Grim news from the weekend

[RantyDave]

His '1000cc' motorcycle 'ploughed' into an oncoming car.

I'm sorry, and no doubt I'll be redded/abused into next week for this... but we're letting 18 year olds ride litrebikes. That's formula 1 performance with first world war safety. Freedom or no I think we need to be telling some of the younger and/or less experienced guys/gals "no", and that they just should not be riding such a thing.

Doesn't make it any easier to hear the news, and being on a road I like to ride only makes it closer to home. RIP always seems a thin shadow of what should be said and done.

Dave

[jrandom]

I'm sorry, and no doubt I'll be redded/abused into next week for this... but we're letting 18 year olds ride litrebikes. That's formula 1 performance with first world war safety.

I do not disagree with you.

But neither can I offer a good solution.

[Ocean1]

I do not disagree with you.

But neither can I offer a good solution.

Oh I'm sure you could if you thought about it for a minute. Just add another layer or two to the existing 250 restriction.

There's a bunch of stuff people of a youngish persuasion orta not be doing, some of it we actually encourage or even require of them.

How old should one be befor we permit them to make life or death decisions?

[Katman]

But neither can I offer a good solution.

Compulsory insurance would be a start. How could an 18 year old afford to insure a 1000cc bike? (Unless, of course, Mum and Dad forked out - which happens all too readily these days).

[Dave-]

someone was telling me in japan if you say "I didn't see him/her" you lose your license for incompetence.

dopey bitch who did a u turn infront of me a few months ago said she didn't see me, I told her I could see her perfectly fine, and that the reason she couldn't see me was because she didn't look, she almost cried, still hasn't paid her end of the excess for the repairs...little slut.

I sort of agree with ranty dave, it's scientifically proven that an 18 year old isn't as mature as an older person, however there are always exceptions to this rule, both ways, being that we know nothing about this lad we cannot say either way.

perhaps he wasn't suppose to be on a 1k, he didn't have his full? it's pretty hard to stop someone from doing anything these days...

condolences to those bikers downed in the weekend.

[Blue Velvet]

someone was telling me in japan if you say "I didn't see him/her" you lose your license for incompetence.

If that's true, it's good.

[90s]

From that article: "Speed remained the biggest killer, accounting for about a third of all deaths. Loss of control and alcohol were also responsible for many road deaths."

This makes me so depressed and angry. Speed was not the reason for any of these crashes. Speed is relative to conditions, so dangerous driving etc, education, control etc. by fools might be the 'biggest killer'. But whether a 16-yrs old on a litre-bike who gets totalled at 50ks by a u-turner of a 38-yr old on a 250 at 120ks hit by a drunk driver, speed is not the problem and cutting speed is not the answer.

When will we see an adult debate on this rather than a list of deaths followed by some hollow policy-speek rubbish that will not save anyone in the future?

[BuFfY]

Oh goodness that is such terrible news. Best wishes to the families

[Ocean1]

From that article: "Speed remained the biggest killer, accounting for about a third of all deaths. Loss of control and alcohol were also responsible for many road deaths."

This makes me so depressed and angry. Speed was not the reason for any of these crashes. Speed is relative to conditions, so dangerous driving etc, education, control etc. by fools might be the 'biggest killer'. But whether a 16-yrs old on a litre-bike who gets totalled at 50ks by a u-turner of a 38-yr old on a 250 at 120ks hit by a drunk driver, speed is not the problem and cutting speed is not the answer.

When will we see an adult debate on this rather than a list of deaths followed by some hollow policy-speek rubbish that will not save anyone in the future?

We're making a start dude, the cheese cutter campaign is a positive. Then there's a few other unattractive features of our roads we can work on...

[Hitcher]

This is the current "Death Season" for motorcyclists: warm weather, sun on one's leathers, dry clean roads, a chance to get the bike out of the shed after a winter lay-up (for those who do that sort of thing), group rides, cagers also affected by the weather and Christmas-shopping pressures.

There always seems to be a burst of biker deaths in late November/early December.

On another related matter, I don't know what was happening this weekend in the Wairarapa, but Mrs H and I were nearly exterminated by about 300 bikers on a group ride on the back road between Gladstone and Martinborough this Saturday. This group (many Harleys, but also a mix of other makes and models) were determined to ride too fast, too close, too wide and too stupidly for the conditions. We witnessed one bad accident. Surprisingly there weren't some fatalities associated with this errant foolish nonsense. Arses like this give all other bikers a bad name. They may have been enjoying themselves. Others they interacted with didn't share the experience.

[EJK]

RIP ............. again?

[Shadows]

On another related matter, I don't know what was happening this weekend in the Wairarapa, but Mrs H and I were nearly exterminated by about 300 bikers on a group ride on the back road between Gladstone and Martinborough this Saturday. This group (many Harleys, but also a mix of other makes and models) were determined to ride too fast, too close, too wide and too stupidly for the conditions. We witnessed one bad accident. Surprisingly there weren't some fatalities associated with this errant foolish nonsense. Arses like this give all other bikers a bad name. They may have been enjoying themselves. Others they interacted with didn't share the experience.

That was a poker run. Didn't know of any crashes though... I'll have to ask around.

EDIT: One rider didn't quite make it around a corner and left the road. He was fine.

[masterofpuppets]

Notice the subtle slant put on Andre Jacobs' death?

His '1000cc' motorcycle 'ploughed' into an oncoming car.

I didn't see any of the (far more reprehensible) drink-driving deaths using such obvious "temporary citizen" wording.

It would seem that you can drink up, go out in a car, kill innocent third parties and then get written about in nice, neutral tones, but if something goes wrong on a bike and the rider dies, the reporting is invariably painted in emotive shades of self-righteous priggery.

I was riding with Andre at the time of his death. I was about 20 meters in front of him when it happened. He was a very good smooth rider and was taking the sweetest lines. It is disgusting that the media get away with what they say. RIP Andre...

[Street Gerbil]

I hope the fucking cager who did the u-turn in front of the biker who died in Palmerston North is up on some serious carges.

Are you farkin kidding? Dude, this is New Zealand! The best you can count on is a fine and a bit of flogging with a wet bus ticket, and you can be fairly certain there will be a demonstration on Queen St against this "cruel and unusual punishment".

[mark247]

It's a shame his death is being portrayed that way. He was no fool. I remember he had a ZXR400 and he downgraded to a GN250, now if he was a total hoon, would he had done that? Nope.