Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Take care when travelling through there...

YARRA RANGES police are adopting military-style tactics to trap lawless motorcycle riders on the notorious Black and Reefton spurs.

Operation Surreptitious has seen police in the Yarra Ranges traffic management unit (TMU) use covert methods including combat fatigues, hiding in bushes, high-powered laser devices and binoculars to catch rogue riders, some of whom have been clocked at speeds in excess of 180km/h.

In the five years to December 2006, there were 82 casualty crashes on the Black Spur, with 43 per cent of these involving motorcyclists and 75 per cent of motorcycle accidents not involving any other vehicle.

In a further effort to combat accidents on the Black Spur, Roads Minister Tim Pallas last Friday announced a $547,000 grant to improve motorcycle safety, including shoulder sealing, installation of guard rails and reducing speed limits.

In March, more than 20 motorcycle riders were booked for speeding and more than half of those were doing speeds 45km/h or more over the limit, which carries harsh penalties such as impoundment and loss of licence.

Sgt John Morgan, TMU officer-in-charge, said there was a big problem with a "fringe" element of riders who thought that the area was a law-free zone.

"We are hitting the hell out of the Black and Reefton spurs. We are aiming at the psyche of the riders who think that they can do anything on these roads," Sgt Morgan said.

"The operation will remain active until riders stop killing themselves and other people."

green10 wrote:In the five years to December 2006, there were 82 casualty crashes on the Black Spur, with 43 per cent of these involving motorcyclists

Would be interesting to know what the other 57% are? Buses, grandma and grandpa Joe? Arse clowns in their doof-doof mobiles?

The problem is that it's still a statistical overrepresentation as far as total registrations go. When you consider the complexity of the roads, the number of kms motorcyclists tend to do on these roads, the type of riding we do on them (ie. scratching, not commuting), and the performance for the machines that we ride, the stats are actually awesome...but that isn't taken into consideration.... it is purely viewed based on the boy(man)racers who chuck themselves off the mountain with regularity versus the number of mums & dads who probably don't even travel those roads... and when they do they do it at a painfully slow pace. That taken into account the fact that car drivers (etc) can somehow crash at a quarter of our cornering speeds, and still occupy the statistics with over 50% of the crashes despite covering far less kilometres on those technical roads and at hugely disproportionate speeds, is actually REALLY scary. I honestly have no idea how people can possibly crash at a third of the speed limit, but they still seem to... then when someone writes themselves off at two or three times the speed limit we're all idiots with a death wish.

I think we all have a bit of a squirt now and then but the people I ride with tend to ride within their abilities - I refuse to ride with two other forums for reason of their riding habits. Anyone can have a brain fart and crash, I just choose to ride in such a way that my chances are less than some of the others out there... wear gear so that if I do have an off I am as safe as possible... and ride in such a way that if I do come off I've generally got a pretty good chance of getting out of it OK.

I subscribe to the theory that 5% of riders are responsible for 95% of our statistics.... like the penis that rounded me up on a CBR600F in traffic the other day... 100+ in a 60 zone in 40km/h traffic in minimal gear weaving between myself and a car in the opposite lane... that guy will write himself off, either in traffic or out riding at a great rate of knots, and then old mate plod will be rapt to write me a ticket on my favourite road for 10 or 20 clicks over on a bike that is more than capable and within my own abilities and those of others around me.

well written Shifty

Old fucken news

Cops have been running a campaign there for awhile now.

Its been in the media.

Government Release wrote: http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_No ... enDocument

MG wrote:Old fucken news ....

the fuckin' press release was on Friday 28 March, and the post was made Monday 31 March - how the *FUCK* does that make it 'old fucken news' you dipshit ??

Shifty wrote:
I subscribe to the theory that 5% of riders are responsible for 95% of our statistics.... like the penis that rounded me up on a CBR600F in traffic the other day... 100+ in a 60 zone in 40km/h traffic in minimal gear weaving between myself and a car in the opposite lane... that guy will write himself off, either in traffic or out riding at a great rate of knots, and then old mate plod will be rapt to write me a ticket on my favourite road for 10 or 20 clicks over on a bike that is more than capable and within my own abilities and those of others around me.

