Autopilot still kills motorcyclists

Euro NCAP stars do not protect motorcyclists. FEMA considers this an unacceptable situation and sent a letter to Euro NCAP to alert them to this unsafe situation, caused by their own testing methods. In September 2022, Euro NCAP, a voluntary vehicle safety rating system, rated the Tesla model Y with 5 stars . This is not unusual for a modern car. These five stars are partially based on a very high rating for ‘Safety Assisi’, 98%, which is almost as high as you can get. We consider this very high rating remarkable at least. From the beginning that Tesla cars hit the roads with their ‘Autopilot’ system, there are reports of remarkable and unexplainable accidents with Tesla cars that can be linked

Vintage club offers classic rides

The Vintage Motorcycle Club (VMCC) has opened the doors of its extensive garage, offering free loans of a whole range of classic and vintage bikes, from a 1923 Matchless 350 to a 1989 Yamaha FJ1200. The scheme is only open to VMCC members, but anyone can join the club – 12 months individual membership currently costs £42. You don’t even have to currently own a bike to join, though members taking up the loan scheme will need a motorcycle licence. “We want as many people as possible to experience what it’s like to ride an older motorcycle,” said the VMCC’s Chair, Mario Costa-Sa, “and this is the way to do it. There are some restrictions on some of the older bikes,

Honda to offer 10 electric bikes by 2025

Honda is planning a rapid expansion of its electric motorcycle range, with at least 10 new battery bikes promised by 2025, three of which will be full-size motorcycles, not scooters or mopeds. We won’t see them all straightaway, as Honda is envisaging a phased launch, starting with what it calls ‘Honda e: Business bikes series’ which are likely to be electric mopeds aimed at fleet users for short urban deliveries. Honda already makes the electric Benley-e, which is used by the Japanese and Vietnamese postal services. Commuter motorcycles or scooters aimed at private customers will follow in 2023-24, but the real interest for motorcyclists lies with what it calls ‘Fun EV’ machines, which will be sold in Europe as well as

National Motorcyclists Council calls on the Government to Start Delivering

Inertia over who will be prime minister has led to several policy issues relating to motorcycling either stalling or slowing to a crawl While the Government under new Prime Minister Liz Truss will be rightly prioritising the urgent need to tackle energy prices and the costs of living crisis, the wider business of Government will also need to restart alongside this, after a long summer recess and the hiatus caused by the resignation of Boris Johnson and the subsequent leadership contest. This is why the National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) are today calling on the Government to also start making progress on several issues relating to motorcycling. At the Department for Transport, the new Secretary of State Anne Marie-Trevelyan has several challenges. The

CMC: ‘Motorcycles must be included in driver assistance systems’

Reliable detection of motorcycles by driver assistance systems in cars is essential to avoid collisions and decrease the number of motorcyclist accidents. A white paper published by the Connected Motorcycle Consortium discusses the current state of automobile Advanced Driver Assistance Systems from a two-wheeler detection point of view. It also presents an evaluation of potential methods to improve powered two-wheeler conspicuity and analyses previous relevant studies. Just like FEMA, the Connected Motorcycle Consortium thinks powered two-wheelers should be included in ADAS test procedure development and retroactively introduced into existing ones. Powered two-wheelers are often overseen, or their speed and distance are misjudged by other road users. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) support passenger car drivers to avoid hazardous situations in many traffic scenarios

BMF response to remote driving consultation

The BMF is responding today, September 2nd 2022, to the Law Commission's consultation on remote driving. Some limited forms of remote driving are already employed, usually in industrial context such as mines and quarries but there is interest in employing it more widely; for example, to move rental cars between hires. One topic in the consultation is examining current legislation as to whether some of it is hindering development of remote driving. It is probable that not all of us will think hindering this development is a bad thing, but we have taken the opportunity to point out some of the issues we see around automated driving as well. You can read more about the consultation here And you can read our response to

Hackney riders protest parking plan

Save London Motorcycling (SLM) is organising a mass ride out to protest against proposed new parking charges from 2023 for powered two-wheelers by Hackney Council. The Council is planning to charge motorcycles and scooters £6 per hour to park in a marked bay, with a maximum stay of four hours. The charge applies equally to mopeds, litre-plus adventure tourers and even to electric motorcycles and scooters. In response to a question from the BMF, Hackney Council provided this statement: “As a Council we are committed to improving local air quality and tackling the climate emergency. As part of this commitment, and following a full public consultation in 2020, Cabinet agreed in February 2021 to place motorcycles on the same footing as

Battery swapping hits 300,000 a day

Battery swapping for electric scooters is big business in Taiwan, where 340,000 swaps are made every day by riders who subscribe to the service. Rather than charging batteries at home or work, the riders simply rock up to one of nearly 11,000 swapping stations and change their depleted battery for a fully charged one. It’s one answer to the conundrum for flat dwellers – how to charge your scooter when you live on the 7th floor. The system is run by Gogoro, which launched it in 2015 and now provides a standard battery swap service for ten different brands of scooter, including Yamaha. It claims to have 92% of this ‘electric refuelling’ market in Taiwan, covering 25% of all powered two-wheelers sold

Fred Warr – Britain’s Mr Harley-Davidson – dies

Fred Warr, who with his father did more than anyone else to bring Harley-Davidson into Britain, has died aged 93. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease and passed away peacefully at home. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Warr family to Harley in this country – it was the company’s only UK dealer from the early 1950s to the early ‘70s. Warr’s Harley-Davidson, now occupying two sites in London, has been the classic tale of a family dynasty. It remains Harley’s oldest dealer in Europe and the business (though not as an official dealer) will celebrate its centenary in 2024. It was in 1924 that Fred’s father Captain Frederick James Warr was demobbed from the British Army. He

BMF & Weeble have teamed up to support mental health

BMF & Weeble have teamed up to support mental health. We asked our friend Weeble of Weeble's World to come up with a new design to symbolise our ‘for all’ ethos and we are blown away by it….  We think it's a great design and really gets the message across that BMF is for ALL RIDERS, whatever you ride... Each shirt is ethically sourced, made, printed and packaged, 10% of all sales will be donated to Mental Health Motorbike  We have an established relationship with MHM and feel it is important to support them in the work they do. We ran an article in Motorcycle Rider Spring 2022 and previous article on our website Available in unisex sizes Medium to 3XL MEDIUM 38 – 40” LARGE 41 – 43” XL 44 –

Record Motorcycle Tests & Passes

A record number of people are taking, and passing, their motorcycle test, according to the latest figures from the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). Undeterred by the spike in fuel prices and the ever-rising cost of living, 65,711 riders took their Module 2 (on-road) test between April 2021 and March 2022, more 2000 up on the previous record set in 2012/13 – 50,000 a year is a more typical figure. Of those who took their Module 2 in 2021/22, 72% passed the test to receive their full licence, slightly bettering the previous pass rate. This impressive increase is partly down to the efforts of Driving Test Centres to catch up on the backlog of tests which built up during lockdown –

Triumph Display at British Motor Museum

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

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