End of an affair

Over the past three years sales of new sports motorcycles fell by 40%. Dan Sager, from transport think-tank Two Wheels Better, investigates whether this marks the end of the British love affair with performance super bikes.
Since the first 'superbike' was unveiled a quarter of a century ago, manufacturers have shaved off weight and improved performance so that it's now possible to buy a street legal machine weighing less than 200kg and pumping out nearly 200bhp, complete with ABS and traction control as standard. Kawasaki's latest incarnation of the ZX-10R caused a sensation when it was launched this year, just as the BMW S1000RR did in 2010 and Yamaha's R1 the year before. Sports motorcycles have never looked so exciting, yet registrations of new super-sport machines dropped from 23,403 in 2008 to just 14,256 last year. Of course, this could be a temporary slip caused by the credit crunch and global recession. After all, these bikes are a luxury, not practical every day transport.
However, if that were true, then sales of other 'luxury' styles would have decreased by a similar amount. Yet both the custom and sports-touring sectors fell by 25% - that's a big drop but nowhere near as substantial as the 40% decline in sports bike sales. Total motorcycle registrations (not including mopeds) stood at 115,000 in 2008, but by 2010 the figure was 81,000, a fall of 30% (or 34,000 machines in real terms). If you remove sports bikes from the statistics, the figure is nearer 25% so it's clear the sales of these high performance machines are falling much faster than the rest of the market.
Some people might argue that modern sports motorcycles are simply too powerful for Britain's congested road network, but there is another very telling figure within the statistics that suggests otherwise. So far we have been talking about styles of motorcycle, but, in this case, size matters too. While sales of machines in almost every capacity class have fallen by somewhere in the region of 30% over the past three years, registrations of bikes over 1000cc have dropped by less than 10%. Last year one in five new motorcycles sold in the UK was over 1000cc, which proves that riders are not intimidated by powerful machines. It also shows that customers are not necessarily opting for smaller capacity machines that are cheaper to buy, insure and service.
It may not be the end of an affair, but it's clear that British motorcyclists are gradually losing their passion for sports bikes and although they still like their machines to be big and powerful, they also like them naked!.
Read the full feature in Used Bike Guide April/May 2011

BMF Launches ‘Rider Active’ Campaigning Initiative

In a new initiative, ‘Rider Active’, designed to involve all motorcyclists in tackling common issues adversely affecting their motorcycling safety and enjoyment, the BMF has today launched an on-line survey to gather their concerns and from those topics highlighted, construct an action plan to deal with them.

The ‘Rider Active’ initiative follows an impromptu ‘What’s Bugging You?’ survey of visitors to the BMF’s stand at last year’s International Motorcycle Show and triggered the need for a wider survey of rider’s concerns.

The survey captured such a diverse range of concerns that the BMF now wants to break them down into priority order by surveying not only its 80,000 members though direct mailing, but also, through the on-line survey, all interested motorcyclists.

In this way say the BMF, it will not be a top-down project but will involve the BMF’s regional network of representatives too. After collecting riders concerns, guidance and briefings focused on local findings will be available enabling those riders, along with local BMF Regional Representatives, to take action themselves along with any national action taken by the BMF.

Over the year, four major issues will be focussed on as determined by the survey, all of them designed to gather grass roots concerns and involve local riders.

Launched today, the Rider Active survey will also be carried in the BMF’s re-launched Motorcycle Rider magazine published later this month.

Chris Hodder, the BMF’s Government Relations Executive said: “This represents a new way of working for the BMF, empowering local riders and putting the resources of the BMF in their hands. In this way we will be addressing the issues that they really care about.”

For further information and to take part in the survey, riders should log on to:

http://www.bmf.co.uk/pages/bmf_main_pages.php?main_page_id=999

OK COMMUTER

UK traffic levels rose by 8% between 1999 to 2009 and the average vehicle speed during the peak morning rush hour on locally managed 'A' roads is now just 25 mph. So why aren't hard pressed commuters turning to motorcycles in their thousands to solve their transport woes? Come to think of it, why aren't more motorcycle owners riding to work?

