Police news release - "Matching rider skills to their bikes"

[mctshirt]

If someone is returning to motorcycling after an absence of more than five years, perhaps some form of graduated licence system is warranted. Or, even better, how about people learn what their limits are and ride within them until their skills match their bike's capabilities?

Yeah right!

I had to buy a whole packet of Weet Bix to get my licence 30 odd years ago and I'll buy whatever my disposable income can afford!

It's not the bike causing the crashes - it's the attitude of the rider. Same attitude will hurt them on any size bike, car, boat, jetski, etc,etc,etc.

[Paul in NZ]

Well - I was going to avoid commenting BUT this is another piece of the puzzle dropping into place.

Refer to my earlier post on accident stats for bikers in NZ (yes yes I know they all lie etc etc)

You don't need to know what i do for a living but basically I talk to people... One of the 'people' I've been talking to has a responsibility for funding road safety......... as well as gathering all those stats... and yes - I talk to them at a fairly appopriate level.

NO - I don't give a fat rats bum if you want to kill yourself BUT I do care about my motorcycling and how other peoples dumb choices affect ME and mine...

Regardless of what you think - the stats showing how a certain advanced aged group are over represented in accident stats is concerning people who you REALLY don't want to be concern about your activities. There are two BIG problems.

1. the road toll must come down - it's down a long way so the next job is to target anomolies as the way to earn the next load of bonus targets.

2. An 18 year old apprentice off work for 6 weeks due to cracking up his GN250 is a bitch but no big deal to ACC - a 55 year old CEO or CFO earning $120,000pa plus off work for 6 months (acc payning 80% of the wages) is a bloody BIG deal (for ACC)

You have been warned - motorcycling will be targetted - low political impact vs big impact on the stats so stop fucking about before we are legislated off the road...

[Paul in NZ]

Oh - BTW - these are actually very NICE people and they are interested in how to resolve this

[tommygun]

The most extreme fix for the whole issue is to scrap ACC for a user pays system that applies to all if you earn $100k plus and ride in the loop. The above would seem grossly unfair to those that full within that bracket but the saying goes "do the crime, do the time" (or at least a third of it anyway in this country). The question still remains, what if it was an accident that was not the fault of the rider? It would mean that everyone would have to have a policy that covered loss of income for the victim.... Thats another TUI ad!

Putting restriction in place for returning riders would only be temp' because after those ended you would still get the same people on the same bike etc and It always cames back to the mind not the machine.

[James Deuce]

Yet another bullshit statistic from the police claims a free-thinking mind. You don't seriously believe that figure do you? Surely that would mean that of all the "rider down" and "R.I.P" threads on here, every second one (on average) would be for that location??

They are during three months of Summer. You haven't been around during the "peak" period. You may get a surprise.

[Jantar]

Yet another bullshit statistic from the police claims a free-thinking mind. You don't seriously believe that figure do you? Surely that would mean that of all the "rider down" and "R.I.P" threads on here, every second one (on average) would be for that location??

They are during three months of Summer. You haven't been around during the "peak" period. You may get a surprise.

JD, you've said it for me.

One thing to note is that this quoted statistic is from ACC on motorcycle injury accidents, not just fatals. The way to reduce fatal accidents is to target the cause of all accidents, even those that are non-injury.

[Ixion]

Oh - BTW - these are actually very NICE people and they are interested in how to resolve this

They're from the government ! They're here to help us !

[Paul in NZ]

They're from the government ! They're here to help us !

Actually - some of them are bloody nice people and work bloody hard to help - they just get sick of being shouted at by bloody idiots with axes to grind and greed to feed...

I work a bit with DOC and a few others - who would you trust? DOC or the fishing industry? I know who is better at manipulating the media and paying bribes...

[mctshirt]

DOC are best at shooting takahe
(you did ask)

[Motu]

I wonder what the stats are for before the road was sealed,thereby making a loop? Before the road was sealed there were far fewer riders in that area - it's not so much a point in time that older riders got back on bikes,but that a previously ''not nice'' road has become a race track.Same with SH16,same with SH22,same with Kaiawa....and any other areas known to you.''Improving'' the road brings so many more unskilled riders into that particular area.

How many riders who do ''the loop'' today did it back when it was unsealed?

[dipshit]

ive got nothing wrong with riding within my limits, dunno why some people seem to struggle with it.

It's a male ego thing. Like who can drink the most piss... root the most chicks... or ride the fastest.

[Katman]

I still say the internet (and specifically site's like this) are partly responsible for the proliferation of packs of Rossi wannabes heading out on the weekend for their local MotoGP. In my day I could find one or two other idiots - these days, at short notice, you can easily get together 20 such clowns.

(Conversely, site's like this also have the ability to make huge changes for the better).

[dipshit]

I work a bit with DOC and a few others - who would you trust? DOC or the fishing industry? I know who is better at manipulating the media and paying bribes...

Likewise everyone needs to remember that BRONZ is largely about improving the image of motorcycling to the public in order to gain more political rights in the eyes of the lawmakers. Bikers Rights Organisation New Zealand.

It quite understandably doesn't like bad press and has no problem spinning bullshit of its own to achieve its goals. But perhaps in the long run this will do more harm than good.

[wbks]

I still say the internet (and specifically site's like this) are partly responsible for the proliferation of packs of Rossi wannabes heading out on the weekend for their local MotoGP. In my day I could find one or two other idiots - these days, at short notice, you can easily get together 20 such clowns.

-Maybe, but there are a lot more bikes and people now and you can buy a bike virtually bulletproof and maintenance free for 20k. My dad has mentioned how back in his day a fast bike needed someone reasonably mechanically minded with lots of time to tinker to keep it running and would brag of 230k maxed out. Bit different now, eh. Availability.

(Conversely, site's like this also have the ability to make huge changes for the better).

-The story's here and videos posted of bike crashes has stopped me from speeding on the road for a while. I'm now about to buy a van and other stuff to start racing streetstock, instead. Point proven.

[Ocean1]

Oh - BTW - these are actually very NICE people and they are interested in how to resolve this

Sorry Paul, but tell your friends, with the greatest possible respect, to mind their own bloody business.

scrap ACC

Yup, just 'cause auntie decided everyone was just as equal as the next dude don't make it so. Jeez the f'kin gall of it, stealing my money on the pretense of "lookin' after me when I need it". You figure anyone's getting a good deal there? Fookin' protectionism's what it is.