Posts tagged helmets
Airbags for Bikers
Apr 2nd
Safety is always a more intimate concern for those who prefer to travel on two wheels than it is for those who favour four wheels and a metal box. With nothing between you and the road, any accident is potentially quite harmful to a motorcyclist.
All sensible bikers in this day and age should be wearing a decent helmet and a good set of leathers (or other suitably protective clothing). But now some of the fancy safety features standard on most modern cars are starting to become available to bikers.
Dainese have come up with an airbag that is incorporated into the rider’s protective clothing. They are currently testing and refining the technology on the track, but it is sure to become widely available in the next few years, so frequent riders could benefit from added peace of mind.
The idea is that the neck, head and chest are protected from any impact or scraping injuries, meaning you’re more likely to survive any injury suffered.
Whilst this is still very much early days, any technology to reduce injuries suffered by bikers has got to be a good thing. And whilst these outfits probably won’t be cheap, decent protective gear rarely is, which is why it’s so important to get a decent helmet and leathers insurance policy – ours gives £1,000 worth of cover for just £20 per year.
Safety First – Quad biking without the risks
Aug 14th
Just finished reading an article in Shooting Times dated 9th August on ATV safety, it goes on to mention accidents from celebrities to the general public highlighting the dangers to ride quads without having the correct equipment (not wearing a helmet is the main factor).
I have spent an afternoon on a quad bike with a group of lads going on a trail and circuits on a farm, well worth the money and yes we had to wear all of the safety gear before we were allowed near the quad.
So, when an individual purchases a quad privately why do they just get on and go without thinking of safety. I am not a killjoy and like to feel the wind in my hair (what is left of it) to enjoy the adrenaline and excitement of riding quads but sooner or later the government will step in to ensure that helmets must be worn when riding a quad.
Think about it before you ride as this could save your life and it is worth more than the cost of a helmet.
You can read Bikesure’s tips on quad safety here.
Rob’s Guide to Biking – Please don’t feel obliged to read it.
Jun 25th
I was asked/blackmailed/threats made to my family to write a “Guide to Biking” for the esteemed periodical that is the “Adrian Flux Newsletter”. No problem I thought, get on Google and do some serious cutting and pasting. Piece of piss! Hmmm, no such luck. I’ve been trawling the net for something suitable for far too long (makes a nice change from porn though) and drawn a blank, so I am actually going to have to try and come up with something. Damn! Still reading? Hopefully not, then I can get away with putting any old rubbish in here, a few pictures of bikes and Bobs yer uncle, down the pub for me… to sit on my own and cry into a pint of piss-weak beer.
“Riding a bike is like making love to a beautiful woman”. No, that won’t work as I need to try and draw on my actual experience. Bugger.
Biking is very far from being just a form of transport. It’s about many things, attitude, freedom, style, thrill seeking, therapy, escape, being individual and also being part of something and on top of all that, trying not to fall off whilst doing it. Ouch! It could be one or all of these to or something altogether different. It’s up to you. Before deciding on what bike to get, you need to think about what you want to get out of it. Bikes are very specialised and the many different styles will give you a very, very different experience and will all say something very different about you.
So, are you an adrenalin junkie? Are you a creature of comfort? Do you want to explore on and off road? Do you like to do it on you own or with your chosen partner? Want to get your knee down? Have you just started out and want to dip your toe in the biking water? Do you want to tour in style? Am I talking to myself? Will I, Rob Balls, finally come out of the closet and put an end to years of scurrilous rumours that I might be a bit straight?
Where oh where to start? There is such a huge choice on offer these days, from bikes you can buy on E-bay for a few hundred quid to £50,000 custom cruisers, from 50cc Scooters to an absolutely whopping 2.3 litres engine capacity! That bad boy is called the “Rocket 3” by the way.
That’s brings me on nicely to looking at some of the names of these machines.
Can you imagine Paul Twite getting his kicks riding a “Fat Boy”? – Yes
Can you see Steven Yardley with a “Monster” between his legs? – Maybe
Asking a young lady if: “You want to ride my “Intruder”?”, could land you in hot water, especially if you have failed to gain her written consent first. – Definitely.
They’ve not all got names like that but you can tell that the people who think up some of these names are men with issues in the “trouser” or “science fiction” department. Either that or it’s a woman having the last laugh at us boys expense and our inability to grow up. Hmmm. You cunning ladies!
