Our small but dedicated team of motorcycle enthusiasts has over 30 successful years experience in the magazine and online motorcycle industry, as well as an in-house professional photographer.

Our FREE online bike magazine is freely available in it’s entirity, we do not only make a small section available before you have to pay for it, 100% of the mag is FREE!

Who else can offer you such value?

Aside from the magazine, we also provide FREE restoration tips, servicing, maintenance and technical advice. Our huge gallery of motorcycle pictures of all the bikes we have tested and images from British Superbike, World Superbike and MotoGP championships, are all available to be reproduced and buy, whether you want the original high-resolution image or an A3 print for your garage, prices are available upon request.

We are keen to maintain a FREE comprehensive database of bike reviews, if you have a well-written review, then please email us at info@whichbike.net, we may even be able to pay you for your efforts!

WhichBike aim to be the number one resource for UK motorcycle reviews!

Of course, no matter how many precautions you take, motorcycling is never going to be a risk-free activity. That’s why it’s vital to get proper insurance. Don’t just rely on getting the bare legal minimum at the cheapest price. Instead, check out a specialist bike insurer such as MCE Insurance. Not only can such companies make sure you get the right amount cover at the right price for your specific bike set-up, but in the unfortunate event that you have to make a claim, they’ll have the expert knowledge to process it without having to waste time asking the type of questions you get from companies that are more concerned with four-wheel vehicles.

Even if you take every precautionary measure going, there’s still going to be a danger of crash, so one of your biggest priorities is to have the right equipment. An adequate helmet in good condition is the most important item simply because there’s a much greater chance it will mean the difference between life and death. Don’t try to save cash by buying a second-hand helmet: if you’re the only ever owner, you know it’s not being damaged.

Other keys to clothing are to cover all the body so there’s no skin exposed. In particular look for “full finger” gloves with a proper grip, and consider special trousers that protect against the heat of the bike. Make sure boots or shoes have a good grip (avoiding laces as these can be lethal if tangled in the bike) and consider some sort of eye protections such a goggles or a visor.

The bike itself is your next area of caution. Unlike a car, you can’t just rely on an annual check-up: you should give your bike a once-over before every journey. Check the bike all-over, meaning you look at the tyres, chassis and lights. Make sure also to check that you have enough brake, clutch and coolant fluids and that all there aren’t any leaks. Don’t forget to check all your controls are working smoothly as well.

You can take all the measures you like with your bike and clothing, but the way you rise remains vital. Part of this is simply a case of making sure you ride as safely as the day you did on your test, paying particular attention to taking care on bends, overtaking with caution and braking in a controlled fashion. But there’s also a psychological element: don’t let the inherent freedom of biking tempt you into taking unnecessary risks, and don’t be afraid to hang back if you’re with a group where others aren’t riding safely.

1) Cap Your Mileage

If you are confident that you know how many miles you will be travelling you can take advantage of discounts for those who don’t use their bike for extensive travel. Make sure you are not paying for commuting to and from work if you only use your motorcycle for pleasure.

2) Compare Bike Insurance Quotes Online

When you visit comparison websites you are presented with an easy-to-compare layout so that you can be sure you haven’t missed a great deal. These websites make it their business to find you the best bike insurance by polling leading insurance brokers and you may find that they will list companies that you would not have thought of otherwise, saving you from committing to a higher-priced alternative. However, be aware that not all insurance brokers are listed on comparison websites so you still need to shop around.

3) Up Your Security

The safer your bike, the less risk to the insurance company and the lower your premium. If you have a safe place to store your motorbike, like a garage, make sure to let your insurance company know. Ensure that your lock and alarm are approved by the insurance company or you may find you will be rejected when you come to make a claim.

4) Complete Advanced Rider Training Courses

Advanced rider training programmes and motorbike safety courses will reduce your premium and make you a better rider.

5) Ride Safely

Even if you don’t get into any accidents, speeding tickets and points will not go unnoticed and will raise your premium.

