Viewers of BBC One’s daytime crime-fighting show Frontline Fightback watched a stolen Husqvarna 701 successfully recovered, thanks to high tech security. Bike crime doesn’t often feature in mainstream media, but one edition of Frontline Fightback focused on the issue, including the use of tracking devices to pinpoint the location of stolen machines. The Husqvarna was fitted with a BikeTrac system, and BikeTrac’s Bill Taylor later explained what happened. “The Husqvarna had been stolen from Fulham and had been missing for 24 hours. That’s an unusually long time for a bike to be missing for us, but the thieves had driven the stolen bike around in a van, so we had to wait for the signal to come to rest. When it

We asked you for your feedback on what issues affect you, as motorcyclists. Thank you to everyone who commented on our social media posts and got in touch by email. One issue was hazards on the roads, whether this be potholes or debris. If you find an issue on the road, you can report it to your local roads authority in the following ways: Reporting a road spillage, such as mud Report a road spillage Problems with road signage Report a problem Reporting a pothole on a major road in England and Wales Report a pothole Reporting a pothole in Scotland on the gov website report-pothole for local roads or 0800 028 1414 to call Traffic Scotland to report potholes on major roads. Reporting a

A line up of 12 Triumphs bearing the Daytona name makes up a new display at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, which until now has focused on cars. The Daytona badge was coined for Triumph’s twin-carb 500cc twins after Buddy Elmore won the famed Daytona 200 race back in 1966 – his race bike takes pride of place in the exhibition, along with three more of the early 500s including a 1974 bike, one of the last made. The line up goes on to include the early Hinckley-built Daytonas – sports bike of the Hinckley Triumphs – and a good selection of 675cc triples, including the original 2008 Daytona and the latest Daytona 765 Moto2 Limited Edition, taking in road

We have been asked by a bmf member to help with his research into motorcycle usage in the UK..... Have you ever commuted by motorcycle or scooter? Have you ever thought about commuting by motorcycle or scooter? Is it something you do every day, or a few days a month? Or are you thinking no way, I’m not doing that! What stops you, what spurs you on? What are the pros and cons, the barriers that prevent more people from doing it? This is the subject of my latest research. There is lots of evidence to suggest that there are many benefits to a wider use of motorcycles and other forms of powered two-wheeler for commuting to work. From environmental benefits, to reduced road congestion, to improved

Latest sales figures from the Department for Transport for January-March 2022 showed UK bike sales on the increase, though there were still winners and losers. Honda held onto its traditional No1 spot by a country mile, selling nearly 5500 bikes and scooters to grab a market share of just over 20%. Big H topped both 50-125cc and the 126-650cc segments, with four of its bikes and scooters taking the top four places among the 125s. Not least among them was the PCX125 scooter, with 792 sales making this the best-selling powered two-wheeler of any type in January-March. Of the big name marques, only Kawasaki and Royal Enfield, the latter boosted by buoyant sales of the new 350 Meteor, which took sixth place

The Purple Helmets, the hilarious and highly skilled motorcycle stunt team, is to retire this summer, with its final show scheduled for August on the Isle of Man. Anyone who has attended a major open air motorcycle show in the UK in the last 25 years can’t have missed them. Mounted on ageing Honda C90, dressed in identical dirty brown macs and with deadpan faces hidden behind shades, the Purple Helmets attempted to replicate White Helmet stunts such as the Pyramid, adding their own wackier versions, such as dustbin racing (imagine a Honda 90 towing a sawn-off bin at speed) or a naked man playing a piano in a sidecar. For something which started out as a few friends having fun,

Guy Martin is planning an attack on the rotary-engined motorcycle speed record, riding the Crighton CR700W. BMF members will have read our profile of the machine and it’s Dorset-based manufacturer Rotron, which also builds paramotors and jet boards – see Motorcycle Rider, Spring 2022. The CR700W is a development of Norton’s rotary racers of the 1990s, masterminded by ex-Norton man Brian Crighton, who carried on refining the racers until they were banned from circuits in 1995. He continued R&D, first with Stuart Garner and now with Rotron. The CR700W is now being built in limited numbers by Rotron, with a price tag of £95,000. Ironically, given that the rotary was banned from racing over 25 years ago, the new bike is

The Auto Cycle Union (ACU) has launched a guide to towing a motorcycle trailer  – that’s a trailer towed behind a car or van, carrying a motorcycle, not a trailer towed by a motorcycle! The guide covers the law surrounding trailer use, safety checks, and hints. It’s all good common sense information, the sorts of things we probably assume we know, but maybe don’t in practice. For example, the licencing laws changed in December 2019 and you can now tow a trailer without a towing licence. For driving licences received before 1st January 1997 the maximum authorised mass (MAM) is 8250kg – for post-1st January 1997 licences, it’s 3500kg. Other legal restrictions cover size and weight of the trailer and its

The UK Government has proposed banning new sales of petrol-powered mopeds and 125cc machines by 2030, with all bigger-engined motorcycles and scooters following suit by 2035. The ban could come sooner “if a faster transition seems feasible,” according to the long-awaited consultation document, which was launched on 14th July. It covers all L-category vehicles, from L1 to L7, including mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles. “We have already committed to phasing out fossil fuel use across road transport,” said Trudy Harrison MP, Minister of State for Transport, “with sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans ending as early as 2030…It is therefore important that L-category vehicles do not remain fossil-fuelled as the rest of the transport fleet cleans up.” The UK

Shropshire is the latest UK county to adopt a Wheels to Work (W2W) scheme, offering cheap moped and 125cc scooter hire to younger riders. There are currently 22 such schemes across the UK, all of them aimed at younger riders who could not otherwise afford personal transport. Shropshire’s Community Resource charity has contracted Wheels to Work Silverstone to administer the scheme, which offers moped hire from £40 a week and 125s from £55. Based at Silverstone race circuit, W2W Silverstone has been supplying bikes and administration for similar W2W schemes since 2019, and currently runs schemes in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Berkshire, as well as Shropshire. They have a particular role in the more rural counties, where public