Page 9 - 100% Biker (January 2020)

HONDA AT 400 MILLION CAGES FOR

As 2019 ended, Honda marked another milestone in its long and illustrious history with
the production of its 400 millionth motorcycles, a fitting end to a year in which the
MOTORCYCLES
company celebrated the 70th anniversary of its first motorcycle, the Dream D-Type.

Nottingham City Council has
introduced a cage at its Lace Market
multi-storey car park. Why? To ensure
secure parking for motorcycles. The
cage area can accommodate up
to twenty motorcycles at one time
and uses several different types of
security for optimum protection.
The motorcycle parking area has
been further into the main car park
while the secure area is monitored by
CCTV and automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR).
It’s believed to be the first system
Although it may have taken several decades of its kind and the motorcycle cage
to reach this figure, some 100 million of those can only be accessed by a dedicated
bikes have been manufactured in the last five
years—Honda announced it had reached 300 app which requires motorcyclists to
million motorcycles in 2014—and the company register their vehicle and payment
now builds over 20 million machines each year. details and that generates a QR
It’s a long way from where it all began in 1948, code for each parking session. The
although it’s a history that has been marked move comes after motorcycle theft
with some of the most iconic and popular had become a huge problem at the
motorcycles ever made. While its first oversea
Lace Market car park with at least
factory to begin mass production was set up
in Belgium in 1963, Honda now has 35 facilities one bike being stolen each week.
in 21 different countries with most motorcycles After a biker has decided they
being sold in the country in which they’re built. want to park, they start a parking
To celebrate its 70th anniversary as a session which sends a QR code to
motorcycle manufacturer, Honda restored their phone, allowing them entry to
a 1961 Chevrolet Apache pickup and had it
the secure area by scanning the QR
painted exactly like the fleet of delivery trucks code at the gate. There’s a waiting
it purchased to deliver vehicles to customers
area before the area to allow people
when it first started sending motorcycles to
America in 1959. Sadly, in this country, Hondas to remove their gloves and start a
were probably delivered in a Bedford CA or a parking session on their phone if
Commer FC van which didn’t have quite the they haven’t already done so. Initial
glamour of a Chevy Apache, which is probably trials have been very positive and
why we’ve seen no commemoratively restored have reduced bike thefts.
delivery vehicle on this side of the Atlantic!
NEW SUPPORT FOR BIKER DOWN

Biker Down is, as many of you will know, a national road safety initiative aimed at motorcyclists and which has been implemented
in many parts of the country, running free, three hour courses which cover crash scene management, casualty care and how to
prepare should you ever be first on the scene of an accident.
In the West Country, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue
Service has been piloting the scheme with the help of
Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Now that job will be made
easier thanks to sponsorship from AJN Steelstock,
one of the UK’s leading steel stockholders. The
company has not only given a generous financial
donation to the scheme but has also donated a
Triumph Daytona 675R to help promote Biker Down
and make it county wide.
Alan Boyden, joint Managing Director, at AJN
Steelstock, says: “As an experienced biker, and with
numerous like-minded staff at AJN, I really see the
benefit of schemes like Biker Down and was only too
pleased to support the new Wiltshire programme. I
have no doubt that the course will help to save lives,
and we’ll certainly be promoting it to our customers
and colleagues.”
The Biker Down scheme is free to attend with
booking details and further information available at
www.roadwise.co.uk/bikerdown.

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