Hardly Surprising

Nich Brown, from the Motorcycle Action Group, said: “The number of older motorcyclists in Britain has risen over the past decade – as has the number being injured.”

Well, yes, indeed. The population is aging. Older people are more likely to have a full licence without jumping thorough increasingly absurd hoops to get a full licence that seem designed to put off new riders rather than encourage sensible progression. And, I might add, designed to intimidate smaller riders, too. If you want to get a full unrestricted licence these days you have to take both tests on a 600cc machine with at least 54bhp.

The research Mr Brown is responding to is the usual junk science as illustrated by the following statement:

Data on motorbike size was not available to the researchers, but they suggested that older adults are more likely to buy bikes with larger engines – leading to more severe injuries.

Note the “don’t have a clue but we are going to make it up suggest anyway” bit. And engine size has nothing whatsoever to do with injury severity. Larger machines are not necessarily travelling faster than smaller machines, nor are they more likely to be involved in collisions. Indeed, a larger, more powerful machine has more presence on the road and having more presence is easier to see; and they can be ridden more assertively, thereby discouraging other road users from taking advantage. They are, frankly, safer. Every time I get on a small bike when demonstrating I find them unnerving –  give me my big bikes every time. Also, many larger touring type bikes have soft tuned engines making them more relaxed at the legal limit, encouraging a more sedate riding style.

This “research” is the usual tosh with a capital T.

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And how long before some cretin demands that older riders be banned from riding larger machines?