A London Banker was convicted this week of “wearing a police uniform with intent to deceive”.
Darren Emanuel, 46, a London Banker was stopped by police while riding down Park Lane in London days after the London Bridge attack last June.
Over his police-style high-visibility jacket he was wearing a sleeveless jacket with the words: “POLITE notice Think Bike”. He was riding a BMW R1200RT motorcycle which previously belonged to the South Yorkshire police, and still carried much of the livery—including the black and white chequered pattern. The bike still carried the raised blue light, had a Royal Corps of Transport crest sticker on the front screen, and an ER crest below the rear number plate.
Harley-Davidson is recalling nearly 175,000 motorcycles because the brakes might fail.
The recall covers CVO Touring and VSRC bikes equipped with anti-lock brakes, with model years from 2008 to 2011.
This comes after pressure from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA became interested in the issue in 2016 after receiving forty-three complaints, including reports of three crashes and two injuries.
The recall relates to the braking system on those bikes equipped with ABS (Anti-Lock-Braking-System), and occurrs when the owner does not follow the recommended intervals for draining and flushing the braking system. The fluid can become contaminated with moisture and cause valves in the ABS actuator system to fail.
Harley Davidson wanted to deal with this issue with a field service campaign, but the government refused, and insisted on the recall. Dealers will start draining and flushing the system beginning the 12th of February.
If you wish to check whether your bike is included in this recall, head over to the NHTSA site.
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. That’s the quote famously attributed to Benjamin Disraeli.
However you interpret that phrase, a recent study published in the British Medical Journal claims to have statistical proof that more motorcyclists die during a full moon than at other times.
For a biker, getting the attention of other road users has always been a daily quest. On any given day, you can see ever more flashing lights and twinkling gizmos adorning motorcycles.
Personally, I have reservations about much of these efforts, and it could be said that the law of diminishing returns may come into play, the more of these lights that festoon ever more machines.
Anything you can do to help other road users notice you is a good thing, of course. However, I feel that it is most important that, firstly, we work to improve our riding and awareness to compensate for other drivers’ inattention. Such techniques are, of course, the focus of this blog.
However, Suzuki have decided to investigate a more proactive approach to the twinklies, and are considering using lasers on their motorcycles. Not just any old lasers, though. As shown by their patent filing, these lasers change colour, shape and distance depending on the action that the motorcyclist is taking.
A few years back, I was invited to test-ride an electric motorcycle. It was all very “hush-hush” at the time, non-disclosure agreements were signed, and we were not to know who was behind it all.
Everybody was trying to guess the manufacturer behind the blacked-out bike we rode, but one name that seemed keep cropping up, surprisingly, was Harley Davidson.
Since that time, it has become less of a secret that Harley Davidson have been testing, and offering test rides, of a concept electric motorcycle, called the “LiveWire”.
Augusta, Georgia – A simple trip to the store turned quickly into a nightmare on Thursday for rider Don Merritt.
He was on his way to the local Target store to return some T-shirts, and decided to take a detour around the rear of the store to avoid the speed bumps. The next thing he knew, he woke up in hospital.
Sustaining thankfully non-life-threatening injuries, Don Merritt says he remembers little about the incident. “I had a cracked skull and they were doing a CT scan. They told me I was injured. That I’d fallen in a sinkhole,” said Merritt.
Fire crews lowered a ladder down fifteen feet to where Don had landed, and he managed to climb out. His Honda Goldwing was later lifted out by crane.
Thankfully, he wasn’t injured too badly, so we may allow ourselves a little levity:
It’s a large hole, and city officials are looking into it.
Today, in the U.S., it is Veterans’ Day. It is therefore a good today for Harley Davidson to announce that it will be offering free motorcycle training to current and former members of the U.S. Military throughout 2016.
Earlier this year (May through September), Harley Davidson ran “Mission Open Road”, during which 6.500 military people took part in free training at Harley Davidson dealerships.
Following the success of that programme, they have decided to extend the offer for the entire year of 2016.
One of the more interesting things to come from the Tokyo Motor Show this week goes by the name of “MotoBot”. MotoBot is an autonomous robot being developed by Yamaha, that rides motorcycles.
Us motorcyclists know only too well the benefits to riding a motorcycle. These benefits extend to other people and the environment as well as ourselves. Rarely, however, is this acknowledged by others—least of all a politician! It is for this reason that I was so happy to see this video from Australian Senator David Leyonhjelm saying a simple “thank you” to motorbike riders.
Senator Leyonhjelm (New South Wales), who rides a BMW S1000RR, gave this speech to the Australian parliament recently, and we applaud his speaking out for the many benefits (for all) of our two-wheeled transport choice.
Electric motorcycles. Love ‘em or no? While I can get as excited as the next guy (or gal) about being projected along the road by a series of explosions, internal combustion isn’t the reason I ride. Heck, you could even relieve my left foot of gear shifting duties, and I’d be just as happy. So I follow the exciting developments of any alternative methods of propulsion in the motorcycle world. One doesn’t talk about electric motorcycles for very long before the name “Zero” comes up. Zero is the California-based company that has been working on bringing electric motorcycles to the mainstream for ten—yes, ten—years now.
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A London Banker was convicted this week of “wearing a police uniform with intent to deceive”.
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