Shifty
I agree mate
the problem is the old..using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut... syndrome

the pollies give the plod the power (and other bits like radar) to collect up the goon riders
and get 'em off the roads..which we all agree with

problem is you or I go 3kmh over the limit...and get a ticket (or the greed camera goes click)
while riding sensibly. and why...?
unfortunately we have been tarred by the same brush as that applying to the other maniacs

and there is not much we can about it


cheers

Smitty

Smitty wrote: problem is you or I go 3kmh over the limit...and get a ticket

I actually agree that 3 kays over is a bit harsh and would hate to see something like that introduced over here.

But, playing devils advocate here, why not get around at 50 instead of 60? No real fear of creeping up over the limit (and remember, they say it's the speed LIMIT, not the recommended speed). And what's the hurry everyone seems to be in anyway?

I see the governments revenue tools are at it again..someones gotta keep the county afloat, Im happy that my speeding ticket revenue goes to some politician so he can get a business class fare to Bali to get head jobs on his commonwealth mastercard by filthy street hookers..or Milton Orkopolis's Government Paedofilia Fund..

My car got broken into last week and had $1,000 bucks worth of stuff stolen In my secured garage, do you think I could find a copper to talk too about it....NO, they were too busy down at Church st bookin people for doing 8k's over the speed limit !! farkin bludgers..

aardvark wrote:But, playing devils advocate here, why not get around at 50 instead of 60? No real fear of creeping up over the limit (and remember, they say it's the speed LIMIT, not the recommended speed). And what's the hurry everyone seems to be in anyway?

The nature of today's society is that 'time is money' and that's just a fact of time.... whether it's time away from the office or extra time you're not at home with your feet up... it's reasonable that people should want to go from A to B at a REASONABLE pace, not some blanket bullshit limit that they thought up 40 years ago and have been making LOWER in most areas ever since!!

Play devil's advocate all you like, but I rode from Springwood to the city here in Brisbane today and it should all be 130km/h... but if I did that I'd lose my fucking license... it's absolute bullshit. I can live with people losing their licenses for wheelies, powerslides, etc... but doing a safe and reasonable speed - speed limit aside - is a ridiculous thing to lose your license for. There should be more discretion and less bullshit.

In a further effort to combat accidents on the Black Spur, Roads Minister Tim Pallas last Friday announced a $547,000 grant to improve motorcycle safety, including shoulder sealing, installation of guard rails and reducing speed limits.

Well that's just fucked. That place is (was?) really enjoyable without breaking speed limit of 100kph. Can't imagine reefton at 60 limit ... better go to .........oops not telling

aardvark wrote:

Smitty wrote: problem is you or I go 3kmh over the limit...and get a ticket

I actually agree that 3 kays over is a bit harsh and would hate to see something like that introduced over here.

But, playing devils advocate here, why not get around at 50 instead of 60? No real fear of creeping up over the limit (and remember, they say it's the speed LIMIT, not the recommended speed). And what's the hurry everyone seems to be in anyway?

Problem is mate, most urban roads have lights which are set not to control the flow of traffic, but to restrict it. It gets fustrating, and so people increase their speed to compensate for the amount of time they have spent stopped. When you've done 5/10/15Km of stop-start-stop-start on an empty road, sure your gonna floor it on the next clear stretch.

To add to the fire, English roads are far busier than Australian roads. Motorways there (particularly those I travelled around London) are very busy, yet are a 70MPH limit. On many motorways away from the city, you wont get a ticket for anything under 80mph. Coming form that, (and only ever getting 1 ticket in 10 years), the roads traffic laws here seem weird. Speed is the same in the cities, yet peds are expected to cross when turning cars have a green light. In UK all road lights are red when peds cross, making the system safer. Lights are aimed at easaing the flow of traffic, and journey time is cut without resorting to speeding.

Australia can continue to restrict road movement until everything is grid lock, or is can invest in driver training and standards and work on measures to provide better traffic flow. WIth a country this size, and the population so condesned, roads are essential. Over price, over fine, over police and over restrict the roads and the country will suffer.

i always say to my mrs

"natural selection"

if your a dickhead, it will catch up with you.

I recently got pinged on the western rign road for 10k over, yeah my own stupid fault but at 2am with no traffic on the road and no houses within 2k of that road, seriously what fucking difference do I make being 10k over?? Road is clear, basically flat and straight and in good nick, no reason it can't handle more than 100k...

If you get pinged on the Ringer by the fixed camera's Mick, you deserve to be pinged! They stick out like dogs balls!