Association for Motorcyclist

[Smart Bet]

Have you guys heard of the AMA?

 

Is there such an organisation in Singapore?

 

If not, wouldn't it be very beneficial for all Singapore bikers to have an association which protects the rights of motorcyclist?

 

How many times have you been treated like a 2nd class road-user by other drivers?

Almost everyday for me, I'd say.

 

Just a short quote about the association:

 

The AMA is the premier defender of motorcyclists’ rights in the United States. The work of the AMA gahment Relations Department extends beyond AMA members to all motorcyclists. Staff members ferret out bad laws and anti-motorcycling discrimination at the local, state, federal and corporate level. When critical issues and problems arise, education, common sense, political clout and, when necessary, compromise are used to make changes beneficial to all riders -- even those who aren't AMA members.

[mechwira]

of course its good. but who's gonna form it?

 

and before the usual ppl start coming in with the usual 'govt wont bother' and 'govt not interested' and 'even if have will be useless against govt' kind of arguments like all the other threads here (i tired of listsening these kind of arguments), dun forget we do have an automobile association for cars here in s'pore. its formed by the industry players. but the industry players for bikes are too small to form such an organisiation.

[Smart Bet]

True that our motorbike population might not be as big as malaysia or thailand but I believe it will benefit all parties involved if such and organization were to be set up.

 

On top of protecting bikers on the road, the govt can also use it as a channel to promote safe riding as well.

[Smart Bet]

Furthermore, this association could also be the watchdog for motordiams and organise mass outings to improve the image of bikers.

[Guest Miki]

Originally posted by Smart Bet@Jul 27 2004, 01:56 PM

True that our motorbike population might not be as big as malaysia or thailand but I believe it will benefit all parties involved if such and organization were to be set up.

 

On top of protecting bikers on the road, the govt can also use it as a channel to promote safe riding as well.

not to mention tourist attraction..... imagine Ewan Mcgregor stopping by to shoot us in his documentory.

[jamez]

itz really a good suggestion...but lets identify the problems..

 

1.Who is gonna finance

2.Who is gonna start

3.Who are gonna be involved

4.How to convince authorities

5.Aims and objectives

6.how to get support.

[burningacid]

perhaps we can approach some well-known motordiams 1st? maybe tru dem we haf higher chances of getting the procedures work out more smoothly...

[Smart Bet]

Originally posted by jamez@Jul 28 2004, 11:37 AM

itz really a good suggestion...but lets identify the problems..

 

1.Who is gonna finance

2.Who is gonna start

3.Who are gonna be involved

4.How to convince authorities

5.Aims and objectives

6.how to get support.

1. This is definitely an independent body but preferably with industry backers. (authorised dealers in Singapore, Boon Siew, Piaggio, etc.)

 

2. No idea. How'd they start the AMA?

 

3. Involvement / activities should all be left to the association/committee

 

4. Highlighting the goals and objectives with a good proposal should go well with the relevant authorities. I believe you would just have to register under an association or club.

 

5. Aims and objectives as above posts. Would be very beneficial if there's a good PR between the association and the authroties for support. (TP, etc.)

 

6. Support as in financing? Porbably offer an affordable membership on a yearly basis. Could be introduced to all old and new buyers when they purchase their machine. I think AAA has a similar system.

[mechwira]

Originally posted by Smart Bet@Jul 29 2004, 11:15 AM

6. Support as in financing? Porbably offer an affordable membership on a yearly basis. Could be introduced to all old and new buyers when they purchase their machine. I think AAA has a similar system.

i'd like to take issue with this one. you wont be able to start this way. people wont pay to part of something not proven to be useful. but if ppl wont join it'll never be useful. dilemma. it has to be an association encompassing all riders at one go.

 

btw mebbe u shd take a look at

automobile association of singapore

 

as it stands, my opinion is, ur best bet is to somehow get this organisation to be more pro-active in bikers' needs instead of just cars. its already established, thereby requiring only an extension of its services to encompass riders. or mebbe it does encompass riders but not pro-active in the area.

