There is one of these machines a few doors up the road from our place. On fine weekends the house occupants take turns “burning” up and down the street, without helmets, jackets, gloves or shoes! Occasionally the braver ones will venture around the block, including busy Campbell Road.

Other road users cannot see these machines easily as they are obscured by parked cars and small shrubs. Luckily the exhaust systems (or lack of) make up for this if you're a pedestrian, but a bugger to hear when wearing helmet and earplugs!

I have politely asked one of the riders (an older guy, presumably struggling to keep some excitement in his life, however short he wants that to be) to consider the negative impact his actions have on us road legal riders (yes, I was on the BM at the time). But, like others here, what else can we do?

Do we look to the enforcers to deal with this? What about addressing the bike dealers who supply them? Unlikely to be BMW, but surely other reputable dealers would not want to lose their law-abidding customers for the sake of a few slopeds?

Hopefully our plodmates will have some advice for us.