United Kingdom - National Association of Bikers with a Disability (NABD) - Support of people with disabilities who wish to enjoy the freedom and independence of motorcycling It is about ten months now since I was first contacted by Andy from Exeter. He explained that he had suffered a cerebral abscess in 1984, at the age of fourteen, which had affected his vision, in particular a field of vision to the right of centre; he asked if I could help him to get a provisional licence to ride a motorcycle. My initial though wasn’t one of great optimism. The DVLA rules on … [Read more...]
Bike Theft Epidemic – Protest
United Kingdom - Biker & Bike - UK Motorcycle Theft Protest Group - There is a bike theft epidemic happening in the UK’s larger cities that, outside of biking circles, is little known about. That changed, on the 6th November 2016 when a group of 600-700 bikers converged at London’s iconic Ace Cafe, to ride, peacefully to Downing Street to hand in a petition. The petition called for, amongst many other measures, an end to the policy of the police only allowing all but the most highly trained pursuit offers to follow and stop thieves on motorcycles, mainly … [Read more...]
The Stupid Factor
We Are Human - Over the last ten years I have been involved in road safety research. In the last 5 years I have had the fortune of working with professional road collision investigators who kindly gave me access to their case files of road traffic fatalities in Northern Ireland. Overall, I studied around 150 fatalities, broken down into three groups: Motorcyclists, Pedestrians and Vehicle Occupants (the latter referring mainly to car drivers and passengers). What interested me was the way that in each case it was not a specific issue that caused the death of the "victim" … [Read more...]
“Speed Kills” – A Big Fib?
United Kingdom - The British Superbike School’s Mike Abbott has made what some may regard an outlandish statement (though we at Motorcycle Minds don’t), following the recent publication of the 2015 National Statistics (Great Britain) on road collisions. His statement that the very misleading “Speed Kills” strap line is a big fib and that it needs to be abandoned, from what is seen as rhetoric used in road safety circles. Perhaps it is just maybe an easy solution to use for blame when looking for an overarching one stop panacea. Mike says, that after abandoning the … [Read more...]
Yes You Can!
First published in DURO RIDER Gazette - About four years ago, I was milling around at the end of a demonstration run against proposals from the European Commission that supposedly would have rung the death knell for motorcycling and customising – the freedom of choice to modify and change your motorcycle. I asked a rider who I knew had been involved in “rider’s rights”, what we were demonstrating against on that occasion. His reply, paraphrasing the retail slogan of “you name it we’ve got it” was, “you name it, we’re protesting against it”. Perhaps that rider may not … [Read more...]
FIM Dinner Debate : Robots – European Automation
Europe - The FIM Dinner Debate 2016 “Sharing the Road with Robots: When Motorcycling Meets Automation” took place in Brussels on 19th October 2016. Representatives from the motorcycling community, the industry and EU decision-makers exchanged over the future interaction between automated vehicles and powered two-wheelers, stressing the need to make roads safer for all transport modes. FIM announced during the evening its intention to join the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC). The event was hosted by two influential Members of the European Parliament, Mr Wim van de … [Read more...]
Crashing with ABS – Survey Time!
European/Global - ABS - Anti Lock Brakes – Advanced Braking Systems, whatever you wish to label them, are certainly marked out in the realms of ongoing motorcycling technical innovations as something that improves rider safety. Any challenges about the ability of ABS not to stop in corners, on loose road surfaces while keeping the rider upright, has faded away as practical and “paper” research debunks any dissent, putting forward evidence that ABS saves riders lives. As ABS moves technically forward, linked to more advanced electronics and other handling systems, some … [Read more...]
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