taught him never to crash into a fat rough arsed boiler on a push bike cos she'll make you cry

Funniest post of the day by far! Nice one RK!

Spot on though and well said... Not so well said by the woman... delightful language to use against a 6 year old!
 
                                                                                                                                                                             

lol @ RK!!  Good one mate.   I have to say though, I never played with fire.  Well, not until me and a few of my mates set fire to Nibble Hill Wood!!   Note to self;  Using a ring of rocks as a fire break around your camp fire doesn't work if the ground is littered with dead, dry leaves!                                                                                                                                                                             

Dammit... the sun's gone down... I have this sudden urge to break out the old magnifying glass...

My Dad once decided to set fire to a field, just for the hell of it... marched off to the shop to buy a box of matches... shopkeeper refused to sell it to him (he was 6)... Pa complained that he'd get into trouble with his dear old Ma if he went home without them, as she needed them to light her fire and stop her shivering.

In August?!

A fortunate end to his career as an arsonist

He did once set light to the newly creosoted fencing outside some Army barracks when his bike backfired in spectacular fashion though *drags thread kicking & screaming back to bikes*

I should just like to point out at this stage that, back in the day when a learner rider was permitted to carry a licensed pillion, I never ever posed as that licensed pillion. Ooooh no. Not I. Good girl me 

*ahem*

& of course, I was stone cold sober when I didn't do such a thing.
                                                                                                                                                                             

PMSL!!!!   I've said it before and I'll say it again; Lou for PM lol!                                                                                                                                                                             

Blaming european membership is certainly not missing the point. Most of this dross is originating from brussells. The DVA never had an original thought in their collective lives. I'd rather know who was dreaming up this @#it so i could go flash 240v across their gonads.  As for raising the age for Das to 24. Well, a good deal of accidents are caused/ happen to 35+ born again bikers. I dont think a 24 year old biker has a better menality on the road than an eighteen year old.                                                                                                                                                                             

"Geoff, bit puzzled as to your point .. as to sacking the FEMA rep it would probably be a bit difficult as ten to one it will be a volunteer given that FEMA has very few paid staff. "   This is my point Prof.  We are in many areas being represented by bodies consisting of individuals who risk little or no comeback should they get it wrong!                                                                                                                                                                             

You can choose to blame Europe, but I personally prefer to place the blame closer to home.

I've gone back and searched for the post in question, along with 2 excellent links provided by Roachy. It can be found here:

http://www.bikermatch.co.uk/sites/bm/forum/posts.asp?topic_id=3645&page=2

Apologies to Cataraptor, for it was he, not Prof who provided the stellar information regarding the test changes and the UK's extreme take on what Europe suggested.

haha RK... "taught him never to crash into a fat rough arsed boiler on a push bike cos she'll make you cry"  I love that one. WB, I've got to disagree.  I'm 24 and was in school not long ago.  I never got driven to school, even all through primary school.  I don't know a single kid in high-school who was driven to school every day. We had to walk to public bus stops, travel around town, change busses, manage timetables, cross roads (lots!) and do pretty much everything.  Every one of us!  So I don't know where you're all getting this idea from that we all got mummy to drive us in her 4x4.  My mum didn't even own a car half the time!  And of course a 6 year old girl needs to be driven to school during the dark winter months... but that's primary school and society is too bad to let young kids walk around in the dark.  High school isn't the same though, and never has been. Saying that, maybe it's different darn sarf where the money is, but ooop north like we av it ruff n proper aye.                                                                                                                                                                             

That'll be it - the soft southerners!

The commute to the office, when I had an office to go to, took 40 minutes in the holidays and up to 2 hours during term time... that's a LOT of cars on the roads... going past both primary and secondary schools en route.

I know a THIRTY year old who STILL gets dropped off at the sodding train station by her Mum when she goes to work, so she doesn't have to walk/get the bus!

