Signing his own death warrant

[Qkchk:Me]

Just one (of the many) things that grate me as a truckdriver..........

I happened to be heading home over the harbor bridge when I spotted this idiot on a BLACK BMW R80, dressed in Black as well. Besides riding in the worst possible colour (for the conditions - raining and very overcast/dark skies) this twit didnt have his headlight on! This guy was really hard to see.....

My question is, why doesn't the NZ govt make it law for all motorcyclist to have your headlight on permanently? I have wondered this many times and I still continue to see temporary NZers ride without one...... when you think more about it, if all bikes had their lights on, cars would be more aware of an approaching bike at intersections and crash numbers would no doubt fall. Quite a common quote "I wasn't looking for a motorcycle at the intersection" people see cars and bigger vehicles but sometime fail to look and/or think about motorcycles.

One good thing to comment on is that most new bikes (jappas, not sure about American/British/European) have the headlight on fulltime and the rider cant turn it off. Is this a new 'pre-requisite' for NZ compliance?

Your thoughts............

[hXc]

What a twat! I ride with mine on high beam during the day. It fucks people off, and I get lights flashed etc, but I know they've seen me

[Waylander]

So should we all ride bright yellow bikes?

[Qkchk:Me]

So should we all ride bright yellow bikes?

If you feel that way inclined............ but I dont think yellow is your colour.

[Skyryder]

I'm of the opinion that all vehicles should have their lights on at any speed over 40kph and that it should be illegal to drive with only park lights on. Most here I think ride with lights on. There was a poll on this at one time.

Skyryder

[froggyfrenchman]

I choose on the day. Sometimes its a bad choice, sometimes passing that truck is a bad choice, sometimes braking that late was a bad choice, sometimes speeding was a bad choice (when u get taxed for it), sometimes getting out of bed and going to work is a bad choice. Whatever will happen happens, just deal with it.

[dhunt]

So should we all ride bright yellow bikes?

Doesn't make any difference. I have people pull out on me probably at least once a week and I ride with my light on as well.

[Waylander]

Well the rest of your rant is obvious. The government is lazy. They wont do anything unless it makes them money and most bikes have thier lights on all the time anyway so fines for this wouldn't make them enough. I chose to respond to the part of it that effects me and I disagree with you on. Every colour has thier disadvantages but think for a second. I ride to work at 6:30am and home at about 5:30pm. means it's been dusk more often then not lately and my bike and gear is black. No one has trouble seeing me with or without the headlight cause I ride to make myself seen.

[Scorpygirl]

If you feel that way inclined............ but I dont think yellow is your colour.

Sorry...not my colour either!!! I do agree with lights on (on a motorbike) at all times. I had an experience a few weeks ago while travelling to work in the cage. It was one of the pea-soup fog days - couldn't see much past the bonnet. I stopped at the intersection at the end of our road and it all seemed clear. I was about to turn right when something caught my eye. Out of the fog came a GN250 - no lights!!! I pulled up and let them go then they proceeded to turn right at the next intersection - no indicator and then left - no indicator and then they turned into a driveway and you guessed it - no indicator. I have encountered this person since and nearly had another nasty encounter - they nearly wobbled into the path of the cage.

Thank goodness the Virago is hardwired and I don't have to worry about lights on or not.

[Qkchk:Me]

Every colour has thier disadvantages but think for a second. I ride to work at 6:30am and home at about 5:30pm. means it's been dusk more often then not lately and my bike and gear is black. No one has trouble seeing me with or without the headlight cause I ride to make myself seen.

I dont remember quoting on anything about the colour of bikes.........

[shafty]

I ride with MY lights on hi beam during the day also. I studied a newspaper photo taken of our Easter Egg Run a year or 2 ago, and while most of the 500bikes had their lights on, 2 bikes stood out like Dogs Balls - Mine and My Ladies, both on high beam. (So if you see Dogs Balls flying along a Tauranga road, - wave out!)

[Waylander]

....when I spotted this idiot on a BLACK BMW R80, dressed in Black as well. Besides riding in the worst possible colour (for the conditions - raining and very overcast/dark skies)....

Un-edited all I did was cut the end and a little of the begining off.

[dangerous]

Just one (of the many) things that grate me as a truckdriver..........

I happened to be heading home over the harbor bridge when I spotted this idiot on a BLACK BMW R80, dressed in Black as well. Besides riding in the worst possible colour (for the conditions - raining and very overcast/dark skies) this twit didnt have his headlight on! This guy was really hard to see.....
Your thoughts............

My thoughts... well its his right to own a black bike, its also his right to use black riding gears, hell if he was in leather most leathers are black, I wouldnt expect to see some old diger on his R80 in a brightly coloured toothpast tube.
I do however think hes a silly noodle for not having his head light on, maybe he forgot or it blew on him.
Now tell me do you drive your truck with your lights on? I always did but I was mostly on the open road... it did make a difference dosnt mater if its a bike or a 44 toner.

What a twat! I ride with mine on high beam during the day. It fucks people off, and I get lights flashed etc, but I know they've seen me

I think you are a twat for riding with high beam on... the brighter the light the HARDER it is for other traffic to judge your speed and distance.

I'm of the opinion that all vehicles should have their lights on at any speed over 40kph and that it should be illegal to drive with only park lights on.

I would NOT like to see that hapen... why... cos if every bugger had there lights on no one bike/car will stand out, we would just become one big bler, to be honest I dont mind others not haveing there lights on as it makes me stand out more.

[Skunk]

I think Aussie brought in a law to that effect but it made no impact on the stats.

It's not required here AFAIK, but is in the countries we get our bikes from (Oz, Canada, Japan)

[T.W.R]

You just can't help some people & their stupidity when it come to making themselves visible out on the road. And in some instances it doesn't help whether the lights are on or the bike is a highly visible colour.
Some situations on the road just makes our visibility to other road users next to zero, all we can do is ride accordingly & always be prepared that we haven't been seen.

I've got an article from an overseas bike mag about the lights on debate and some of the results produced during testing where interesting, mostly having the lights on did increase the bikes visibility but also distorted the perception of distance of the view the observer had of the bike as it travelled towards them thus distorting the perceived rate of speed.

some bikes have hard wired lighting whilst others haven't as we all know. Another possiblity is that seeing the bike in question was an R80 beemer it may have had it's light switched on but remember quality Bosch electrics & water don't mix