TooMuchGreen

It doesn’t take long to be reminded how ‘German’ Germany is and to encounter some of the reasons which make it so. It started for me on arrival at the hotel when I fired up the complimentary computer in the foyer to be greeted with a Linux desktop…! Although proffering such niceties as being open source, super stable, virtually hack proof and virus free, as a computer operating system it can admittedly have one foot in the technical (unless you’re familiar with Ubuntu of course), anyway – enter the Germans with their quirkily obvious and unphased liking for the boundaries of the technical alternative, case and point the BMW C1 as pictured above.

You may or not have seen one of these things whizzing around your urban environment, not so much in the UK I would imagine but most definitely around European cities. So, what’s the score? What the f*ck is this thing? Well, it’s more than just a scooter with a roof, remember it’s designed by Germans.

The C1 was initially manufatured as a 125 city transport alternative to fight congestion by slotting in as an option between a motorcycle and a car, later revised and upgraded to a 200cc engine these little things are super interesting, even for me as a staunch black leather biker. Not only do they keep you dry (they have a windscreen and wiper..!) but also safe. The safety features are the C1′s main development feature and include two shoulder-height roll bars, a crumple zone around the front wheel and an aluminium roll cage creating a car-like safety cell, they also have twin seatbelts reminiscent of an aviation style four-point harness to keep the rider in place, in fact BMW claim that in a head-on collision the C1 offers a standard of accident protection comparable to a European compact car.

Developed to be ridden without a helmet (Tests show that wearing a helmet with seatbelts can actually increase the possibility of neck injury in the event of an accident) this was one of the factors which may have led to poor sales and the C1 line eventually being discontinued in 2002. Although the majority of European countries accepted BMW’s statistics and safety recomendations relating to helmets the stiff old UK refused to acknowledge and accommodate the C1 as a revolutionary new form of transport.

The helmet law was created to protect riders from injury however in this instance, as tests prove, it can have the opposite effect, even so in typical jobsworth letter of the law UK fashion there was to be no exception, having two wheels the C1 was classed as a motorcyle, sorry. There was a case taken to court several years ago where a helmetless C1 rider did actually win his case however by then it was too late, the damage had been done.

Perhaps now, six years down the line, with the push for eco fuel cells and alternative forms of environmentally friendly transport the C1 may have pulled more interest and acceptance, I would like to think so, also what better boost for fading British eccentricity than a few C1′s scooting about London. Of course it’s not going to happen, but one can always dream, after all dreams are good things, they lead can lead to new ideas (and concepts?), we just need to work on them being received at the other end.