Having started this I’ve realised that it needs a bleedin’ “Glossary of Terms” so the completely uninitiated don’t get too lost.
Bike – Please visit the service floor.
Helmet – What I’ll need to be wearing at work to avoid serious head injury from the lovely people on the service floor.
Fairing – The fibreglass around sportsbikes to aid aerodynamics, enabling it to slip through time and space and protect the rider from wind buffeting.
Naked Bikes – See service floor Christmas party photos or they could actually be bikes that have no fairing.
Retro – See Elliot Drew’s wardrobe and record collection
Panniers – Luggage space usually on either side and at the back of the bike or is that an Italian sandwich?
I know you’ll be disappointed but I can’t cover the whole range of styles of bike as we’d need a whole newsletter devoted to it, so you’ll get the most popular ones. I’ll not cover scooters because everyone knows what they are and I’ll concentrate on the road bikes forgetting the Trials and Motocross machines. SuperMoto machines can also take a hike for now.
Sportsbikes
These beasties are for the speed merchants and thrill seekers out there. Sometimes known as “rice burners” and often ridden by people with matching one piece leathers (kinky types) and dark visors (Nighthawk Style). These are serious bits of kit and a few grand will get you a nice bike that will out-accelerate most cars on the road that will cost ten times as much. Most of the features on these bikes come directly from race track development. They’re lightweight, incredibly nimble and are not built for comfort; you’ll need to have a stop off to have a stretch after a while. You’ll even see riders stretching their arms and legs as they go along. Huge fun and an absolutely incredible buzz! If that’s your bag it may take some time to remove the grin off your face after a good blast! Holding on to your licence rather than the bike could prove the biggest challenge as you’ll be doing a “ton up” before you know it. That’s a “ton up” not “two’s up” Jason.
Naked Bikes / Muscle Bikes/ Streetfighters
These have grown in popularity in recent times. Many riders of Sportsbikes have started going over to naked bikes. They have a much more aggressive and “retro” look to them and have no fairing. A man’s-man’s bike. They often have just as much performance and agility as Sportsbikes but, without a fairing travelling over 80 mph can be hard work. The force of the wind (parp!) can be immense so you are much more aware of how fast you are travelling and it is hard work to maintain high speeds for long. As a result they force you to cool it a bit and hopefully keep you’ll your licence for a bit longer. Streetfighters are usually sportsbikes that the rider has modified themselves, removing the fairing, changing the lights and bars and giving it a custom paint job to end up with a really individual and “mean” look. Huuurgh! – imagine a “Mr T” voice.
Cruisers
These bikes are as far away from sportsbikes as Craig Darwin is away from the bar when it’s his round. These bikes are all about getting from A to B in style and comfort. They literally have a very “laid back” riding style. They’re not even about getting from A
to B; they’re about “just going maaan”. It’s about the open road, taking it all in and, well, “cruising”. You hearin’ me sucker? Ridden by cowboys and people with a fondness for beards (that’s just the women) and leather waistcoats. Cruisers are not about “hi tech” and most owners will customise their bike to make an individual statement. It’s often about the lifestyle with these people. The riders of these bikes are usually a very different breed to the sportsbikes owners. Each group often thinks that the others “just don’t get it”. “Custom Built Cruisers” are not about comfort but about a certain image and style. They’re not practical but look amazing, well if you like that sort of thing.
Tourers
If you want to travel long distances in comfort, then this is the option for you. At the extreme end they can be known as “armchairs on wheels”, with many creature comforts such as heating, a full fairing and a stereo. They often come with panniers for plenty of storage on that long tour. You’ll often see slightly older husband and wife teams on these machines with matching jackets and helmets. How sweet. Superb if you want to go on a trek into Europe and beyond enjoying the sights and the superb roads without feeling like you’ve been given a good going over by a couple of unsavoury types with a taste for torture. Sports Tourers will give you a bike that combines the ability for long distance touring and can still give you that feeling in the pit of your stomach that you only get from some serious hard riding. That’s a good feeling by the way, not like having the shits. If you watched any of Ewan McGregor going round the world on a bike then you’ll also know that you can get Tourers that can also do a good job off road as well as on it.
