"Improvements" making road more dangerous for motorcyclists?

[Kickaha]

with a serious increase in motorcycle accidents being blamed as a main contributing factor.

They should stop riding like fucktards then

[MrKiwi]

Improvements are good . Motorcyclists think so also, hence the reason the words 'Going for a BLAST over the Takas'. Blame the 'motorcyclist' not the road. Slow fucken down, would be a great start to decreasing motorcycle accidents.

Yep generally I agree. Although one corner gets more wind interference than before, is much trickier than it used to be descending in the wet.

[bsasuper]

It's a simple principle ...

When they "improve" a road ... most vehicles using it will travel at a higher speed. Higher average speeds will have a higher risk of damage/injury should a vehicle crash.

And I think there is an increase in the number of idiots on the road. Perhaps they should build a better class of idiot.

Exactly, I live near a major cross roads/intersection, 100k limit, stop signs to give way to main road.Lots of crashes due to people not stopping at the stop signs, so what to they do?, they lower the speed limit coming up to the cross roads to 70k, the outcome?, people who go through the stop signs without stopping now know the cars are going slower so go through without stopping even closer to approaching vehicles

[duckonin]

Yep generally I agree. Although one corner gets more wind interference than before, is much trickier than it used to be descending in the wet.

Yep point taken. But the wind does not blow every day, nor does it rain every day. As you know this then u should have no problems at all. Years back when it was a 'cunt ' of a road there were beggar all accidents. The reason was as I said it was a 'cunt ' of a road. Most that drove across the Rimutakas where shit scared and keep to the left . But then cars were not that powerful, plus there were not that many bikes that went over there. A full head of steam took some working at in a car. I think from memory it was 15mins up the Featherstone side to kiosk, 25 mins down to Kaitoke.

[oneofsix]

Yep generally I agree. Although one corner gets more wind interference than before, is much trickier than it used to be descending in the wet.

Would that be Muldoon's corner?

Don't totally agree with F5 on group rides, that rather depends on the group and now you yourself behave in the group. I do worry about comments along the lines of how fast you can get to the top of the hill, yeah I know some groups of car drivers do the comparisons but they aren't getting the finger pointed at them.

Do vaguely agree with comments regarding the period covered and the road works being on going at the time.

Am also worried regarding the speed limits.

Have heard complaints from commuters about the removal of passing lanes on hill and the massive yellows, and this from cagers not bikers. Funny thing is one of the complaints was that the NZTA is meant to be increasing passing lanes and yet they rather removed so many from the hill.

[FJRider]

Have heard complaints from commuters about the removal of passing lanes on hill and the massive yellows, and this from cagers not bikers. Funny thing is one of the complaints was that the NZTA is meant to be increasing passing lanes and yet they rather removed so many from the hill.

If the passing lanes are too short ... they create issues at the end of them with merging traffic. Especially in high traffic flows ...

There are wider roads where such lanes were ... often with room for vehicles to pull over/stop to let traffic past. But few want to be any slower getting anywhere ... than they already are.

"Improved" roads mean higher speeds ... so less need for passing lanes. If you are in a hurry ... leave earlier ... problem sorted.

[BMWST?]

its debateable wether they have improved the road.All they have done is take out some very very sharp and narrow turns up near the top.According to google maps its only about 1,5 k of the road

[Magnum Noel]

Improvements are good . Motorcyclists think so also, hence the reason the words 'Going for a BLAST over the Takas'. Blame the 'motorcyclist' not the road. Slow fucken down, would be a great start to decreasing motorcycle accidents.

Here F"n Here!!

[98tls]

Interesting,spent 7 years living in the shithole thats Wellington back in late 80s/early 90s and remember the road well as i spent plenty of time going up and over it on 2 of Ducatis/Cagivas finest fuckups.Be intersting to see the stats on the bike accidents ie model by model.I very much doubt its got anything to do with the road "improvements".

[Hitcher]

The modifications on the Wellington side of the summit I still have not got used to, particularly when heading homewards. It's now a real wind funnel, the corners don't really have enough camber, what camber there is on a couple is hard to pick, and the descent in a couple of places is a bit exaggerated. The funny camber is also worth keeping an eye on during the ascent as well. I expected better. And for the cost they should have taken the summit S bend out while they were at it.

At least this summer I've got a motorcycle with a decent low beam headlight and there's no roadworks slime to obscure the road markings at night.

[98tls]

The modifications on the Wellington side of the summit I still have not got used to, particularly when heading homewards. It's now a real wind funnel, the corners don't really have enough camber, what camber there is on a couple is hard to pick, and the descent in a couple of places is a bit exaggerated. The funny camber is also worth keeping an eye on during the ascent as well. I expected better. And for the cost they should have taken the summit S bend out while they were at it.

Motorcycling today seems so complicated H,i just do it as ive always done and just ride the bloody thing with no expectations bar a good time.

[bsasuper]

Motorcycling today seems so complicated H,i just do it as ive always done and just ride the bloody thing with no expectations bar a good time.

I've got an old asphalt ironer if you want to borrow it hitcher

[oneofsix]

If the passing lanes are too short ... they create issues at the end of them with merging traffic. Especially in high traffic flows ...

There are wider roads where such lanes were ... often with room for vehicles to pull over/stop to let traffic past. But few want to be any slower getting anywhere ... than they already are.

"Improved" roads mean higher speeds ... so less need for passing lanes. If you are in a hurry ... leave earlier ... problem sorted.

Improved roads don't increase the speed of heavily laden trucks by much and leaving early generally doesn't bet them neither but even short passing lanes assisted in getting past them. But of course you know better than someone that commutes it every week.

[oneofsix]

They should stop riding like fucktards then

interesting how you think they now ride more like fuckards than they did before the "improvements".

[caspernz]

The Rimutaka Hill road is no big deal in my book. As both a trucker and a biker, I have to laugh at the savage grade change in the new section...WTF?? Then I read somewhere that this will be evened out in years to come...

Removing a few of the shorter passing lanes is in some ways a safety driven measure, not that I entirely agree with that PC thinking as it makes it ever harder for a loaded truck to let other traffic sneak by in a safe way.

That said, some of the commuters that run back and forth over the hill are just as suicidal as some of the bikers...

Overall, most of the regulars on the hill seem to do okay