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And a cynic’s response…

Back Roads Rider puts his own spin on the BMF / Mike Penning interview today:

http://backroadsrider.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/well-he-would-say-that-wouldnt-he/

Unfortunately, I agree with much of what he says, though I hear through the grapevine that Mr Penning has been very approachable by riders’ groups.

However, that approachability hasn’t stalled the imposition of the stepped licence regime which leaves the training industry and all new riders facing massive financial and logistical hurdles to jump. Details of how that will work appear to have been finalised during the lifetime of this government, rather than the last.

Latest: Minister’s position on proposed EU anti-tampering legislation

From a press release issued by Jeff Stone and the BMF on Weds 18 January 2012:

The Motorcycling Minister Says Yes To Motorcycling

In an exclusive interview conducted for the BMF’s membership magazine, Motorcycle Rider, Mike Penning MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, reveals himself as a motorcyclist keen to tackle the issues facing motorcycling today.

The wide-ranging interview, conducted by the BMF’s Government Relations Executive Chris Hodder, covered rider testing, the red tape challenge, type approval regulations and Britain’s strength in Europe.

The Minister, having first started riding motorcycles as an Army despatch rider, currently owns a 900cc Ducati Monster and a Royal Enfield and despite his own riding being limited these days, said he saw motorcycles as “an enormous benefit for the environment because of their ability to keep moving, give off less emissions and cause fewer traffic problems than a car.” He was however concerned at the “number of riders inappropriately dressed for riding” and that was one of the reasons that he was passionate about training and educating riders.

Tackled over the thorny problem of rider testing and licensing, the Minister said that he fundamentally disagreed with the previous administration’s knee-jerk reaction to the European legislation on testing. “I keep referring to a single test and I still think that’s the best idea. We have to create a test that

Training schools face training bike upgrade nightmare

Whilst on the topic of the Third European Driving Licence Directive, it seems that British Dealer News got an early tip-off as to what would constitute suitable bikes for each of three levels of motorcycle test, and published a chart back in December last year.

The impact on new riders has been well-publicised, what’s not been given the column inches is the serious impact this stepped licencing regime will have on motorcycle trainers.

At the moment (ignoring mopeds and scooters), training schools need 125s and a Direct Access bike, which must produce over 46.6hp (35kW) to be legal for use.

The revised situation is that all training schools WILL still need 125s, but they will also need a 395+cc machine producing between 34 and 46.6hp, and a 595+cc bike producing at least 54hp.

Most schools are equipped with twin cylinder 500s likes Suzuki’s GS500 or Honda’s CBF500. Spot the problem? Yes, the current Direct Access bike produces OVER 46.6hp, but aren’t over 595cc. So unless a training school has bikes like the ER-6 which they are using for DAS already, not only do their training bikes fail to meet the standard for the top licence tier but they are now TOO powerful for the intermediate licence step too.

DSA announce details of the new stepped licence regime

Meanwhile, the DSA have also apparently confirmed the final arrangements for the implementation of the changes to the motorcycle test required by the 3rd European Driving Licence Directive. MAG have released the following statement:

“Details of a new motorcycle licencing regime to be implemented next year have been confirmed by the Driving Standards Agency.

The new rules will limit all riders under 19 to 125cc machines and under-21s to 47bhp.
Those aged 17-19 will only be able to gain a licence for a machine up to 125cc and 15bhp by taking a test on a bike of similar spec.

… At 19 they can qualify for a bike up to 47bhp by doing another test or undertaking additional training. This must be done on a machine over 395cc and between 33bhp and 47bhp.

They then face a further two-year wait – and yet another test or further training – before they can qualify to ride a bike of any power.

Shetland Islands gets its own Module One test site

One of the less-publicised bits of news in the current stream of bad news about driving licences, anti-tampering laws and compulsory hi-vis clothing comes from a DSA press release, dated October 13 2011:

“Learner riders in the Shetlands will now be able to take both parts of the motorcycle test without leaving the islands.

Since the introduction of the two part motorcycle test in 2009, candidates had to travel to the mainland to take the off-road, module one part of the test. But from this week the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) will be conducting module one tests at Anderson High School in Lerwick.

Autocom to go portable and support ‘bluetooth’

I just received a mailshot from Autocom telling me they’re still producing rider training intercoms, and specifically that their big new offerings to trainers are a moderately affordable tankbag-based system and a bluetooth transmitter to allow an uplink to any bluetooth headset. but under their new ownership. I’m presuming I’m on the Tecstar mailing list as I bought some of the Starcom equipment some years ago.

The tankbag idea is long-overdue. Whilst the conventional underseat installation might suit long distance tourers who don’t swap bikes very often and also advanced instructors with only one bike, it’s pretty hopeless for basic trainers who are often hoping from bike to bike, or even for riders who like a new machine every year – having something that’s independent of the machine is far more convenient for most riders than a permanently-wired system.

It will be interesting to see if allowing their system to link to existing bluetooth headsets will revive their fortunes. I’m not sure how long Autocom have been around but I’m guessing twenty years at least. When they first appeared, they produced virtually the only bike-to-rider and bike-to-bike intercoms worth bothering with, and even as competition appeared they were able to trade on their quality, but that quality came very much at a price premium.

In the last few years, the appearance of bluetooth intercoms might have meant more riders are using intercoms but I suspect the competition has also eaten into Autocoms sales, for it turns out the original company was in trouble in late 2009 and went into receivership in December that year.

Update on MotoOnline

Apologies to people who’ve tried to visit our MotoOnline site to look for our books and shorter articles over the New Year period, as you will have discovered it went down a couple of days ago.

It seems I ticked the wrong box when making the domain renewal just before Xmas day, and having gone off for a New Year holiday into a wifi blackhole, I didn’t discover this until the weekend, and couldn’t fix it whilst I was away.

However, I’ve been online this morning and hopefully it’s now sorted. Although the site is still showing ‘suspended’ it should be back online in a matter of hours. I’ll put out another update as soon as I know.

Thanks for your patience.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all our readers a merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year. Ride safe in 2012 and we’ll be back ourselves with more news and views on bikes and biking in a week or so.