BIKERS travelling into the city will now have their own secure place to store their leathers and helmet on arrival.
Three secure motorbike parking and storage stations have been installed in Chelmsford, the first of their kind in the country.
UK marketing director for Motoparking Toni Impieri, who is also the owner of Bar One in Exchange Way, High Chelmer, said: "I was on a skiing holiday in Italy three years ago when I started speaking to a guy in the bar, who told me about the idea he had for storing your gear.
"As a biker I said it was a fantastic idea - you don't want to carry your gear around with you all the time."
And after months of research, safety tests and meetings on the project, Monday saw the official opening of two docks at Fairfield Road Long Stay car park off Coval Lane and one at Parkway Short Stay surface car park.
Mr Impieri, who owns the UK franchise, wanted to launch it in Chelmsford because he wanted to say thanks to the city the Italian has called home for the past 30 years.
One of the people who helped make it happen is Chelmsford MP Simon Burns.
Mr Burns, a lapsed motorcyclist who used to ride a Vespa around the then town in his youth, said: "I think this is fantastic.
"Mr Impieri contacted me around eight months ago to see if I could contact the city council about getting them in council car parks.
"And we're here today with a great facility in Chelmsford for motorcyclists that is convenient and secure."
It is planned to trial the parking docks for three months.
Councillor Ian Grundy, Chelmsford City Council cabinet member for safer communities, said: "Obviously we want to see how it goes, we would have to knock out one or two parking bays to have more of these - we're not losing any in this case.
"But it's an important step, it's the way forward, it's innovation and I totally support it and there's no cost to the taxpayer at all," adding the possible introduction of electric bikes in the city at a later date could fuel demand.
Steve Berry, 59, of Great Notley, tried out a dock with his Harley Davidson.
"It's nice to know you can lock up your bike and belongings safe, you don't have to walk around carrying it. It's a great idea."
The docks would also improve safety as it would encourage bikers to wear more protection and reduce pollution and traffic by removing cars from the road, added Mr Impieri.
"Ideally we want to have these at places like the train station - we're talking to a lot of other places about it," he said.
