Commuting on a bike in Auckland?

[ramy]

I'm thinking of getting a motorbike to commute to work traveling from Onehunga to the CBD. My only concern is how safe it would be as I've read quite a few posts on this forum that put me off the idea of commuting in Auckland.
I plan to travel to keep away from the motorway (only just got my learners license) and travel through Newmarket and Parnell, at around 7am when the traffics lighter.
The reasons for wanted to do the journey on a bike is enjoyment, saving time (compared to the train), and saving money (compared to paying for parking in a car).
I'm keen to hear of other peoples experiences doing similar commutes.
Thanks

[Akzle]

do it you pussy.

[Ulsterkiwi]

Akzle is right, unless you have to sell your soul to finance the bike then you give it a go. Mind you, even then......:devil2:

Whatever people tell you on here you will have to make your own mind up. Get some training to build your confidence and take it easy. Going when traffic is light is a great plan to start with BUT you have to build up to a full on day in the middle of it all because you just dont know when you will HAVE to do it.

I ride with two experienced and very helpful fellas. (Dont tell them I said that though) When I started out they acted like my escorts and all I had to do was focus on my riding. They give me really useful tips and feedback. I was lucky coming across them so see if you can find someone on here who lives close by to you or takes a similar route who would be willing to do the same thing.

[OllieNZ]

Akzle is right, unless you have to sell your soul to finance the bike then you give it a go. Mind you, even then......:devil2:

Whatever people tell you on here you will have to make your own mind up. Get some training to build your confidence and take it easy.

Sell your soul and whatever else you have to to get the bike :lol:

I got back on the bike a while back, best thing ever. First thing for me was bike control, emergency stops. Confidence in traffic is another thing, give it time, it'll come. Sold the 800 jappa I started on recently and bought a big block Harley. Can't stop grinning, especially cutting thru rush hour traffic.

[nerrrd]

Been commuting on a motorbike in Auckland since 1984 (apart from around 9 years in the 00s), mainly into the CBD from wherever I've been living at the time. I've yet to have a serious accident (touch wood), the minor ones I have had have been my own fault.

Get some decent training, ride with the right attitude and it doesn't have to be dangerous. Having said that, there are no guarantees in life, the best any rider can do is try to minimise the risks involved.

Plus riding a motorbike is fun.

[mansell]

Before I moved to the South Island I commuted daily on the bike - no problems and it beats the shit out of being stuck in the traffic, just be careful if you are lane splitting because some of the cage bound dickheads don't look out for us. The real advantage is that it will clear your mind after a shit day.

[skinman]

I find the motorway easier in heavy traffic as the lanes are wider & no cars trying to enter & exit side streets etc, I commuted as a learner also & did use the motorway, just ride with confidance & dont put yourself into situations that could end badly & you will be fine.

[maraudingkiwi]

Hey ramy I was in the same boat as you not too long ago, decided to go for it and now I commute into the CBD on the southern every day for work and have never looked back.

The most nerve-wracking thing about motorway riding as a learner I found was needing to stop suddenly and frequently, and stable riding at very low speed in congested traffic. It's probably best to master these skills before going anywhere near the motorway. A good motorcycle training course will help heaps with this and is definitely recommended. (You could check out "riderskills" I think it's called, they run courses in west auckland).

OTOH as skinman said the motoway's actually safer in some respects because you don't have to worry about people pulling out from side streets, turning in front of you, pedestrians, etc.

[ramy]

Thanks for all the comments, its all really helpful. Think I'll try it out and see how it goes and get some good lessons along the way. Cheers.

[xXGIBBOXx]

hey man , yeah i find the motorway easier , find a empty carpark and play round and see how slow you can go ( drag a bit of rear brake and clutch to help with this ) and use the lines for the carparks and make figure 8s ,and 1st to 2nd get a bit of speed then brake ( dont hoon get up to like 20kms or so , to get a feel of how the bike feels under brakes . feel free to come to SASS (we go for a ride then play in carpark and play round with skills like this - have saved my arse a few times ) here is the link to SASS
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/117274-South-Auckland-Street-Skills?highlight=sass

[f2dz]

I commute from Manukau to the city every weekday for work and it's fine. I usually leave around 8am then get in around 8.30am. Most mornings I have to split to get to work, some Fridays are free flowing as well as some days when school and universities are on break.