Not only does Great Britain have one of the lowest motorcycle ownership rates in Europe, (only the Republic of Ireland has a fewer bike owners), but we don't seem to use them very much. Although one in every 33 vehicles is a motorcycle, they account for just 1% of traffic.

That's becuas the average annual mileage for private cars is 12,000, but for a motorcycle it's less than 4,000. However, it's not only the distance travelled by bike that is lower than cars, but also the frequency. Figures released by the Department for Transport show that the number of weekly trips made by bike has decreased from 11 in the mid 1980's to eight by 2008. During the same period the average distance driven per week, and the amount of time spent doing it, have both increased. Add into that escalating fuel prices (over £6 for a gallon of unleaded is being reported in Jan 2011) and you would expect more people using two wheelers to save time and money, whereas in fact people are riding fewer miles less often.

As proved by the recent winter, the coldest in years, British riders are at the mercy of the weather. Riding in the UK is highly seasonal, April through to September being the peak months. A wet summer, like 2009 when UK rainfall was 40% above average, reduces the limited riding season still further. Since most households with a bike also own at least one car, the vast majority of Britain's 1.3 million motorcyclists can always leave the bike parked on rainy days and drive to work instead.

This is a great shame, because we are completely reliant on cars in this country, with seven out of ten people outside London travelling to work by car. Even a modest increase in motorcycle use could make a significant impact in reducing congestion, but how can existing owners be encouraged to use their bikes more often? Opening up bus lanes to bikes nationwide would certanly be an incentive and would remove much of the risk that is inherent when filtering through queuing traffic. Meanwhile the motorcycle industry needs to consider how it sells and markets new machines. While supersport bikes offer unrivalled levels of performance, they are not ideal transport for short distance commuting. So how do we make pratical middleweight all-rounder motorcycles more atractive?

Look at latest safety stats

Once again the statistics confound popular beliefs. More motorcycles = more accidents? Not according to the Dft’s ‘Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2009: Annual Report’ which shows that while motorcycle traffic went up by 2 per cent in 2009 (compared to 2008) , motorcycle casualty rates actually fell by a third.

In fact motorcycle traffic was 35 per cent higher than the 1994-98 average, a greater traffic increase than for any other road user type. Yet in percentage terms, the killed and seriously injured (KSI) rate has fallen by 33% against the 1994 -1998 base line average.

Not only did casualties fall in percentage terms, they also fell in real terms too, by 4 per cent (from 21,550 in 2008 to 20,703 in 2009). This figure is 14 per cent lower than the 1994-98 average. Comparing 2009 to 2008, there were 21 fewer fatalities, 206 fewer serious injuries and 620 fewer slight injuries.

Another interesting fact that has emerged from the report is that, for all classes of road casualties, ‘failed to look properly’ is still the single biggest cause of all accidents (reported in 38% of all accidents in 2009). More that one out of every three casulaties were caused by road users failing to look properly - think about that the next time you approach a junction!

Flash, bang what a picture.

Well, apparently, that's it for speed cameras in Oxfordshire.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if road safety was as simple as some people believe? Lots of nice ‘facts’. A clear, easy solution to save lives. Even better if we could enforce that solution automatically by machine.

Living dangerously?

Why does motorcycling have such a bad reputation for safety? One in four people associate it with the word “danger”. Geordie comedian and keen biker Ross Noble sums up a typical attitude;

“People go: Oh motorbikes, you're going to kill yourself on that. And that's a bit like going up to a chef and saying: Hmm, gas ovens. A lot of people kill themselves with gas ovens. You'd go. Yeah but loads of people don't. Loads of people make a nice dinner and shut the f**k up."

Statistically people are more vulnerable sitting on a motorcycle than sitting in a car; figures from the Department for Transport show that motorcyclists are 57 times more likely to be injured in serious crashes than car drivers. On average 500 riders are killed every year on Britain's roads, accounting for 20% of all road user deaths, and a further 5,500 are seriously injured.

