July/August 2002
Pot Pourri from the FIM annual congress
The FIM annual congress of international motorcycling organisation (FIM’s) is a movable feast and can take place in some pretty exotic places. This year, it took place in France and was again attended by John Chatterton-Ross in his capacity as a member of the Public Policy Panel that deals with legislative and technical issues.
A researcher from the German institute BASt (responsible for many aspects of road safety in Germany) made a presentation about the rating of passive safety features on motorcycles. Tests had been done in accordance with the International Standards Organisation methodology, which had been introduced a few years ago to bring about uniformity when testing leg protectors and air bags. As with other research programmes, much the same results have been achieved in 90-degree collisions with a car. The dummy pitches forward and the head hits the roof of the car. From this and other factors the researchers have applied “weighting” to certain aspects of motorcycle design. Sports motorcycles with a low riding position are categorised as “less safe.” Also in the “less safe” category are custom bikes, although the reasons for this were not made clear. “Good” motorcycles include the larger trail bike designs. None of this work has yet been published but members of the panel will be given a CD ROM preview.
While on the subject of links with other organisations, efforts are underway to link FIM to FIVA (French acronym for the Historic Vehicle Federation). There is a UK affiliated member of FIVA concerned with older vehicles (including motorcycles) although it has no formal links with the BMF. However, a new group – the International Historic Vehicles Organisation (IHVO) – split from FIVA some time ago but supports FEMA and works closely with them. This has been evident on the MEPs’ rides at which they provide a range of historic vehicles to convey MEPs. Perhaps IHVO’s success has been a spur for FIVA taking more interest in motorcycles. Their representatives were certainly very positive about joint working.
It appears that the UK is not the only country with a serious motorcycle theft problem. On the FIM’s Commission for Leisure Motorcycling (CML) formerly the touring commission, its Italian representative is anxious for the commission to adopt the subject. Hopefully, the BMF will have some input in taking its anti-theft work forward on an international basis. At least, best practice from different countries could be examined.
Car companies have spent the last ten years concentrating on fuel consumption and emissions. Volvo now claim that today you have to drive 180 miles in one of their products to produce as much pollutant as was produced by one Volvo in one mile ten years ago. Meanwhile, the motorcycle industry worldwide has been trying to achieve a “world motorcycle test cycle” for emissions. Due to technical difficulties, obtaining agreement on this basis has failed, at least for the time being. Now, the industry is saying that to meet the EU requirement for emissions control there will have to be a modified version of the car test cycle. It is anticipated that modifying the car cycle to suit testing of motorcycles will be very difficult and could have major impact on the design of motorcycles in the future.
It is not only our Government that is obsessed with the reduction and enforcement of speed. The Belgian Presidency of the EU announced that it would hold a conference about this on 8 November. It was agreed that the FIM would be represented by Arsene Friden, a driving and riding instructor and well capable of pointing to the importance of a balanced approach to road safety, seeking to do something about bad driving rather than concentrating on camera use.
The EU in conjunction with CIECA (the international organisation for driver testing agencies) is to undertake a project on driver and rider training. Alan Wright, the director responsible for Advanced Blue Riband rider training of the BMF RTS attended a meeting on our behalf. He has now been asked by the project to become a main contributor. It is also hoped that FEMA, European manufacturers’ group ACEM and the FIM will assist in the motorcycling aspects of the project.
Published with the July/August 2002 issue of Motorcycle Rider
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