I reckon I was probably a courier for about six years. So was that as scary as we imagine? There were lots of near misses! I remember falling off in the middle of Tottenham court road – sliding off half way round a corner into the pavement, in front of a lot of very busy shoppers, who then proceeded to step over me and carry on their way leaving me sat there slightly dazed! But no major accidents – although I was reportedly the fastest person round the north circular. So how did you end up being a bike instructor? Well it’s something I had considered doing for years but just never got round to, I saw an advert in the paper one day and just decided to go for it. So I went off, paid for a course – did the exams, did another 6 months or so doing work experience learning how to teach properly and then got my first instructing job. That would be about 4 years ago now, 18 years after I started riding! My intention had always been to set up my own school, for a number of reasons – the poor standards of training that are out there, the lack of enthusiasm shown by some schools and instructors towards students, I wanted to be in control of how lessons are structured and carried out and what bikes are used. I also wanted to teach people to ride a bike rather than just to pass the test. Okay.. So we’ve asked you all about biking and work – what about fun – lets finish with your most memorable biking moments? God – it’s quite hard to choose! Going flat out on my Honda Fireblade, for over 100 miles in Spain, showing 298 kph (apparently) with my friend on his RSV 4 feet away next to me. Can’t say much more than that really!! Riding through the mountain passes in the Alps when its 70 degrees and there are six foot high snow walls either side of the road. Riding the TT course and riding Hart Knott’s Pass on a DRZ400 more times than I should have in 1 day. ” You are disturbing the peace here. ” Private joke. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |
