.. that picture is of a Harley Sportster. No self-respcting Hells Angel would be seen dead (ahem) on a Sportster, which is widely regarded as a girlie bike.

Whilst, Carole Nash insurance ads could be considered humourous when seen on the same page as news about an unfortunate incident, I have trouble believing that this is the ad which originally spawned this article.

I may be wrong, of course, and no disrespect intended towards the biker, as there are 3 members of my immediate family who are registered members of the FCM (www.fcm-bikers.org.uk), but this does seem a little like groping at straws.

That's almost as bad as when our local newspaper reported the death of a guy in a light aircraft crash and featured an ad for flying lessons, on the same page!

Who you kidding?

Sure, the sportster is a lightweight bike, without all the roar and grumble of the rest.

But who keeps their Harley stock? Once the mods are done, you cant tell the diff, only the owner can, and thats by looking in his wallet.

When ex princess Di had her car crash the first edition of the times had a Mercedes ad on the oposite page...........extoling the saftey features of the S class claiming it was ideal for keeping your family safe!

yes, or like the article about the guy who cut off his penis in a restaurant, with an embedded advert for circumcision :)

http://www.dj909.com/googleads.JPG

No it's not a girlie bike because no girlie would be seen dead on one and I should know. I'll stick with my 1100cc Kawasaki thank you very much...

I would like to publicly extend my apologies to Gerard Tobin's friends and family for the unfortunate incident where we mistakenly placed a Harley-Davidson advert next to the story of the motorcyclist killed on the M40.

This was a genuine oversight and we never intended to cause any upset in this tragic time. Unfortunately this was a system error and as soon as we realised we took the advert down.

Marc Potter, Web and Print Editor, MCN

On the El Reg home page they have headline ads by google. On one occasion 2 came up together, one reading "Sex offenders registry" the other reading "Photos of cute girls". Some much for sensitive in context advertising. Pot? Kettle? JPG on request.

Wasn't that pizza place called Zizzi? the same as the slang word for penis in french?

Any specialty magazine, particularly online, is going to have gaffe's like that all the time. It's an unfortunate matter of the separation of editorial and advertising staff.

Just below his helmet? Was he wearing one of those stupid half helmets? Anything more and the round would have been in his neck. Of course, any quality firearm would have easily penetrated the helmet.

I hope police capture the perps soon. There's probably a whole lot more to this story. Unless some newspaper takes an interest to it when/if they finally get busted, tried, convicted and sentenced, it'll be up to the MN to keep the story alive.

No intelligent motorcyclist in the US would wear colors. Even for fun. Particularly for fun.

"Unfortunately this was a system error"

When in doubt, blame the computer.

Bah. MCN deserve some respect for not doing that on purpose, obviously.

It's that time of year again... I miss my bikes... all I have these days is El Reg.

"No intelligent motorcyclist in the US would wear colors. Even for fun. Particularly for fun."

Oh, really ?

http://www.headru.sh/video/37_thebros.rm

Maybe the word "intelligent" was a half hearted get out clause.

If he'd had a proper bike instead of a wanky Harley, he'd have easily been able to outrun a Rover 620. Moral of the story, get a nice fast jap sports bike...

There certainly are Hells Angels in Canada but

I no idea they frequented the UK they have become

much more efficient than I gave them credit for if they

are killing guys there. For anyone who doesn't know

wearing a clubs colors can get you shot here in the

US unless you happen to be a member even then

it's not always a good idea.

I know 2 guys from Wessex who ride sportys. One a Buell and the other a straight (customised) sporty. And you certainly wouldn't want to tell either of them that they ride a girly bike I assure you.

Two old mates of mine had HD sportsters. You wouldn't have told them they owned hairdresser bikes. But then again, the local Angels chapter wouldn't have made such a remark to them either. Perhaps a little bizarrely they tended to make the first remark about them being very average bikes at best.

Nice blokes though, loved their mums and all that.

As you may have noticed, the ad text "No one ever wished they'd stayed in more" can be read two diametrically opposed ways:

- the intentional "People never regret going out (more often)."

- the unintentional "People often regret going out (but none regrets it as much the guy who got shot)."

Of course it's a girlie bike, my little sister used to ride a "sportster".

My heart still belongs to my old GSX1100E (fireballed).

But, hat's off to the good old UK polite farce who have managed now to arrest 4 people responsible for 2 bullets.

And continuing sympathies for friends and family of Mr Tobin.