Splitting can be dangerous if you're a loon but if you watch for gaps and just assume cars are gonna move into them, then you'll be okay. The closest calls and the only crash I've had have been off the motorway. Intersections are much more dangerous than splitting on the motorway in my opinion.

I used to take the train like you, and I tried driving in as well but the bike tops both of those easily. Sucks when you have to ride into work in the rain but just get a good set of waterproof textiles or a waterproof layer to go over your jacket and pants.

All in all, I'd say go for it.

Ride safe.

[iYRe]

Been commuting on a motorbike in Auckland since 1984 (apart from around 9 years in the 00s), mainly into the CBD from wherever I've been living at the time. I've yet to have a serious accident (touch wood), the minor ones I have had have been my own fault.

Get some decent training, ride with the right attitude and it doesn't have to be dangerous. Having said that, there are no guarantees in life, the best any rider can do is try to minimise the risks involved.

Plus riding a motorbike is fun.


What he said.

I commute daily (3 out of 5 days on a motorbike, 2x on a bicycle) from Manurewa to the CBD.
From Onehunga you go up the SW Mway and down the bus lanes on dominion.. as long as you're careful its fun.

Get a small bike and do some of the bike courses, SASS, and the BRONZ ride safe, ride smart course to start with. The fatal mistake I see people making is riding without purpose. That is, they end up meandering through the traffic, and end up letting the traffic "run" the ride. I find you need to be a little bit aggressive, put yourself in control, be where you want to be, where you are comfortable, and where you are safe, not where car drivers (and other motorcyclists for that matter) think you should be.

[iYRe]

I commute from Manukau to the city every weekday for work and it's fine. I usually leave around 8am then get in around 8.30am. Most mornings I have to split to get to work, some Fridays are free flowing as well as some days when school and universities are on break.

Do you go up the south western? I'm pretty sure I've passed a VTR ish looking thing a few times

[SMOKEU]

Make sure you have a safe place to stash your bike, as there are plenty of people out there who WILL fuck with your bike given the opportunity.

[iranana]

I commute on a daily basis to Parnell. Just keep your eyes out for fuckwits and you'll be fine. Been riding for three years and I've yet to have an accident, but there have been some close ones (nearly got t-boned this morning, in fact)... before you do anything, ride around a carpark, practice emergency stops, quick manoeuvres, know your bike and how it handles but most of all, don't ride like a dick don't trust ANYONE when riding through traffic. Lots of people just plain don't look where they're going. Don't clip anyone's mirrors either... I once had a lady try and run me off the road because I clipped her mirror (only just). I waved in apology once she got on the horn. Lights when green and I merged, then when she caught up with me she swerved at me in an attempt to hit me and started yelling profanities. She even had a baby in the back, so I yelled through her window 'you're a horrible mother' and sped off. Moral of the story, just don't trust anyone in Auckland. There's psycho fucks everywhere.

[Akzle]

Moral of the story, just don't trust anyone in Auckland. There's psycho fucks everywhere.

. .

[pretenda]

I only just got a bike (last Tuesday) with the same intent to commute to work as much as possible. First time riding to work was last Friday and that was down the motorway from Takanini to Mt wellington.

So far so good. Now for the weather to stay away from rain and ill be happy.

Also did a few Km of open ride riding over the weekend just to get more of a feel for it.

[iranana]

I would not blame the lady for getting angry as you admitted it was your fault and you must have been riding dangerously to get so close when passing. Side mirrors are not cheap.

barely tapped her mirror with mine, mine simply moved around as they met. not a spot of damage was done to either mirror. would hardly call the way i was riding dangerous, traffic was stationary and i was edging through a tight spot (past her huge suv). swerving erratically into my lane and screaming profanities hardly seems like a reasonable reaction. it was indeed my fault, and i acknowledged that.

