Inveraray-based MotoScotland is Scotland’s first and only specialist off-road motorbike training centre, offering all-in-training, skills development – and trails in 50,000 glorious acres of landscape in the Argyll Estates, beautiful and varied beyond imagining – they call it ‘breathtaking biking’ with good reason.. This is five times bigger than any other such business can offer across the entire United Kingdom; and MotoScotland is the first such business in Scotland.
Clive Rumbold who, with his wife Donna, manager of Skippers’ Bistro & Bar at the Argyll Caravan Park just south of Inveraray, came from Dumfries and Galloway to set up MotoScotland here, after identifying the Argyll Estate as a perfect potential host for the business and making a successful pitch to the estate factor, Andrew Montgomery.
With MotoScotland just over a year old now and already the recipient of an envied Scotland Edge Award [below] – ‘Encouraging Dynamic Growth Entrepreneurs’ – and now rated Britain’s number 1 Best Off Road Motorbike Training Schools in Ride Magazine’s October 2014 edition.This is as close to a dream business match as you could conjure, for MotoScotlnad and for the Argyll Estates.
MotoScotland gets access to territory for off-road trailing no biker could dream of.
The Argyll Estate gets a business savvy, impeccably organised activity specialist, on site, perfectly attuned to the potential business development of the estate – and bringing it ancillary business in the hire of its self catering properties on the estate by groups coming for the MotoScotland experience.
Given the Estate’s accepted responsibility for the economic sustainability of Inveraray, the business DNA match with MotoScotland is also constructively aligned. Clive Rumbold’s business philosophy is to contribute to the development of ‘the whole package’ – everything that the entire area can offer to make it a worthwhile experience for his clients to come here.
This encompasses the accommodation providers, the eateries, the pubs, the various attractions, other activity providers. Clive’s view is that they don’t all need to be high-end – but they all need to be the best of their kind, to pay attention to detail, to the customers needs and to serving those needs with imagination and welcome, always looking for and going the extra mile.
He talks positively about several of the businesses in Inveraray his clients have experienced and have enjoyed. What he’s talking about and working to encourage is a town with a single marketing brand, with each sector attracting visitors who benefit from all of the opportunities the other sectors have to offer.
Cross-marketing. in all its ways and means, is a no-brainer these days, Nothing, however good of its kind, can succeed sufficiently alone. For example. however good an experience MotoScotland’s customers have – and we have our own first hand evidence for just how astonishingly ecstatic can be the reception of what they offer – it will not guarantee a return visit.
But if they eat with pleasure, drink with delight, enjoy the company and the surroundings, relax in comfort, sleep soundly – and have other potential experiences to add to more and more off-road trailing, they will not be kept away.
This is the MotoScotland vision – and this is the way, if replicated across the endless variety of activity tourism Argyll’s natural resources attract and sustain, this beautiful but economically benighted region can start to earn its keep and grow its economy – well.
So what’s great about MotoScotland?
This is an exemplary full-on private enterprise, wholly funded by the owners. As Clive Rumbold says: ‘My life savings and part of my house are in this’. It will never be allowed to fail. It is not someone else’s risk.
Firstly from a non-biking perspective, this is an impressively well-organised business, with perfection, the work ethic and sheer service to the fore.
When we visited MotoScotland a week ago at their base at Maltland in the Argyll Estate [above], the briefing room was already set up for a course taking place the next day, information packs on the tables, the adjoining kit room [above] impeccable and the snack/coffee counter all fully resourced and ready to go.
At the biking quarters in the courtyard building opposite, the boot drying room was ready to serve, the accompanying debriefing area spick and ready for company [above], the five individual changing rooms [below] along one wall already with an off-road kit hanging on the door of each, boots below – and a poster inside ['How to get yer kit ON'] showing diagrammatically how to do just that.
MotoScotland is the only company of its kind to provide changing rooms. Other expect their clients to strip and wriggle at the side of their cars. Not here. It is hardy surprising that some of MotoScotland’s clients rumble up in Astons, Porches, Jags and Mercs.
The philosophy is to provide everything – the bikes and the kit. Everyone coming to MotoScotland must have a road bike licence. The rest of what they need is down to the company. Clive says that road kit can cost a biker from £500 to several thousand pounds – and the different kit for off-roading has a similar cost spectrum. He know that those interested in off-roading will be put off if they have to bring their own kit – and that they won’t want to invest in the kit until they know if off-road riding is for them.
So it’s all here and it’s all good. The bikes are BMWs and AJPs [for which MotoScotland is the only west coast agent] – at different heights and different power capacities [140cc, 250cc and the 650cc BMWs] to suit different riders, different physiques and different skills. The kit is pure thriller-film – a cross between gladiator and Kendo, the Japanese martial art: leather, shoulder elbow and knee pads, boots and visors by Darth Vader out of Avatar. VERY boys [and girls too]. VERY fun – if too late for some of us. [And that odd sound in the ether is the gnashing of envious teeth.]
In the workshop – immediately a professional and well found set up, Steve [below], the in-house mechanic and part-time instructor [along with the two full time instructors, Clive himself and Andy, who is based in Perthshire] has an AJP up on the stand and is well into its maintenance.
Before we left, he had completed the AJP and had a BMW up, with its front end off [below].
There is a large filing box on the workbench, containing files for each individual bike – with a preventative maintenance programme routinely carried out, alongside the inspection of each bike at the end of each day’s use, with any necessary repairs effected at once. Anyone coming to MotoScotland can relax in the certainty of safe, well-found machines.