6) Never Just Accept Your Renewal Quote

Insurance companies rely on you not wanting to go through the hassle of switching insurers. When you get a renewal quote shop around. Bike insurance may be available for you at a cheaper rate than your current provider is offering. Even if you don’t want to switch, if you tell your broker that you have found a better deal elsewhere, they may drop your premium to keep you as a customer.

7) Buy a classic bike!

Classic bikes are less desirable to thieves and performance is obviously not up to the standards of modern sports bikes. They are also deemed to be less of an insurance risk as owners tend to look after their bike to a high standard. Get a  Classic motorcycle insurance quote today…

It is easier than you realise to change solicitors to handle your personal injury claim and most professional solicitors do not want to keep a client who no longer trusts their judgment.

The real problem arises when “ambulance-chasing” accident claim companies, who has effecticely bought your case, are reluctant to give up their investment when they have paid £750 to your insurance broker or the Claim Management firm, you can understand why they do not want their referral fee – walking away!

Why would you change your personal injury Solicitor?

Some insurers and Claims Management firms charge £1,000+, as well as a percentage of the Solicitors’ charges in bigger cases, so your case has cost your Panel Solicitor a lot more.

Corners are often cut to increase shrinking profit margins and quite often the only clue you have got that the person dealing with your case has no recognised legal qualification is theie grand job title. Claims technicians, case managers, case handlers, injury claims consultants and litigation executives all sound like they know what they’re doing, but potentially you could apply for one of those jobs tomorrow, as they do not require any qualifications.

There are three recognised and regulated branches of the legal profession. If you have a Solicitor, a Barrister, or a Fellow or Member of the Institute of Legal Executives working on your case then you can probably rest easy and have the knowledge that the person dealing with your case is qualified. However, how much experience they have in any particular field is something on which you will need to trust your instinct or take professional references, where possible.

How can I tell if I have a Panel Solicitor?

If a Solicitor, or more likely an unqualified clerk calling from a firm of solicitors has phoned you or written to you out of the blue, then more likely than not you have a panel solicitor acting for you. These are firms who have bought potential personal injury case leads in bulk from insurers. The arrangements change from firm to firm/broker to broker, but usually batches of 10 to 50 cases are sent to the panel firm and the panel firm could have as little as 24 hours to decide if they want to run your case. If you receive an unsolicited phone call from someone with high-pressure selling techniques then should not you panic but end the call as soon as possible. You have a right to choose!

All too often we see solid motorcycle personal injury cases, sometimes involving catastrophic injuries, rejected, without giving the claim proper consideration. Quite often, the solicitor has not seen any witness statements, police report, spoken to key witnesses or the police. Even worse, in some cases, they have, and have misapplied the law, or relied on the wrong facts to make a poor decision.

I’ve got a useless firm, with an equally useless individual advising me, What can I do?

Easy, Change Solicitors! No reputable firm or Solicitor wants to keep a client who no longer trusts the quality of the legal advice they are receiving. Remember, you are under no obligation to use your insurance comapny’s solicitor and need to deal with a firm you feel are putting your interests first and, importantly, someone you can trust

Is my panel firm specialist?

They may do thousands of similar cases, so can say that they do a lot of a particular type of work – whether it is whiplash claims, motorcycle claims, or car accident claims. The question for you is how well are they doing their job. It is almost impossible for any lawyer to do a proper job where their client does not trust the solicitor’s judgment. In our area of motorcycle claims, one of the most common problems we come across are lawyers or claims handlers who have no idea of the physics and behaviour of a motorcycles under braking, accelerating, or cornering. And if your solicitor does not understand how your accident happened, how will they ever be able to represent you and your claim?

It takes 5 years or more to qualify as a solicitor or barrister, so why would you put your trust in a “claims handler”?

Only an fool would trust their teeth to a “tooth handling executive”, rather than a qualified and registered dentist, but people entrust their legal cases to “case handling executives” every day.

Most of the people who work for the “ambulance-chasing firms are from the insurance industry. We know, we have been approached by them and asked to teach them the basics of motorcycle accident claims.

