Virtual Rideout No.9
Hi everyone. The next Virtual Rideout will be on Thursday 11th June at 7pm. All welcome
Redefining my office
Over the last two months we’ve been in lockdown and the situation has been different for everybody across the country. I am very lucky as we live in a rural location with hundreds of footpaths and farmers fields. This has meant been able to go for long walks without seeing a single person.
The mental health motorbike had a plan before lockdown to go out to a number of events across the country supporting bikers where the need arose. This very quickly changed so we went online. People started coming to us through messenger, zoom and chat for support. Over the last few months we supported over 75 people. Of this 26 of these have been one to one engagements. And a number of these people were in a bad way at the point of contacting us.
Supporting people like this has been new to me so I needed to find a way of managing it. On average a one-to-one support call lasts for two hours. So I decided to take my office outdoors and walk and talk in the beautiful countryside. This has had a number of benefits. First I was with the person in the here and now, second I was using the outdoor environment and nature a way of keeping calm and being able to focus on what people were saying to me. Thirdly I’m really importantly for me I was getting fit whilst working.
I appreciate not everybody can redefine what their office is. But I would encourage you to think about how to utilise the outdoors to create a more harmonious work environment.
If you need any support go to www.facebook.com/mhmotorbike And hit the Send Message button or go to the website www.mhmotorbike.com And hit the chat button bottom right of the screen.
Live chat added to the website
After reviewing how people are making contact we have decided to move over to a live chat function on the website. We are aiming to be available from 12pm – 6pm Monday to Fridays and 12pm – 2pm Saturdays.
the live chat is available directly from all pages of the website (www.mhmotorbike.com) and also redirects people from Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/mhmotorbike) if they hit the SEND MESSAGE button. Let people know we are easier to access now.
May 2020 – Update
As we celebrate the first two months of our existence it is amazing how one story quickly becomes another. Our plan was to start out with a fully branded bike which got out to events to meet bikers dace to face. What actually happened was a virus which shut down most of the world and meant everything changed. We suddenly became very relevant to people online asking social media channels and internet tools.
This is the newsletter that shares a bit about what has been happened through the strange world reshaped by the Corona Virus
3 ways biking can improve your health
Came across this article and thought it was worth sharing
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/3-ways-riding-a-motorcycle-can-actually-improve-your-well-being/
A long term plan of our team is to commission a piece of academic research which explores this in more detail. Wouldn’t it be good if we could get Doctors to prescribe a 6 week course with the Mental Health Motorbike! Well this is what we are aiming for. Watch this space.
Seaways Cafe
A few days ago I got a phone call from Mike Thatcher who runs and owns seaways café. For those that don’t know seaways café is on the A166, Fimber Road near Driffield. A gateway to the east coast and beautiful Flamborough Head.
They have an incredible bike following and it’s the known destination for anybody travelling in this area. So Mike asked us to do the first podcast that he’s offering out his network. For us this was a really important phone call because it started to validate what we are doing from somebody that is respected within the biker industry. This is a man that knows bikes and he knows the biker psyche. After all when you’re dealing with hundreds of them each day you start to get an insight.
Mike is very easy to get on with, a guy clearly passionate and was keen to hear about what we are doing. So we jumped at the opportunity to do the interview with him. I think it went really well I will try and put a link to it below. It’s all good practice hopefully we won’t use the video elements of it just the audio!!!
We can’t wait until after lockdown so we can get over and have a proper cup of tea together and meet you all over on the east coast but until then you just have to listen to us.
Once again Mike thanks for the opportunity and look forward to meeting your network of bikers. Paul