Mutley's Place
Mutley's Gripe
          G'day again, like most I was sitting in front of the idiot box watching the news
when a story came on about a rider dying after an accident. It peeves most of us off
when we hear another rider has gone down but to add insult to injury we get some
do-good bureaucrat come on saying that speed was probably the cause as well as
inexperience, change the laws and the accident rate will fall.

  I have been riding for 20 odd years and like most riders of this length of time have
had a couple of ripper prangs neither of which came down to either "excessive
speed" or "inexperience". First was due to an off camber corner with diesel from
trucks spilt on it from an accident earlier in the week, didn't help that it was also
raining at the time. The second was due to some dropkick that had only had his car
licence a couple of weeks and pulled out on me at a round-about and gave me a
brilliant view of his bonnet, as I went over the bastard.

   What I would like to know is how would placing more restrictions on bikers have
stopped either of these incidents from occuring, let alone all of the other incidents that
are caused by inconsiderate/inexperienced drivers, bad road conditions because
money that should be used for fixing them is being diverted to pay some public
servant to find a new restriction to place on us, or because our thoughts are
wandering from whats happening on the road to when the next copper is going to pull
us up and try to get us for something because they have been told to come down on
the bikes.

  I have been trying in earnest over the last couple of weeks to get details of the
road stats, number of accidents both fatal,non-fatal in Qld alone and types of
accidents so I could give you all a clearer picture of what is happening out there but
the info is bloody hard to find. Because of this the only info I can give you is what the
media put out which at this time is just over 300 fatalities to date with 75 odd being
riders. This 75 is what the b'cats are concentrating on not the 225 others from cars
trucks etc. They also don't say is how many of these 75 were taken by some clown in
a car,truck or some mongrel parking illegally cutting down road space for all. They
make it sound that if you ride a bike, and it doesn't matter how long you have been
riding you are automatically inexperienced, you speed everywhere you go and you
are not responsible enough to make your own decisions on what is best for you
regarding your safety and lifestyle.

  There is a lot of questions I would like answered starting with how many of these
public servants that propose these changes have any experience with bikes such as
licences or have been on a bike. If they do ride are they week riders, putt to work
then hide it away on weekends, or how many of them use there bikes like the majority
of riders where the bike is not just transport but is a way of life.

  I can guarantee that the ones proposing that licensing and everything that needs to
be changed with bikes are not from the latter catergorie because if they were they
would be saying "bugger changing the laws, lets spend the money fixing the roads
and educating other drivers, The so called campaign they ran telling drivers to look
out for motorcyclists went for how long??? And where is it now???".

  I am the first to admit that there are some clowns out there who plainly shouldn't be
on a bike for one reason or the other, but there are a lot of car, truck and bus drivers
out there who shouldn't have a damned licence period...

  Lets get real about all this, riders don't want more restrictions placed on them, god
knows the government has done enough of that already with helmet laws, engine
restrictions which were around when I started ring mid '80s but are only just coming
into play with cage drivers, lights on laws, and what I believe is on of the most recent
is the "cover up laws" meaning you couldn't get on your ride without helmet, jacket,
boots (proper cycle boots not work boots etc) and gloves. What's next, bubble wrap
and governors holding us all to 60?

  There are many others I can go on about but I am getting really worked up about
this subject, I am real sick of having my so called freedom always being scrutinized
by the friggen government.

  About the last I can say to the politicains and b'cats that want to place more
restrictions on us is bugger off and leave our freedom alone, haven't you taken
enough already????

                                                                                  Mutley..
  After reading the following story check out
these releases I found on the net..
Brisbane Times 5/12/2007
ABC Queensland 26/10/2007
  If you agree let me know here!!!
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