Motorcycle Minds - Act 2 - Scene 1
Nice bike!! People who have a passion for motorcycles seem to have that one thought in the back of their minds - especially when a motorcycle passes by or at shows and events. Though behind the glitz are issues that the average motorcyclist possibly can never imagine.
Over the years Trevor (my partner) and I have been involved in motorcycling matters either working for organisations or on our own. Even retiring to the South of France involved motorcycling in the sense that we are renovating a lovely old Art Deco house to turn it into a B&B for the "discerning" biker. (It WILL be ready next Spring!)
We left behind numerous initiatives and projects from Crash Cards for Riders, road safety studies, participation in Regional, National and European working groups or forums specifically aimed at PTW (Powered Two Wheeler) issues.
I guess it was hard for us to just let go and over the last year we still kept an interest albeit passive in various aspects of motorcycling such as legislation, riders' rights issues, technical stuff and generally what is happening out there globally. We have seen that there is a lot of technical information that is not getting out to the public e.g. the latest round of meetings where there have been discussions about emissions and EURO 4/5 for motorcycles.
The information “out there” regarding the issues is available on many motorcycling websites and discussed on forums, but sometimes it is difficult for the ordinary motorcyclist to understand or find. Furthermore, the reporting of motorcycle issues is sometimes very insular. Although the “motorcycle community” is world wide, the in-depth reports in countries are in the user’s language and usually contained in rider organisation websites or their members’ magazines, which do not reach the rest of motorcyclists – the non-members.
Bottom line is that in discussions with others, we have decided to re-instate Motorcycle Minds (Act II). We don’t have the time or inclination to do the type of work required for Right To Ride, but we think that there is a lack of quality information available to motorcyclists, thus we consider that there is a void to be filled.
We also intend to have a virtual library (similar to the one we previously kept), so that motorcycling documents can be easily found.
In our view, what we are riding on (Road Infrastructure) - how riders are perceived to ride (Road Safety in all its forms) what we ride in (clothing – helmets) – how clean we are riding (Emissions) – where we can ride (Bus Lanes – Road bans) - the cost of riding what we ride on (Road Tolls – Bridge Tolls) – cost of riding (taxes – licensing – testing) are all important issues. What we are riding and how this is developed though to what we will be riding, is in our minds the most important.
Our Motorcycle Minds (www.motorcycleminds.org) website will be accompanied by a Motorcycle Minds facebook page.
Watch this space folks - we never went away y'know!
Trevor Baird and Elaine Hardy PhD