David Lock

Terrible thing to happen especially taking his pals with him. Crazy of parents but I expect they realise that now.

Now I'm not a biker but would it be true to say there are a lot of 18 year olds who will have a bike that would have just about equal performance to the M5?

So how do you square that circle?

Tiggs

No, very few indeed.

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

On a bike, the earliest a young lad or lass would have m5 power is 19.
so not far off really, at 19, he/she could buy/insure at a premium mind, an R1,Gixxer 1000 blade etc even a busa.

Tiggs

but thats an extreem rarity.

RS Grant

.....yea, but so is an 18year old in a 60k BMW M5, even if it was registered to his father.


Cheers,
Grant

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

£60k? man we get shafted here the US pay a shed load less

Brendan Hughes

News article said $75k. But look, the guy's in an exclusive gated community and runs it up John Travolta's airstrip. Don't expect him to have saved for his paper round from it.

ScooByer Trade

At the moment the law for future riders is you will be restricted to 33BHP for 2 years and do one deliberate stupid thing and you will kiss goodbye to your licence . If you are 21 years old or above the only route for riding the motorbike is Direct Access and the latter is a full unresticted licence. Also if you didn't do your compulsory basic training ( CBT ), you will do that before your test. What worries me about the motorbike laws is you only have approximatly 2 hours training and you don't pass a test before the training people allow you on the road to the limit of 2 years. The training is more complicated, than driving a car as there is alot more to remember believe me.
For car drivers who have never been trained on a bike will say it isn't. You have to learn more on a bike because you are 100 times more vulnerable.There are some riders who go against how they were trained and that is how they are involved in serious accidents for example me.

Nathan.

ScooByer Trade

Youngest age for a rider is 16 years old and this is the part that worries me because they aren't old enough to drive a car so no road experience.

corradoboy

I'm in full agreement about bikes and kids. I've seen many a pubescent to55er popping a wheelie on a moped amongst traffic and much worse too. I have similar sentiments with pedal cyclists, where there's no age restriction at all, no compulsory safety gear and no compulsory training.

A few weeks back I had a kid on a motocross style road bike pull out behind me and proceed to wheelie. As he needed to use power to achieve the feat he closed in on me each time, so after the first one as I heard him revving up in readiness I braked to remove the opportunity.

Another one on the busy Leeds outer ring road I photographed as I was a passenger, and submitted the pics to the Police later that day.

I've ranted before about all this, and stated that I think the Highway Code, Green Cross Code and Cycling Proficiency should be on the school curriculum. That under 14's be restricted to <40mph roads until they have completed an advanced CPT including the current car hazard and theory Pt.1 test, and should have insurance before they're allowed on all roads (excepting mways). I also feel that motorcycles need to be restricted to >21yo.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

What they need is funky low powered with ESP and a 5 star safety rating, I hate to say it but the Mini is about perfect in this respect, as long as you tick the DSC box. Enough power so its not frustrating, decent handling and its trendy.

An M5 is a serious piece of kit, My car is 250 bhp and its way quicker than I would trust a new driver with, even if as someone said they had raced on track, so what, that is no qualification to operate a powerful car when there are other people around, delivering things, doddering, making bad decisions, running out into the road etc and this generally doesnt happen on the track, youngsters are good on track as they are fearless but lack the control not to get into situations.

I suspect about 30 to 45 is the best age for a driver on the road, enough experience but before reactions and eyesight start failing, not a hard and fast rule as some are crap and get crapper but as a rule of thumb.

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

as i said,19 is the lowest age to ride any bike u want,that means passing ur bike test at 17,like i did,then passed my car test at 18.

the bike test was a doddle.

at the end of the day,its all about the skill of the rider/driver.

i had been ridin bikes since the age of 13 so had a few more yrs expereince before actually gettin my license,its like all those young **** riders/drivers on race tracks,so age isnt really to blame, you see some laim **** 40 yr old drivers with 20 yrs expereince !

ScooByer Trade

The reason i said i am an example, is because i crashed on the notorious Cat And Fiddle road between Buxton and Macclesfield. I am riding a trail bike now and i wont go back to a sportsbike. I was riding within the limits of the bike, i was riding a restricted Honda CBR600 and tried to pass another rider on an Aprilia RS125 and this was unrestricted ( i know if restricted i would of passed him ) but he accelerated and i JUST got around the two bends with the pegs buried in the floor but had no chance of getting around third and the bike only went through a dry stone wall at around 70 mph i guess. I went 60 feet through the air and landed in a farmers field. Don't learn from my mistake because that is saying you are in the same situation as i was.
The other rider wasn't hurt, he didn't crash and that is great.

Nathan.

M444GY

iTrader: (72)

hmm sad

wrxsti280

iTrader: (6)

thats funny, im in exactly the same position my newborn son is only 3 weeks old and im already plotting on how to get him in a scoob as soon as he is old enough, with relevant experience obviously.

on topic, i think a lot if the problem is down to how mature you are, if i had a scoob when i was 18 i would be dead now, period, i was very immature when young and some say i still am, but i can see that not all people are the same as me, there are some very mature people out there for their age, and i think that as long as they stay like this and only have a little fun when safe to do so, they should be fine.

WRX_Dazza

its all relative cant anyone see that...

ok a 500 bhp beemer is a bit different, but belive me, an 18yr old today, with a scoob, has far less chance of damaging himself, then i had with a MK1 Mexico,when i was 18, with remoulds, brakes made from cheese and driving it as fast as i could everywhere, 24-7 lol !!!!!!

its about education and experience and unfortunately, at 18, road wise, most of us had very little.

i personally think there is a more snobby side to scooby ownership nowadays, where older people (who can now afford running costs/insurance etc) actually begrudge younger people for having them.
no one will admit it of course.

in my view if someone can legally drive something they paid for, let them.

you can kill someone at 30 mph easily, and this will never change.....

***sad loss of life, nonetheless*** but you really cant blame the parents in this case...
he could have done the same / or worse, with any car!!

Mew

tragic......

i still think its not an age thing tho... u have to learn to drive ur car... these "driver's" cars like bmws and subaru drive a certain way and if u don;t drive them properly then accidents happen.......

only thing is that the bmws are supposed to be really safe so this kid must have been doing quite some speed........

Brendan Hughes

You kidding? The news article linked in the thread said

http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/s...8UDQ5U01.shtml

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Sad story.

Slightly of topic, I was heading south out of Middlesborough last night on a three lane stretch , and was passed by two "18 year olds" in Corsas, etc three abreast ! One of which crossed a solid white line into the on-coming traffic..... My mind boggles.

DunxC

Transit mini-bus, not quite quick enough !

bighead

iTrader: (1)

sad but very very true

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Personally, I would be fully supportive of a staged power limit, such as that currently on bikes, applied to cars - not just based on how old you are, but how long you have been driving. Someone of that age shouldn't be in a car with that power. Simple as that really.

On a bike though, the probability is that even in a collision with another vehicle your only going to kill yourself, and thats your lookout