Auckland - rolling protest ride

[Ixion]

Can't blame the TV station for publishing what happened.

It's news, that's what they do

A great pity though, probably undid most of teh hard work Mom and Maha did.

That road's not really tricky, slow yes, but straight forward.

Either a novice rider who stuffed up , OK, that's what inexperienced means ; or an experienced rider doing stupid shit.

I don't know which , so I'll not make any judgements.

But the lesson is clear

Please LEAVE THE ROSSI STUFF behind, anyone heading down to Wellington (or up to Wellington, or across to Wellington).

There's a time and place for trying to get your knee down, THIS IS NOT IT

Slow the fuck down, OK.

[peasea]

Can't blame the TV station for publishing what happened.

It's news, that's what they do

A great pity though, probably undid most of teh hard work Mom and Maha did.

That road's not really tricky, slow yes, but straight forward.

Either a novice rider who stuffed up , OK, that's what inexperienced means ; or an experienced rider doing stupid shit.

I don't know which , so I'll not make any judgements.

But the lesson is clear

Please LEAVE THE ROSSI STUFF behind, anyone heading down to Wellington (or up to Wellington, or across to Wellington).

There's a time and place for trying to get your knee down, THIS IS NOT IT

Slow the fuck down, OK.

Thought the same things myself. I know that road and couldn't see why one would come a cropper unless someone, biker or other, did something silly. It would be nice to know. Anyone see what heppened?

[PhantasmNZ]

There's a time and place for trying to get your knee down, THIS IS NOT IT

Slow the fuck down, OK.

Well said.

[quickbuck]

Slow the fuck down, OK.

Yup. Agree there.
Might even take the Avanti down just to make a point!

[GOONR]

Off topic but seems I have just spent my day with you lot I thought I would share something.

I have had a great day out on the bike, met some really cool people, sat down with a beer in front of the football (no not that one, the one with the round ball) and..... have just found out that Mrs GOONR is expecting Midget GOONR number 2.

Does it get any better than this

[Maha]

Big ups to all the Auckland Riders!
Ok, the ride itself was not 100% perfect, but hey — we're humans after all. I think in the main, we did pretty damn well today. Take it as practice for the next one.

To Maha: Well done mate. You stepped up to the plate and organised a very effective protest ride.

To Mom: That was a brilliant speech you made! Awesome!

To Ixion: You are developing into quite the canny statesman.

To the organisers behind the scenes: we appreciate all the work, effort and time you put into this.

I'll tell you one thing though: this ride did show me how easily a few hundred bikers could potentially bring a city to its knees if they so chose. Today showed me that we could quite easily choke the motorway system (the city's lifeblood), and if push comes to shove in the future, it is something that Messrs Merchant Banker Prime Minister; the Rogernomics boys and Business Round Table should note. (They probably won't unfortunately.)

Again, big ups on a good lil' protest ride!

Thank you for your comments DidJit...
I knew at the first turn around that we could have issues with spaces.
The line of bikes was almost back to the start point.
That being said, we did keep to 50 kph till about opposite the Autobahn then up to 70-80kph. We kept around that speed right out Westgate. I had a bike cop alongside at some point talking to me about the turn around at Westgate. He went ahead and halted traffic. The following group approaching Westgate were telling us to slow down, so we did. Slowed to 50kph all the way back into the city. Once throught the City (around Market Rd area) we increased the speed back up to 70kph. Northbound after Karaka, back down to 50kph. A few things learned for sure, as I said before, this is the first group ride on this scale that I have had anything to do with. But!! we got to the Museum at midday which is what I stated at the begining....

[PhantasmNZ]

off topic but seems i have just spent my day with you lot i thought i would share something.

I have had a great day out on the bike, met some really cool people, sat down with a beer in front of the football (no not that one, the one with the round ball) and..... Have just found out that mrs goonr is expecting midget goonr number 2.

