- Clearly there are some folk on here who haven't got over the loss of Paul Holmes and John Hawkesby.....
- the 3 story was pretty poor reporting. To say the ladies husband was hit by a motorcyclist. Then state he was riding a quad bike was a low shot. Then to let the whole story go on about his injuries and she goes on to say riders need to be aware of other users when they put on their helmets. And the big sub note. Turns out said husband wasn't wearing a helmet. Some one should complain to the broadcasting standards people.
- a friend has been issued a notice down there to his personal vehicle. Him and two kids on off road bikes. He parks the trailer at the end of the metal road and they unload and ride off. The notice points out they cannot ride unregistered and unwarranted vehicles on the beach. Ping! his kids are now effectively banned and he's been put on notice that next time it's a fine. They normally ride north of the estuary, trhough the dunes and into the forest. Bit of a bugger really.
- Many of the shots taken by camera were optical illusions making the bikes seem closer than they were.
- When the girl got killed at Dargaville, which was tragic, by a rider with no light in the evening in poor light the ARC announced the next day that they had been concerned for sometime about bikes at Muriwai. My recollection is that the fatalaties at Muriwai over the years had all bee vehicles. Talk about knee jerk response. I have to wonder if the guy at ARC is just someone who has that "bikes are dangerous mindset".
Oh and to those slagging off John etc. You need to realise he is a voice that you can communicate through. To sit there and slag him off doesn't get the bike story told. I am aware that the media can distort stories and the wording in that story was sensationalised.
It's a real shame that you can't ride up that beach with your kids. So if a kid rides, say my 9 year old on a KLX110 does he get a ticket? for riding an unlicenced and unregistered bike, and for not haivng a licence. Beaches and dunes are made for off road bikes.
I wonder how far up the police will patrol over summer.
Personally I think it's a bit over the top and unwarranted. The beach has been used by vehicles for what 80+ years. They'd be better posting the speed limits and getting people to pull their heads in.
What about a higher speed limit even further up the beach for recreational vehicles. The 30/60 limit seems a bit slow.
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