Spent the day doing return trip to Rotorua in the car. Very pleasant day but noticed an outstanding thing on the drive home. Two riders, one leaving Tirau, the other (with a pillion) joining SH1 to head north in Meremere riding without any light on the back of their bikes. One of them I guess felt it wasn't quite dark enough to have his lights on so he faded into the dusk very quickly with his black bike, black gear and no lights. The one with the pillion had his headlight on but it was very weak and the reflector on the back was so pisspoor (again black gear and dark bike) that barely a few car lengths ahead his bike merged with the darkness against the back of the car he was following and his "reflector" blended with the lights from oncoming traffic.
If it wasn't for the fact that we'd seen him join the traffic flow and were looking for him, he would have been invisible from behind.
I guess each to their own in terms of taking responsibility for being visible, but these guys were next to invisible. And I don't think it was just that they wanted to be ninja invisible. If you're going to play suicide jockey with your profile on a bike please at least don't do it with a pillion on board! Wipe yourself out - hey, your prerogative; wipe out a pillion as a result and that's not your prerogative!
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