Your insurance company refers (for a fee) your case to a claims management company who in turn sells the case on to an unqualified clerk, who may have some supervision from a qualified solicitor – but don’t bank on it! Our real expertise is motorcycle accident claims, and often we take over cases where the claims executive clearly does not begin to understand the basics of the law.

So how do I change Solicitors?

Firstly, find a solicitor who you want to act in place of the panel solicitor. All specialist solicitors are used to taking over claims and our procedure is pretty standard across the profession. You ask us or another firm to act for you, you sign a release form – we or your other solicitor send it off to your current solicitors with a formal promise to protect the file and a few weeks later – we get the claim paperwork.

Occasionally the old solicitors resist. A swift application to the High Court deals with this in just about every case without ever having to go in front of a Judge in a court of law. The one time a Solicitor refused to hand over the papers to us despite the application, the Court ordered the former solicitor to pay costs over £2,000 and the judge struck out all of his costs for acting. Whilst your panel firm may be quite arrogant on the telephone as to handing over the paperwork, a High Court summons tends to focus their mind!

Will my Legal Expenses Insurance still cover me?

You cannot be made to use a solicitor against your will, regardless of what your legal expenses insurers tell you. The Financial Ombudsman Service is sympathetic to people who have lost faith or confidence in their solicitor, or want to choose their own solicitor after their legal expenses insurer made a bad decision about who dealt with their case.

Under the The Insurance Companies (Legal Expenses Insurance) Regulations 1990, once proceedings are issued (and this is when you do need insurance) your legal expense insurers have no choice, they have to insure you, but you do not need to go this far.

We have referred just about every conceivable policy of legal expenses insurance to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Rather than have a test case in front of the Ombudsman, every single insurer has confirmed cover on acceptable terms. The legal expenses insurers talk a good fight but they don’t like to get into the ring.

We have no problem at all acting on any form of Legal Expenses Insurance, and the bike brokers know not to resist us. If the terms are unfair to you – we will advise you to challenge them and we will deal with any technical issues.

I want to change solicitors!

If after reading the above advice you feel that you would rather change solicitors to a professional and specialist motorcycle firm, such as www.motorbike-accidents.co.uk, then call us on 0845 519 4885 to discuss your case with one of our lawyers or visit motorbike accidents.

According to research conducted by insurance comparison website moneysupermarket.com, these increases could amount to 54 per cent extra on top of the cost of an existing policy.

The UK’s leading price comparison site found that those drivers with a speeding conviction and six points on their license couldpay on average 19 per cent more than a driver with a clean license, while the same person with a speeding conviction and nine points could be subject to a 54 per cent premium increase.

Commenting on the findings, MoneySupermarket car insurance expert, Peter Harrison warned that while those who take unnecessary risks by speeding may not necessarily have had serious repercussions in the short term, their insurer will penalise them heavily for ignoring driving laws.

He said: “We have witnessed sharp increases to the cost of car insurance premiums recently. moneysupermarket.com research found premiums rose by 44 pence per day in 2010 on average, and this trend is set to continue, especially with the recent ECJ ruling on the legality of using gender to calculate insurance premiums.

“Not only are motorists who flout the law by speeding risking the lives of other road users and pedestrians as well as their own, they also run the risk of adding to the existing headache of sky high car insurance premiums,” he added.

Moneysupermarket’s analysts used the example of a 30-year-old male driving a 2006 Ford Focus 10,000 miles per year when conducting the research, getting quotes from five leading insurers for drivers with various amounts of points on their license.

The research showed that, while drivers who speed may have escaped anything more serious than points and fines until now, their insurers may conclude that these drivers are too risky to insure and would be well within their rights rescind their insurance service from those drivers altogether.

Peter Harrison said: “Insurers clearly take a dim view on policy holders who speed and this is reflected in higher car insurance prices. Even going just above the speed limit can add huge additional costs to your car insurance, and for repeat offenders, some insurers may even refuse to cover you, so motorists should take extra care to ensure they stick to the speed restrictions.”

