Recent Road Trip

[Paul in NZ]

Vicki and I have just spent an extended period in and around the central north island on a mini vacation centred on mountain biking. We had a great time…

But that’s beside the point… Driving up there and back we were casual observers of many motorcyclists… Frankly it’s amazing the road toll isn’t higher than it is… Some real eye openers even if we discount the patched up bad men who predictably ride em like they stole em.

By the time we got home we had resolved to sell the big bikes and just potter about home. Then I took the big bike for a spin and thought nah… Too much fun.. But holy crap there are some real winners out there…

HOWEVER – in the central NI – for outright hooliganism you really need a 4 door 4WD ute with big tyres. They are the new supercars, immune to traffic regulations and the laws of physics, they rule supreme on the roads.

[merv]

Interesting comments Paul. How do you reckon it compares to when you were young?

What I notice is that with so many "adventure" bikes on the roads now there are a lot less of the "sports" bikes on the road so I would have thought the hooning on average had toned down a bit or is it the adventure riders that are the eye openers now?

[release_the_bees]

Can you please give some examples of some of the things that you observed? It would be interesting to see this expanded upon.

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[FJRider]

Driving up there and back we were casual observers of many motorcyclists… Frankly it’s amazing the road toll isn’t higher than it is… Some real eye openers even if we discount the patched up bad men who predictably ride em like they stole em.

By the time we got home we had resolved to sell the big bikes and just potter about home. Then I took the big bike for a spin and thought nah… Too much fun.. But holy crap there are some real winners out there…

HOWEVER – in the central NI – for outright hooliganism you really need a 4 door 4WD ute with big tyres. They are the new supercars, immune to traffic regulations and the laws of physics, they rule supreme on the roads.

What I find amazing is the different perspective ... the view from behind a steering wheel gives you. I once saw a Go-Pro taken by a rider with a helmet mounted camera and a Dash-cam of the same "maneuver". The rider was show the dash-cam and he lambasted the rider. After he realized who the rider was ... there was a red face ... his.

Just imagine watching a few of your rides on a dash-cam movie.

[Paul in NZ]

Oh I'm not saying I have led a life of blameless riding. In my time I have been as big an idiot as anyone else BUT the staggering amount of traffic on some roads now is a different environment.

Examples...

Desert Rd - Hard arse wannabe on a Triumph America/Speedmaster thingy. Next to no mufflers and burning oil like crazy (ie visible blue smoke 90% of the time) passing willy nilly regardless of yellow lines or environment. It was so gutless it had to drone past lines of cars for a crazy amount of time on the wrong side of the road.

SH1 - Some kind of HD rental tour group. Fuck me they pretty well rode on the other side of the road hammering the living bejezuz out of the poor things. Road works, corners, on coming traffic etc in a mad effort to ride like 1% gangs with none of the skills. 2 up, luggage etc. Its was scary to watch. We caught up with this group at a lunch stop. They were all large of belly and small of mind and slathered in badges and stickers n things.

Roadworks. Currently SH1 is dug up end to end. Fuck you, we all have to wait for the green light and I dont need some fucking retarded cruiser sitting next to me at a million db semi idling for the whole time. That wasnt overly dangerous other than I wanted to kill the prick by the time he headed off spraying gravel and fresh seal everywhere. (road workers were NOT impressed)

Gravel Backroads - 2 lots of adventure tourers. Polar opposites - slow the fuck down, people live there its not an MX track and um - you have never ridden on an unsealed road before have you? (bike was laying down for a rest while the rest of the group took selfies...)

Western lake road... 2 x sports bikes.... HOLY shizz I didnt think anyone rode that fast still... On us and past before I knew they were there...

Cheers

[FJRider]

Oh I'm not saying ...

Cheers

I used to do many miles a day in trucks ... and I saw much worse than that on a DAILY basis. Not just on the odd day.

Seeing how some groups travel together was the worst ... the odd individual doing stupid things. The majority (although not entirely safe/recommended) did ride with some degree of consideration for other road users ...

The number I saw taking blind right hand bends with the bike wheels just to the left of the centerline is a concern though. I didn't hit anybody ... but I saw plenty of wide eyes ...

I saw a few bikes having a lie-down on the side of the road too ... riders ok. If they didn't look ok I stopped to check.

[eldog]

The number I saw taking blind right hand bends with the bike wheels just to the left of the centerline is a concern though. I didn't hit anybody ... but I saw plenty of wide eyes ...

I saw a few bikes having a lie-down on the side of the road too ... riders ok. If they didn't look ok I stopped to check.

Not only bikes do the crossing centre line stuff on blind bends, often seen on country roads everywhere, generally by the same stereo type.... if Only Darwinism worked on one side of the line.

[OddDuck]

Something I picked up on my Ride Forever course was the idea of deliberately taking corners (left or right) wide.

Put the wheels on the outside of the corner. Run wide. Keep it that way until the exit is visible, then apexing may be done.

It keeps a leaning rider inside their lane, but less obviously it also increases the amount of visible road ahead. That gives more time for obstacle avoidance, setting up for course changes, dealing with decreasing radius corners etc etc. Heaps more time for dealing with oncoming vehicles too.

What Eldog and FJrider are saying above... yeah saw plenty of that in the Buller Gorge last year, couldn't believe how many riders were projecting right over the centerline.

[AllanB]

Any day driving the car to work and back I see some fucked up motorcycle riding.

And the patched lads - WTF is that about, end of the day you can ride as stupid as you like but it's going to hurt you a lot more when you come up against a car....

[eldog]

Something to remember riding on the hard left shoulder on straights invites people to overtake, as I was reminded last weekend:facepalm:

[nzspokes]

Something I picked up on my Ride Forever course was the idea of deliberately taking corners (left or right) wide.

Put the wheels on the outside of the corner. Run wide. Keep it that way until the exit is visible, then apexing may be done.

It keeps a leaning rider inside their lane, but less obviously it also increases the amount of visible road ahead. That gives more time for obstacle avoidance, setting up for course changes, dealing with decreasing radius corners etc etc. Heaps more time for dealing with oncoming vehicles too.

What Eldog and FJrider are saying above... yeah saw plenty of that in the Buller Gorge last year, couldn't believe how many riders were projecting right over the centerline.

Which is part of the Advanced way to corner. It works well.

[SaferRides]

There is so much more traffic and poor driving then a few years ago. I can totally understand why the road toll is rising, in fact I'm surprised that it's not worse.