Over the past year, FEMA staff members have been working with local Italian motorcyclists’ groups, to help them become stronger and more influential.

In Verona, on the yearly motorcycle show Motor Bike Expo, Italian organizations presented their intention to join forces and they held a conference on motorcycle road safety. The motorcyclists’ groups signed a shared document and a joint petition, called ‘Vivere la moto’ (living the bike), to be delivered to the local police stations to demand attention for potholes, dangerous road signs, gravel and oil spillage.

The participating organisations are:

• Comitato Coordinamento Motociclisti
• Associazione Motociclisti Incolumi
• Motorlab
• Safety Bikers Parma
• Bikers Alto Adige
• Motociclisti Diocesani
• Miss Biker

Mauro Favazza, president of Comitato Coordinamento Motociclisti (CCM) said: “This will be the base for the first real Italian federation of motorcyclists’ organizations. If this goes well, I expect our new federation to apply for membership of the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) later this year.”

FEMA’s general secretary Dolf Willigers, who visited the Italian riders last summer, is enthusiastic: “Italian riders urgently need a strong, well organized riders’ rights group and the initiative by these groups to form a national federation of bikers seems the best way forward. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to work with these guys and I am sure we can expect great things from them. And of course it is good to know that Italy, as the biggest European motorcycle country, will soon be represented within FEMA again.”

To find a motorcyclists’ organization in your country, click here to visit our member page.