FIM – Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme – Safety Award 2019 – Clothing Assessment – A couple of weekends ago the FIM Awards took place in the Principality of Monaco, at the glittering ceremony of the FIM Gala.
FIM says that the audience at the awards, “Including representatives from the one hundred and eleven national federations, motorcycling legends, various members of the FIM, championship promoters, manufacturer and team representatives, sponsors and other invited international guests, the 2019 FIM World Champions,” saw sports men and woman rewarded for their respective sporting achievements.
“In addition to celebrating the bravery and exploits of the many FIM World Champions, it was also a moment to recognise the work done by others – individuals and organisations – who continue to work tirelessly for the benefit of motorcycling overall, with the presentation of the following four very important FIM Awards.”
The 2019 FIM Safety Award, which we have followed over the last few years and the reason for publishing this article, was awarded to the MotoCAP Safety Rating from Australia.
The other awards and their winners were, FIM Environmental Award – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, FIM Women in Motorcycling Award – MissBiker from Italy, FIM Award for the Future – Hobby Sport – First Steps IMF – the FIM Road Safety Award.
Australian Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP)
We previously ran an article all about the Australian Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP) – Motorcycle Star Clothing Rated – last year
The Australian Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP) is similar to the star rating scheme for motorcycle helmets in the UK SHARP (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme) where the SHARP scheme aids motorcyclists to make an informed choice when buying a helmet.
MotoCAP is run by a consortium of government agencies, private organisations and motorcycle stakeholders.
“The Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP) gives clothing separate star ratings for protection and comfort. The protection rating considers performance in abrasion resistance, seam strength and impact protection. The comfort rating is based on how comfortable the clothing is when worn in the Australian climate.”
“The right motorcycle equipment can reduce the likelihood of permanent injuries from a crash and shorten hospital recovery times. It can also allow motorcyclists to enjoy a more comfortable ride, with less distraction, fatigue and dehydration.”
The MotoCAP website has a specific page that advises riders what to look for when purchasing motorcycle jackets and pants, so riders can be dressed to ride with advice from the world’s first safety ratings system for motorcycle clothing, providing scientifically-based information on comfort and protection!
You can view how the MotoCAP safety ratings assess how well garments: jackets and pants, protect a motorcyclist in a crash, based on impact protection, burst resistance and abrasion resistance, it also assesses motorcycle gloves. While for helmets in Australia these can be found on the CRASH website – crash.org.au boots are not included in the initial roll out of MotoCAP they may be tested in the future.
Arai Helmet Awarded First-Ever FIM Gold Medal
Meantime, during the same FIM Gala weekend at the FIM Awards Ceremony General Meeting, Arai Helmet was awarded the first-Ever FIM Gold Medal as a Maker of Safety Equipment for Motorcycle Riders.
According to ARAI helmets Mr. Michio Arai was awarded the Nicolas Rodil del Valle Gold Medal and praised for meritorious service by the FIM as president and representative of Arai Helmet, Ltd.
ARAI state, “This special gold medal, first presented in 1983, was awarded to persons with significant contributions to 2-wheel racing activities and management of businesses and was awarded only in the case where there was a qualified person. The FIM awarded Mr. Arai this medal for “achievement in contributions to the safety of many riders and numerous advancements to motorcycle sports over many years”. Furthermore, while Mr. Arai is the 23rd person awarded this gold medal, he is the first ever awarded as a maker of rider safety equipment.”
As if you didn’t know about ARAI the finer details are – “Arai Helmet continues to make helmets without compromise for the sake of rider protection since the company’s founding on 13th October 1950 as the first motorcycle helmet manufacturer in Japan.” – “Mr. Michio Arai was born in 1938 in Tokyo and took over the Arai family business in 1986 from his father, Mr. Hirotake Arai.”
So that got us thinking, how are riders here (Europe/UK) informed of the safety standards of clothing in the market place, especially now that a “new” standard for protective clothing for motorcycle riders, at the moment running as a provisional European Standard – prEN 17092-1:2017 – set to be officially published at some point in 2020, will run on a similar tack but with “less” rigorous testing as the protective clothing for professional motorcycle riders standard.
There is one excellent article written about the new standard at Motorcycle clothing: The CE approval law explained. As the title of the article says, it explains the CE approval law, standards and classifications, which were introduced in 2018 and really put in force by April 2019, what manufactures and retailers responsibilities should be when a rider comes looking for new piece of clothing, expecting that clothing to meet the crash protection it says it offers.
