Northern Ireland - While the political system in Northern Ireland has gone into "meltdown" over a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme of woodchip boilers - "Cash For Ash" - along with other political angst, the current Sports Minister Paul Givan has announced the establishment of a Motorsport Taskforce. With an election called to re-elect MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) to the Northern Ireland Assembly on the 2nd March 2017, Mr Givan announced the task force yesterday - 24th January. With the Assembly dissolving tomorrow - 26th January - one hopes that any … [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...]
Crossing the Centerline – Or Not
USA - Today, the numbers have changed, at least in the western states. Now, the majority of crashes are out in the country, and motorcyclists are more often at fault. Typically, a motorcyclist either does something dumb, or can’t control the motorcycle, and crashes into something. One scary scenario is with the motorcyclist going wide in a right-hand curve and colliding with an oncoming vehicle. An example of this occurred on the Olym pic Peninsula northwest of Seattle, where a novice rider was out with some friends on a group ride. According to newspaper reports, “…the … [Read more...]
Shake Rattle And Roll
UK - Warning Systems For Motorcycles In that brief moment of panic before a crash, Oh Shit! is the cry of many a rider and it refers to those 2 seconds before a crash. This is the point in time where even the most experienced rider freezes – because they have never been confronted with that situation before. One of the solutions on the table to reduce crashes is speed warning systems for motorcycles [i]. But the most important element about warning systems is the time factor. Findings from the Hurt report (1981) [ii] tell us that the typical motorcycle accident … [Read more...]