[Juniper]

Yeah I'm with a lot of the others here. Motorway is easier.

I commute every day and tbh I don't think I am too bad (which means I haven't had an accident yet and when I do it will be epic)

Things to think about:

1) Ride like no one has seen you come up or if they have they will try and get you. You'd be 50-80% right

2) Look way past the cars in front of you. If you see the other lane braking then there is a strong possibility that yours will soon after.

3) Stay out of merging lanes. "Fuck I was meant to be getting off here" serve over to get onto off ramp. Its all to common and they wont look behind or see you when they do this. Same with merging on.

4) If a car indicates to go into the lane next to you from the lane furtherest away watch that the person they have pulled in front off or slowed, down doesn't merge into you.

5) Thank the cars that move out of the way for you. It just needs to be a quick hand wave (only when your confident to do so) everyone likes to be thanked, and hopefully it means they will do it for the rest of us or at least look out for us. Cars that have let me up to the top of the line at lights I have actually pulled up the visor and said thanks. That guy moved his ute seriously out of the way for me just to let me sit in front.

6) and possibly the most important. Don't be a cunt and don't be righteous. They are encased in metal, you have a few bits of fabric. You may have been in the right, but ride to live and live to ride.


Oh and if you lane split know how wide your bike is lol!! :crazy:

[Swoop]

Get a bike and DO IT!


No matter what, keep your eyes on swivels and do not become focussed on a single point.
Look further ahead than what you would do normally (you can do this especially easily on a bike but the higher up, the better the view. Being "surprised" and "have to keep braking for things" will diminish greatly if you know what the traffic is doing 10-20 cars ahead.

Not un-surprisingly your car driving skills will increase as well!

[f2dz]

Do you go up the south western? I'm pretty sure I've passed a VTR ish looking thing a few times

Nope. Tried the south western once on my old Ninja but ended up taking longer than the southern, and splitting through some of those Newmarket roads is a bit too tight for my liking.

[superjackal]

barely tapped her mirror with mine, mine simply moved around as they met. not a spot of damage was done to either mirror. would hardly call the way i was riding dangerous, traffic was stationary and i was edging through a tight spot (past her huge suv). swerving erratically into my lane and screaming profanities hardly seems like a reasonable reaction. it was indeed my fault, and i acknowledged that.

Trying to run you off the road for that is pretty extreme!

[iranana]

Your comment swerving erratically into your lane would imply it was her fault and not yours though so you seem to be contridicting yourself there?

how does the phrase 'swerving erratically into my lane' imply fault? It merely describes the course of action she took. but to stay on topic, Juniper has some good tips there. The whole point of my mirror story was to point out that if you don't think you can fit through a gap, just wait it out - you can't trust that the driver of that car will be chill with you getting cosy with their mirrors.

[Juniper]

how does the phrase 'swerving erratically into my lane' imply fault? It merely describes the course of action she took. but to stay on topic, Juniper has some good tips there. The whole point of my mirror story was to point out that if you don't think you can fit through a gap, just wait it out - you can't trust that the driver of that car will be chill with you getting cosy with their mirrors.

I have had moments where I've committed to a split and the gaps suddenly closed on me. And I end up standing on my pegs ready to jump if needed. That was a case of them either not seeing me or trying to hit me.

I'm a nice person so I generally go with not seeing me.

On the other hand another time I got through their mirrors easy then they both came so close to me I stroked the bonnet of the cars with my fingers and waved at them. We were going at crawling speed.

Not suggested, very stupid.

(It's cool until I fail and then it's stupid)

[cheshirecat]

Lots of good advice here and two main bits are assume nothing re cars and get a mentor/take a course. I think any biker you ask will help you re on road mentoring. Oh and don't ride outside your envelope.

RE accident stats. A while ago here there was a forum thread re accidents to older riders and by far the common thread was one or two over 15 years and even these are relatively minor.

I DRed in London for over three years suffering one accident no injuries and minimal damage. That's 10/12 hours a day 50ish weeks a year winter, summer and more rain than a fish could cope with. Generally I feel safer splitting than not but then I've done a bit more than my fair share. A few times being on a bike has saved me from a potentially grim outcome.