If not all our “shopping”, but definitely our browsing is now done on-line, we have found a definite hole in detailed information being offered to riders by manufacturers, their distributors and retailers, regarding what their garments offer safety wise within the standards.
They are required to do this, by the overall European Regulation (EU) 2016/425 which is that the Declaration of Conformity – DoC (certification) – must either be provided with the product, or the instruction booklet should include a link to a web page where it can be accessed.
Some (few) are very, very good, some have no information on their website and some have tried their best but come up short on either providing a link to the DoC or actually what individual garments meet regarding the standards or classifications of protection.
We are talking about reputable manufacturers and retailers that we are in no doubt are offering in good faith garments that meet the standards, but just come up short consumer wise in providing information for us to make an informed decision to buy what is an expensive outlay in riding gear.
In fact, we would consider that the legislation has a slight hole in how this information is made available to riders.
After all one would not want to shell out a shed load of money, as has been suggested to us and to which we agree, “based on false claims and mis-selling of the motorcycle clothing, gloves or footwear which are claimed to meet the standards when they do not”, that manufacturers and retailers should, “expect to reasonably be challenged and asked questions”, so watch out for our article coming shortly.
Original Sources – Sveriges MotorCyklister – SMC – Australian classification of motorcycle clothing received the FIM road safety award – FIM Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme – ARAI Helmet Europe On Facebook – SATRA Technology – PVA-PPE Group
Information
Other nominations for the 2019 FIM Road Safety Award were:
Czech Police Headquarters “Let’s start together all wheels down” – Czech Republic
Launched in 2018 by the Traffic Control Police Directorate of the Czech Police Headquarters, the “Let’s Start Together all Wheels Down” project started as a transfer of good practice from abroad and was developed together with the Autoclub of the Czech Republic and its Association of Centres for Improving Driving Skills as a joint preventive activity focusing on the safety of motorcyclists.
The aim of the project was to present new safety elements to motorcyclists and to arrange practical education.
All training centres in the Czech Republic that teach safe driving have participated in the implementation of the project, which has reached three thousand motorcyclists each year so far.
Safety Riding for Bikers – Slovenia
The aim of Safety Riding for Bikers is to give Slovenian motorcyclists the opportunity to acquire knowledge on how to react in critical situations.
Former police officers Brane Legan and Vojko Safran joined the AMZS Safety driving centre at Vransko, which opened in 2009, to help design different programmes in basic and advanced individual and group training on and off the roads.
Using their own experience, which included many professional courses in foreign countries, they have trained new instructors for safe riding schemes over the last ten years and their courses are highly regarded by bikers in Slovenia.
Previous winners of the award, now in its tenth year are:
- 2010: Greig Craft and the AIP Foundation for low cost motorcycle safety helmets in middle and low income countries – www.aip-foundation.org
- 2011: Andrés Perez Rubio, former motorcycle racing champion, for his work for road safety, in particular barrier safety on the streets – FIM Road Safety Award
- 2012: Ian Burrell MBE and the Ambulance Motorcycle Club of the UK for the helmet medical card (now more than a million distributed worldwide) – www.crashcard.co.uk
- 2013: The United Kingdom Department for Transport for the SHARP star rating system of independent testing of helmets – modelled on the star rating system for cars – www.crashcard.co.uk
- 2014: The KNMV (Royal Dutch Motorcycle Federation) for their work in developing scientifically proven risk awareness training for road riders – KNMV – VRO-Risico
- 2015: Mr Tony Rich a patrol officer in the AA for his concept for a cycle and motorcycle “awareness” programme directed at drivers. This has become an international campaign promoted by FIA Region One – Think Bikes Campaign
- 2016: Federazione Motociclista Italiana (FMI) for its programme of Road Safety Training – www.federmoto.it
- 2017: NMCU the Norsk Motorcykkel Union for its “Full Kontroll” book – www.nmcu.org
- 2018: Michael Woodford MBE and the Safer Roads Foundation for their work in promoting, “automatic headlights on” technology to be fitted to all motorcycles sold across the world – not just those marketed in Europe and North America. Also, for their advocacy to the motorcycle industry to fit all motorcycles with an anti-lock braking system – www.saferroadsfoundation.org
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