I've heard that in some countries, 14 year olds are allowed out on mopeds.

Is it a good idea and should we have it here. I would certainly increase the sales of mopeds. Whether or not, they are mature even to be allowed on the road is a different matter.

There's something to be said for getting road-sense instilled at an early age ... BUT

1) weather is hardly conducive to mass 2-wheeled transport
2) I wouldn't let one of mine out at that age due to the sheer numptiness and non-bike-awareness of the majority of brit cage-dwellers.

I've been knocked off, and ok - I was lucky, but I couldn't bear to think of one of mine lying in a hospital bed.

well i started riding very young but there was less traffic on the road then specially round here.

so i would have to agree with 3 rex on this one

My daughter (Honda Hornet, Kawasaki GPz600R) first rode a moped in France at the age of 14 or so, and it didn't do her any harm BUT as anyone who's been there knows, the traffic in France is nothing like the traffic here - and I certainly wouldn't let a 14 year old out on our roads - the 16s are bad enuff!

The traffic were I live isn't too bad, the standard of driving is another matter but I will consider buying my kids mopeds, when they are 16.  One of the problems I noticed. is that the kids on mopeds seem to think, they can be treated the same as a push bikes. On the way home last night I was forced into a bit of braking by some tit on a scooter, who came shooting along a path with his mate on the back with no helmet. I thought he was going to come straight out onto the road. He just seemed to have a total lack of road sense(A prime example of TC's category 3 or 4).

When I started riding my MB5, I was just as mental but I had an older brother and a couple of pals with bikes. So I had somebody to at least give me a few pointers.

A lot of the youngsters don't have somebody to give then some feedback, which I think my be a problem. If my own kids started riding. I'd make sure I told them any bad habits they were developing and told them about some of the stuff I'd picked up.

Teaching youngsters motorcycle awareness at a young age and learning them about the importance of road conditions would not be a bad thing either, IMHO. Maybe they could take some of that information into their car driving years.

As 3-rex said though, I don't mind the thought of getting hurt myself but I wouldn't like it to happen to one of the kids. Strange that..

In a previous incarnation, I used to teach kids at the school basic m/c handling skills before they were 16.  Private grounds etc etc.

But, remember when YOU were 14/15/16/17/18/19/20 ?

Weren't YOU "invincible" ?

That's the danger - never mind the cage-dwellers!

You should see some of the buggers that come through CBT with me-attention span of a goldfish.

I for one would not let my son near public roads at 14.
In Tenerife it seems as long as they can touch the floor they can ride a scooter-but the standard of driving is appaling.
France is bike friendly & everyone & his aunt grew up on one, so drivers give a lot more respect to bikers.

The CBT has helped a lot since its introduction in 1990.
You would be suprised how many people turn up without even glancing at the Highway code......................................

I agree with all the previous comments but what about these electric scooters they all seem to have got for christmas,ive seen some with seats ,lights and indicators but i think they forgot to put bloody brakes on them.The little buggers are screaming up and down the pavements where i stay and they look as if they are doing about 20mph.
alan

I think "Devilpaint" has a point!  (Sorry to sound patronising - Didn't mean to!)

CBT is MOST worthwhile!  (Though DAS is something else - See other postings).

Get kids bike/car aware.  Train them properly ......

But nuffink will stop the dreadful scenarios we've all been thru' - attending the funerals of 22 year-olds - Can WELL understand you parents out there wanting to stop your own kids getting astride 2 wheels!

How many of us had parents who tried to stop US doing just the same?

Difficult One!

Parents eh?
Mine were dead against it-well mam was, dad was "quietly encouraging" as long as he was out of mams earshot

He had been riding bikes for years but had degenerated to the c90 for work.(in fact I had been riding it totally illegaly for quite a while-without his knowledge-until I got my fs1e)

Dad took me out & 'splained the basics,(did a mini CBT if truth be known)
After a couple of sessions he pronounced me fit & let me get on with it.
The best advice he gave me was "treat everyone like an idiot son, you wont be dissapointed"
My young un seems keen, & if & when he wants a bike, I'll get him one-yes I will worry the 1st few times he goes out-but you cant watch them every waking hour can you?
CBT is by no means perfect, but its the best we have to offer at the mo.

My daughter Rose, now a biker herself, confessed that at the age of 17 or so, when she was going out with Mike who is now her husband, she used to take different clothes with her and change when she was out, so that if I saw her on the back of Mike's bike, I wouldn't recognise her!

Now we have a strange kind of role reversal - when I tell her I'm off somewhere on the bike, daughter tells mother to ride carefully!

Come to think of it, I am glad I didn't know she was out with Mike - he wrote off three bikes!