When a party comes back from the trails at the end of the day – they may well be wet and muddy. They have the changing cubicles their disposal – and no responsibility for the kit. Clive washes all of it himself – there is a washing machine on the spot and the drying cupboard – so that it’s all ready for action again on the next day.
What do they do?
They run courses with trail experiences. Courses are usually:
- one day long – the Introductory one;
- or two days long – the Foundation course – which is the Introductory day plus a second skills day; the Intermediate and the Advanced.
- Clients can also come for top-up skills days – and trail days – both of which Clive is happy to tailor to their needs, when the opportunity is available and possible.
The introductory course deals with all the vital basics – how to get on and off the bike [and you do NOT aim to stand with one leg on the ground on either side of it]; including getting on and off it in unusually difficult circumstances – like having to get on it from the low side on a hill; and how to get the bike up if you’ve dropped it.
Even road bikers are constantly nervous about being on the road – a spot of unexpected or unseen gravel is like running on ball bearings and can see you off in short order. So road bikers, attracted to offroading, are initially nervous about it, seeing the terrain as full of accident potential. MotoScotland is all about giving people the skills and the experience that builds their confidence for a wonderfully exhilarating sport.
Clive says that when he was looking for somewhere to base the business, he was fixed on Scotland and began by looking at some fabulous quarries. But as he says, a quarry is always a quarry. You could be anywhere. What he really wanted was stunning landscape and on the Argyll Estate, he has all of that on wheels.
There is Glen Shira, with the wild open land and the Shira Dam at the top of it. There is the intriguing Glen Aray with its woodlands, river and hills. There are the forested areas south of Inveraray, and the variety of trails over to Loch Aweside. The views are spectacular and the terrain offers all of the classic and imagined joys of off-roading.
Supporting the community – a ‘taster’ weekend for charity
In August – MotoScotland ran a ‘taster’ weekend of two separate days in Inveraray – entirely free to all comers, with donations to the chosen charity, Kirsty’s Kids.
We went along to check it out, finding – unsurprisingly – a very professional set up, with shelter marquees for registration and supporting stands and tents – and a food van. We caught sight of Steve, on a busman’s holiday, striding past the marquees on his way to the bikes.
The Institute of Advanced Motoring [IAM] – which not only includes biking – but cycling, a must for city users – were there; as were the British Motorcyclists Federation, [BMF] which represent motorcyclists’ rights on and off the road at a governmental and EU level. When MotoScotland had their recent first annual assessment by the Auto Cycle Union [ACU], the organisation chose to create a new category to fit them – called ‘recreational trail riding’.
At the IAM stand, we were persuaded of the wisdom of having a free skills test to discover the level of necessity for advanced tuition. They made it a dare – which is sneakily hard to resist.
At the BMF stand, we met Tom Duncan [above] – who has spent a day off-roading with MotoScotland and found it a memorably great experience and which he wrote about in Motorcycle Rider. [Colin Overland , Editor of Ride magazine, has also done a day with MotoScotland and reviewed it in Ride, also describing it in his personal blog as 'a brilliant day's tuition with MotoScotland'.]
Tom Duncan is, as is Clive Rumbold, very safety conscious. He has a air-bag jacket for bikers [left]. Intrigued, we asked how it worked. He opened a kit bag he’d brought on the off chance of some biking – and there it was: a high vis jacket that looked and felt a bit like a flak jacket. It has a lanyard you attach to the bike and, when you ‘depart from the bike’ [a euphemism if ever we heard one], the weight of the bike going in one direction as you head in the other, pulls the lanyard and activates the airbag. This has a special collar area which fills quickly and protects the vulnerable neck area. The head is heavy to start with and when you add the weight of a helmet, a snappy roll could see a neck broken.
At this point, Clive was setting off with his first group behind him [some in view above] for a short trail experience [here as on his courses, he never takes more than five per instructor].
The group stopped at the entrance to the car park area and then headed off up the road towards Glen Aray for an off-road experience out of sight.
When they came back. we shot over to hear how it had gone.
Two of the adventurers held us gripped. They didn’t even see us standing listening to them. They couldn’t stop talking to each other about what had just happened. One who couldn’t even get off the bike first, was lyrically ecstatic. He had had SUCH a great experience. The bike was GREAT. He kept saying: ‘It’s such a little bike but boy can it go. You wouldn’t BELIEVE it’.
They were chattering like magpies on speed. Just seeing adults [and we sort of lose the licence to play when we become 'adult' - whatever that is] – having had such a blast, filled with such excitement and pleasure… It was utterly infectious to listen to and magical to witness. Transformational.
The outcome of the taster charity weekend
The weekend quickly raised £822 for Kirsty’s Kids, with more to come from items MotoScotland has for auction. Joe and Mary Hurst, whom we met at MotoScotland a few days previously, were there to help with registration and selling raffle tickets for Kirsty’s Kids.
Clive Rumbold says that his own two highlights of that weekend were: ‘Raising money for Kirsty’s Kids and the incredible generosity of the people who helped make the event’.
He estimates he had around 200 people at the ‘taster’ over the two days. Those who take it further with MotoScotland – and we can guess at some who will – will now have some idea of how physically demanding, as well as thrilling, this sport is. Are you sitting comfortably? You can use up to 700 calories per hour when at full stretch in off road riding. No wonder good food in the evening is a must.
A last note is that Clive Rumbold is a qualified life coach, well placed to observe – and to manage – the extent to which his business offers those who take advantage of it a much enhanced self-confidence and self-belief. They find they are capable of controlling situations they never thought they’d be able to do. We saw – heard – that for ourselves on Saturday morning.