Does it get any better than this

congratulations

[Big Dave]

[Sharry]

Goonr how wonderful. Congradulations to you and Mrs Goonr

[Mully]

A sample of the (97!!) photos that Miss Mully took from the overbridge after Lincoln Road.

She said it was an awesome sight and sound.

Anyone know who these two are?? This is her favourite photo....

[peasea]

Off topic but seems I have just spent my day with you lot I thought I would share something.

I have had a great day out on the bike, met some really cool people, sat down with a beer in front of the football (no not that one, the one with the round ball) and..... have just found out that Mrs GOONR is expecting Midget GOONR number 2.

Does it get any better than this

Eryup! Get some good drugs and go completely gaga.

I saved some fireworks too.

Seriously, congrats.

[Little Miss Trouble]

Off topic but seems I have just spent my day with you lot I thought I would share something.

I have had a great day out on the bike, met some really cool people, sat down with a beer in front of the football (no not that one, the one with the round ball) and..... have just found out that Mrs GOONR is expecting Midget GOONR number 2.

Does it get any better than this

Congrats!

[Mom]

A sample of the (97!!) photos that Miss Mully took from the overbridge after Lincoln Road.

She said it was an awesome sight and sound.

Anyone know who these two are?? This is her favourite photo....

Gizza look!

I took some pics at the beginning, but sadly the day overwhelmed my photo taking ability.

[DidJit]

I knew at the first turn around that we could have issues with spaces.
The line of bikes was almost back to the start point.
That being said, we did keep to 50 kph till about opposite the Autobahn then up to 70-80kph. We kept around that speed right out Westgate. I had a bike cop alongside at some point talking to me about the turn around at Westgate. He went ahead and halted traffic. The following group approaching Westgate were telling us to slow down, so we did. Slowed to 50kph all the way back into the city. Once throught the City (around Market Rd area) we increased the speed back up to 70kph. Northbound after Karaka, back down to 50kph. A few things learned for sure, as I said before, this is the first group ride on this scale that I have had anything to do with. But!! we got to the Museum at midday which is what I stated at the begining....

All good Maha — group rides of this scale aren't something we do everyday, so there were always bound to be a few gaps open up. It was still a very impressive column of bikes 2 abreast!

[PhantasmNZ]

Thank you for your comments DidJit...
I knew at the first turn around that we could have issues with spaces.
The line of bikes was almost back to the start point.
That being said, we did keep to 50 kph till about opposite the Autobahn then up to 70-80kph. We kept around that speed right out Westgate. I had a bike cop alongside at some point talking to me about the turn around at Westgate. He went ahead and halted traffic. The following group approaching Westgate were telling us to slow down, so we did. Slowed to 50kph all the way back into the city. Once throught the City (around Market Rd area) we increased the speed back up to 70kph. Northbound after Karaka, back down to 50kph. A few things learned for sure, as I said before, this is the first group ride on this scale that I have had anything to with. But!! we got to the Museum at midday which is what I stated at the begining....

The worst part from the TEC perspective seemed to be the change onto the norwestern... I was doing 115-120 (with a bike cop following on just behind me !) to catch up to the lead pack with a couple of riders who'd joined late. Other than that I think the traffic screwed the flow in a couple of areas - so that is wasn't no much the speed of the lead pack - but the stop/start in traffic of the rear that caused the seperation and allowed more cages into the pack.

All in all I think it was pretty smooth - it's very hard to get a big pack moving like that - especially through single lane interchanges, and not get a few cages in between. It was hard though at the tail end to keep the bikes pushing forward to close the gaps - even if we slowed the cars that pull into our lane - as there were a lot of riders who still didn't move forward.

That said - I would much much rather see overcautious riders and have a few gaps than see everyone splitting like crazy to jump to the front of the pack. Credit to all that there were no incidents en-route.

Anyone at the rear have trouble with the silver merc that tried to take me out, then mully, then cut in further up, and then left the motorway complete a few hundred metres up? tosser! (another steel toe cap moment in the making on other circumstances!)