My boy is only seven and i got him a little off road bike for his christmas(much to his mother and grans disgust)but as i said there is to much drugs and violence one the streets at least if he is spending his time on bikes it will keep him of the streets .As for when he is 16 he will be confident on a bike and he will only have to learn the road sense and defensive riding.
At least if they are riding a little scooter safely they wont have to run the risk of being mugged or worse at some bus stop.

I remember a bloke I used to work with getting mugged on a bus at 8:00am one morning, on his way to work.

A guy with a knife and a lassie with a hammer held him up and took his money off him. Then took his glasses.  :sus:

When they got off the bus, he watched which house they went to and then told the police. They weer obviously not the brightest of characters. But I would feel safer knowing that the ids would have their own transport home and wouldn't have to hang around waiting for buses.

We will never have 14 yearolds on mopeds here, I've been lobbying for the last 3 years to try to change the law, the problem is that the term moped is only valid in the UK, in europe they are known under various names, in the Netherlands I think they are called Moffas, in France they are Motorcyclettes, they have a speed restriction down to roughly about 24 miles per hour. At the moment it looks like moves are afoot in the european parliament to get 14 year olds off of these due to a very high number of deaths and serious injuries, in 2005 new measures are to take effect which probably will limit what 14 yearolds can ride. In itlay the moped market has collapsed due to legislation with age restrictions being applied.

The only hope we have of getting 14 year olds on engine powered machines is to push for equality regarding the rideing of mechanically assisted bicycles. At the moment 14 year olds can ride an electrically assisted bicycle provided it does not excedd 14 mph, when this law was introduced by the conservatives in 1982 it was due to sir Clive Sinclair donating large sums (sorry lobbying) the then ministers to allow 14 year olds to ride his ill fated C5 electric trike. unfortunately at the time the bloody bicycle lobby threw a wobbler at the thought of including infernal combustion engines to be fitted under the same speed limit.

This is why you only ever see electric bikes. The time is now right to have another go at this particular piece of discriminatory legislation. The argument we intend to use is that you can increase mobility as you don't have to ride to the next charging socket.

I think the 14mph law applicable to motorised pushbikes is a joke. I can go faster on my Raleigh Grifter

My son's electric scooter goes faster than that. Not with me on it mind you

I agree that 14 mph is a joke, my son got pulled for speeding on his mountian bike (38mph) on a downhill run, cops bollocked him for not wearing a helmet and promtly gave him a discount voucher to get one.

However it is important for us as motorcyclists to try to encourage young uns to ride motorcycles, if introducing 14 year olds to a powered two wheeler works the we should have a steady supply of potential motorcyclists for the future. We are as a group getting older and it is worrying that less and less young uns are joining in the enjoyment. As a group we need numbers to keep us on the road otherwise Fuhrer Blair, General Herman Prescott  and the safety Nazis will make it as difficult as possible for us to continue riding motorcycles. The Richstag in Brussels has already come up with a way of complicating it to start riding, in September 2005 a new ammendment takes effect adding a new part to our current driving test, our beloved DSA have as yet not decided how and where to implement this ammendment, The Health and safety inspectorate got involved and have made it plain that this new bit of test will have to be done off road. The HSA has decreed that a site size of  120 meters x 40 meters is the size to use. :verysad:

With your permission XSian I will save your document, edit it and send it in the form of a letter to my MP and MSP and MEP asking them wtf they are gonna do about this, using the "bikes are part of the congestion solution" angle.

Falcoholic be my guest. If anyones interested I've scanned a copy of the proposed layout of the new test, the file size is too big to put on these pages, however I will email it to anyone if they want to see it.

 :laughcont:  :laughcont:

Presumably you they are meant to be restricted to 24mph!  Most of the ones I've encountered do about 50!

Yep they should be restricted to 24 mph but like here the kids tune them (the easiest way being to fit a 60 or 70 cc barrel  

Yip, I think we've all done that in our your days. Although I didn't fit a bigger barrel, I put on a expansion chamber, hy-tech reed valves and filed bit off the ports on my old mb5, when I was sixteen.

I also know a bloke with a mb5 with a H100 engine fitted.  :O

I bought an MZ 50 moped in 1977, it was supposed to be one of the first to be restricted to 30mph, got it for the wife to go to work on as it was easier to get this out the garden than her honda 400 / 4, All I did was to saw 4.25 inches off the front pipe, she got pulled for doing 50 ina 30 on it!! I got bollocked by her no nookie for weeks afterwards (we had only been married about 3 months then).

Only marreid the wife cos she had a 400/4 I had a 250 mz, honda won no contest!