Friday, 29 March 2024
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Bar end safety review now on ISO and CEN agenda

The petition proposing a safety review of bar plug standards for children’s bicycles has caught the attention of the committees which set ISO and CEN standards.

Though some way off racking up the number of signatures required to ensure a parliamentary debate, the petition’s intention, according to author Ellis Blackman, was to get get the topic on the discussion table within the industry.

Blackman told CI.N this morning: “The petition’s sign up rate has slowed down now, but to get north of 1,000 signatures in just two days live shows that this is an issue that resonates with riders. We had the likes of Tahnée Seagrave and a number of other top pros share our effort, so it’s a huge nudge in the right direction. I’m thrilled to hear the industry’s standards committees are interested in taking this safety review forwards. If it saves only one life it’s worth it.”

It is the Bicycle Association’s Technical Manager Peter Eland who has taken the issue to Brussels to present to the CEN standards committee, as well as catching the attention of the covenor for the worldwide ISO group. The latter is tasked with reviewing the ISO 8098 child bike standard, and the ISO 4210 series for adult bikes.

Eland said this morning: “The upshot is that a review of bar end safety is now on the agenda at both ISO and CEN, for the standards for BMX, child and adult bikes. What has happened now is that a working group has been created to gather evidence that the existing standards fall short of what may be acceptable. In the UK I am the national standards committee contact, so I’d be glad to hear from those who have evidence to share.”

Eland further said that it was ten years ago when the BMX standard came to fruition, with the test revolving around a weighted drop onto the bar end, repeated around ten times.

Those with evidence to submit are invited to do so before the next meeting in February of 2019 and can do so by emailing Eland here.