Dorna and Phillip Island have been embroiled in a debate over moving the Australian GP to an earlier venue — a subject that seems to come up every time the premier series comes to the fabled island circuit. After Phillip Island rebuked the idea of moving its date for the MotoGP Championship, choosing to instead balance the race later in the calendar against other major events that come to Oz, namely Formula 1 (March 27th) and World Superbike (February 27th).

Not one to take rejection lightly, Dorna put Phillip Island on notice, suggesting that while the two parties did have a contract that saw the race pegged to the month of October, that agreement was only valid if Phillip Island kept its FIM homologation. This statement presumably suggested that Dorna would influence the FIM to remove accreditation for PI to run MotoGP events, should the Australians hold their ground. With neither party budging, serious concern began to grow over the Australian track.

With the MotoGP Safety Commission meeting today in Qatar, the issue of moving the Australian GP was broached and decided upon, with the Commission choosing to keep MotoGP’s stop in Phillip Island during the month of October. Glad to see his home race intact, Casey Stoner still had some thoughts on the issues surrounding the Australian GP date. Click after the jump to see his thoughts.

You’ve likely seen the video where a “crash proof” motorcycle, which has rider detection aids on-board, gets plowed by a truck as it enters the highway. If you haven’t seen this video, well…we just sorta ruined it for you, and we’re going to ruin it some more for the rest of you who thought it was real, as the group behind the video’s making has finally stepped forward, and revealed it was all a hoax to get you thinking about rider safety.

Produced by the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership (TVSRP), as part of the Safer Rider campaign, the locale has been trying to make riders in their 30′s and 40′s aware of the area’s high casualty rate on the roadway. “Our aim was to produce a video that encouraged people to discuss the attitudes and ability involved when riding a motorcycle and for it to spread virally within the motorcycle community,” said Craig McAlpine of TVSRP.

Starting this November, Oklahoma riders will have to start paying a $3 fee that helps fund motorcycle safety in the OK State. The tax will be added to existing registration fees, and affects new bikes and their renewals.

While the Oklahoma Advisory Committee for Motorcycle Safety and Education will decided how the funds are used, it’s under the presumption that revenue generated from the tax will be spent on safety advertising and promotion.

Despite the hit to the wallet, the Daily Oklahoman says that riders in Oklahoma aren’t complaining about the increased registration costs.

How many recalls does it take before the NHTSA tells you to get out of the motorcycle helmet business? Well if you’re Advanced Carbon Composites, the answer is five – five motorcycle helmet recalls in a row. For a company that warns buyers away from buying inferior products from China and India, Advanced Carbon Composites (ACC) has had a number of problems with its EXT series (all four of them) of motorcycle helmets, including the helmets failing to meet the basic DOT safety guidelines, which finally lead to the ACC ceasing to produce motorcycle helmets at the behest of the NHTSA.

For the second time in recent months, the US Government is having a major motorcycle racer talk to US servicemen about safely operating motorcycles. A few months ago it was Nicky Hayden who spoke to the troops about rider safety, and today it is Kevin Schwantz, the 500cc GP World Champion, who will speak at a number of road safety seminars.

Trying to find a common theme with his subjects, Schwantz refers to his races as battles (rightfully so), but emphasises there is a time and a place for riding fast:

“They were battles fought on the racetrack. It may look intense but it’s actually a very controlled environment. And that’s nothing like the battles our brave service personnel are fighting. For the military sportbike riders we’re talking about today, the real battleground is right here at home – on the streets.”

Back in October, CNN ran an interesting story about how motorcycle related deaths have killed more Marines in the past 12 months than enemy fire in Iraq. Similarly, the US Navy is finding a similar rise in motorcycle accidents by military personnel. In 2008, 25 Marines died on motorcycles, compare that to the 22 killed in hostile action in Iraq. Pentagon sources say a rising trend started in 2004, when seven Marines died on bikes.

Source: Visordown