Paul Varnsverry, the highly respected motorcycling clothing expert, is launching a campaign aimed at eliminating uncertified and potentially unsafe bike kit, currently being imported into the UK and offered for sale online. Varnsverry, Technical Director of clothing consultant at  PVA-PPE, is started a petition aimed at alerting Government to the dangers of untested kit. In conversation with MCN, he praised the efforts of Trading Standards in the last three years, in checking bike shows and high street shops for sub-standard kit. But he added that clothing offered online is attempting to circumvent these checks.

“I started noticing a significant number of vendors selling untested, non-certified clothing,” he said, “using social media to bypass the usual checks and balances put in place by the market surveillance authorities to try and sell direct to the end user.” Any bike kit sold in the UK must carry the CE and/or UKCA mark, but some untested protective clothing is carrying the CE mark fraudulently.

Paul Varnsverry’s petition is titled ‘Implement a strategy to protect motorcyclists from imports of unsafe clothing’ and seeks to persuade Government Ministers to take action. An article on the whole issue of motorcycle PPE (personal protective equipment), by Paul Varnsverry, will appear in the Spring issue of Motorcycle RIDER, the magazine of the BMF.

Sign the petition here

Jim Freeman of the BMF underlined the organisation’s backing for the petition to outlaw unsafe bike kit. “Paul is well known to the BMF, regularly joining BMF Council meetings as an invited guest. His work in removing dodgy PPE is well known. For anyone reading this, any ‘special deals’ on eBay for motorcycle clothing should be approached with caution, I would suggest buying only from reputable dealers, that way you should get what you pay for. ”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Paul Varnsverry