Most bike accidents are caused by going too fast into a situation (slow in fast out) and "assuming" a vehicle will do something.

Be interesting to see what other ex London DR's say about this.

[Juniper]

it does appear to be a Russian Roulette manuvre and abusing the car drivers for not leaving a big enough gap is dumb in my opinion. The closest I would come to doing that would
be coming up alongside a single car at the lights where the risk would be far less than overtaking a long line.

Unless he is being an abusive wanker or ran a red light (my pet hate) don't bother.

I just down gear when I go past them. (Mao is not so quiet and I often run her in high gears to keep the noise down)


We could all tell stories about our road rage moments, like me rev bombing someone. But that would really just give you the wrong impression and some bad ideas.

Just wave, be nice, slow down if the gaps too small and it will open eventually (cars will move aside or forward) and if you see another rider splitting behind you and your going slowly then when safe to do so pull aside and let them pass.

We all split at our own skill and comfort levels. I found out I split faster than Mark W. Now that was scary to find out.

[iranana]

Now that I think about it we have our own lanes in ChCh we are able to use called bus lanes. They carry their own danger however in that cars making a right turn across the bus lane through a gap in the traffic have little ability to see us.

Yeah bus lanes can be a bit dubious, same goes for the T2 and T3 lanes we have up here. A lot of cars will also turn into these lanes before they merge into traffic, so coming up to intersections always worries me a bit, I prefer to stay out of them if I can. I don't lane split much these days either. I used to ride an RG150 which was so tiny it could fit through nearly anything, and I was a much more naive rider back then. Now that I've got a bike with fairly wide bars I just don't bother trying. If I do go for it though, I keep my revs up a bit in an effort to make my presence known.

[BuzzardNZ]

I have had moments where I've committed to a split and the gaps suddenly closed on me. And I end up standing on my pegs ready to jump if needed. That was a case of them either not seeing me or trying to hit me.

I'm a nice person so I generally go with not seeing me.

On the other hand another time I got through their mirrors easy then they both came so close to me I stroked the bonnet of the cars with my fingers and waved at them. We were going at crawling speed.

Not suggested, very stupid.

(It's cool until I fail and then it's stupid)

If you have time to stand up on your pegs getting ready to jump, surely the time spent doing all of that would have been better spent finding a way to avoid the bad situation ( i.e., brake hard, swerve down the other side etc )

I understand that when this type of thing happens it's all very sudden and you kinda just react without thinking ( well I do ), but to get up on your pegs and think about jumping off seems a bit drastic.

[Juniper]

If you have time to stand up on your pegs getting ready to jump, surely the time spent doing all of that would have been better spent finding a way to avoid the bad situation ( i.e., brake hard, swerve down the other side etc )

I understand that when this type of thing happens it's all very sudden and you kinda just react without thinking ( well I do ), but to get up on your pegs and think about jumping off seems a bit drastic.

There have only been a couple of close calls where I've done that. Auto response and don't know why. A bad judgement call on my behalf on one and 2 cars just moving in their own lanes together at the same time.

I wouldn't exactly call it time, more that "Oh Fuck" fetal position moment.

But I am a tad strange when it comes to natural reactions. The other day my friend was driving and the car 2 in front braked and the car behind him (directly in front of us) slammed on the brakes so hard there was a stream of white smoke. So my friend also had to put on brakes, not drasticly hard as there was heaps of space. Yet in that instant my claws dug into the ceiling of his car and knees up as to push me up over the back of the seat. Like a cat getting a fright.

[iranana]

I actually find in merging lanes in 80km hr + areas having a lot of torque on the bike as opposed to needing a lot of revs to get up to speed in the car I actually feel safer.

I ride an old 250 two stroke, so there's no such thing as power below 6k revs :laugh: Have to keep the revs up to keep it chugging along. On another note, something else to keep in mind is that even if you're just engine braking/going down through the gears to slow down, especially in traffic, put your brake on anyway so that the car(s) behind you see your brake light. I've heard of people being rear ended from engine braking, as the cars behind them didn't realise they were slowing down.

