Whilst motorbikes provide one of the most cost effective and exciting means of transport on our roads today, they are not without draw backs.

Their compact size mean they are less noticeable and their lack of protection is evident to all, especially to those who have been involved in an accident and sustained motorbike injuries. Wearing bright and protective clothing can help to modify these motorbike injury factors in order to make riding as safe as possible. 

However, it is fact that accidents do and will unfortunately continue to occur. Motorbikes make up around 1% of UK traffic but motorbike injuries consist of 9% of all road casualties. They comprise 19% of those killed or seriously injured on the UKs roads and over 7% of those slightly injured, making bikers the most vunerable UK road user. Sadly as biking becomes more popular, this motorcycle injury percentage is slowly increasing. The most common motorcycle accident is when the driver of another vehicle fails to look properly.

In 47% of motorbike accidents with a car, the driver of the car was at fault for not looking properly. This statistic increases to over 68% at junctions. Motorcyclists themselves as a group of road users are least likely not to look properly, being at fault for this in only 16% of accidents.  

Insurance injury claims on the part of bikers count for less that 1% of claims and their claim freqency is almost two thirds less that that of car drivers. However, when loss of earnings, motorbike injuries and medical costs are factored in, the personal cost of an accident may be much more than just the bike and clothing that needs replacing.  

Common motorbike injuries include whiplash, ‘road rash’ and upper and lower limb fractures. These motorbike injuries are seldom minor and often require hospital treatment and operations.  Most commonly, hospitals operate on bikers who have sustained lower limb, upper limb and neck injuries.   

Dr Rob Patterson   M.B. Ch.B.  D.R.C.O.G.

Cycle Law Scotland has started a petition to encourage the Scottish Government to:  "Pass a bill for strict liability in collisions between motorists and cyclists and cyclists and pedestrians" and needs your help to get it off the ground.  

Here's the link:

Here's why it's important:

The bill is designed to protect the most vulnerable road users and to reflect a hierarchy of road users. It would be applied in Civil Law cases for road traffic collisions between motorists and cyclists and similarly between cyclists and pedestrians. To that end, the campaign also sets out to highlight the dangers cyclists face from motorists and help facilitate a change in attitude amongst road users to one based on mutual respect and understanding.  

We are only one of a very small number of countries (Romania, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland) across Europe, who do not operate such a system of strict liability for vulnerable road users and yet it is not unprecedented in UK law.

You can now follow all the action from the Isle of Man TT Races via your mobile devices - as it happens - with the new free to download Isle of Man TT Races app, available from i-tunes and google play.

With races now decided by fractions of seconds, you can follow the action as it unfolds wherever you are without missing the developments. The easy to use app has been designed both for visitors to the Isle of Man as well as race fans worldwide following the action from homes, offices or while out and about.

There are in-depth rider profiles featuring all the leading solo and sidecar riders at your fingertips including fastest lap, podiums and race wins as well as a short career biography. The app features an interactive map with detailed descriptions of all the key sectors around the 37 3/4 mile course while an 'on board' video voiced by TT rider liaison officer, and former race winner, Richard 'Milky' Quayle gives you the inside track on tackling the famous TT Mountain Course.

The rolling news feed will keep you informed of all the developments on the track as well as track conditions, weather and all the latest news from the world's leading road race as well feeds to the TT's youtube page while you can debate all the latest stories via the official twitter and facebook page and or get up to the minute developments with the RSS feeds. There is also a live audio link to Manx Radio's TT broadcast with live qualifying and race commentary as well as the full fortnight of station broadcasts, Chris Kinley's chat show, competitions and interviews with the stars.

Visitors to the Island will appreciate the campsite listing while users will be able to purchase licensed goods including the latest Isle of Man TT Races merchandise as well as Grandstand and hospitality tickets.

Fans can buy an annual pass to access the comprehensive live timing service for £1.49 (or equivalent euro or dollar price) that allows you to track the field as they negotiate the mountain course. You can follow the race leaders as they reach each of the six sector points or select your favourite riders to follow. The annual subscription includes all qualifying and races from this year's TT Races as well as the Classic TT and Manx Grand Prix that run later in the year.

For £1.49 race fans can also purchase an annual subscription to the 'Video Pass' section, which will contain exclusive content including behind the scenes interviews and press conferences as well as archive and current TT race footage.

BMF Show organisers The Mulberry Group have said that there was an increase in attendance at this years’ BMF Show compared to 2012.

The weekend’s attendance was given as 42,432 which shows an increase of just over 3,000 from last year. “The weekend gave us a small increase on last year” said Mulberry’s MD Martin Chick, “although our target figure was 45,000, however given the fact that the country is still in a difficult way economically and some other shows won’t actually be staged in 2013, we have to take the positives from this and continue to build on them”

The show featured new areas including a fledgling Vintage and Classic area featuring Bonhams and a fine display by the Vincent Owners Club and an Adventure and Overland Touring area which also included a presentation stage hosted by Graham Hoskins (Motorbike Diaries Mad in the Med) and featuring among others: Sam Manicom, Norman and Maggie Magowan, Ed March, Tom Woodrowe, Pat Garrod and Gary Taylor and Patsy Quick from Riders for Health.

The weather certainly helped proceedings and the Bike park on Sunday started to look like it did from a few years ago with marshals having to work hard to park them all up.

Other additions to the show included a big screen which allowed visitors to watch the Moto GP qualifying sessions and the race live on Sunday and Ken Fox’s Wall of Death.

The cavalcade of Clubs in the main arena was the biggest for a number of years and pretty much everyone left with a smile on their face and bags of motorcycle gear in their hands! The BMF Shows are still not back to the ‘Glory’ years of the mid/late 70’s but things are moving in the right direction.

www.thebmfshow.co.uk

Honda TT Legends’ Michael Dunlop will start this weekend’s North West 200 Superbike races from pole position, while Michael Rutter and John McGuinness will start from seventh and ninth respectively.

Today’s second practice went ahead in persistent rain, meaning that there was no improvement on Tuesday’s times from any of the riders. Dunlop was the fastest rider in both sessions and his best lap of 4:33.173 was seven seconds quicker than the second placed rider Bruce Anstey. The two Superbike races will go ahead on Saturday 18 May.

Neil Tuxworth   Considering the terrible conditions we’ve had for practice here at the North West, which have not only been wet and windy but constantly changing, to have all three riders qualify in the top ten without an incident is an excellent way to go into the races on Saturday. Dunlop’s performance on the Superbike machine in particular has been outstanding in each session.

Michael Dunlop   I still feel like we’ve got a bit of work to do, but the bike’s working really well and it’s great to be starting the race from the prime position. We’re quickest and we’re ready to go, but there’s not much more we can do now until race day. Let’s just see what happens.   John McGuinness   I mistimed my fast lap and got caught in traffic on Tuesday so it’s a real shame that today’s been wet and I couldn’t improve the time. It’s a little disappointing as I’ve been on the front row many times here. I’ve been going great on the Superstock and the 600 but this is a priority race and it’s not really happened for me. I’m on the third row and if I can make a good start and be strong on the first lap I think we’ll be alright.

Michael Rutter   It’s a shame we didn’t get the chance to improve on our times today. The conditions have been horrendous but the bike felt good and we’re happy enough with qualifying. I just hope we get some decent weather on Saturday so that we can give it a good go.