However, to put those figures in perspective, there are 1.6 million motorcyclists on Britain's roads, so it's fair to say that 1,594,000 motorcyclists were neither killed nor seriously injured last year. Better still, the overall casualty rate for motorcycles has fallen over the past decade and is currently around 18% lower than it was ten years ago.

While motorcyclists are more vulnerable to injury than car drivers/passengers, that doesn't mean it is 'dangerous' to ride a motorcycle per se.

"Kill your speed"

After 'danger' the word most commonly associated with motorcycling by the public is 'speed'. Politicians, in particular, often respond to serious road accidents by imposing tougher speed limits – hence many A-roads now have a maximum limit of 50mph, reduced from 60mph. While this is a swift and cheap fix, it won't necessarily make any difference. Exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor in just 5% of bike accidents in the UK in 2008. In fact the two most common factors contributing to motorcycle accidents in 2008 were failure to look properly and loss of control, which accounted for 30% of all incidents. Or to put it another way, riders are three times more likely to crash as a result of poor observation than by riding ‘too fast’.

Andy Ibbott of the California Superbike School is highly experienced in teaching motorcyclists to stay in control; “Over the years it has become clear that all riders, on all kinds of machines, can ride the straights really well. Most of the corners they carve tend to present a problem of some description of other”. Accident investigators confirm that the majority of riders who lose control on a corner (left hand bends are the worst) are travelling within the speed limit. Slower does not necessarily mean safer.

Responsible adults?

Interestingly, 46% of motorcycles are owned by people aged between 35 and 49, significantly older than the most accident-prone group of drivers, who are aged 17-24. In 2008 reckless riding was a factor in less than 10% of accidents and motorcyclists are half as likely to fail a breathalyser test as other road users.

So if motorcyclists are responsible adults who aren't riding recklessly beyond the speed limit, why are they so over-represented in the accident statistics?

Junctions. The most dangerous places for motorcyclists. During 2008 51% of serious injuries to riders occurred in collisions at junctions. It's easy to blame inattentive motorists, the SMIDSY (Sorry Mate I Didn't See You) but it's more complex than that. Sometimes vision can be obscured by traffic, road furniture or vegitation; the road position of the bike can make it hard to spot; filtering in congested traffic creates all sorts of issues.

Halving the number of collisions at junctions could reduce motorcycle casualties by 25% which would mean approximately 125 less deaths every year. That's a big difference.

But how can this be achieved? One option is a concerted campaign that is backed by the government, road safety professionals and pressure groups, motoring organisations (AA + RAC), motorcycle media and rider groups, alerting the public to the dangers of collisions at junctions and simple tactics for avouding these. Could the solution really be that simple? There's only one way to find out ....

From an article originally published in Used Bike Guide

Information design agency creates straight-talking road safety ads

Information design agency Freeman Christie (FC) has worked with Oxfordshire County Council’s road safety team to develop a series of ads specifically targeted at motorcyclists. The ads will be seen in town centres and at bike shows around the county in the coming year.
Agency principal Mark McArthur-Christie said “As most of us are riders (R1100GS, Ural Dalesman and CBR600) this was a dream project. And because the Council is promoting a proactive training message, we were delighted to get involved. We wanted to avoid all the usual road safety cliches and, instead, come up with ads that will get riders interested. There’s no point in preaching at people or throwing gory images at them, you need to get the message over with a bit of wit and raise a wry smile. When people ‘get’ the joke, they get the message too.”
Sarah Gniadek-Pitt, Road Safety Officer with OCC, said “We’d not worked with FC before, but we wanted to have people writing and designing the ads who understood riders. We spent a lot of time briefing the team on what causes motorcycle crashes in Oxfordshire and they’ve developed the ads from there. We’re really pleased with what they’ve come up with.”
The ads are based around a series of messages promoting training and safe cornering