[danchop]

needs to be more scooters on the mway

[Juniper]

I'm thinking of getting a motorbike to commute to work traveling from Onehunga to the CBD. My only concern is how safe it would be as I've read quite a few posts on this forum that put me off the idea of commuting in Auckland.
I plan to travel to keep away from the motorway (only just got my learners license) and travel through Newmarket and Parnell, at around 7am when the traffics lighter.
The reasons for wanted to do the journey on a bike is enjoyment, saving time (compared to the train), and saving money (compared to paying for parking in a car).
I'm keen to hear of other peoples experiences doing similar commutes.
Thanks

So your thread inspired me to finally write this up.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/entry.php/2851-Junipers-Guide-to-Commuting-101?bt=5920#comment5920

Check it out. It's not gospel but I think I've made some good points in there.

[pratik8890]

Hey mate, I was there in October this year and I found it alright. The only time it gets crazier on motorway ( not dangerous tho! ) is around peak hours but if youre to travel on the regular roads then you should be fine cos you'll be riding in a 50k zone most of the time anyway. Like other KM Members say, just build up your confidence cos other drivers on the road will sense it for sure and if youre confident then they'll just respect your space unless they're drunk but again riding motorbike has always been more like a survival thing so just follow the 2, 4 , 6, 10 etc. rules to keep you safe out there. Good luck

[ricardohardo]

Moved out west Akl a few months ago. Commuting to CBD most days. vans, trucks and Holden's. (Ie wide bodied vehicles) whilst on motorway in peak, if these vehicles look like they are going match up side by side....I hold off shooting the gap. Watching vehicles position in relationship to the centre lines also, assessing space and drivers intentions. Gaps in motorway lanes when in peak I feel are danger zones .....if your coming up between traffic, I find you get 'last minute Larry/lorraine deciding to change lane with no warning. (Oh, and pray) ..... If everyone rode bikes we wouldn't have a problem


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SNF]

I commuted 99% of last year from west to south Aucks everyday on my FZR, I never had any real problems.

Practice emergency braking. Be aware most people cannot handle the big fat Prado they are in, let alone a Charade - they don't keep left properly and will wander within the lane. As a result when you split you may be on either side of the cats eyes. They also don't know what mirrors are. Be prepared.

Most indicate though. Expect it to be for a second at best. Remember the mirrors?

You don't have to be a hero. Its not about going 100k's through crawling traffic. I admit, I love to split. I am prepared though. There are times I have to slow down, or even stop and tuck in because I can see its just too damn dangerous to do anything, usually if its a truck/ bus side by side. Seen a bus lock up and slide in the lane right next to me once. You'll see all sorts of crazy shit.

If you don't feel safe, don't do it. Be even more careful in the wet. Try to look at whats going a few cars ahead. It also helps you plan/anticipate whats going on.

That said try splitting. Just a little faster than the cars. Check your mirrors and behind you too. If a faster bike comes let them go. I find I can be of the faster splitters now, despite the L plate and the small bike, depending on speed of traffic. Keep your wits about you. You will be fine. Work on emergency braking. It will help you out.

[newbie2012]

Guys

The above (but captured nicely in the thoughts of Jumpier and FZR250), offers some really great advice. I would suggest this thread is made into a 'sticky' or whatever the headline threads are called.

My reason ? I've been riding for just over 12 months, commuting into the CBD from Helensville for most of the simply glorious kms I've clocked up on my 2 wheeled steed. The above captures the attitudes, skills and thought patterns that have saved me from getting into a bad situation, which I gleaned from asking lots of better riders lots of questions (including motorcycle police), doing formal training courses, trawling though books and a shit load of practicing. I wish this blog was here when I started commuting. Some riders will laugh at my conservative views, but I only have to get that sickening and sad feeling that comes from seeing another rider or bike down to realise that I'd rather have some ridicule me then see any more bikes involved in crashes (now you can all go 'urgh, you big pussy' in true KB style)