 

about the biggest bike dealer i can think of is boon siew, and its not powerful when u compare to the likes of cycle and carriage. bike dealers here quite a problem: those that deal a lot, only deal with 2b bikes due to market; but powerful ones that deal with 'real' bikes dun do much dealing. lose-lose situation. so this AAS is still the best way out i feel.

[StingRhea]

Try to see England's bike association, it educates people to wear protective gear etc with BSB riders all that, insurance companies helping insured riders in more than accident claims like in legal and traffic police problems also~ TIme to learn from them!

[1.37boost]

Originally posted by mechwira@Jul 27 2004, 01:46 PM

of course its good. but who's gonna form it?

 

and before the usual ppl start coming in with the usual 'govt wont bother' and 'govt not interested' and 'even if have will be useless against govt' kind of arguments like all the other threads here (i tired of listsening these kind of arguments), dun forget we do have an automobile association for cars here in s'pore. its formed by the industry players. but the industry players for bikes are too small to form such an organisiation.

sucky thing is it seems like the only high profile gahmen dude who is pro-bikes and a biker himself is that opposition MP who kena newpaper headlines for taking nude photos of his maid

 

but it's true, such an association needs to be established. there's hardly any mechanical/legal/etc support for bikers, whereas cars have always had AA

[Guest MinistryofAlex]

tot theres a motorcycle ass. in singapore juz rite behind handlebar

[Guest TheSquid]

SMSA

Singapore Motor Sports Association.

[StingRhea]

But if you ever flip thru the weekly mag by MCN ( the one that looks like a newspaper $6.80 ) the assn in UK is wad i realyl call an assn. It stands up on issues on bikers, for example when they had this anti bike levy for bikers in London because there were many jams, and the analyst saying that the cause was many accidents. They assn/mag proved him wrong with figures, and state that cars were the one causing the jam~

 

I mean, who would take a stand like this in SG? talking a bout free speech here, i don't think it wold ever happen~

[sloth]

upz man, MCN rocks

but seriously it seems fairly silly that there isn't any such association for bikes.

perhaps the reason being cars are worth so much more, and bikes aren't as high-value assets. but there should still be some entity that addresses issues that relate to bikers specifically, such as protective gear, riding habits, maintenance tips, etc...

there's a lot of overlapping issues regarding traffic rules/regs and vehicle ownership (COE!), but some issues only concern bikers (eg. helmets/visor/gear). a body that address these issues in the local, maybe regional context would be quite helpful to us all.

I'm so sick of this disregard for the bike population, which is actually quite substantial. Some body, preferably non-profit to avoid conflicts of interest, should be established to address our needs and requests, and get our voice heard clearly in the halls of power, or at least in civil society.

[Smart Bet]

Everyone, regardless of the vehicle the drive/ride, are still people after all.

 

This lack of support further goes to show that we're treated as 2nd class road users.

[Guest MinistryofAlex]

what to do... when we are lack of 2 extra wheels and few more piece of metals to keep us inside

[StingRhea]

Originally posted by Smart Bet@Aug 4 2004, 01:51 AM

Everyone, regardless of the vehicle the drive/ride, are still people after all.

 

This lack of support further goes to show that we're treated as 2nd class road users.

you're correct~ we go petrol pump we don't see the pump attendant helping us, instead scolding riders who don't dismount their bike, ride on e-ways and we have to be in the middle of the lane most of the time, etc and etc~

[sound_machine]

we can get our topic to Channel U show which is airing every twed nite. erm call "REN REN AI LI" EVERYBODY WANTS TO KPO or sumthing the hosts can start a topic for us.

 

anyone caught the show? it'll definitely raise some profile for bikers in Singapore.

[Guest MinistryofAlex]

but who is so kind going on tv

[StingRhea]

forum starter?

[biking nomad]

I think the idea of a Mcycle association is a very good one. We alredy have a very strong online community on this site alone. We should try and capitalise on this n formalise the biking community as an association tta champions the rights and interests of the lcoal biking community.