As well as those mentioned above, you’ve got your bread and butter commuter bikes which is what sensible people will normally start their the riding life on. These bikes do a very good job, offering you a nice introduction to biking but won’t set your pulse racing. As well as Motorbikes we also insure Trikes and Quads in Bikesure which the editor might be able to slip in a couple of nice pictures of to fill the space because I may expire if I do anymore and you probably already have.
If anyone is thinking about getting into it and taking their test then I would say “STOP THINKING AND DO IT!” It really is great fun, a unique experience and opens up a whole new world to you.
That’s it. Can I go to bed now please?
Goodnight.
Rob
Old Bill sees the Light
Apr 5th
Hallelujah, at last someone in our draconian police force has seen the light (forgive the pun). According to a new police agreement you will now not be prosecuted if you are wearing a dark visor. How many times have you or your mates been stopped on a bright summers day because you’ve got a dark visor on your expensive safety equipment (which you have to wear by law); while the boy racers drive by in their hot-hatch cars with exhausts that an illegal immigrant and his family could live in; with windows that are as dark as the inside of a coalminers nether regions, playing their music so loud it could be heard on the next continent.
David Griffin head of Motorcycle Safety for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) who is also Deputy Chief Constable for Humberside brought together members of the police community from around the country who had similar views have now decided that instead of being prosecuted it is up to the officer to use their common sense, so come on, if you have a dark visor on at night it’s quite right that you get pulled up.
Also illegal number plates will be judged on an individual basis, as long as they can be read from 20.5m you will be OK (so watch what script you choose for your personal plate).
These recommendations only apply in England, for our friends north of the border these do not apply. BUT a spokesperson for the Association of Police Officers in Scotland (APOCS) said “We are allowing our officers to use their own discretion”, so next time you get stopped, be nice and they might just let you off with a cautionary piece of advice,
Thanks to the MCN for bringing this innovative decision to our attention. What will be next, perhaps polite considerate Volvo drivers, Na that we be too much!
Don’t forget that if you get yourself an expensive helmet and leathers you can add full cover for your accessories to your Bikesure policy for only £20. Get a quote online.
That’s all for now stay safe,
1leggedfreak.
Luckiest biker in the world?
Feb 14th
Remember the SMIDSY post we did previously? The guy driving this car also did a SMIDSTRL (Sorry mate I didn’t see the red light).
The guy on the bike might just be the luckiest guy in the world. If you get into a scrape you want to be wearing a high quality helmet and protective clothing.
Of course, the best gear can be expensive, but in the event of an accident you won’t have to worry about replacing all your safety gear, so long as you take out our optional helmet and leathers cover.
Gordon Bennetts! – Insurance Babes, real and otherwise
Jan 19th
The latest issue of the Insurance Times has an interesting feature on the so called Bennetts “Babes”.
Usually Bennetts employ wannabe glamour models, who may look attractive in the right light, but generally know as much about insurance as I do about morris dancing. It seems that Bennetts have realised that having someone from the insurance industry who is both attractive and well-informed on the merits of the various motorcycle insurance policies available would be a good thing.
And so, presumably having failed to find anyone suitable working for them, they’ve launched a competition to recruit babes from the UK insurance industry.
They must be somewhat regretting having chosen alleged racist bully and Celebrity Big Brother contestant, Danielle Lloyd, to launch their campaign – especially so given her well known history with competitions (She “won” Miss Great Britain before being stripped of the title when it was found she was in a relationship with judge Teddy Sheringham). They’ve now been forced to cut their losses and dump the hapless glamour girl.
Of course, we already know that the hottest girls in insurance work for us, in the shape of the legendary Flux & Bikesure babes.
For proof of that, you only had to be at Stoneleigh Park last week for the Motorcycle Trade Expo, where men from around the UK bike industry had the opportunity to meet Laura and Jenny, who were there on our behalf, along with Rob, Duncan and Dave McCourt, our dealers rep.
And the dealers and traders were pleasantly surprised to find that OUR babes not only looked stunning, but also genuinely worked for us, knew all about insurance and bikes and even took an interest in their well polished helmets – our helmet and leathers cover is an essential add-on for bikers who want to look after their gear.
Check out our Flickr for more pics of some real insurance babes in action, or check out their website – fluxbabes.co.uk.