Welcome Andy Martin to the Group

I’m a General Manager for Whitbread Restaurants, and have been managing a pub in Harrogate for the last 18 years, having been with the Company for the best part of 30 years. 

My first foray into biking was at aged 20 when I bought a second-hand Suzuki RGB125 Gamma from a friend of a friend, in order to facilitate a commute to work – with no instruction (I only had my car license at the time) and even less mechanical skill, I’m afraid my relationship with that bike was short-lived, and so began a rather large break from biking! 22 years later my girlfriend really wanted to ride, so we both completed a CBT together, and I fell back in love with riding. 

The purchase of a Derbi Terra Adventure 125 ensued to build our “biker sense”, and 6 months later I had my full A license.  My first “big bike” was a 2002 VFR 800, and as much as I loved that bike, the riding position wasn’t for me, so when the time came to change, I went for a brand new Tiger 800 XRT, and have recently progressed to a Tiger 900 GT Pro. 

As we both live where we work, riding is purely for pleasure, whether that be in the form of a midweek ride out (in between school runs), or a longer tour a little further afield. In terms of further learning, a few years ago, at the suggestion of an old scuba diving buddy (your very own Richard Stembrovic), I completed the Bike Safe course, and have since also completed Machine Control 1 & 2 with i2i Motorcycle Training in York. 

I’m really looking forward to developing my skills with HAB in order to keep both myself and other road users as safe as possible, whilst maximising the enjoyment I receive from my machine.