Rimutaka Hill new sign- Motorcycle high risk route

[roogazza]

Nah it'll work out guys, in Welly I was spoiled in that I lived right at the base of the Rimu Hill

It was a great little scratchers road once. Kaitokes right thru to Featherston.
Many many great memories for me and many others.
70s and 80s were best I think. No yellow lines,just a center line.
Those of us old enough can just look back and smile.
The war stories I can tell (even as a fine upstanding member of NZs finest !!!).

[Dodgy]

Well bugger me though. On my way home, up the Rapa side there's a big traffic jam and when I get to the front there seems a bike or two may have had ..an incident. No one looked hurt, just a few Riders parked up milling around their bikes. Hope it was just a break down or they stopped to plant some native trees, because we're a good bunch of citizens. I can just hear the car folks saying, Didn't they read the sign?

I was one of the ones on the side of the road that you encountered. We picked up a fallen rider who was headed in the other direction (South). It was a single vehicle accident (thankfully). He was okay, apart from scrapes on bike, clothing and a suspected broken collarbone. Nice guy, usual profile of middle aged new rider, went from GN250 to a 600. Could have been a combination of wind gust and panic braking (inexperience).

Local popo was really good about the whole thing and took a considered approach. I think the rider was going to get the most pain from his wife once she found out..

[BlackSheepLogic]

Nice guy, usual profile of middle aged new rider, went from GN250 to a 600. Could have been a combination of wind gust and panic braking (inexperience).

Don't know what the obsession in the community is with "scary" big bikes. Inexperience, training, riding conditions, speed could all have been factors but a 600 can be ridden just as good or badly as a GN250.

[buggerit]

Sign on the Kopu-Hikuias reads"Slow down, winters here", cant wait to see what it says now

[Big Dog]

Don't know what the obsession in the community is with "scary" big bikes. Inexperience, training, riding conditions, speed could all have been factors but a 600 can be ridden just as good or badly as a GN250.

Aye but it gets up to automatic license loss in 2nd or 3rd gear. Let's see a GN do that?

While I have certainly left a few much bigger and better bikes behind on a borrowed GN250 to say they can be ridden equally well or badly completely misses the point that there is a completely different set of risk factors involved.

Mindset is one. You don't expect to lead a pack of sports bikes on a track day on a GN any more than you expect to potter along tapped out at 90 in top gear on a 600.

Different braking dynamics are another. If all your breaking experience is on a GN your default reaction will most likely be grab the brakes for all your worth until you have scrubbed off half the speed you want to drop then ease up as much as you can before you feel there is a loss of braking then squeeze a little more. On a 600 sports bike that is more like instructions on how to lock the front or initiate a rolling stoppie.

Another major factor is a GN can take up to 2 minutes depending on load and servicing to get to 90 with an indicated 100-110 wavering. Most modern 600s you would get your money back if that could not be done in seconds.


You are right. They are not at all big or scary: provided you take the time to treat it as a different bike to your previous experience.

I expect that although I have about 100,000 kms experience on 1300s that if I was to jump on a similar sized cruiser an start throwing it around without taking the time to get to know it I would have an insurance claim to make.
Even though I have about 400,000kms experience on hypertourers, sports bikes and sport tourers the last GSXR1000 I road had a couple of good goes at high siding me just with how quickly they tip in vs how brutally quickly the revs rise relative to the Hayabusa. That was riding well sensible knowing there was a police officer who likes ticketing bikes in my mirrors.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[sugilite:Me]

One of the many reasons the cafe is no longer there is that no one ever spent any money there. I went in once in 20 years. I was near hypothermic and needed somewhere out of the cold. It was colder inside and the coffee tasted like arse. They must have made it with all the shit that people used to leave behind the public toilets that cost $20k a year to maintain and no one used in preference to the little hill behind them.

Remember the elderly couple that ran the cafe in the 80's? Their food was outstanding (esp the toasties!), they had places to put our helmets and gear. The cafe was so popular it was a regular stop for the buses. A sea of bikes every weekend, about 30 to 40 on most sunny weekends between 1 and 3pm, up to 50 to 60 if visiting clubs came up for a ride, golden years for sure .