I cycled everywhere, up until I was 17 and did my car test... It would've been 16 and bike test, but I was banned from learning to ride by my bloody Mother, despite both she and Dad having ridden motorbikes in their time!

Oh... Apart from to school, because I'm terribly posh, don't you know, and went to Public school, which was rather too far for cycling... One was driven to school on one's private omnibus, one was                                                                                                                                                                               

Tha's ad it easy lad!   When ar wer kid, we ad t worc t school on us ands cos us parents cuddant afford shooos let alorn buzfare.  Ant dat wor all year raaarnd, threw snor ant ail ant t'lot!   Ant wen weed ge ome, are ands wud bee cut ant bleeedin all ova ant we stil ad t doo six ar shift darn t'pit.                                                                                                                                                                             

One is awfully sorry Mr B, but would one mind repeating that in the Queen's English please? RP, preferably.                                                                                                                                                                               

  Altho I can't carry on with my learning I am hacked off for other learners who have yet more crap to deal with while trying to gain a test pass. FGS give them a chance, how much more difficult is it going to get?   PML @ Geoff, I come from Barnsley and I had trouble workin that wun art                                                                                                                                                                              

Surely Kwak, you mean Baaarnslie?                                                                                                                                                                             

Riceeeeeved pronuncyashon?                                                                                                                                                                             

Not only that Kwak, but yet again, lots of people will spend lots of money on Direct Access courses, when they're not necessarily suited to that method of learning, in a rush to get through it before any legislation changes.

Yet more panic, waiting lists ever longer for tests, people taking them when they're not ready and people managing to get through them and thinking "Stuff it! I'm a brilliant rider - I got through me test & everything! I'll go buy meself a 1400 sports bike"

Potentially leading to an increase in deaths among newly qualified riders, which in turn enables the powers that be to declare that it's just as well they've been extra draconian in their interpretation of EU Directives, cos motorbikes are dreadfully dangerous things and the public must be protected... and so it goes on

                                                                                                                                                                             

OK, I'm gonna play devil's advocate, so no shouting at me please.

Learner car drivers aren't allowed out unaccompanied, so why should learner bikers? Maybe the restrictions on L-bikers should be even more stringent, as so far no-one's devised a dual control bike where an instructor can intervene in an emergency.

On t'other hand, as Matt will know, learner pilots can't qualify until they've been up on their own a few times.

*shouts @ Will for the sheer hell of it* 

Learner bikers have never had to be accompanied... so why should it be deemed necessary to change that?

Are learners disproportionately represented in RTA stats? If that were the case, there might be grounds for it, but I don't believe it is.

The suggestion is not only that learners should be accompanied by, for example, a qualified rider, as learner drivers are allowed to be, but that it should be a qualified instructor accompanying them.

That costs the learner lots of extra money. Which means they'll do it with the least amount of hours possible and will therefore be getting through their tests with way less road hours than they might otherwise have had if they've taken the 125 L-plates route to riding.

Doesn't strike me as too great an idea...

Geoff, I am still struggling to see the point you are trying to make, who do you think should be representing the interests of bikers, our wonderful government? dream on mate.   You can lobby your MP, your MEP and the Transport minister but at the end of the day the bureaucrats and the Council of Ministers decide what will become law pretty much regardless of the EU Parliament.   The MCI exists to represent the interests of the industry primarily the importers, they say nice things but don't seem to give a stuff about bikers other than as the cash cows who buy things from them. The galling thing is they don't seem to realise that if there are no bikers on the road they have no one to sell things to.   FEMA is the European wide coordinating body for european riders rights groups, they have a paid staff of five people who are funded by contributions from 22 national riders rights groups and some industry sponsorship.   If you want more paid staff at FEMA and to make them more accountable you will have to buy lots more beer at the Farmyard or sign up as a "Friend of FEMA" and donate.   You can read up on who and what they are here http://www.fema.ridersrights.org   http://www.mcia.co.uk