I wasn’t badly hurt. Well, apart from my knee. It must have come up and hit the dashboard. Still, it would be OK in a few days. Car Injury Claim? I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

The problem was, my knee didn’t get better. I mean, it got better in the conventional sense. The swelling went, the bruising disappeared. But I was a promising footballer. At least I was, ten seconds before the Escort skidded. After that it was never the same – and it was no real surprise when the manager gave me the bad news…

It doesn’t need to be a spectacular head-on collision for you to be injured in a car. Bumped from the side in the supermarket car-park, someone running into the back of you as you pick the kids up from school. All of these might seem to be insignificant incidents at the time, but they can all lead to injuries.

Driver or passenger, if you think you might have been injured in a car crash, it makes sense to take action straightaway. And once you’ve seen your doctor, ring a specialist company like Stavley Head for car injury claims. They have a dedicated team of experts who do nothing but deal with car injury claims. They’ve helped thousands of satisfied customers make thousands of claims, and they’ll be able to tell you very quickly whether or not you might have a valid claim.

What sort of things can you claim for? Well, obviously it depends on how serious your injuries are – the pain and severity will play a big part in determining how much compensation you might be entitled to. Remember too, that some injuries can have long lasting effects – a severe case of whiplash, for example, can plague someone for the rest of their life. Then there might be loss of earnings if you have to take time off work, and the cost of any private medical treatment, such as physiotherapy. A company like Staveley Head will be able to guide you through the whole process of your car injury claim, so that you can devote your time to the thing that’s most important – making a full recovery.

Me? I can still kick a ball around with the kids. But I don’t think Fabio will be phoning any time soon…

Why use accident reports?

Accident reports are fantastic for savvy drivers who want to avoid any unfortunate traffic jams. The fact of the matter is that when there is an accident on the road there is a lot of traffic that is going to come with it. Sometimes we’re in a rush and fall into one – only realising we’ll have to wait hours before getting out of it. By checking out accident reports you will be able to take a different path and avoid the traffic all together.

Where can you find accident reports in the United Kingdom?

The best website to find this information is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/

Make sure that you are aware of major accidents on the road. This will help you avoid the traffic jams that unfortunately come with these road traffic accidents.

Mistake #1: Doing it yourself.

It might be tempting to do everything yourself but don’t. The simple fact is that a road accident claim can cost a lot of your time and effort. It can also become very daunting and affect your health negatively. Road accident claim companies will do everything for you without charging you a fee or taking a percentage of your claim. What else do you want?

Mistake #2: Not having enough information

You need to make sure that you’re as ready as possible when filing a claim for your road traffic injury. Make sure that you have all of the medical documents and any police reports that were filed during the accident. Have all of of the personal information necessary as well. The more information you have, the better the solicitor will be able to handle your claim.

Avoid these two mistakes and your road accident claim will be handled as smoothly as possible.

True or False? If I ask a company to handle my car accident compensation claims, they’ll take a certain percentage of my awarded claim.

False!!!

Most professional companies that work with car accident compensation claims don’t take any percentage of your claim. In fact, some of the companies don’t even charge you a fee for handling your claim. You really can be risk-free when handling your car accident claim.

True or False? It has been over a year since I had the accident. I can’t claim anymore.

False!!!

Legally in the United Kingdom you have up to two and a half years to file your claims and get the money you deserve. The reason for this is that a lot of people only start suffering from injuries a few months AFTER the actual accident. This gives you time to claim for something you might not have been aware of recently after the road traffic accident.

Step 1: Find An Online Solicitor

There are hundreds of online solicitors that work with road accident fund claims. You need to find a reliable, professional and experienced company that will handle your claim as quickly as possible. Look online for recommendations.

Step 2: Provide the road accident fund claims solicitor with the necessary information

Provide the company with all of your personal details, accident details and any medical information you might have about the accident and resulting injuries.

Step 3: Be patient and don’t stress.

Once you’ve handed all of the information to the solicitor you have found, just be patient. There is realistically nothing you can do to help them (unless they ask). Be patient and make sure that you don’t worry. Try to be as stress-free as possible. You’re in great hands!

Road accident fund claims don’t have to be scary with a professional company handling your claim.