BIKE BIGOT 1

This is bigotry. No other name for it. It's not based on fact. It's based on prejudice and fear. Australia's motorcycle & scooter riders make up a community that is larger than many religeous or ethnic communities yet we are treated like this. If a publication ran a campaign like this against an Australian religeous or ethnic group, they'd be in court. Trouble is, the motorcycle communities reps for the most part, are too soft.

Damien Codognotto OAM

Hi Gentlemen

Again the papers love to print these type of articles against the rider but they hardly ever print the response from the lobby groups around Australia with articles such as this appearing more and more and the Transport Initiative submission for the years 2012-2050, 90 pages, and it doesn't make mention of a motorcycle
but mentions all other forms of transport. It makes one feel they dont what us on the road, or am I just paranoid? This article seems to be written by what I call the cotton wool brigade. If they had there way we would be legislated against before we do anything at all. 

Cheers & Respect

Prickle

motorcycle_safety_taken_for_a_ride

HECKLER

I STILL can't believe it, really. I can legally drive this vehicle on the road. It has no seat belts, no air bags and no side impact protection. There's no bumper bar, no windscreen, no window wipers. In fact, there are no windows.

Yes, I'm talking about that human missile on two wheels, the motorbike. But if you think this incomplete list of the lack of safety features is mind-blowing, it gets worse. I can basically wear anything I like. If I want to wear black at night, I can. If I want to hurtle along the F3 at 110km/h in shorts, singlet and bare feet at 1am in heavy rain, I can, as long as I am wearing my Australian Standard approved helmet.

Sure I'd feel a whole bunch safer wearing gloves with strengthened palm and knuckle protection, abrasion- and tear-resistant jacket and pants and a pair of high-performance leather boots with ankle support system. But these are all optional. I don't have to. And you have to pity the poor pillion passenger. Apart from wearing a helmet, they're sitting there holding grimly onto thin air feeling more helpless than a lamb waiting to be ritually slaughtered.

I'd rather be lit up like a Christmas trees at night but some riders prefer the camouflage of wearing black. A whole host of workers must wear high visible clothing for work health and safety reasons but there's no compulsion for motorcycle riders to wear high-visibility gear for safety, health or occupation reasons, apart from the highly visible Australia Post riders.

Face it: if anyone tried to launch the motorcycle today, it wouldn't be approved. Waaaay too dangerous. They'd have as much hope as someone trying to introduce cigarettes into the market.

''So this vehicle can travel at speeds up to 200km/h, and has no safety features apart from a helmet that the rider wears, which impedes their vision. Mmmm, I don't think so, Mr Whacky, now please stop wasting my time. OK, Mr Benson, Mr Hedges? You're next … ''

If the government was half serious about rider safety, it would introduce mandatory warning decals for motorbikes depicting disfiguring injuries or the dismembered bodies of riders who died as a result of their own reckless indifference to safety.

Big Tobacco has been a formidable opponent in opposing government attempts to promote healthy lifestyles and warning the public of the dangers of cigarettes. It will take a courageous government to take on the motorcycle lobby and bikie gangs and confront how we tolerate major safety inconsistencies between motor vehicles and motorcycles and introduce some commonsense changes to protect riders from themselves.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/motorcycle-safety-taken-for-a-ride-20120718-22alv.html#ixzz212MALbXu