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Mark Hinchliffe·
NewsMotorbike news
··5 Comments·1 min read

Pandemic: Lockdown! What lockdown?

Lockdown

Motorcycle riders around the world are in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, but there are many rider — some unlicensed — who are wantonly flouting the restrictions.

These “Covidiots” are giving the rest of us a bad name and when it comes time to start winding back some restrictions, authorities won’t be considering motorcycle riding too kindly.

But they should. After all, riding solo with gloves, a helmet and obvious distancing should be good reasons to derestrict motorcycling.

However, with riders speeding, congregating in groups and performing other stupid acts, we can expect little sympathy or latitude from the authorities.

We have published articles before showing some of the Draconian fines handed out by over-zealous police.

Lockdown lunacy

But there are also many examples of stupid rider behaviour during the lockdown:

  • The top photo shows motorcycle and quad-bike riders racing through the unusually quiet streets of New York;
  • In Manchester, UK, three dirt biker riders ripped up school fields;

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  • In Melbourne, six members of a Motorcycle Club declared to be an “outlaw motorcycle gang” were fined for gathering in cars at Flinders Street;
  • A 48-year-old man tried to mount a fully marked police motorcycle parked on the Great Western Highway on Friday night;
  • A 23-year-old Wodonga was pulled over by police and found to be riding an unregistered and uninsured motorcycle and admitted to crossing the closed state border;
  • A 42-year-old rider on a Triumph Daytona was travelling 180km/h in a 80km/h speed zone on the Warringah Freeway, North Sydney; and
  • A 52-year-old rider travelling 140km/h on the M4 at Eastern Creek led police on a pursuit, ditched the bike and broke into a home’s garage to hide.

These are just a few of the incidents over Easter.

See also

There are many more, but only NSW Police provide details. Police in other states don’t provide all the details, just the number of fines issued.

But what is evident from the NSW Police reports is not just the stupidity of the riders, but the fact that they had no “legitimate” excuse for being away from home.

And in many cases, they are given a warning by the police, but refuse to comply and cop a $1000 fine (more in some other states).

Note that the ACT is not fining people and there are few travel restrictions within WA, SA and NT.

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Mark Hinchliffe
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5 Comments

  1. No travel restrictions within WA? We have nine regions where we must stay and cannot cross into other zones unless possessing a permit. It has been like that since before the WA borders closed completely.

  2. When are people going to just accept that we’re in a very unusual time. And that there is NOT a restriction on motorcycle riding – there IS a restriction on non-essential travel that just happens to include motorcycle riders like everyone else in the country. Stop trying to make us look like scapegoats, like we’ve been singled out. Stop trying to find reasons and excuses why motorcyclists should be treated differently and exempt from the rules. And while I’m having a rant, how about we stop trying to inflame things with words like “draconian” and “police state”. You talk about “hastily drawn-up pandemic restrictions” – if they didn’t act fast (and had acted at the speed of normal law making) we’d all be in a state similar to the US right now. If you want the “authorities” to treat us with respect, treat the whole system and situation with some respect.

    1. Agree with you , too many writers on this publication seem to be tarring all motorcyclists with the same brush and making unrelated ill informed political comments, when they should be supporting us. Time to find another job for some of them, especially you Mark

      1. agree with Stan and Enough of this crap — “authorities won’t be considering motorcycle riding too kindly” – rubbish – where (anywhere) has any Aust police or govt department at all indicated this sentiment in anyway – nowhere. Some bike riders and car drivers break the law – hardly news, nothing to do with covid. This is the 3rd or 4th week of unsubstantiated beat up about motor bike riders and covid – as above ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP. Find some real news stories.

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