Recent research into motorcycle culture — November 2026
A South African film festival, English transport plans, Italian Futurism, vintage MX tees and Rome’s custom show: this month’s reading.
Culture, Events, Research
Sales are up in the EU! How will the US fare?
ACEM’s figures for January to September 2026 show motorcycle registrations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK up 14.6%, and its Secretary General links the growth to economic pressures and congestion. The US faces the same pressures, but its older, leisure-oriented market needs changes to tax, protective gear, rider training and helmet law before small two-wheelers become daily transport.
Culture
Trust, Automation and the End of the Gear Shift
Automated transmissions from Honda, BMW and Yamaha ask riders to trust the machine with a task they once performed themselves. Research on trust in automation suggests that change may be preparing riders for electric motorcycles, which have no gearbox at all.
Culture, Events, Research
Recent research into motorcycle culture — October 2026
October 2026 motorcycle culture roundup: Eric Hendrikx’s Motorcycle Life, a photo study of the Grampian Motorcycle Club, and European Bike Week.
Observations on the recent Transport for New South Wales Airbag Tests
Transport for NSW has crash-tested seven motorcycle airbag vests. The chest results are encouraging, but the neck protection four of the vests advertise was never assessed, and the neck data the testers recorded hasn’t been published.
Motorcycle Safety, Research
Recent motorcycle safety research — September 2026
Six studies, and a note on widening these roundups to be as comprehensive as possible: US airbag-suit data linked to fewer racing injuries, a twenty-year Arkansas helmet-law-repeal study, hazard-perception training in Thailand, and Brazil’s mortality transition.
Twenty-Eight Miles an Hour
Illinois has just written a careful, tiered, age-graduated licensing framework for electric bicycles and scooters. It has never written one for motorcycles. What the 2024 federal crash data says about unlicensed riders, and why the argument against doing something about it has aged badly.
A Test Case in a City That Cannot Vote
Congress has introduced a bill to strip Washington DC of its motorcycle helmet law, sponsored by legislators from Wisconsin and Montana who represent neither the District nor its riders. What the repeal evidence shows, and which safety measures attract organised opposition.
Events, Research
Recent research into motorcycle culture — September 2026
September 2026 roundup of new motorcycle culture research: women riders in Türkiye, adventure ethnography, the IJMS conference and Sturgis.
Culture
Electric Motorcycles: Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
Every technology that a major manufacturer would need to build a viable, extended range electric motorcycle already exists, just not at the price point that makes it a realistic commercial possibility.