[James Deuce]

Before my time mate. I moved to Wellington in late '88. By then it was run by the dude with the "voice" and the Eccles cakes were just pies hollowed out by flies which then died of salmonella poisoning.

[Dodgy]

Don't know what the obsession in the community is with "scary" big bikes. Inexperience, training, riding conditions, speed could all have been factors but a 600 can be ridden just as good or badly as a GN250.

I was not being obsessive and the 600 is hardly 'big'. He has had the 600 for nine months and the GN for a year or so before that. I am not going to state on here details on the assumptions in case it leads back to the wrong people. However, the 600 has better brakes and performance and a lesser experienced rider if faced with a 'panic' situation where the natural instinct is to pull a handful of front brake whilst traversing a corner, then the outcome may not be all rosy.

Anyhow, I hope he mends ok and gets back on the bike again.

[caspernz]

I think the biggest thing to contend with on going to bigger bikes is the heaver weight when going into corners rather than the higher power. As for the more sudden stopping power I just use 1 finger on the brakes around town.

Nope, disagree on both counts. Compare a GN250 with Busa and the weight only roughly doubles, but the power is multiplied by about 8 or 10. As for using only one finger on the brakes in town...geez louise get real will ya!!??!!

[jellywrestler]

I was not being obsessive and the 600 is hardly 'big'. He has had the 600 for nine months and the GN for a year or so before that. I am not going to state on here details on the assumptions in case it leads back to the wrong people. However, the 600 has better brakes and performance and a lesser experienced rider if faced with a 'panic' situation where the natural instinct is to pull a handful of front brake whilst traversing a corner, then the outcome may not be all rosy.

Anyhow, I hope he mends ok and gets back on the bike again.

does the 600 come with experience already preloaded into it?

[Banditbandit]

Bollocks I said. Bloody soft cock do-gooders, poofters laying the blame for all the world's ills at our feet. Bet they were all SUV drivers who came up with this pearl of wisdom. I'd love to place a sign beside it. Motorcycle High Enjoyment Route - GO HARD!

Naaa .. riders do it to themselves ..

According to KiwiRap, the risk on the Rimutaka Hill Road has increased for all road users. Fatal and serious injury crash numbers are up from 20 to 34. The main change is the number of fatal and serious injury motorcycle crashes which have increased from 8 in 2002-06 to 18 in 2007-11. from the LTSA in 2012.

[MD]

I was one of the ones on the side of the road that you encountered. We picked up a fallen rider who was headed in the other direction (South). It was a single vehicle accident (thankfully). He was okay, apart from scrapes on bike, clothing and a suspected broken collarbone. Nice guy, usual profile of middle aged new rider, went from GN250 to a 600. Could have been a combination of wind gust and panic braking (inexperience).

Local popo was really good about the whole thing and took a considered approach. I think the rider was going to get the most pain from his wife once she found out..

Good on you for helping the Rider and updating us on his condition. I considered stopping but enough good samaritans were on the job.

I hope he heals quick and doesn't give up riding. It may be posted on signs as a high risk activity but it's also a high enjoyment activity.

[Ocean1]

Naaa .. riders do it to themselves.

According to KiwiRap, the risk on the Rimutaka Hill Road has increased for all road users. Fatal and serious injury crash numbers are up from 20 to 34. The main change is the number of fatal and serious injury motorcycle crashes which have increased from 8 in 2002-06 to 18 in 2007-11. from the LTSA in 2012.

Time for my pet rant. They straightened the road out and doubled the available traction and someone's surprised there's more accidents and they're more serious?

And this when the official policy blurb is "safer roads, together"?

Dickheads. Becha there's more signage up there too.

[buggerit]

I was speaking about bigger bikes in general as opposed to sports bikes but I am sure if you never took them out of first or second gear while learning they would feel reasonably tame too. Yes some big bikes would stop better than others with one finger but as poster 1 gave the impression the guy gave it too much brake, getting a feel for very sensitive brakes was better with one finger around town from my experience.

Do you have to take your glove off for that?

[Ender EnZed]

Time for my pet rant. They straightened the road out and doubled the available traction and someone's surprised there's more accidents and they're more serious?

Reckon. It's fucking near 3rd gear territory on a clear run these days.