BMF News Roundup (1 Viewer)

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BMF NEWS ROUND UP – June 2024

The monthly news round-up, brought to you by the BMF

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Meetings attended for the BMF by Paul Morgan and Anna Zee in June.



Anna Zee:



In early June I attended a ‘Crash Day’ organised by the Institute of Traffic Accident Investigators at Darley Moor race track. They have started to include motorcycles in their testing though there are considerable difficulties in doing this, so the crashes don’t always work as intended. I will be writing this up for a future issue of the BMF magazine Motorcycle Rider.

Otherwise work has been centred around the General Election. I hope you have seen Paul’s articles on the main points of the BMF/National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) manifesto and responded to our Call for Action – see www.britishmotorcyclists.co.uk/cta This will remain live after the election, so you can still use it to keep your newly-elected MP on message with motorcycle issues.



Paul Morgan:



Lobbying Update

The focus in June was to publicise the Motorcycling Matters manifesto and to get all prospective MPs sign up to the BMF/NMC’s seven key priorities for the future of motorcycling. Following the election, the BMF’s focus will switch to establishing an early and credible relationship with new Ministers and officials and to building a collaborative long-term approach to delivering our motorcycling priorities.



Watch Paul’s manifesto chat on our YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/@BritishMotorcyclistsFede-xf6te



Tyre Safe Briefing & Awards Conference

The overriding theme here was that by working closing together, the motor sector and road safety bodies can create a stronger voice for tyre safety and reduce risks and accidents resulting from illegal and poorly maintained tyres. Craig-Carey Clinch NMC gave a presentation on the key priorities for the motorcycling sector, which included improving road safety and the need for the involvement of the motorcycle lobby in developing future UK transport policy. Craig also highlighted the success of the Pothole Partnership between road users and the road repair industry. Motorcyclists were generally good at ensuring their own tyres were legal and properly inflated but the factors highlighted at the conference obviously had an impact on the wider safety of motorcyclists and needed to be addressed.



Off-Road/Bike Sport Meeting

A wide discussion around the current permit/licensing issuing regime for bike sport events. There was a growing preference amongst some competitors to obtain day licences for race events rather than have annual licences, which raised wider issues around the effective and safe regulation of the sport. There was growing interest, particularly from young riders, around electric motorcycles in sport with three race organisers now running electric-only events. It was agreed this should be promoted to bring more young riders into motorcycling. Trail Riders Fellowship highlighted the advantages for the off-road sector in the development of the electric bike sector.







In Other News:

In a piece of almost perfect timing, the NMC’s ‘Motorcycling Matters’ manifesto was launched just before Rishi Sunak announced the 4th July General Election. Well placed to win hearts and minds during the election campaign, the Manifesto had considerable input from the BMF and

consisted of seven key policies, all aimed at unlocking the benefits of motorcycling. These are: Bringing motorcycling into mainstream transport policy; Better and safer roads (tackling potholes); Improve licence training and testing; Decarbonisation – support all alternative technologies; Access to the full road network for motorcyclists; Celebrate motorcycle sport; Protect our motorcycling heritage.

UK bike sales were disappointing in April, held back by poor weather and the standard of living squeeze – overall, they actually fell marginally, but the 126-500cc segment saw a healthy 18.8% increase, thanks to strong sales of the Triumph Speed 400 and Royal Enfield Meteor 350. Norton is upbeat, having delivered the last of the Stuart Garner era bikes (re-engineered and rectified). The company says a new generation of bikes is on the way, so watch this space. And more welcome news – motorcycle fatalities fell in 2023, by 12.6% to 306, following a general trend of falling fatalities for car occupants and cyclists as well.

KTM is developing ‘noise control’ for motorcycles. What? The thinking goes that new bikes are type-approved for noise limits based around very specific test conditions – outside those conditions a standard bike might exceed the limits. KTM’s idea is to warn the rider of excess noise (maybe via a warning light on the dash) so they can change up or throttle back. Meanwhile, the City of London Police have warned of an insurance scam involving ‘ghost brokers’ – these offer attractively cheap policies but the documents are fake and you will not be insured.

In a piece of breaking news, we hear that London is the most congested city in Europe. That’s according to traffic data specialist Irix, but anyone who rides regularly in the capital probably knew that already... And finally, two milestones in motorcycle sport. Michael Dunlop has become the most successful TT rider of all, having surpassed Uncle Joey’s total of 26 race wins. Plus, June 2024 marked the 75th anniversary of the very first motorcycle world championship event – the 1949 Isle of Man TT.



Written by Peter Henshaw – Editor BMF editor@bmf.co.uk



Anna Zee – Political Technical Services Director anna.zee@bmf.co.uk



Paul Morgan – Government Relations Executive paul.morgan@bmf.co.uk