 

There are a lof of benefits to be had with creating such an association. For example look at Britain's Motorcycling association. They collect a nominal annual fee from bikers and see to bikers needs and interests in areas of promoting motorcycle safety, education and even lobbying their authorities. They are quite a force to be reckoned with and thus the govt closely involves the group in consultation and other things.

 

No doubt there will be some (or a lot of!) practical difficulties in setting up such and organisation but the first important step would be to gather a sufficently capable and passionate group of people to look into it.

 

Wat do some of the foudning fathers of this forum thing? If there is any inclination to go forward with a study on the feasibilty of this I'd like to put my name forth right here and right now!

[StingRhea]

and some examples of what they do can be seen on weekly MCN newspapers~ eg. safety adverts, standing up for common causes of accidents between bikes and other vehicles (it shows that mostly its the latter's fault and a biker haf better control if their machine compared to drivers) etc~

[lioncat]

Originally posted by 1.37boost@Jul 30 2004, 10:55 AM

sucky thing is it seems like the only high profile gahmen dude who is pro-bikes and a biker himself is that opposition MP who kena newpaper headlines for taking nude photos of his maid

 

but it's true, such an association needs to be established. there's hardly any mechanical/legal/etc support for bikers, whereas cars have always had AA

not nude la. sexy poses nia.

 

dont later u also kena letter out of nowhere man.

 

the only nude shots are of himself in the bush.

 

anyway back to topic, i agree that we should get the AAS to pay more attention to the bikers community rather than setting up a new watchdog body.

 

the problem with getting motordiam to back a new watchdog is that they will probably concentrate more on their interests rather than the average joe on 2 wheels.

 

just my 2 cents worth.

[KawBoy]

I asked Andy to start Rally Point because I wanted to understand the issues at heart with bikers now. I had some issues that I thought were contravening with motorcycles in general but it seemed that they were off the mark. And what better place to test this out than SBF? What did I find? Bikers were interested in their license ratings, COEs, and getting reckless car drivers and overloaded trucks. And well within their right to because motorcycles are often mistreated on the roads.

 

This particular thread is very interesting for us because we have thought about a long time back.

 

Maybe to make this issue clearer first understand the current situation.

 

The Singapore Motorcycle Trade Association is the only one around. It was formed a long time back with very different objectives in mind.

 

For an association like this to work, someone or rather a group of people will have to be setting aside time for administering to the association's needs. Besides taking permanent time off to work on this, the only people who are really clued up about the mechanics of the politics in the motorcycle group would be the motorcycle based businesses and even then...

 

People who are passionate but not realistic and objective in their approach will probably just screw this up. There will be others who are on the other side of the fence ready to pounce on any mistakes and the whole thing will be up in flames so fast... For example, I refer to the Straits Times HOME Headline some time back when they reported on motorcycle accidents at the beginning of the 7th month, it was titled DEATH ON WHEELS. Hardly responsible on their part towards motorcyclists is it? Who from the SMCTA has spoken up in defence of this although it would impact their businesses directly? No one because they had better things to do(right). The headline and the report was written to get readers to believe that motorcycling is life threatening and it was a false and incorrect representation of motorcycling? Motorcycles are inherently dangerous, but so are many other things.

 

And there is a high probability that people from this group will want to benefit personally from this, after all this is going to be hard work. And I mean HARD WORK.

 

Non profit would be ideal but hardly possible since we are a small country and sponsoring an association while not impossible, will find little takers. We don't kid ourselves here.

 

If an association is to be set up, it will be a meeting point between motorcycle businesses and motorcyclists. Not a place to flame shops or malign some biker, but rather a neutral mediator.

 

More importantly, it will be the only avenue that will examine and report on gahment issues affecting motorcyclists directly and make contact if it is required.

 

If such an association is set up, who who join?

 

Say if it cost a sum of $50 per year and in addition of championing motorcyclists rights you get organized group outings and a big maybe some benefits.