Why not?

[myvice]

Why oh why is there no Taga for bikes?
Is it that we would show them up?
Massive international event! Top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island on closed to the public roads!
Bigger than the Isle of Man! Safer than the Cannon-ball Run! Prettier than you!
Have a bunch of different classes, classics, full race bikes, stock, etc...
Huge money spending crowds!
Public outcry! (Free advertising)
Public awareness of bikes? (I can dream)
Could do it in stages of 3 days per Island, get all the windy, interesting roads in.
Chop and change it year to year to make it a little more technical.
Bike sales would go though the roof, as the local market would lap it up.
Might get some of "our" roads fixed.
Be cool though; invite a bunch of like-minded loons over just to kick their asses on our back roads.
Think big; think of 1000’s of bikes lining up, gleaming in the sun as you watch the racing down through the Coromandel. Then following it down to watch them scream through Otargo...
To hell with the safety factor! We know the risks the same way the races of the last 5 generations have known the risks!
Safety gear is better now and bikes handle better and stop faster, go faster too but you don’t have a total loss oil system helping with rear wheel steering anymore!
Would be the biggest thing on the international calendar.
Now we need to make it happen!

[justsomeguy]

The Targa is a cool event alright.........

Would have entered myself had it not been for the FAHKING expensive entry fee.

You are right - SAFETY is probably one of the biggest reasons they don't allow bikes. Otherwise with our lovely roads and natural features we would probably make those Isle of Man characters look like wusses.

[Motu]

One word - carnage......

[Lou Girardin]

Judging from the crash rates on some day rides, a bike targa would be like dodgems.
Not really good PR.

[myvice]

One word - carnage......

Same as every other weekend then.
But this is monitored carnage with helicopters on stand-by.

[Hitcher]

Get on the Rusty Nuts site. Check out what endurance riding is really all about. Legally. A few consecutive 800+ km days should quickly sort sheep from goats. Any idiot boi racer can ride fast...

[Kickaha]

Why oh why is there no Taga for bikes?
Is it that we would show them up?

Fast car will beat a fast bike over a long distance,it wouldn't be the car's that got shown up

[myvice]

Fast car will beat a fast bike over a long distance,it wouldn't be the car's that got shown up

Distance wouldn’t be that great, NZ in 6 days total gives a lot of sprint and rest type racing.

[T.I.E]

yep sounds like a great idea. but the logistics behind for the safety factor would be too high. 1000's of bikes racing. not on a track without a practice lap so to speak. think its a cause for some serious carnage for sure.
but a decent road race with a bigger faster loop type road circuit would be better. long and large like isle on man. closing off public roads for racing. and having a north and south island events.
sounds good but funding would be huge.
but i like the way some people think.

[Motu]

I've ridden some of the roads they use in the Targa,before it became a Auckland/Wellinton event....they are great roads,but they make SH22 look like SH1....All I can say is no one from this site enter please....

[zooter]

The nanny state forbids such outrageously dangerous pursuits. Look what has happened in the aftermath of the crash at the Queenstown streetrace where two spectators were killed. Nobody will take on event organisation for fear of getting sued by the government if something goes wrong.
They tried to frame the organisor of a CHCh bike race. She instructed the riders to follow road rules at all times (like keep left), some sheila decides to cut a corner, gets killed by a car doing its thing on its side of the road and guess who spends the next two years of her life up on a manslaughter charge....

[XP@]

Get on the Rusty Nuts site. Check out what endurance riding is really all about. Legally. A few consecutive 800+ km days should quickly sort sheep from goats. Any idiot boi racer can ride fast...

With you on this one hitcher.
But the Rusty rides are not races. Any one who has done one will know why.

[Mr Skid]

.. Safety gear is better now..

Care to be more specific on how it's improved?
I wasn't aware cows have changed that much in the last few decades.

[Ixion]

I've ridden some of the roads they use in the Targa,before it became a Auckland/Wellinton event....they are great roads,but they make SH22 look like SH1....All I can say is no one from this site enter please....

Why ? Targa is supposed to have "bad" roads (no such thing as a bad road actually, just bad riders). Follows from the original Targa Florio.

Whole point of it, make the vehicles have proper suspension systems and ground clearance etc.