I am afraid I cannot congratulate you on your piece of unbalanced, sensationalistic prose concerning the fate of motorcyclists (The Argus, April 5).

If it was designed to shock motorcyclists into changing their behaviour, you have not succeeded and it is more likely to antagonise the vast majority of sensible riders.

I have been one of these "outlaws" for nearly 30 years (and I am still here) despite being the victim of a considerable number of inept and downright dangerous manoeuvres from your average car driver.

Those who have never been on a bike very often have no perception of what it means and just do not look for us. Even the Government has recognised that fact in its latest advertising campaign.

You get the boy racer in his suped-up Peugeot 206, two yards off the back wheel at legal speeds, you get the old granny whose eyesight and reactions are so bad they have trouble finding their way to bed, you get the mum in a 4x4 with kids she is trying to keep under control rather than concentrating on the road and you get the company car driver who couldn't care less because "it's not my car" and I want that bit of road, even if you are occupying it at the time.

Yes, you do get the "nutter" on the bike, but let's be realistic. They are in a minority and sensible riders do not condone downright dangerous riding.

The article says accident rates are increasing. On what do you base that comment? The number of accidents probably has increased but that could also be a function of the fact that there are many more motorcycles on the road and, coincidentally, many more cars (with, inevitably, many more inept and dangerous drivers).

Sussex is always likely to be in the position of having a high incident rate.

We are a beautiful seaside-based county with a high normal level of traffic exacerbated by the thousands of visitors during the summer months both in cars and on bikes.

Another ludicrous quote came from Martin Cooke, of East Sussex County Council, regarding a partnership to make "dangerous riding as anti-social as drink driving".

That is somewhat hypocritical from a road safety officer whose department leaves massive potholes in roads for sensible bikers to hit and do nothing about dangerous road conditions when reported to them.

Finally, I would hope that the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) representative's comments are a little out of context - "we would support anything that tries to reduce the numbers". I cannot believe he said that in isolation. It implies that he would support measures designed to drive bikers off the road.

MAG, I understand, has a balanced and sensible policy to improve road safety, including education of our four-wheel brethren.

All sensible motorcyclists would be pleased to support a balanced campaign to improve road safety for their peer group. Motorcycle News has been conducting a campaign for some time but, let's be realistic, you will not make the "nutter" change his behaviour by articles like this (he isn't the sort of biker who reads a local paper). You are more likely to alienate the majority of sensible riders who see this as further evidence that they are being tarred with the same brush as the bad boys.

Sorry to be so negative and long winded but you really need to think a little more about what you want to achieve with this type of article.

-Kevin Russell (Aging rocker and sensible sports bike rider), Hassocks