Issue 140 : April - May 2005
Tribute to Simon
Milward in Africa
MZ 1000SF
Ducati 620 Multistrada
Fred's Run
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Tribute to Simon
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Simon
It takes a certain kind of person to abandon their home and job and travel abroad to a country where they don't speak the language, and there take up the daunting challenge of engaging the biggest bureaucracy on earth. Simon never had any training in public affairs lobbying or PR. He wasn't a graduate in politics or economics or any of the disciplines that might be thought necessary to embark on a challenge of monumental proportions. He had no great financial backing behind him, no job security, no certainty of even having enough money to live on, let alone to run an effective political campaign. Perhaps worst of all, in common with all in the riders' movement, he had the support of only a tiny percentage of the motorcycle population. It should be mentioned that the MAG members from the South West where he had been the Regional Rep did provide support, as did MAG UK, but, viewed against the whole UK/EU motorcycle economy, he was a real David in against Goliath with a slingshot and a prayer. One thing Simon did have on his side, and it is perhaps the most precious quality of all, was tremendous optimism and self belief. What could be done had to be done and fortunately he had the energy to do it. When Frank Pearson, who had run the first FEM office from Charleroi, had to return to the UK for family reasons, Simon recognised the need to sustain the commitment and build on the embryonic organisation. In 1992 he upped sticks and left for Belgium, sleeping on the floor of the first tiny office in Charleroi before managing to set up a base closer to the European Parliament in Brussels. Later he rode the length and breadth of the continent, visiting ex Soviet states and recruiting more and more nation's biker groups into FEMA. Learning French was not something that came that easily but he struggled with it until he achieved a fair degree of competence, albeit with a slightly humourous West Country burr. In an environment dominated by polished 'collar and tie' lobbyists delivering carefully prepared briefs on behalf of wealthy interests, Simon was an oddball. Rushing around the Parliament buildings in a scruffy leather jacket with hair blown in all directions like a startled scarecrow he gave an impression of a man perpetually in motion which was pretty much what he was. The Euro politicians, obviously found this informal firebrand rather engaging, certainly they had no trouble identifying him among the 'suits' of Brussels and there were advantages to his style of lobbying. In Simon, the MEPs and Commissioners knew for sure they were dealing with a genuine enthusiast who was representing a lifestyle that he lived, rather than a business interest he was paid on contracted to protect. Apart from the self evident fact that he was a biker, Simon had an almost religious fervour that added to the potency of the arguments he delivered in a manner that discouraged any doubts about his sincerity. In any kind of PR there is one asset that is invaluable and very hard to develop if it doesn't come naturally and that is simply being likeable. Simon was very likeable. Sometimes people would take issue with the roads he wanted to go down but I've never come across anyone who said they didn't like him. The Multi Directive with its 'something for everyone to hate' catch-all complexion was an early target for Simon's energies and he went at it with the zeal of a priest in pursuit of demons. I shall forever remember the sight of him burning copies of the vast document in public as a finale to speechmaking, and then stamping the smouldering embers into dust to emphasise his resolve. So many copies of the loathed document got burned in these pyrotechnic celebrations that at one stage the office ran out of reference material to consult. Though much of the European campaigning was highly technical, Simon was a fundamentalist in the sense that he truly felt that helmet laws sucked. He wrote at length during his American trip about how Americans still really understood freedom in a raw anarchical 'wind in the hair' kind of way. Simon recognised what so many people fail to grasp, which is that you can't separate the helmet issue from the right to ride motorcycles at all. One of the more contentious issues he championed during his time with FEM/FEMA , was the partition question in Cyprus. It was hardly what you would call a core rider issue but there was a rider connection and it was typical of Simon that he thought he could change the world and heal centuries of racial conflict between Turks and Greeks. Together with a band of two wheeled desperados he set out on a trek across Europe to join indigenous riders on the island of Cyprus for a joint run to demonstrate that bikers could overcome the frictions that had led to the partition of the island. It was a spectacularly optimistic, some would say naive mission, that ended in a significant international incident but the humanitarian instinct that motivated it was a highly laudable one that was, for Simon, to evolve into the driving force of his life. I don't think I've ever met anyone who enjoyed his life as much as Simon, which is part of what made him likable. He would often burst into some tuneless non existent song as a means of releasing the surplus enthusiasm that bubbled continuously inside him and frequently erupted in outrageous excess that was always hilarious rather than offensive. Simon was, almost paradoxically, a deeply religious man, though not of the glum ascetic variety that shun pleasure as something sinful. Simon focussed more on the dos than the do nots and would probably have struggled with any religion that obstructed his appetite for Belgian beers. Simon's faith took a practical form through his efforts to help others which contributed toward the motive for the Millennium Ride on which he embarked in 2000. It can't be easy organising a series of fund raising presentations while trying to deal with all the trials and tribulations of an ambitious and arduous world trip but for Simon, judging by the tone of his dispatches, it just lent meaning and significance to the whole venture. The altruistic side of his nature was clearly taking over from the riders' issues platform which had been his driving force for many years and his plans for life beyond the great ride were along those lines. Raising funds to provide medical care to remote regions via motorcycles was the project he intended to devote himself to and to which the considerable fund raising of the Millennium Ride will go. He has already left an enduring legacy to over 50,000 people in Flores Indonesia, when he set up the successful 'Health For All' project which on a daily basis now delivers primary healthcare by motorcycle to those who need it most. What started out as an 18 month sabbatical from his work at the FEMA office turned into a life experience of self discovery amidst a compassionate endeavour to help those who have none of the opportunities that most of us take for granted. Some people may have been irritated by the increasingly evangelical quality of his later diaries but it was a reflection on his personal evolution throughout the trip that he had the confidence to express what might be viewed as uncool sentiments in so public a manner. So eager was he to complete what he'd started, that, when money ran out, he sold his house, cutting off his material umbilical to stay focussed on what had turned into a life mission of spiritual quality. This may sound jaundiced but it seems that if you want easy wealth and fame in this life, then you are best off doing something worthless, superficial and transient. Those who set out to do what is truly worthwhile are beset by obstacles, indifference, and intransigence., They must struggle and sacrifice and sometimes even then tragedy overtakes them; it's the way of the world, it seems. It's not for nothing that they say the Good die young, a truth for which there is plenty of evidence to which Simon's experience has added. Simon probably lived more, however, in these last five years that he's been on the road than most people do in an entire lifetime. He's seen more of the world than Marco Polo and his writing suggests that he's learned more profound truths than a thousand gawking tourists put together. He loved riding motorcycles, he wanted to ride round the world on one and he did it. He met the Dalai Llama and saw the Grand Canyon, he lived his dream, discovered himself, discovered the world and discovered the force that created it and there's not many people who do that. But that we had a dozen Simon Milward's, but people like Simon don't come in dozens, more's the pity. I don't think Simon will have much time for that 'rest in peace' stuff, he's far too energetic a soul for that kind of indolence, so we'll just say: Mutch |
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Simon Milward, Riders Rights Giant and Biking Humanitarian, Visionary, FEMA General Secretary, tireless campaigner, world traveller, ambassador for motorcycling, and evangelical, was killed in a road accident in Malawi, Africa on March 4 toward the end of his world Millennium Ride.