Middleaged hooligans (Lifted off the MCN website) should start a nice healthy debate on here...
 

MAG is demanding extra training for anyone buying an ‘800-1000cc bike’ and says buying decent protective kit means you are prepared to see the road as a race track, according to a report on the Independent’s website.

The report goes on to quote MAG’s recent submission to Whitehall: "It seems that a majority of sports bike riders use leather suits, EU-approved body armour etc. The eager adoption of this race-track equipment betrays an attitude that the road is simply an extension of the race track. "

The same report quotes MAG’s Ian Mutch as blaming the biking press for accidents, saying we have blood on our hands for " glamourising speed " . We imagine MAG will be calling for a ban on MotoGP next.

MAG continues to support challenges to the helmet law.

To read the full article click here http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/m...p?story=519665

....mmm! Food for thought!...More fines in order perhaps?
Can hear the cash registers now..
Cha Ching!
Another thought...What happened to the government drive for people getting out of cars to cut down on pollution?

[Edited on 10-5-2004 by kwikbitch]

...........I wouldn,t disagree with the extra training issue as I think its to easy for people to jump onto 100bhp++++ bikes straight after direct access. That doesn't prepare people for real life situations like what will happen if you grab a handfull of throttle out of an island on a wet road on a bike with a bit of grunt etc. etc.

........... Which leads on nicely to the second point. A load of rubbish about having decent kit - it cuts the pain if the worst does happen. I spent plenty of time in my youth riding in jeans and trainers and still have scars to prove it. Full protective gear is a must in todays traffic - I stick to it even in summer. Not wearing it doesnt reduce speed just increases injuries.

Still thats my tuppence on it - over to eveyone else........:):)

Aren't MAG the people who campaign AGAINST wearing helmets? :puzzled:

MAG Quote: "To ride a modern sports bike after only 10 to 20 hours of instruction seems to be a recipe for disaster."

My Response: This isn't the fault of the rider but the standard of the TEST to gain a licence. The motorcycle licence is already one of the toughest to obtain as it requires class-room and practical training before you're even allowed on the road (the CBT) so if you want to make this better, campaign for compulsory retests!

MAG Quote: "Too much reliance is placed on 'protective clothing' which works well on a race-track, where riders can slide without encountering obstacles, unlike the public road."

My Response: If this is the case, campaign to have road furniture made safer. We've all seen the garotting wires they're now using instead of armco barriers on dual carriageway - I wouldn't fancy my chances sliding into them! This sounds more like poor road layout than biker inabilities.

Article Quote: "Celebrities are no more immune than their more obviously mortal fans. Mark Knopfler, the 51-year-old front man for Dire Straits, and Liam Neeson, the film star, have both suffered dangerous bike smashes, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, 55, fractured several ribs in an accident three years ago."

My Response: Mark Knopfler rode a Honda and got knocked off by a woman in a Fiat. Liam Neeson was riding a Harley when he hit a deer that ran from the side of the road. Arnie was also riding a Harley. These are all hardly modern sports bikes!

MAG Quote: "These people have bought a cycle for nothing more than to get their rocks off. It's nothing to do with the biking lifestyle."

My Response: Utter crap. There is no such thing as a "biking lifestyle", just people who own motorcycles. Some use them as a mode of transport purely to get from A to Z, others use them for work and some for pleasure. This statement just shows how out of touch these idiots are.

Alan Dowds, deputy editor of Superbike magazine said: "We take the view that they are big enough to decide what they do with their own time, their own money and their own machines. People listen to gangsta rap albums. Does that make them go out and kill people? No. We're interested in making exciting, entertaining magazines for people to buy. And what's wrong with that?"

Here here! At least the Independent managed to get a balanced viewpoint in there.

MAG must be losing members or something, so they've come out with this rubbish to make themselves noticed. Sorry guys, but you've probably just lost a whole new load of members by spouting rubbish like that...

MAG as an organisation are a bunch of muppets, period.

So - for ages biking groups have quite rightly been trying to convince the powers that be that engine size/power does not affect accident statistics adversly. Then MAG (who should know better) give them this kind of ammunition. I know this may have come over wrong, as is often the case, but it does seem like a stupid thing to say!:(

Unless of course MAG are going to get government funding for every sportsbike rider to go to the CSS or Ron Haslam race school - as if.

So ultimately the point of MAG is that us (mostly sports bikers at DSC) and others sports bikers are the reason for the bad press around motorcycles.

I say, the emphasis has just changed. It used to be hells angels and bad ass bikers that got the bad press. Now it's sports bikes.

They may be right in some respects, but it's focused on us all. I agree with all of Antonyes responses. Don't they realise that this sort of press damages us all, whatever you ride, the industry, motorsport racing & sponsorship, legal pressures etc.

Although saying that, it's that time of the year as it's getting a bit hotter so people notice more bikes etc. What we don't want is something like this close to an election and the next government starts making promises to limit bikes to this that and the other !!!

How long before someone shouts too loud and we all suffer from 75bhp, leg protector, 80mph limited bikes !!

Ah well, at least we can have the biker lifestyle though :(

isn't MAG full of old guys on Honda cb1000's?

Antony - agree who heartedly, great reply!

And these guy petition Govt for us:puzzled:

bradders

One can truthfully say the MAG do not speak for a vast majority of motorcyclists, they seem to have lost touch with reality! next thing there`l all be going out to buy y****w bikes:D